Professionalism - Camp Code #170

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/professionalism

Teaching Professionalism at Camp Without Losing the Fun

On this episode of camp code our hosts Gabrielle and Beth talk about what it really means to teach professionalism in a camp setting where fun and silliness are part of the culture but responsibility is always present. They explore how camp is often one of the most meaningful first jobs young people will ever have, and why it still needs clear expectations around safety, communication, reliability and respect. Rather than treating professionalism as something stiff or corporate, they reframe it as trust. Staff are not just showing up to have a good time, they are being trusted by families with children, and that shifts everything about how we train, support, and lead them.

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Your Hosts:

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

We're talking about professionalism because camp is fun, camp is playful, camp is silly, camp is relational, camp is often one of the most meaningful jobs a young person will ever have. And it is still a real job. Running camp should be about people, not paperwork. Ultracamp helps you manage staff, registration, and communication in one place, so you spend less time on tasks and more on camp. Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcoat. Welcome to Camp Code, a podcast brought to you by GoCamp Pro. We have been podcasting for now almost 12 full seasons, and we knew that we just needed to continue. Why? Because just like people grow and change, so does our industry. So here we are, ready to discuss new challenges, new ways of handling situations, new advice from those doing the work, and new ideas to help us all do our jobs better. Our commitment to intentional leadership training just grows stronger every year. Welcome everybody to another episode of Camp Code, just Gabs and Me today. And as always, before we get to the discussion, we will begin with introductions.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Gabrielle. Hey, hey, everybody. My name is Gabs, and I'm one of the camp directors at Camp Woro. Camp World is an all-girls camp and we serve gender minorities. We try to create a positive environment.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

We do that in French and English. Thank you. And I'm Beth Allison, co-owner of Camp Hacker and Go Camp Pro. My pronouns are she, her, and I am a camp consultant and trainer. And we are going to be talking today about training staff to become professionals. Camp is a job. It's a real job with real expectations and real responsibilities and real consequences and real people trusting you with what matters most to them. And today we want to talk about how to teach professionalism during leadership training in a way that doesn't sound stiff or corporate or disconnected from camp culture. Because professionalism at camp is not about becoming boring. It's about becoming dependable, trustworthy, thoughtful, responsive, and ready for the real responsibility of caring for children. So today we're going to talk about how to train staff to understand that this is an actual job, that children's safety and well-being depend on them, what it means to be on time, how to communicate professionally, how to talk to parents, how to be loyal to camp policies and procedures, and how to balance all of that with being warm, creative, playful, and great with kids. Because the best camp staff are not just fun, they're also deeply reliable. So let's get into it. Gab, how about I start off? Love it. All right. So one of the reasons camp leaders sometimes avoid this topic is because the word professionalism can feel stiff. It can sound like please wear your name tag and respond to all communications in a timely fashion. And while yes, some of that matters. That's not really the heart of what we mean. At camp, to me, professionalism means people can count on you. You understand your role matters, you build trust, you act in ways that keep kids safe, and you know when fun is appropriate and when responsibility comes first. Professionalism at camp isn't about acting like you work in a law office. It's about understanding that I'm in a caregiving leadership and safety role. And that's the shift. For many staff, especially younger staff or ones who grew up as campers, that shift doesn't happen automatically because emotionally they may still arrive at camp with camper energy. And camper energy sounds like this should be fun for me. I'll get to it later. Rules are flexible. This is mostly about the vibe. But staff energy sounds like children are relying on me. My team is relying on me. Families are trusting me. My choices affect other people. That's what we want to teach. Not fear, not pressure, but responsibility. So as Gab and I have said and Ruby for 12 seasons, always start with the why. If you want professionalism to land, you can't start with the rules. You have to start with the why. Because if all staff hear from you is be on time, answer your messages promptly, follow policy, talk to parents properly, it can sound really nitpicky. But if they understand what all of that is, protecting everything, everything changes. So one of the most important lines you can say in leadership training is families are trusting us with the most precious people in their lives. That line matters because when staff really take that in, professionalism stops being about pleasing your supervisor and starts being about honoring trust. So you can say something to them like, when a parent drops their child off at camp, they are doing something deeply vulnerable. They are handing over their child, someone they love more than anything, and trusting us to care for them well. That means this job is bigger than showing up and having fun. It means being responsible, observant, dependable, and respectful. The way you communicate, the way you follow through, and the way you respond to concerns all matter because this work matters. So that's your frame. And once the frame is set, professionalism becomes about the habits that build trust. Professionalism is a skill set. It's not common sense. And I think this is important because camp leaders often assume professionalism is obvious. But for many staff, it's not. And honestly, that doesn't necessarily mean that they are lazy or immature or they don't care. It often means no one has ever clearly taught them what on time actually means, what kind of message deserves a text versus an email, how quickly they should respond, how to talk to a parent, how to raise a concern respectfully, or what loyalty to camp actually looks like. So instead of treating professionalism like a personality trait, we need to treat it like a trainable set of skills. So today I'm gonna, when it's my turn, I'm gonna be walking you through six of the most important professionalism areas that you should be teaching during leadership training. And for me, they are reliability and being on time, not necessarily in any order, communication expectations, how to talk to parents, loyalty to camp and camp policy, judgment, discretion, and boundaries, and balancing professionalism with fun and creativity. So I'm gonna talk a bit more about those after we hear from our beautiful Gabrielle.

