The Camp Program Lab

This week, the guys chat with Michelle Cummings of Training Wheels. Chris might have been fan-boying it a bit, but it was definitely an awesome episode with some really cool team building ideas! Michelle talks about a great staff training activity, how team building is going in a virtual world, as well as her new podcast, Ask Michelle and Chris.

This is part 2 of a 2 part series. Curt and Chris talk about incorporating Gaming into your Camp with a whole theme! Get great ideas of what you can do as well as where to find some very helpful sites.  Since Chris is planning on adding this theme this summer, he, as always, has gone way overboard on out-there ideas! With everything from coding, to diy escape rooms, to giant board games, these 2 episodes will give you a ton to start planning yourself!

This is part 1 of a 2 part series. Curt and Chris talk about incorporating Gaming into your Camp with a whole theme! Get great ideas of what you can do as well as where to find some very helpful sites.  Since Chris is planning on adding this theme this summer, he, as always, has gone way overboard on out-there ideas! With everything from coding, to diy escape rooms, to giant board games, these 2 episodes will give you a ton to start planning yourself!

Curt and Chris interview Michael Garcia this week. Michael is the Camp Director of Camp Centerland as well as the host of the Youth Development Professionals Guidebook Podcast. Michael talks about what it was like to run in-person camp during a Covid Summer.  He also has Chris’s new favorite rules for camp: 1. Campers leave with same number of fingers and toes they came with. 2. They’re dirty (glitter counts as dirt). 3. They are a zombie at dinner when they get back home.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!! The time when Summer Camp Conference, better known as SCampCon, comes around! Never heard of it before? It’s only the greatest (online) camping conference ever!!! Hear how SCampCon got started and what it’s all about on today’s episode.

Maybe you have a CIT or LIT program or Jr Counselors or whatever you call it at camp, but it is essentially a teen leadership program. It seems that each camp does it differently, and Curt and Chris have definitely seen and run them very differently. Listen to the episode if you want some ideas on how they run them as well as great ideas to make your Teen Leadership Program even better.

If you’ve ever considered doing a podcast for your campers this episode has lots of tips that need to be considered before starting that fun idea! From mics to tech tips to show format ideas, Curt and Chris go through it all.

On this episode, the guys discuss something that probably has affected most camps this year: Revenue! Chris and Curt have a ton of great ideas, some that worked and some that didn’t work for them but may work for you! During a pandemic season, these are some great ideas to try, but even after we’re back to normal, this is a great episode for some extra revenue at your camp!

Keeping with the theme of 2020, Virtual, the guys discuss the where, how and what of Virtual Escape Rooms! There’s lots out there and lots of different varieties of rooms available and the guys talk all the good and bad of them. Even more exciting is Curt and Chris are building their own Virtual Rom that you can check out as part of the ACA Southeastern Conference!

Not sure where to find the best resources for your camp? Tired of searching endlessly on Google for something good? Well, Curt and Chris have the answer for you: This Episode! They talk about all the resources that they use (not just a Google search)! Check out this week for tried and true stuff that actually works! Got great resources yourself? Share them with us so we can share them with others!