Staff orientation - summer camps

Camping Magazine, Nov-Dec, 1995 by Laurie O'Brien

Now that the dust has settled from the summer of 1995, it's time to start planning next year's summer program! Start with a list of what you want to accomplish, then develop your staff training schedule from that list.

Appendix J in the American Camping Association's Standards for Day and Resident Camps contains a thorough list of precamp training topics. After determining how each of the listed items is or should be handled at your facility, examine how to disseminate the information to staff.

Is your goal simply to talk through everything in the staff manual, or do you have specific objectives to achieve? Is a lot of time spent raking leaves off tennis courts, cleaning cabins, and putting boats in the water, or is staff given time to practice rusty skills, develop lesson plans, and work on team building? Do counselors sit through lectures, or do they participate in hands-on learning and review of information? What is it that staff should have completed, know, or be able to do by the end of precamp? Once you have decided on goals and emphasis, you can review your training schedule to make sure everything is covered.

To ensure that staff "get" the information you're trying to impart, use innovative ways to cover topics:

* Invite a group of parents to speak about expectations they have (or don't have) for their child's camp experience. A parent may expect safety and mature supervision, but not broken limbs or a new vocabulary of cuss words at the end of the summer.

* Have a veteran camper talk to staff about what makes a good and a bad counselor.

* Ask local law enforcement to address staff. This is especially important if the camp is located in a small community or on a public access lake or waterway. Staff members often fail to consider the perception "locals" have of them. Working with local Emergency Medical Service is equally important. If your camp uses local, state, or national property ask someone from the appropriate management service (e.g., National Forest Service) to speak.

* Organize a session that pairs local drinking establishment owners with underage staff members. Those younger than 21 years may think twice about attempting to purchase alcohol if the person behind the counter has made their ID checking policy known. Also, barkeepers will later recognize your younger staff members.

* Take staff on a walking tour of camp to assess areas of risk. Ask them to identify potential hazards. Point out where last season's accidents and injuries occurred and talk about preventative measures for the coming summer. Instead of identifying poison ivy in a picture, do it in the field.

* Conduct a skills refresher for CPR, first aid, and lifeguarding skills. A staff member who took a class in September may not have practiced those skills for nine months! Give activity counselors an opportunity to work the kinks out of tennis games or try out the new boats on the waterfront.

* Stage mock emergencies (severe weather, missing camper, death) and move staff through the entire scenario from activating emergency plans to filling out accident and injury forms. This is also a good time to involve local law enforcement and EMS.

* Ask staff to write down questions they have about responding to camper needs. Pull questions out of a hat and discuss. Include situations like how to answer campers who ask about a staff person's private life, what to do when a child consistently wets the bed, and what the boundaries are for touching campers.

* Give staff members an opportunity to hear other staff members' job descriptions. Counselors sometimes are unfamiliar with kitchen staff responsibilities, and program staff might think that unit directors have more free time than anyone else on staff. Lifeguards who resent the riding staff for having free evenings may understand the policy better when they hear about the 4:30 a.m. wake up call for feeding and watering the horses.

* Put staff into activity groups, patrols, and cabin or kaper groups to simulate an actual daily schedule. Rotate jobs and routines, such as flag ceremonies and dining hall kapers, so that all groups have experience with the tasks you expect them to teach and supervise.

* Bring back a retired staff member to share some of the history of camp. Let senior or key staff members serve as trainers and mentors for first-year counselors.

* Ask your insurance agent to be on hand during precamp. Using your camp's claim history as well as general camp accident and injury statistics, this person can tailor short workshops or safety sessions for kitchen staff, aquatic personnel, adventure programming counselors, or other specialized groups.

* Have each staff member write down one rainy day activity, then compile and distribute a copy to all staff. This will go a long way toward alleviating the mid-summer lament, "I don't know what to do with these kids today."

* Use hands-on learning experiences as often as possible. Instructors can teach a lesson to other staff as if it's their first day with campers. Staff can participate in an overnight, pitching tents, lighting campfires and starting camp stoves.