During the Super Bowl Chrysler ran an ad with Clint Eastwood proclaiming that is was “halftime in America” and that we should buy a Chrysler that is imported from Detroit. I don’t really get what the commercial was about and I don’t plan on buying a Chrysler any time soon, but the reference to halftime got me thinking. I am in my “mid-forties” and have been working professionally for a little over 20 years and if I retire in my early to mid-sixties (which would be awesome) that would put me at about halftime of my career. Since it is halftime I want to look back on the first half of my career and recognize the 4 people who have shaped my thinking and career the most. Whether you know it or not the things I say and think have been shaped by these four individuals more than any others.

I will take this opportunity to share these people with you and what they taught me that continues to shape my thinking and my philosophy around the work I do.

Doug McMillan – Doug is the CEO of the YMCA of the Triangle Area (Raleigh/Durham NC). Doug has been known for coming into your office and unloading a wealth of information. He is full of ideas and a programming genius when it comes to camp. One day over 10 years ago Doug stopped by my office and among other things that I’m sure he said that day he made this statement, “a camp director is responsible for the enrollment of their programs”. That statement changed everything for me! I could no longer blame the economy, the community, my boss or whatever other circumstances that I could think of to take the responsibility away from me. This fact, that I am responsible for the enrollment of my program, dictates how I interact with campers, with staff, with parents and with donors. I am always recruiting campers!

Tracy Howe - Tracy is a Senior Vice President with the YMCA of the Triangle and when I was the Executive Director of Camp Kanata I was one of his branches of the Y that he supervised. In 2004, soon after I had become the director at Camp Kanata Tracy bought t-shirts for the full time staff that had the Kanata logo on the front and on the back it said “fill the beds”. Tracy taught me that if your programs are filled a lot of the budget issues will take care of themselves. It was amazing that over the next 6 years as we filled camp to capacity we were able to invest in the property, add staff members and provide a better programmatic experience, just from filling our programs. Yes, you need to manage your expenses at camp, but Tracy taught me that when your beds are filled with campers the management part of the budget becomes less stressful.

Bo Roberts - Bo was the VP of Camping Services for the YMCA of the Triangle and my boss for 7 years. I learned a lot from Bo over that time (might be an entire blog post), but the one thing that I want to mention here was something that I thought was crazy at the time!  One day Bo and I were walking around camp and he says, “Dave, I don’t want to see any sticks on the ground at camp.” This might seem like a small thing, but our camp was in the woods! Sticks just happen in the woods! You can’t pick up all the sticks! I never did pick all the sticks up at camp, but Bo’s thoughts on taking care of all the details has made me a little crazy with taking care of the details at camp. Bo taught me that everything matters (even the sticks on the ground) These days I am hyper focused on the details and even more so about things that the customer may never notice, but I am not driven by what others might see I am focused on what I see.

Connie Kendrick – Connie is the VP of Leadership Development and Quality at the YMCA of Greater Charlotte and might be one of the greatest supervisors of all time. I only worked for Connie for 2 years, but during that time I became a much better camp director even though I wasn’t directing a camp. Connie taught me that it is not enough to talk about quality, you have to measure quality. The department that Connie supervises, and that I was a part of, is the “YExperience” group and our focus was to make sure that we are delivering a quality product to our customers at the Y. My focus was on camp (day and resident) and afterschool programs. I learned about listening and responding to customers and using the Net Promoter Score to measure quality and to follow up, follow up, follow up to get the results we want.

So, 20 years into my career and these are the big 4 ideas that have placed me where I am:

1. I am responsible for the enrollment of my programs

2. If I fill the beds most of my budget stress goes away

3. The details matter

4. It’s not enough to talk about quality, I have to be able to measure it

A big thanks to all the people who have invested in my career so far and I am lucky to be surrounded with some great leaders and colleagues now that might show up on my next list 2o years from now.

this is a guest post from Jon Bontrager, Facility Director, of YMCA Camp Harrison near Wilkesboro, NC.

