New Camp Directors Aided By ACA New England and ECP

Each year, a few of our nearly 400 ACA-accredited camps experience a change in leadership.  We thought it would be interesting to check in with two members of the Emerging Camp Professionals committee who were first-time camp directors this summer to see how it went.

Keith Garbart, Winding Trails Summer Day Camp:

My first year as a camp director was amazing. 

We set out to make it an awesome summer for campers and staff.  We asked our staff to reflect on their summer experiences as campers and what had made them special.  Many counselors said that they always remembered their summers as the Best Ever, so that became the summer’s theme: “The Best Summer Ever!”  The challenge was how, as a camp director, could I give them the tools needed to achieve this challenge. 

I was daunted by the sheer numbers of campers.  At capacity, Winding Trails could have as many as 550 campers and 120 staff.  I have run other camps before, but on a much smaller scale, so I was confident in my ability to run a camp, but nervous about the size.  After we got into the summer, I was amazed how easily everything seemed to fall into place and basically run itself.  It could best be described as controlled chaos to a certain extent, as everything did run amazingly well, with only minor speed bumps along the way.

As far as how ACA New England helped me, I did attend the New Camp Directors’ Workshop prior to the start of the ACA New England conference, which I thought was extremely helpful.  It gave me the chance to meet other directors, as well as some members of the ECP committee, like Garrett Colgan-Snyder.  Throughout the conference, I met other individuals of ECP, and I spoke with Marran Linsky about becoming a part of the committee.  I also attended many sessions during the conference that were on the ECP track, which helped in giving me a foundation to build on heading into my first season as director. 

Prior to the start of the summer, I attended an ECP professional development workshop on staff training and found that extremely helpful, because it gave me insight into what other camps were doing for their staff training, which helped in planning my training.  It is great having a support system to be able to bounce ideas off of, and the ECP event helped me do that.  It created a great networking source that was great to have all summer if need be and something I think every director needs. 

I was ecstatic when I found out I would be on the ECP committee and I cannot wait to give other emerging camp professionals the opportunities that were given to me.  I look forward to helping ECP continue the great tradition of providing professional development and social networking for all camp professionals.

Cheryl Oliveira, Wind-in-the-Pines Girl Scout Camp:

This summer was a smash hit for Camp Wind-in-the-Pines Girl Scout Camp in Plymouth, MA. We had a record number of girls attending our sessions, with multiple weeks at full capacity!

My biggest challenge was fitting in all the fun and excitement of being at camp. To be honest, I had been given advice from a few seasoned folks at the ACA New England conference and they all agreed that I must set aside time during each day to play and have fun. This advice seemed a bit odd to me, because I figured that this would naturally fit itself into the day, but that was not the case. I did not play as much as I should have and it is a must for my next summer. 

I expected to have plenty of parental concerns, and I did, but not at all to the quantity that I’d been anticipating. This was fantastic! My staff did an amazing job on both check-in and check-out day, talking to families about why it is we do what we do, and they directed their concerns to me when they needed to. I even experienced a first: a parent cried! I have seen plenty of concerned and worried and protective parents, but never before had I had to console a parent for having to drop off her daughter at camp for the first time.

Like many camp staff here, I have been at Wind-in-the-Pines for a while, first as a camper and then slowly moving myself up the ranks. That being said, one of my biggest fears was how to cope with being the director overseeing those who were once my peers, and who, outside of camp, are my good friends. Therefore, I made a concerted effort to learn from as many people as I could about how I should handle this. I spoke with many folks from both the ACA office, as well as from the ECP committee, all of whom were full of advice.  The best advice was to sit down with my returning staff prior to staff training and have a heart-to-heart. This worked very well; I was upfront and they appreciated it. I told them that although we are friends, my most important role for the moment is Camp Director and, at the end of the day, I am the one who has to explain my actions to campers’ families. I feel they responded very well to this.

My second biggest fear was my ACA accreditation! With a few tips, this went extremely smoothly and the visit was perfect. All in all, I would consider my first summer challenging, but rewarding. My staff, campers, and their families were all well supported and appreciated. 

If you want to learn more about the training sessions we offer, check out our calendar of professional events.