SPEAKER_02 6:58

Thanks, Beth. I think I appreciate all of that what you are saying, and of course, the the the why, the mission centering our campers and especially the piece that you were talking about, that we want to shift the the mindset of our staff members from I want to make sure that I'm not in trouble from my boss, but I'm doing this because I'm here to serve our clients. And that shift has to be anchored in mission. I want to help us zoom out a little bit and also understand a little bit the mindset of our staff members and what is the messaging that they're getting from outside of camp. So from outside of camp, a lot of the times summer camps, day camps are not taken seriously like a real job. The from, you know, from their peers, they're gonna hear why don't you, you know, work with us this summer? Like, aren't you too old to be going to camp the same thing from their parents, even though if their parents spent good money sending them to camp? Now that their counselors, their parents also think this is not uh a real job. Their partners might think so as well. They might have internships coming up, and their professors might be really pushing for them to get an internship where truthfully they're not learning that much life skills or even skills in their domain. They're more getting coffee, taking notes, but not being not being challenged the way we know that summer camp can can challenge you and day camps can challenge and develop a young individual. If you look at almost any movie that has a summer camp theme in it, that's also really does not depict a professional way. Most of the time there is a head counselor, a chef, a nurse, and the kids with nerf guns. So this is not big t depicted in a professional light. It's not taken seriously. I'm not gonna get too far into the patriarchy, but basically taking care of kids is not taken very it's not seen upon as a real job. Yada yada yada. That's a whole other podcast. But they're already coming in with ever and fighting to get in and telling everybody this is the job I want. I this is hard work. But they but also the messaging is is being told they're being told is it truly isn't real, real work. It's just that you're gonna be outside enjoying the sun playing with kids. And we know that the responsibility is probably one of the highest responsibilities somebody at that age can have when you know working with kids and and being responsible for them. So they're already coming with all of that messaging. So our goal is to set them up well with clear messaging on what summer camp is and what is professional. The other thing is just let's just look at how we dress at camp. At camp, there is a professional attire that is that is supposed to be kid friendly. If we all had business suits and corporate attire, this first of all would be practical in an outdoor environment or even in a hot environment, but it would be a little standoffish for our kids. So there is a no blueprint that is that is shown for professionalism when it comes to camp. So, so right off the bat, we want to acknowledge it. And I'll say that we started creating stickers that said hashtag I have a real job, and then underneath it said camp war. And we started giving those out at conferences as well, just to just to change the mindset of people around. So I'm looking forward to hearing more from Beth in our break. And I also have a couple of tips of my own.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Excellent. Excellent. And thank you for bringing that up. I really appreciate that. And it is so true, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 10:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