I am not, nor do I claim to be, any sort of “horse person.” I do, however, like a challenge. I was excited In 2008, when I arrived at YMCA Camp Harrison at Herring Ridge, to learn that one of my first duties was to help set up infrastructure for our horse program, which has grown steadily to the creation of a “Dude Ranch” program in 2011. This doubled the number of horses we have on site, added goats, donkeys, chickens, a garden, and all associated pastures and structures to support them. So, since the end of summer 2011, much of our time has been spent discussing, plotting, and excessively tweaking to make programming and year-round care easier and more effective, as well as to improve the overall appearance. Due to my “insufficiencies,” it has been a great opportunity for me to  release control, listen to our program staff, and provide the construction expertise to help them create what they want. I am quite impressed with the impact this has had on our staff team, and wanted to share a few solutions of our collaborative effort in our tack room.

Prior to this project, the space we ended up using for the tack room was split into tack room and an office. We removed a wall (and the office), doubling the size of the space. We scrapped the 24 square foot desk that took up half the room, replacing it with a 3 square foot “desk.” Out went the couch, stuffed horses, and assorted accumulation of 3 years of programming.

Saddle Racks:

One of our program personnel came to me with a simple metal saddle rack which we used to create a wooden replica. She drove the design, insisting on rounded edges and curvy supporting members despite my half-hearted (time-conscious) protest, and then rallied program, volunteer, and maintenance staff to chip in and help with the intensive construction and installation. End result: a sturdy, attractive way to display in an organized manner the main tool of the trade. The staff who will be in the barn on open houses and during programming drove the construction and will can tell that board member, parent or kid “That? Oh, yeah.. I built it,” communicating competency.

Gate-style hook system:

Horses come with an obscene amount of ropes, cables, and assorted control mechanisms, all of which need to be hung up. In order to save space and attractively display some of these, we built this hinged hook system, which places the more attractive horseshoe hooks on a hinged board, covering up the less attractive hooks behind it. End Result: form makes sense for a horse program, function is great.

We still need to build space for feed, boots, and all the stuff that kids bring with them. As someone who likes to check things off the list, relinquishing control always requires multiple calming talks with the voices in my head. But yesterday I looked around as we were putting up a fence, and saw 3 program staff and 2 additional volunteers who didn’t have to be there laughing, working hard, and enjoying the sun. At some point in the tack room this winter, they became hooked on creating the small, physical details that make camp different, larger than life, and a place to which kids and parents want to return.

Meet Dave, and Dave, and Dave…. (it’s a video, click on the link)

Does your life as a camp director feel like this? If you work at a small camp this can be a reality and if you work at a larger camp, but have failed to master the magic of delegation this can also be your reality. I think this commercial for Staples gets across a great message that if you are tasked with getting everything done yourself because of a small staff (or no staff) it is okay to ask for help, in fact, Staples wants to help.

This same thing is true for the life of a camp director. It can be a lonely lifestyle. You happen to live at your work, you don’t have much of a staff team around you for months out of the year and you can get pulled into the world of “I have to do it all myself” syndrome (I like making up syndromes).

Here is my advice. Break the habit! Here are my tips to break the habit of doing it all yourself:

1. Utilize social media – I have made some great connections in the summer camp and business world through twitter, facebook and linkedin. Engage in conversations, ask questions, comment on blog post (leave your name). I don’t have to come up with the answer for everything when I am connected with hundreds (maybe thousands) of experts around the country and the world.
2. Visit with other camp directors – since moving to the Northwest I have met up with a local camp director on a few occasions and it has been a great time to talk about camp, sports, camp, life and camp. I find out often that other directors struggle with the same issues I have. It is also a great way to steal new ideas.
3. Attend conferences – make ongoing training a priority. Attend conferences, submit proposals to present at conferences and volunteer to be on planning committees.
4. Enlist volunteers – what is it that you are responsible for that could possibly be handled by a volunteer? I know the number one reason that volunteers don’t help us is because we do not ask them. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

I know that as camp directors we are asked to do many things (many things we might not have been trained to d0), but when we get caught up in the busyness of minutia it can take our time and efforts away from the important.

I leave you with my final thought: Don’t be like Dave (the dave in the video or this dave – two dave’s is way too many!).

