The CampHacker Podcast

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We can go beyond acceptance.

One of the things we all know to be true about camp is how much better of the world would be if EVERY child spent at least one week at camp.

With that in mind, it’s important that we are consistently looking at how we are best serving campers and families that may be under-represented in our camp communities.

Newsflash! Even though in the last 10 years we’ve begun to really talk about inclusion, there have been campers and families who have identified as LGTBQ+ for as long as the camp industry has been around! Furthermore, we can see that the world has begun to be intentional about welcoming and celebrating inclusion, and so has the camp industry.

That being said, it would be the understatement of the year to say that the world, and even camp, has a long way to go towards being a completely welcoming, safe and celebrating place for LGTBQ+ campers and families to truly be themselves.

We, as an industry have the chance to be an example of what it looks like to bring LGTBQ+ families and campers to the table and make our communities the type of place where they feel safe and welcome to call home. This is not necessarily an easy conversation. Some camps may be new to being outspokenly inclusive or maybe have never been made aware that they have a queer camper, staff or family and it can be hard to realize when we haven’t been doing well enough. Even still it’s a worthwhile conversation.

As a start to that conversation, we welcome a fantastic panel to the CampHacker Podcast to help Camp Directors begin to think about how they can best serve their campers, staff and families who may identify as LGTBQ+. Joe, Travis and Gab are joined by Emily McGranachan from Family Equality Council, Ross Murray from The Naming Project, Chris Hudson from Camp Highlight and Nick Teich from Camp Aranu'tiq and Harbor Camps.

We hope you find this show useful and thought-provoking.

We know this is just the beginning of this kind of conversation. How would you like to see us continue it? Let us know in the comments!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Gab: Desk Standing Balanceboard - FluidStance

Chris: McDonalds to thank staff for their hard work

Joe: 20v Max Cordless Tool Set + Lots of batteries for them!

Emily: Made Good Bars

Nick: Amazon Wishlist

Ross: Prayer Squares (3x3 crochet squares! - Tune into this ep. to hear about this!)

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro

Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Emily McGranachan, Director of Family Engagement - Family Equality Council - Family Week - Family Equality Podcast

Ross Murray, Founder and Director - The Naming Project

Chris Hudson, Camp Director - Camp Highlight

Nick Teich, Founder and Director - Camp Aranu'tiq and Harbor Camps

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Thanks to our sponsor!

Radtagz - Be and Be Known

Our free Resilient Camp Blueprint diagnostic is available at: https://camp.mba/travis

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Because you’re not in this alone.

It wouldn’t be the revelation of the century if we said that being a full-time Camp Pro can be incredibly lonely.

Most of us work in small (or solo) teams, we usually are the only person in our part of the hierarchy, we manage many people (and their emotions) and we work incredibly hard.

If we don’t think about building our support networks intentionally, camp can be an incredibly exhausting industry to be a part of the long term.

This time of year (if you’re reading this in November/December), is the perfect time to start building and cultivating your support network. To give you some inspiration and insurance that you’re not in this alone, we brought the whole gang! Gab, Travis, Dan and Joe are here to share their stories and tips all surrounding the topic of building a support network.

Tune in to this episode to hear about:

How to intentionally cultivate a support network both in and out of the camping industry

Building connections at camp conferences

Asking for help and collaboration opportunities with people in your network

Practical tips and tools for being staying mentally healthy and avoiding burnout

Are there any tools or systems that you love? Please share them in the comments section!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Gab: Class Dojo

Travis: Umonzi Aluminum Phone Stand

Joe: Shtil Combi Unit

Dan: White Fragility

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro

Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

Dan Weir, Sr. Director - Youth Development, Summer Camp, & Strategic Initiatives - YMCA of Long Island

Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Our free Resilient Camp Blueprint diagnostic is available at: https://camp.mba/travis

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Being not just productive, but effective.

This is an episode for the off-season. It’s an episode that you may need when camp is quiet and you’re in the sweet spot where the summer is still fading and the next one is not yet coming.

As a camp director, your brain is the most important resource you have. It would be an understatement to say that there is a LOT of stuff that fills your brain. It would also be an understatement to say that a full-brain makes for a disorganized brain and a disorganized brain makes for a disorganized camp director.

Your years as a director can sometimes feel like a constant search for clarity, but what it comes down to is that you need a system to both get things out of your brain and into action effectively.