So we as an industry need to work on that too. And I know that we are doing work on that, but I think we still need to do a little bit more. Indeed. But we'll get into this a little further after we hear from our sponsors. For Camp Code listeners, unlock UltraCamp's operations checklist for new directors, a free download to help you prepare for a smooth season. Find it at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. Running camp comes with countless moving parts. Ultracamp helps you stay on top of them. Organize activities and daily schedules, manage wait lists and cabin assignments, automate billing and payments, centralize all camper and staff info in one place. With UltraCamp, camp operations run smoother so directors can lead with confidence. Book your free customized demo at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. Okay, so I promised you I would dive into that list in a little bit more detail. So for me, what I discovered when I was directing is that reliability and being on time, I don't think staff fully understand necessarily yet. So at camp, being late is not just ideal. It affects children, coworkers, supervise, supervision, transitions, parent interactions, the bus home, safety, all, you know, the emotional tone of the day, all of that stuff. And at camp, lateness creates work for somebody else immediately. And one of the biggest mistakes we make is saying, please be on time without actually defining what that means because it's not universal. So teaching this clearly would sound like at camp on time means you are physically there, you are ready to begin, you have what you need, and you are not still getting organized when kids arrive. So you can say to your staff, at camp on time doesn't mean arriving at the exact minute that something starts. It means being ready to serve children at that time. So if lineup starts at 8:30 and you arrive at 8:30, you are late. So that clarity matters because this isn't about being rigid. It's about understanding that your readiness affects other people. So that for me is a pretty big one. Now I want to just move over to communication. So this is where I think many of the avoidable problems happen, happen because staff often don't actually know what platform to use, what's urgent, how quickly to respond, what tone is appropriate, or what professional communication sounds like. So again, teach it directly. A simple principle is this different messages require different tools. Not everything should be a text or a Slack message or an email or a phone call. It's our job to help them understand the difference. And for this, this kind of stuff should be taught like back when you're hiring so that they can continue this on throughout the summer, but help them understand the difference. Like texting and phoning can be used for urgent changes or lateness or immediate staffing or child-related issues or time-sensitive needs. Slack or whatever messaging system you use can be used for logistics or reminders or quick coordination or updates that matter today. Email for less urgent questions, details, sending back in paperwork, communication that needs clarity and follow-up. And then this part is really important. Teach expected response time. Assume that they don't know. Tell them what needs a same-day reply, what can wait, and when acknowledging a message is enough. One of the most professional things a staff member can do is simply say, I got this, I'll get back to you by 3 p.m. Or thanks, I th I saw this and I'm on it. Or I don't have the answer yet, but I didn't want to leave this hanging. That is such a life skill. And I think it's important that we teach it to our staff. And I think we also need to teach tone because professionalism is often often learning how to communicate stress without creating chaos. So instead of things like, oh my God, I literally can't do this, or why am I the only one doing this? Or I guess I'll just deal with it. We want to hear things like, I need support with this, or can you help me prioritize? Or I'm unclear on expectations. Can you clarify for me, please? That is professionalism, not perfection, just clarity. So think of how you can make these points in a really fun video from the camp office, you know, through the winter or at this time of the year, if you haven't already done it, and get that out there for your staff to see. I think it will help a lot. Remember again that not a lot of them have worked other jobs before they get to camp. So this is really their first foray into all of that. And finally, for me, before we send you back to Gab, is how to talk to parents. And this one matters more than I can tell you because one of the fastest ways staff realize camp is a real job is when they understand that you are interacting with adults who are evaluating whether their child is safe and known and cared for at your camp. And that can feel really intimidating. So don't just say be good with parents, but teach staff that there are key principles like warmth first. Parents want warmth and human connection, that confidence matters. Even if you're nervous, you want to sound grounded. That you never ever fake an answer. If you don't know, you say so and you get help. Parents are not the enemy, even if they're anxious or asking you lots of questions. You represent camp and you're not speaking just as yourself. So I mean, I would have scenarios or get them into groups to get them to help you come up with these things, but you want to make sure by the end of a session that they understand what a simple parent greeting can sound like. So maybe at date camp, it's good morning. We're so glad you're here. Hi, Maya. We've got a great day planned. Is there anything I should know before we get started? That's warm, competent, and reassuring. And if a parent asks something you don't know, that is a great question. I want to make sure I give you the right information. So let me check with my supervisor and get right back to you. That line is gold because guessing is not professional. And if a parent is frustrated, I'm really glad you brought that up. I can hear that it matters and I want to make sure it gets handled well. Let me involve the right person so we can support you properly. These can all be acted out by your more senior staff members during training. Staff often enjoy when you do it very wrong first and then show the right way, adding humor when appropriate. I just think that can be a great thing to do for staff on a hot summer's day of training. So professionalism with parents means calm, warmth, honesty, and not freelancing it. So make sure that during training you offer time to practice feeling comfortable with all of that. Gabrielle, what other brilliance do you have to share with us?

