Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

And so it begins another summer in the can and now we reflect on the challenges and successes of 2024 as we begin to prepare for the 2025 season. Join us today as we share the issues, the stresses and the rewards of this past summer.

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We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

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From Gabz

We implemented a new protocol to manage cell phone usage, now in its second year, and it's been highly effective. Previously, staff needed cell phones for music and photos, which created confusion about who could use personal phones. To solve this, we bought five second hand Android phones with fluorescent orange cases, easily identifiable as camp property, and set up a sign-out system for staff use during programs. They also got a Spotify account for music. Key staff, like directors, put orange tape on their personal phones to distinguish them as official. This reduced unauthorized phone use significantly compared to the previous year.

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• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

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UltraCamp

Imagine camp registration software that actually gives you MORE time for what you love - CAMP! With UltraCamp, you can effortlessly track attendance, manage staff, streamline registration, and more. Explore now at ultracampmanagemnent.com/campcode.

Bowline Camp Accounting

Camp Leaders: Win back your time to what matters most, your campers. Bowline's comprehensive accounting, back-office solutions, and tech-enabled team free up your staff to focus on your mission. Visit bowlinehq.com to learn more and book a free 2-hour financial diagnostic.

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/teachingaccountability

One of the most important traits to teach staff at any company, not just at summer camp, is accountability. Join us today and our special guest Kim Aycock as we discuss how to teach accountability to your staff.

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We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

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From Kim

Supervising seems to fall to the bottom of our list. We want to ensure we provide supervisors with appropriate check-ins, all the way through the summer. Helping supervisors on how to manage time and reminding those supervisors that there are things that only “they” can do and things where they can “empower” others to complete tasks off of their todo list.

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• Kim Aycock, Camp Consultant, https://kimaycock.com/

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

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UltraCamp

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if your registration software gave you MORE time? With UltraCamp, you can track attendance, manage staff applications, streamline registration, and much more. Get back the time you need to focus on what is really important: CAMP! Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com/campcode/

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/20yearstrainingpt1

When you’ve been running staff training for decades, you have seen a lot, tried a lot, and, of course, learned a LOT. Join us, and our special guests, Chris and Al from TQAMP as we share our best secrets, practical tips, and stories. There are so many…we have 2 parts! For now, have a listen to part 1 and get ready for part 2 to release on April 16th!

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We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

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From Chris

One of the more important things you can do is to know what you are going to do first at staff training. Throughout the first hour or two of staff training, be extremely intentional to set the tone for your staff training. You can use these moments to have your staff reflect on their own nervousness and anxiety in a way that helps to build empathy with campers for their first couple of hours at camp.

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• Chris Rehs-Dupin, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director at TQAMP
• Al Murray, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Directory at TQAMP

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

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UltraCamp

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if your registration software gave you MORE time? With UltraCamp, you can track attendance, manage staff applications, streamline registration, and much more. Get back the time you need to focus on what is really important: CAMP! Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com/campcode/

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/sneaking-basics

We all try our very best to pack absolutely everything we can into staff training. How do we find room for it all? How can we sneak those basic skills our staff all need to know into an already packed schedule? We’ve got some ideas. Just us and our special guest, Kim Aycock.

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Gabz

One idea that I use to help reinforce learning taught throughout training is to have designated staff members act as note takers during the day. The following day, provide print outs of the notes everywhere your staff will be. On the tables during meals, in the bathrooms, on staff pillows and literally everywhere else possible. One thing I like to do is provide notices on the walls in the bathrooms highlighting whats going to be covered today and key takeaways from yesterdays training.

Writing things down and sharing with your staff helps to reinforce retention with you staff and can be a tool to demonstrate progress for your staff during the training sessions.

Special Guest:

Kim Aycock, Camp Consultant, https://kimaycock.com/

Your Hosts:

Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - GoCamp.Pro

Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/arestaffactuallydifferent

We often hear camp directors tell us that staff are so different than ever before? Is this actually the case and, if so, what can we do about it. Join Gabz, Beth, and our special guest Kim Aycock to hear our thoughts.

