The Camp Director

Video clip from The Colbert Report on the increasing use of psychiatric drugs in children, something he dubs ‘psychopharmaparenting’.

While very funny on the surface - it is less funny when you realize this is not much of a parody and closer to reality.

Source: Neuroanthropology via mindhacks

OK - that is not exactly what I said when a few of the high school staff were talking loudly during summer camp staff training. Never mind that their fellow staff were doing the presenting or that I had already moved my chair next to them, these kids just yammered on. Thankfully, they were not ones I had hired. I did have to give my standard spiel on how training is actually work time. Unlike when I am a professor and I simply FAIL the students who do not perform, at camp I just fire them. Either way, very rewarding.

Staff are quite spoiled when it comes to training. Our staff training is very learner-centered. We allow them to move around quite often, give them clay and markers to fidget with, and engage them in the process, etc. In the words of David Meier, “What the learner creates they learn.”

Most all the staff are VERY appreciative and very unaware that other job trainings are not nearly as fun. My sister had a job at a large corporation where she had to read the policy manual, taking turns with her supervisor. Yikes!!! If I did that I would have a revolt.

Want more information on accelerated learning:

• International Alliance for Learning
• Stretch Learning
• Institute for Learner Centered Education
• APA Learner Centered Principles

The New Media Expo is billed as the world’s most popular convention for podcasters, bloggers and online content creators. While August 14-16 is not the most ideal for a summer camp director to be thinking about professional development, this is a conference worth leaving camp for - especially if you are interested in new media. Camps are starting to look at ways to include online video in their marketing by podcasting content their campers can receive year round. Back in the camp camps thought they were really doing well when they sent out birthday cards or their camp DVD in the off season to their campers. With our current clients consuming media online, camps need to improve their online footprint in the areas of social media, online video, blogs, etc. The New Media Expo 2008 is a great introduction for any summer camp person.

From the conference site: The Expo is a hands-on, exciting, “how-to” event with practical conference sessions about how to produce high-quality online audio and video content, grow a loyal audience, and market or monetize that content in creative ways.

Who attends? The approx. 3,000 attendees that come to the Expo each year consist of four main groups:

1. Individual media creators who are producing content for the web for their own ventures, as freelancers or as hobbyists - and are coming to learn how to create better podcasts and online video and grow their audience.

2. Corporate content creators and marketers attend to learn how to create audio and video content for marketing or internal training and get educated on strategies for advertising within online content that will resonate with their customers and prospects.

3. Media buyers, public relations firms and advertising agencies attend to learn about the latest trends and develop partnerships with groups 1 and 2.

4. Educators, universities and institutions attend to learn how to best extend the classroom and use audio and video as an e-learning tool.

Recently, Twitter, a micro-blogging platform, has been having more technical issues. As camp season hits high gear for camp directors around the country, I was wondering what it would be like if I could send error messages like twitter does when my system gets overloaded.

Too many incoming phone calls to the registration office gets the “Something is Technically Wrong” message we have become so familiar with on Twitter. Those messages used to be cute and less annoying when I didn’t rely on the service so much.

Today, as we are 21 days from the 1st day of camp, I went to Twitter to catch-up procrastinate on what I had missed the last few days. I got the message, “Twitter is stressing out a bit right now, so this feature is temporarily disabled.” What? I want to do that!! It started me thinking . . .What can I “temporarily disable”?? . . . my cheerful customer service disposition?? . . . or my flexible boss leadership style???

It is this time of the year I have to remember that the people I serve, both children, parents, and staff are the business and not the interruption. Sometimes my voice on the phone does not send that message. I spoke at the ACA Southern California supervisor training day last week and saw many eager faces ready to take on their new challenge of being a supervisor. (Notes from the session at The Camp Staff Network.) There were also many seasoned veterans there with that weary OMG!-Camp-Starts-Soon! look. I have created the camp director error message (below) - to hang in the office or on my shirt the next time I find myself overloaded or maxed out. I’ll be wearing it today.

What is it that sends your over the edge and stresses you out?