SPEAKER_02 17:51

I'm gonna add some, I'm gonna add some uh examples onto some of the things that you add away. So for for the time piece, I love that. And the, you know, getting specific is terrific, as Maple says. So making sure we're being clear. I would say that for us in staff training, what we do is we have we do have bells. We're the a summer camp. So we we have the privilege of having bells. We will have bells for the first three days so that our staff know what sounds like and they know that they exist. And then after that, we don't have bells anymore until the campers arrive. And we say that bells are for the campers. It's your aid. So the bell, when you when you're trying to get your campers going, and then you hear the bell and you're like, see, the bell's ringing. We've got to go, team. And that's why we have the bell. And they have to follow their yes watches, their wrist watches. Because they don't have their cell phones on them. We always have a couple of extra just in case I actually have a couple of extra myself, because then I'm a hero. When somebody's like, oh, my watch broke. I'm like, let me see. I can if I could lend you something. And then I'm such a hero. And listen, we have to use tricks, team, to to be close to our staff. So this is one of mine. But but we but for staff training, staff need to use their own watches and they need to get to pla from place to place to place. And and we like to say, like, leave no person behind. So if you start going saying, hey, just let you know I'm heading because that's that's what you know, that's where we need to be by this time. We also ask her leadership team members, no matter what, even if there's one or two people there and there's supposed to be 50, you start whatever you're supposed to be starting. So if it's a song, if it's a session, if it's meal time. And then afterwards, we do the the the grunt work of chatting with every single staff member that is late. And we go in with genuine curiosity. How come? What's going on? And then sometimes it's problem solving. Most of the time they're like, my bee. And then it's like, yeah. So and then we use it as an opportunity. Obviously, at can't when their cantors arrive, this can't happen. So this is our time to practice. So we're we're in mode practicing, and then we tell them when there's a time where the practice time is over. So just to get them used to using time, but it is important because we're community and the community needs to be on time, and they're the they're the timekeeper. So it's good in the practice for that. For online community Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. I I actually have a very hard time with time, everybody. So some of these tricks are made for me. The online communication piece, I think, is a really wonderful opportunity to talk to your CITs the year before if you have a CIT program and to set those expectations with them what before they come and become staff members. So we use Discord because it's free. We used to use Slack, but then you have to pay or you lose, you know, the last three months of your staff and we don't want to do that. So we're on Discord and during the CIT program, we get them on Discord before they come to camp. And we're not too precious about it. They, if they participate, great. If they don't, that's okay. But we just want them to get used to using the tool. But during the summer, we start training them and we start setting those expectations. And then when it's near the end of the summer, we have myself and Shenny, who is our HR person and she's fun and funny, but you also kind of don't want to disappoint her, which is perfect. And she sets very clear expectations. Now, do all of our returning CITs who become young staff members follow those those expectations? No. But we know that because we set them, it's a much easier conversation. So we do set timelines. You do need to check your Discord at least once a week. And then once it's two months before camp, we're expecting that you're checking it every three days. We also are very careful about not saying at everyone, every, you know, three tor three, four, five times a day. But we also do use email and that's for personal professional items, and they do have to respond to us in 48 hours. So there's a lot of training that goes on throughout the year, but I do see when we put in that elbow grease with how to use your tone, how to respond, when to respond, they're very that sort of translates back into the summer and how they're speaking and how they're responding to people. So putting a little bit of that energy throughout the the year is is super, super helpful. I would say the tone piece for me during the summertime, we've started framing it as added value. So when you're especially when you're maybe a little bit frustrated or feeling a little irritated, if you're going to talk to maybe a supervisor, what's the added value in your tone when you're speaking to a supervisor? So if I'm like, hi, I noticed that I'm on swimming and I we had had a conversation yesterday about not being on swimming and I noticed I'm unless I'm I'm you know assigned to swimming again. I'm just wondering, you know, what's going on there? That's a that's a curious that they problem-solving tone versus uh, hey, really weird. What's going on? Uh I thought it was non-swimming. And obviously this is it does that add value to the conversation? And and back to what Beth was talking about, this is not, these are all very much learned skills. And we are in the privileged position of having staff members learn with us. Anybody that works in an industry with adult adults, I like to call them, which is anybody that's like maybe 27, 28 years old and older, sometimes they develop bad behaviors or poor behaviors or poor be professional behaviors. And it's hard to shift that. With this gen, with your younger generation, they don't know much better. So you you can look at it as a fresh slate and typically I find they're quite receptive if you're talking about these things at the beginning of your session.