(originally written for Camp Business Magazine)

I’ve been thinking and talking about trust a lot lately. Usually it has come up in conversations I have had about what is the defining element in why parents choose one camp over another. I believe that reason is trust. This is why it is so important for camp directors to connect with parents at camp fairs, in home shows and through electronic media (blogs, social media, email, etc.) because above selling cool programs, catchy theme week titles or progressive skill development systems at camp we are selling trust. Does a parent trust their child with us (me, the camp director) for a week or more out of their life?

My thoughts on trust building with parents started changing to how trust allows me to effectively get things accomplished at work. I realized that trust is the currency I use to get work done with my supervisors, those I supervise and my co-workers. The interesting thing about trust is that we are in a constant effort of gaining and losing trust. Every day I am either making withdraws or making deposits of trust in the bank of those I work with.

With a high level of trust built up between myself and others I can get things accomplished with less pushback and disruption to timelines, but when trust is not there things can slow down because of questions that are asked about motivations, and open skepticism about my work.

How is trust built up and torn down? The starting point of mistrust in many situations is misunderstanding. Misunderstanding can be avoided through clear, constant and honest communication. Another way misunderstanding is avoided is through contact. When we spend quality time with individuals we are able to avoid many misunderstandings because we can know them better.

When I interviewed for my job with the YMCA of Greater Charlotte one of the questions they asked me was, “if you do not supervise individuals how will you be able to get things done through them?” It was an interesting job and an interesting question, but it is the same way you get things done through people when you do supervise them – through building trust.

I am realizing that the only way that I am going to be successful in my career is through my ability to connect with people and to build trust with the people I work for and work with. A layer of trust allows us to work harder, forgive easier and accomplish more. A layer of trust also has ramifications on our efficiencies and cost structure because of time saved by not having to check up on others work. Taking someone at their word takes less time and is more efficient than micro-managing a staff member. This year (and in the years to come) I will spend more time building trust with those around me. I will work to be more trustworthy as an employee and will focus on clear communication and intentional contact with those I supervise to build trust in those relationships also. Please join me in using our currency of trust to build a better workplace.

I’m not sure if readers pick up on the fact that most of the things that I write about (and speak about at conferences) are things that I have struggled with, or more often than not, continue to struggle with in my professional life. Sometimes I wish my work still centered around leading games and songs all day and hanging out with middle-school age campers, but unfortunately (sometimes) times change and people do to. With change comes the opportunity to grow and evolve. There have been times when I have been prepared for the changing and evolving and other times when I was having to quickly catch up with the expectations of a new position.

One of the areas that I have been working on for the past few years and finally think I am getting a handle on is board development and volunteer development. I certainly don’t think I have mastered it and I will probably spend the next 20+ years (how long I think I will continue working) perfecting this skill, but at least at this point I have learned some things that might help people who are new at this or are struggling with it at this point in their career.

Here are some tips I recommend for getting the best out of your board development efforts:

1. Ask for help – In 2002 I was working for the YMCA in Raleigh, NC and had no responsibilities to recruit board members and at that point had never worked with one in my life, but I knew that if my career progressed as I planned it would come up. I went to a leader in our staff development department and asked her who I should talk to to gain a better understanding of working with a volunteer board. She mentioned Alan Head who was the Executive Director of the NC Bar Association (attorneys/not bartenders). I met with him, asked him questions and forged a friendship. 5 years later he became my board chair of YMCA Camp Kanata. I learned a lot from Alan and was honored to serve with him, but it happened because I was willing to ask for help early on.
2. Read – Reading is usually my answer for everything. I spend good bit of time reading books, magazines, blogs, etc. because it is one of the easiest and quickest ways to gain knowledge on a subject. A simple Google search will give you more than enough information to keep you busy for weeks. I like finding things on my own, but I really like it when people recommend books to me.
3. Listen – I have heard (and agree with) that when asking someone to give or serve it should not be a tough thing. All we are doing is connecting someones passion with our organizations mission. When there is a connection it is magic! I have gotten better and finding and cultivating board members because I listen to what people are saying (my wife will disagree with the listening part).
4. Meaningful Work – I don’t believe there is anything worse than recruiting a volunteer to our organization and not giving them meaningful work. This might be the toughest part of my job is having continuous work that is meaningful for my board members. It has to be more than meeting monthly for lunch and simplistic conversations. If board members aren’t engaged I take it personally to do a better job of connecting with them, listening to them and empowering them with the work of our organization.
5. “If not you, who?” - This is the question I have begun to ask of volunteers lately. I sometimes get turned down (I’m persistent though), but when this happens I follow up with “if not you, who?” I want them to give me a name of someone they know who might be a good connection for us. Keeping this thought at the forefront of our volunteers mind is important. I want my board to be dynamic and full of good people and I want to have a good “bench” of people ready to step in to serve. Don’t forget to ask your volunteers to recommend people.
6. Profiling – One thing that I have been more intentional about lately is writing a profile of people I want on our board. We serve hundreds of school groups a year at our camps, but we are not represented on our board or any committees with an educator or administrator. We are attempting to grow our alumni base for our camps, but we do not have a college alumni staff member connected to us. We have two large camp properties, but do not have a park planner connected to our board. What gaps do you have on your board? Write a profile of what you want and then go find them.