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Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Kim

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Let’s find ways to introduce our staff to the reality of working at camp. If we could find ways to introduce our staff to camp, show them what camp looks like or feels like. Kim created a handout called A “sense” of camp for new or returning of staff, with a “scent” sticker of camp with a scratch and sniff sticker. A copy of this ides can be found here!

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Special Guest:

Kim Aycock, Camp Consultant, https://kimaycock.com/

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Your Hosts:

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Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - GoCamp.Pro

Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/manage-stress

Stress has become such a big part of all of our daily lives. From troubling things going on in our world to the personal stress that staff may be feeling from the hard work at summer camp. We all need to have tools and resources to cope. Join us today as we discuss what we can offer staff to help them deal with what we face at camp and what life will throw their way.
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Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Beth

Let’s frontload this by saying that Beth is in no way diminishing people’s triggers. There are ones that are certainly important and we need to be aware of them. People have gone through so many different types of stress, PTSD, etc…

When we are stressed, we are often on the lookout for our triggers, big and small. There are words or signs or triggers that can cause us to be more negative, anxious or fearful. Why not teach your staff to pay attention to their glimmers, the opposite of triggers. The little moment of peace or joy that allow our nervous system to be safe and connected. When you look for them, you will find them everywhere. At the end of your training day, ask your campers to share their glimmers to allow you to focus on the bright moments throughout the day.

Special Guest:

Kate Taylor, Camp Consultant, Stephane Richard Development Consulting

Your Hosts:

Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - GoCamp.Pro

Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/nine-sentences

Nine sentences! You know…the ones that make for better experiences for both our campers and our staff. Listen in today!

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We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

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From Kate

In today’s episode we focused on the nine things we want our staff to say. What about the sentences we don’t want our staff to say? As a part of your summer training, front load both the things you want and don’t want your staff to say! We’ve prepped you with a short list that comes to mind:

• “I don’t have time for that!” - We want our staff to remember to make time for things. Be it helping a colleague or supporting a child, it is our role to find ways to support each other.
• “That’s not my job!” - Camp is all about community and communities come together to help out when and where is needed!
• “Calm Down/Your Okay” - This dismisses someones feelings and as camp leaders, we need to demonstrate empathy with our campers.
• “That’s so cute / you're so cute” - This can show that you are fantasizing on or about someone and the way they look. We 100% support the idea of sharing compliments and recommend we focus on things that can help construe confidence in our campers.

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• Kate Taylor, Camp Consultant, Stephane Richard Development Consulting

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

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UltraCamp

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if your registration software gave you MORE time? With UltraCamp, you can track attendance, manage staff applications, streamline registration, and much more. Get back the time you need to focus on what is really important: CAMP! Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com/campcode/

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.camphacker.tv/camp-code/key-skills-2024

Talking with Camp Pros at Conferences this Fall, we’ve noticed a lot of similar issues folks are dealing with. Join us as we discuss key skills that require our focus for a positive and successful 2024 camp season.

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We hope you love this episode of Camp Code! If you do, please consider subscribing to the show, and leaving us a rating in your Podcast app. It’s SO easy, just head to https://ratethispodcast.com/campcode

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From Beth and inspired by Kelly Schuna

Vulnerability is a powerful tool that we should all learn to harness and today we want to share thoughts on how we believe vulnerability can be used to repair relationships. As leaders, there are going to be times where we need to have hard conversations AND there will be times where we screw up having those conversations. When we go back to that person to reconcile, there are three phrases that you can use to demonstrate vulnerability:

1. I didn’t like how I handled that.
2. So… that wasn’t my best work.
3. Here’s what I wish I would have said.

Teach these phrases to your staff. It demonstrates reflection in our work and demonstrating vulnerability allows us to recover from our mistakes with ease.

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• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

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UltraCamp

Wouldn’t it be refreshing if your registration software gave you MORE time? With UltraCamp, you can track attendance, manage staff applications, streamline registration, and much more. Get back the time you need to focus on what is really important: CAMP! Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com/campcode/