SPEAKER_01 23:55

Great. Thank you. And we're also the people that future employers thank for teaching their the staff how to be so professional when they arrive at the workplace for the first time. That's not summer camp. So that's very true. Thanks, Gab. Okay, I want to talk about something that can be tricky to teach at camp and that is loyalty to camp. And I want to be clear this does not mean blind loyalty. Okay. It doesn't mean never asking questions or never disagreeing or never raising concerns. That is just not healthy. What it does mean is understanding this when you accept a staff role, you are agreeing to operate inside the camp's systems, values, and safety structures. Policies and procedures aren't there because leadership hates joy. They exist because camp leaders are responsible for child safety, inclusion, emotional well-being, consistency, legal responsibility, parent trust, on and on and on. So part of professionalism is understanding that even if you would personally do something differently, you are still responsible for following camp policies and procedures. You are absolutely allowed to ask questions to seek clarity and offer your ideas. But in the moment, especially when safety or consistency is involved, your job is to follow the agreed upon systems. And this includes check-ins and checkout procedures, supervision expectations, behavior support approaches, communication policies, documentation, you know, all that kind of stuff. And one thing staff really need help understanding is the difference between feedback and undermining. So feedback would be can I ask why we do it this way or I have an idea that might help this go a little faster or a little smoother. Or can we talk about a different approach, a better approach? Undermining sounds like this rule is stupid. Leadership never knows what they're doing. Just ignore it then because it doesn't matter. So professionalism means if you disagree, you bring it up responsibly, but don't fracture trust in the meantime. That matters a lot. And now I just want to talk about judgment, discretion, and boundaries. So this is maybe the professional skill set that matters most and gets taught least. Judgment because camp is full of moments when there isn't a perfect script ever. And staff need to learn what to say, what not to say, when to escalate, what belongs in private, how to hold appropriate boundaries. So this includes things like not casually sharing confidential information about a camper or not gossiping about campers or families or oversharing your personal life with children, not joking in ways that undermine trust or discussing staff conflict where kids can hear and believe me, even if they're 15 feet away they can hear. And knowing when something needs to be brought to leadership immediately. So one line that I love that I don't remember where I heard it, but just because something feels casual does not mean it is low impact. And that is camp in a nutshell because camp can feel warm and relaxed. Then staff forget that they're in a workplace with children in a position of trust. So professionalism lives in those subtle choices. And finally I want to talk about the fact that you can be professional and still be fun. This part is really important because if we overteach professionalism in a rigid way, staff can hear don't be fun, don't be yourself, be serious all the time. And that is not what makes Camp great. Camp obviously needs personality and warmth and joy and humor, imagination and play. So somewhere in your training you need to say clearly professionalism does not mean becoming less human. It means learning when silliness serves the moment or when structure is needed or when creativity helps children thrive or when responsibility has to take the lead. So my favorite way to say that or one of them anyway is bring the fun but hold the responsibility and that's it. So you get to come to camp and be hilarious or musical or weird or theatrical or deeply creative or full of camp magic or all of those things and still be on time, responsive, safe, trustworthy and align with camp expectations. In fact, we all know that the best staff are both and that's exactly what we want. So create some scenarios that you can run through during training and get your staff to sit in groups and figure out what is needed in each situation when silliness serves the moment, when structure is needed, when creativity helps kids thrive, when responsibility has to take front and center those things need to be talked about and discussed with your staff with good examples and scenarios or skits or all of those things. How to teach it in leadership training how do you teach professionalism in a way that sticks because if you do this as a 40 minute lecture called workplace expectations everyone will emotionally disappear. So you know you want to use real scenarios don't stay abstract of course you are not using camper names or staff names from the past but what do you do if you're running late? How do you respond to a parent question you don't know? What should you write in Discord if you need help? What do you do if you disagree with a policy? Professionalism is learned through those specifics role play it have staff practice greeting parents admitting mistakes asking for help communicating lateness all of those kinds of things if they only hear it they will not own it. Show them the impact. Always connect professionalism back to children, families, teammates, trust and of course safety and you want to normalize that this is a skill. So don't teach professionalism like I have heard it taught before that you either have it or you don't teach it like skills are we're going to practice all summer and that helps staff stay open and reinforce it all season. It can't just be one training block. It has to show up in check-ins and feedback and praise and supervision and culture because what you normalize is what people learn. And of course leadership has to model all of this and this part matters a lot. So if you want staff to be professional, you have to be professional and model those same things. So you have to be on time unless of course something has come up which it often does for those in charge you have to communicate clearly follow through respond respectfully stay aligned to the camp's mission uphold policy consistently and own your mistakes because staff learn professionalism from what you normalize and not just what you say. So if professionalism matters in your camp culture, ask yourself what are we teaching through the way we lead because that's where the real work is Gabrielle I pass it back to you.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

