Happy mid summer everyone, I hope everyone is having a great summer and I know how busy you all are this time of year so this is a short Larrys Letter to touch on a couple important points along with a few tips that may help you out this summer and in the future.

Franks Fall Tour

Summer will be over before we know it and it will be time for the Frank’s Fall Tour of camps on Wednesday September 11th - Friday September 14th. If you haven’t signed up yet use the link below to make your plans. You don’t want to miss out on all the fun, relaxation and sharing of information thats going to happen during the tour. It will be a stellar collection of camp professionals that we’re sure everyone will benefit from by getting to know each other and sharing helpful camp tips.

Directors Camp

After the camp tours, there is an opportunity to attend Directors Camp that will be following the Tour of Camps. This is an incredible opportunity to invest in your key leaders. It is a weekend based in skill and knowledge acquisition along with amazing community and collaboration. The tight knit group that forms in this intimate setting alongside the industry leading presenters (Thurber, Arizala, and Mcguire) creates a great space to effectively train the people you work with to run your camps.

They will walk away with a better understanding of everything in their job descriptions. Things like risk management, emergency action planning, customer service skills, budget management and retention; to more nuanced things like homesickness management, group programming, staff management, self care, and group/office dynamics.

Directors’ Camp will be September 14-16 at Camp High Rocks in beautiful Brevard, NC. This is an all inclusive weekend with housing and food provided.

This could be the critical training opportunity that helps emerging camp professionals move to the next level. It might also be just the thing to reinvigorate longtime leaders who need fresh ideas and perspective.

If you have any questions please contact Sam Clayton of Falling Creek Camp sam@fallingcreek.com or use the link to register and get more information.

3 Things you have to do

Last but not least are several tips you may find useful as a director or owner. If you have any more please feel free to send them to me so we can share with the rest of our camping community.

1. Have a “Go Bag” ready before the summer starts- we all fear that late night call from a counselor or an emergency in camp that requires us to get in the car and head out not knowing how long we will be gone. Those are hectic times and our minds are scrambling on other things as we try to pack supplies for an unexpected overnight trip out of camp. Have a bag with 1 day/night supplies of clothes, toiletries, phone charger and anything else you might need. Heck, you can grab the toiletries you’ll need from the hotel at the next CODA conference!
2. On opening day no one is allowed to point. If a new parent has a question about where something is, walk them to that location as you are talking to them. Also don’t allow counselors to wear sunglasses when greeting campers and camper parents. Teach the counselors to look the parents in their eyes as they greet the them to let them know you will take care of their children. That skill will also go a long way for the counselor when they are applying for a full time job after school.
3. Keeping camp clean — Keeping trash picked up is a non stop job during the summer. We all have clubs, tribes or units for our campers. Designate certain trash cans all around camp as a trash can for each club or tribe. Have someone count the number of times its full and has to be emptied during the session. Which ever club or tribe has the trash can that’s been emptied the most wins points towards their tribe. Kids will pick up trash on the ground and cary it across camp to help fill their teams can.

Here’s to a great rest of the summer and I hope these tips help you during camp. Don’t forget to sign up for Frank’s Fall Tour and/or the Directors Camp. Have a great rest of the summer and we’ll see you in September on the tour!

Larry