fill this table intentionally

Volunteer and board cultivation and development is an ongoing process. I believe that over time this type of work will be what keeps me interested and engaged in the work that I do. The ability to share my passion for summer camp work with the community and looking for continued ways to connect peoples passions with our mission is what keeps me energized. Hope these tips will help you in your recruitment efforts.

Even though summer camp is over 150 years old it really hasn’t changed that much. It began when some individuals took kids to a remote location to separate them from the hustle and bustle of the world, and today, we are still removing kids from the hustle and bustle (more like removing them from their video games, iphones and such).

Anyway, even though much is still similar (the magic of camp is a couple of counselors and a small group of campers) there are areas that we can begin to re-think. Just because we’ve always done something one way doesn’t mean we should continue it that way. I think of businesses today that have changed the way I think.

Apple - made me think differently about the personal computer, the portable music player and the telephone.

was there life before this device?

Zappos - made me think differently about shoe buying.

why would I go to a store to buy shoes?

Starbucks - made me think differently about how I consumed coffee (it should be social) and how much I am willing to pay for good coffee.

$4 for a cup of coffee? sure!

I think differently about a lot of things and I think it is time we start thinking differently about camp. Here are some things that I believe we should look at differently:

1. Re:Think Marketing – customer service is the new marketing! If we want our customers to be loyal to us than we should be loyal to them. Take care them, listen to them, communicate with them and treat them like they matter.
2. Re:Think Programs - I want my programs to be recreational, intentional and purposeful. If they can’t be those then we shouldn’t be offering them. Our customers deserve quality programs.
3. Re:Think Leadership - the camp director has to provide the leadership and create the culture at camp. This cannot be delegated away.
4. Re:Think Training – staff training doesn’t end when the campers arrive. Provide opportunities for on-going training that takes place outside of a staff meeting. Coach, give feedback and follow-up with staff. We are providing a foundation for long term success for these counselors.
5. Re:Think Quality - how do you define and measure quality? If you don’t know it will be hard to know if you are delivering a quality product. I measure quality by enrollment, retention rate and customer feedback – how do you measure it at your program?

We are living in an amazing time when we can share ideas and learn from people around the world. What are you doing to re:think or re:imagine what camp can be? Does camp have to happen at your camp site? Can camp happen in a school classroom or a hospital room?  Think Different and maybe you can change the world.

I think one of the worst things that can happen at a summer camp is what I like to call HOS or “Hanging On Syndrome”. This happens when a camper begins coming to camp around age 6 and they continue through the evolutionary process of camper until they become eligible for a leadership training program (LIT, CIT). They of course graduate into this program and after completion become a Jr. Counselor, and after spending 1 or 2 summers at this level are off to college and on to becoming a full-blown counselor! 3 more years as a counselor and they graduated to Head Counselor, Program Director or Teen Leadership Director (because they want to give back to the program that gave them so much).

