BITES & BUDGET: Menu Planning For Your Camp Community

(Led By Michelle Mauldin)

Menu planning at camp today requires balancing cost, nutrition, and a growing range of specific dietary needs. This roundtable brings camp professionals together to share practical strategies for building menus that are inclusive, manageable, and cost-effective.

Participants will discuss approaches to accommodating allergies, medical and special diets, and food preferences while controlling food costs and reducing waste. The conversation will focus on real-world systems, menu planning tools, communication between program and kitchen teams, and adjustments camps have made to meet dietary needs without overcomplicating operations or inflating budgets.

Bites & Budget is a collaborative, idea-sharing session designed for camps looking to improve menu planning practices through practical solutions and peer insight.

RITUALS REWRITTEN

(Led by Shari Sigoloff)

Camps are built on tradition. Songs, ceremonies, language, roles, and long-standing practices are often passed down for generations and become part of a camp’s identity. But time, culture, and our understanding of children have evolved—and some rituals that once felt harmless or meaningful now deserve a second look.

This session explores how camps can thoughtfully examine long-standing traditions through a modern lens, asking what still serves our communities and what may need to be adapted, retired, or reimagined. We’ll talk about how to recognize when a ritual no longer aligns with our values, how to manage change without losing a camp’s soul, and how to communicate updates to staff, campers, and alumni in ways that build trust rather than resistance.

Rituals Rewritten isn’t about erasing the past. It’s about honoring what matters most while ensuring our traditions reflect the inclusive, emotionally safe, and intentional environments we want to create today—and for the next generation of campers.

INTERNATIONAL STAFFING: WHERE WE’VE BEEN, WHERE ARE, AND WHERE WE’RE HEADED

(Presented By Scott Brody)

International staffing has always been part logistics, part culture, and part leap of faith. In this critical session, Scott Brody will map the J-1 and international staffing landscape as it’s evolved for camps, what’s different now, and what signals to watchh heading into upcoming summers. We’ll look at the concerns camp owners/directors are feeling most: visa uncertainty and delays, rising costs, shifting policy and enforcement climate, and how those forces ripple into recruiting, staffing plans, and budgeting.

This will be a state-of-play conversation designed to help owners and directors make better decisions: what you can control, what you can’t, and how to build a staffing strategy that’s resilient regardless of the news cycle. Expect perspective from someone who works at the intersection of camp operations and national advocacy, plus time for attendee Q&A on the realities you’re seeing on the ground.

REFERRAL AGENCIES AND INDUSTRY GUIDELINES

(Led By Fritz Seving)

This topic centers on the growing role, and cost of referral agencies in camp enrollment, and the industry-led effort to establish clearer standards and expectations. This breakout will focus on the newly developed guidelines document, exploring how camps can use it as a practical tool to navigate contracts, commissions, transparency, and relationships with referral services in a more consistent and sustainable way.

WHEN THINGS GO WRONG

(Led By Brooke Cheley & Frank Tindall)

No camp experience is without challenges. From unexpected incidents and near misses to situations that didn’t go as planned, even the best-run camps encounter moments that test leadership, systems, and judgment.

This session creates space for candid discussion about real situations that have gone wrong at camp—and, more importantly, what was learned from them. Participants will explore how camps responded in the moment, communicated with stakeholders, supported staff and campers, and adjusted policies or practices afterward.

When Things Go Wrong focuses on learning through shared experience, strengthening preparedness, and building a culture where reflection leads to better decision-making. This is not about blame or fear—it’s about honesty, resilience, and helping one another avoid repeating the same mistakes.