stephenwinbaum
Communications Coordinator
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Aug 18, 2005, 9:08 AM
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Reflections of a Summer Past
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September. The embers of another summer camp season have died out.
Campers reunite with their parents – and both missed each other more than they might have guessed.
For camp owners and directors, reflections on the summer past are in order, and then plans for the the sequel – Summer Camp 2006.
Next year will be great if owners and directors take this time to consider why they operate their unique communities – and review their mission statements.
The ACA has a great series of five articles: Defining Your Mission.
I recommend all of them but read below for my favorites.
Jeff Jacob’s Planting Seeds with Your Staff - Growing Your Camp's Culture
Here’s an excerpt . . .
. . . the last of the summer camp equipment has finally been put away. As I start to settle into the fall routine, I realize that there is a message on my desk from someone already requesting an application for next summer. I rattle the old filing cabinet open and dust off a copy of the previous year's staff information and application materials. Images of summer staff pulling through the front gate for another amazing summer start to fill my head, and I begin what I feel is my most important responsibility — shaping our camp culture.
As I begin to compose the letter that will serve as the cover page for our staff application, I am mindful that this is likely to be the first thing that a perspective staff member will see and read about our camp. Within this one 8˝- by 11-inch piece of paper, I will attempt to establish a tone and atmosphere that will lay the groundwork for our upcoming summer.
I found this blog-like article to be refreshing. Personal and non-theoretical, it provides impressions of the daily routines of a camp director as he goes about his duties. It's a 'how-to' approach of perseverance that will bridge his organization from the end of one season into the next. It's simple seed-planting style forgoes abstract approaches that can sneak into mission statements.
Link to Planting Seeds with Your Staff - Growing Your Camp's Culture
If you are a camp owner or director who is seriously thinking about revising your mission statement, Kathleen Trotter’s The Future Is You: Looking at camp in the new millennium is inspirational. She understands the experiential view of life and camping; and her outlook on mission statements is insightful, not locked into soul-searching exercises.
As you consider the future of your camp, it’s easy to focus on the external factors that are likely to affect its operation, the demographic influences that shape your markets, the impact of technology on your operations and programming, and on the challenges of an increasingly diverse clientele. Certainly all of the factors identified by your futuring exercises are worth considering. However, the most significant variable that will shape the twenty-first century is the human response to these factors. In other words, the future is you.
The future is not something "out there." It is in you, individually and corporately, and in present and future generations. You may not have control over a great deal of the external environment, but you do have control over the most important variable — yourself.
Link to The Future Is You: Looking at camp in the new millennium
Take heart camp owners and directors; your camp season was a successful learning experience. Plan for a summer blockbuster sequel in 2006.
That is your mission, should you must choose to accept it.
Excerpts from articles from Defining Your Mission are reproduced with the permission of the American Camp Association.
Stephen Winbaum is the Communications Coordinator at mySummerCamps.com
stephen@mysummercamps.com
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(This post was edited by stephenwinbaum on Aug 21, 2005, 6:31 PM)
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