I am Denver Broncos fan! I have been one since 1983 when John Elway was drafted #1 over-all by the Baltimore Colts and told them he would play professional baseball unless he was traded. Elway ends up a Bronco and I end up a Broncos fan!

I am a Tim Tebow fan! He is quite the inspiring young man. I am not too concerned about his religious beliefs except for the fact that they have a profound impact on who he is as a person. I don’t know what he would be if he wasn’t a Christian (some have joked Ben Rothlisberger), but with it he seems like one of the most inspiring, thoughtful and energetic people I have ever seen. His will to win and over-achieve is contagious.

I direct summer camps and have done so for 15+ years. As a camp director I would love to have a staff member like Tim Tebow. He becomes your coach in the game. Does he make mistakes? Yes. Does he ever blame others? Never.

I am a big fan of culture at summer camp and think it can be one of the biggest make or breakers for a successful camp. Counselors have a way of defining the camp experience. As a director I can’t be everywhere, but knowing I have some staff that in spite of mistakes they might make they are always desiring to do the right things, make sure we are focusing on our goals and being there to encourage the other staff members helps me sleep better at night.

Will the Broncos beat the Patriots today? I hope so, I’m a Broncos fan!

Is God more on Tim Tebow’s side than anyone else? I doubt that.

Would I laugh if Tim Tebow was on my staff and kneeled everytime he did something awesome? Yes.

Win or lose would I still hire Tim Tebow? Yes.

Go Broncos! Go Summer Camp!

I know what you are thinking – “Dave is trying to get us to hire him to be a speaker for our staff training”. Sorry to disappoint, but that is not what I am doing. I am trying to get you to hire an outside speaker for your staff training this year though. I have always made a habit of having guest come in and do a kick-off keynote, some workshops or some specific topic that they are experts in during my staff training time at camp. Here are a few reasons why:

1. They will hear from you enough – I always assumed that during the course of the summer with meals in the dining hall, staff meetings, campfires and whatever other times I happened to stand up and start talking my staff was going to hear from me. I need to set the tone for staff training, but it is okay for me to have someone else come in and talk. I am not an expert in everything (see #2).

2. I am not the expert in everything – there are a few things that I am passionate about leading the training in, but for most everything else I am going to find the best people I can to talk about the subject. It might be a parent talking about parent expectations, a Chick-fil-a general manager to talk about customer service, an exceptional counselor to talk about cabin management – you get the idea.

3. A different voice carries more weight – this one drives me crazy, but it is true. I can say something over and over again, but if I bring in an outside trainer and they say the same thing I did my staff will remember it better and think it has more authority because it is not their “crazy director just spouting off at the mouth on one of his rants”.

4. It helps the speaker – I have hired trainers to come in who that is there full time job, I have hired camp directors who just do a couple of trainings a year and I have hired people who have never done a training before, but I know that they knew their stuff. What a great compliment to pay someone than to ask them to come speak to your staff. It might help them pay the bills and it might just be the esteem boost they needed.

Okay, since I have hired a few speakers in my career and I have heard a lot of camp trainers at conferences over the years I will give a short list of people I would recommend and why (all of these listed below I would classify as practical and affordable).

1. Jim Cain – I have had Jim in a few times over the years and heard him at several conferences. Here is why you should hire Jim: your staff will use the things he teaches them the entire summer! He does a great job of teaching useable skills to help with group dynamics and cabin culture.

2. Forrest Perry – Forrest is the best I have ever seen at leading games and songs in a summer camp environment. He is high energy, funny and your staff will love him. He also is a camp director so what he is teaching your staff he is actually doing at his camp.

3. Dan Weir – I have never hired Dan, but I have heard him speak at camp conferences. He does an incredible job of tackling the technology/camp dynamic. If you need someone to cover social media and camp, should you allow technology in your camp and technologies affect on campers he is your guy.

4. Connecticut Camp Guys – I have heard Mark and Patrick speak a number of times and they do a great job of communicating to the camp directors and to the counselors and program staff. They both direct large day camps in the Northeast and so the things they are covering they practice on a regular basis.