To help you get a system in place and a clear brain, Travis, Dan and Joe share some of their philosophies, ideas and systems that they use to keep their minds free to think, learn and be the best pros they can be.

Some systems and other things we talked about on this episode:

Getting Things Done by David Allen

When by Daniel Pink

The Eisenhauer Decision Matrix

The Productivity Planner and PDF Page

NVALT - Simplenote

TextExpander Snippets

Are there any tools or systems that you love? Please share them in the comments section!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: Rode VideoMicro

Joe: Tickler File - create your own:

Dan: “The Five Most Important Questions” by Peter Drucker.

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro

Joe Richards, Executive Director -Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

Dan Weir, Sr. Director - Youth Development, Summer Camp, & Strategic Initiatives - YMCA of Long Island

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Our free Resilient Camp Blueprint diagnostic is available at: https://camp.mba/travis

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!

TIME TO FACE THE STRANGE

Is it stuck in your head yet? Gotchya!

Change. A 6 letter word that can start a revolution.

Change. The nemesis of the phrase “we’ve always done it like that”.

Change. One of the hardest things about being a full-time camp professional.

Change. Absolutely necessary.

The moment we stop changing as an industry, organization, or camp, is the moment we die. We, as an industry have such a great opportunity to learn, grow and evolve to better serve our campers. Just look at the Summer Camp Professionals group on Facebook, where daily, over 16,000 camp pros are able to ask, answer and interact to help their organizations improve.

Now that we’ve convinced you to change…how do you do it? What if it doesn’t work? What happens if it upsets an alumni or donor? What happens if the staff don’t buy-in, or worse, protests!?

These are all things that we should be on the lookout for when instituting major changes at camp. To help you be the change-maker that you were meant to be, we’ve got the whole CampHacker team on board for this episode.

Join Gab, Dan, Joe and Travis to hear more about:

How to deicide when something needs to change

What are the stakes of not changing?

How to communicate that change to your on- and off-site camp community

Some stories about Joe, Gab and Dan’s biggest lessons learned when it comes to change

Much, much more!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: DataStory - by Nancy Duarte

Gabz: Hybride Face Watch

Joe: Adios Email - Imagine, what would happen if you only checked email three times a day?

Dan: DailyCost app

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro

Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Joe Richards, Executive Director -Pearce Williams Summer Camp & Retreat Facility

Dan Weir, Sr Director - Youth Development, Summer Camp, & Strategic Initiatives - YMCA of Long Island

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes

(Thank you!)

Our free Resilient Camp Blueprint diagnostic is available at: https://camp.mba/travis

Have some feedback? A topic suggestion? Text us!

Learn outside of camp, to lead at camp.

Following along with our last episode’s theme of learning, we wanted to bring this podcast episode to you at a time where you may be planning your professional development for the year. However, even if you aren’t, it’s never too early or late to start thinking about how to invest in your professional development.

Watch out though! It’s easy to get stuck in the camp body of knowledge when you’re trying to be better for your job and for your camp. It’s good to stay up to date with the latest in all things camp, but it’s important to think about reaching outside the industry as well. The best camp pros take inspiration from many places and if you’re Joe, Gab, and Travis, those places can get VERY cool!

Conferences or opportunities that the hosts talked about on this episode:

Free - Mastermind groups with fellow Camp Directors

Free (ish) Creative Live - Free courses on all things creative

Free - Finding blogs to follow non-camp people

Free - Journaling

Free - Taking up a hobby that can also help camp

$ - CampMavericks.com - Ongoing, for life!

$ - ThinkCamp - Nov 26-28 - London, Ontario

$ - Touring a bunch of summer camps in a region to learn directly from the directors

$ - Online Courses - Skill Share - Especially for creative tasks.

Possibly free through your local library (https://www.lynda.com/)

$$ - Seth Godin’s Akimbo Workshops

$$ - Your local or regional ACA, OCA, ACQ, Religious denomination or association conferences

$$$ - Seth Godin’s Alt MBA

$$$ - Nonprofit Story Telling Conference - Oct 28-30 - San Diego, California

What do you consider professional development? Any wicked conferences to plug? Let us know in the comments!

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis: Superfans by Pat Flynn https://amzn.to/30aNepx

Gabz: DYI Standing Desk, or Top 5 Standing Desks

Joe: Photo Resize: http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize

Your Hosts:

Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV, Founder at Go Camp Pro

Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Joe Richards

Our free Resilient Camp Blueprint diagnostic is available at: https://camp.mba/travis