5. Mike D’Avria – yes, I know that Mike is my co-founder of CampLeadership.org, but I have to be honest and say he is one of the best when it comes to communicating with counselor level staff. I don’t know if this is good or bad (let’s say it is good), but he still thinks like a counselor, but understands the importance of the work from the time he spent as a camp director.

Some of you might be thinking any of the following things:

1. I know my staff better than anyone and so therefore I should train them – this is true and you can share things with your guest speaker that you would like them to focus on. Remember, sometimes it works better if they hear it from someone besides you.

2. What if I hire someone that is better than me and my staff like them more than me? – If I hire someone I hope they are better than me! Yes, my staff might think the guest is smarter, better looking, younger, more fun, more interesting, but that can’t get in the way of us providing the best training opportunities for them.

3. I can’t afford to pay an outside speaker – Most camps can afford to pay for what they think is a priority. If money is really an issue you might be able to “swap” some training time with a camp professional that you know.

Staff training will be here in about 5 months and now is a good time to start thinking about who you would like to help make your training great this year. Good luck and if you know any staff training experts that I have missed let me know.

Occasionally we at CampLeadership.org get emails from Camp Directors across the country telling us about an idea that they have. James Davis, who is with the Vandercamp Center in Cleveland, New York is one of those people. He sent me a polite email asking me to check out a budget and retention tool he created. I checked it out and I was pretty amazed by it. I asked him to write a guest blog post about how he came up with the idea. The following is written by James, along with a link to the tool. Thanks — Mike D’Avria (Executive Editor of CampLeadership.org)

With the handful of camps I’ve worked for, I had a hard time getting a simple answer to what ought to be pretty simple questions.

“How much does our camp profit from each new child that comes?”

“How many campers do we need to bring in from spending X marketing dollars to make it worth it?”

“What is our camper retention rate? How does it impact our bottom line?”

And over time, it dawned on me. Most of us are in camping because we love changing the lives of children, not because we love crunching numbers. I count myself in that category, but I’m also a data guy. I need evidence before making a leap of faith. When I got to the Vanderkamp Center, I decided to answer a lot of these questions for myself. After running some formulas, I realized: this really isn’t so hard. I bet my Dad could make a computer program to automate this so I wouldn’t have to punch things into my calculator over and over with slight adjustments. And he did! I explained to him my mathematical formula, and he tested its accuracy. We worked together to make sure our assumptions were as accurate as possible, and I began to play with it.

When I saw how useful it was, I realized that my camp director friends needed access to it. With customizable fields, it’s easy to see everything from how a smaller camper-staff ratio impacts a camp’s financial future, to the real difference between getting a first year 7 year old camper vs. a first year 15 year old camper. The major benefit for me was being able to come before my board and say, “This is what a camper is worth to us, on average, given our current retention rate. If I can reasonably expect to get 1 new camper, I can justify this campaign.” Developing a marketing budget is a leap of faith for a lot of businesses, but for camps, our customers mean so much to us financially that it’s often crazy to not market our service.

The other eye-opener for me was seeing what a slight difference in retention rate can mean. When I communicate to my summer staff that keeping 5% more campers would give us a surplus instead of a deficit, and give them concrete tools to try and achieve that, it makes a huge difference. Likewise, I can go back to my board to justify an increase in program budget. If that new ropes element can increase retention by just 1% it’s likely to pay for itself over and over again.

If you’re like me, you don’t want to charge blindly into the night spending your camp’s dollars. With evidence to back up your intuition, you can be a lot more confident writing those checks. Your camp board will thank you for the results you produce, and those kids you reach with that extra effort won’t mind, either.

We offer this tool totally for free because we hope to help camps across America promote and market their camps a little smarter. We also hope that some camps come forward to give us their data, that we might refine the tool and make it more useful for us, and for them! Encourage the ACA to offer up their research to our perusal, and we can make this thing account for all sorts of things that currently limit it (it can’t account for referrals, for instance). I can promise you our competitors are using data to drive their businesses, and it’s time that camps do, to!

The link to the tool is here: Summer Camp Retention Analysis Tool.

Please enjoy, and I pray it will help your camp as it has ours!

Vanderkamp Center is a Christian Summer Camp near Syracuse, NY.