That was awesome Beth I was just taking so many notes I have a couple of things to just add real quick. They're just sort of add away through I'd like to just chat about clothing we started I started a little bit about talking about clothing. Our our rule of thumb with with Camp Clothing is it has to pass the smell test. Does it smell all right? It has to pass the visual does it look clean so is there like a mustard stain on there if there isn't great if there is needs to go in the wash. And then lastly can you can you play like get down on all fours and like roll around and play without anything sort of popping out or visually not being inappropriate for children because we're there for kids. So the so and that you're not afraid to get this these clothes clothes dirty because that's what we're there for. So that's sort of like a guide and I know that some people have different smell scents and they're it's just neutral. It just needs to smell neutral. Better is great but BO is not so helping our staff understand that is is important. And they are young so you know and they're all also going through some body changes. So you know give them a break but also set those expectations. Provide all of your staff members with notebooks. Beth talked about when families ask questions, we want to take them seriously and a really great way of taking somebody seriously is taking up the notebook when somebody has a question, writing down that question and then teaching your staff members to say when or who they're going to be passing that message on to staff members might not even know when we're going to be getting back to them but by saying I'm going to be passing this message on to Jackie or Shanny they they're all taught not to pass on a message to me. They will not remember but I'm a really here and the now type person. So we all know this. So so anyways who can who can they talk to or I am going to make sure this person's going to talk to you and teach your staff that but that that notebook goes a long way and plus staff members love getting little treats. So having a little cute notebook is wonderful. I don't know one year the dollar store had like notebooks with little hoodies and Jackie went to three dollar stores to get like eight mini hoodie notebooks. And she and of course like during a meal she put it on all the plates during staff meeting and the staff went nuts. So I'm just saying it's a win-win for everyone. And then lastly I use a we use an acronym that I've shared on the podcast before but we're say sharing again staff members can get a little bit nervous when they're meeting families for the first time or chit chatting. I know I do I'm not a great small talk type of person. So our our acronym is ASK. So ask them something about their trip or ask them something about them you know themselves S is for share. Share something about camp and or show them something at camp and then the K is like did you know like did you know we have pizza tonight? So and just use that as a loop. And so that helps staff members that are a little bit nervous about share about small talk. So just having a couple of these little items really helps. The last thing I would say I have a CIT this just came to me when you were talking Beth and sort of was in something that you said inspired this memory. I this poor 16 year old we our our staff members our CITs help cars get parked at camp when there's an arrival day or visitors day. They don't physically get in the cars they just point to where there's a and it's a honestly it's a great system. I'm like very proud of our system but some some people forget that our staff members are younger they forget that our our our CITs are 16 years old. And one of my CITs who then became a a leadership team member she was great uh uh a father yelled at her angrily at something that was ridiculous he she asked him to wait because another car was going by so she was doing what she was told and she was very frustrated and she she grabbed a green tape and she grabbed a sharpie and she put hashtag still learning and put it across the top of her hat. And so she she was like I don't know if this is appropriate but I want to keep it here and I was like no I love that it's great. It inspired us to put future staff members on their shirts just to help parents understand that these these are little youngins. And I think that it's it's important for us to understand that when staff members are being perhaps not as professional as we want them to be, most of the time it's not because they're doing it to you or that they know better. It's because they actually don't they they have not learned this is one of the first jobs that has a really big responsibility and they don't understand the consequences of their actions and we're there to guide them. So it it is I I uh I asked her she gave me that piece of tape but I still have it up in my office and it helps me remind myself that I'm working with the most the majority of my staff members are hashtag still learning. So so I just wanted to one of the things you said Beth remind me of of of Alex my feisty little Alex I love that thank you for sharing that now it is time for your favorite thing. Recap recap recap I got lost in the conversation I learned by not the like tossed them aside I was like we're recap recap as usual we must be looking at mission because we want to anchor what is important, what is valuable at the heart of everything that we do. We don't want roles just to be there for rules. We don't want our staff members to fear us. We want them to do actions that are for the greater good of our community their teammates the campers and of course our reputation so we're going to be teaching them life lessons and we have to anchor that in something that they care about. And of course that is summer camp. Now specific is terrific that is a Michael brand wine and with all the wonderful things that Beth said you have to add in the why you can't just say hey respond to emails there's way more that goes into that how much time what's the tone can you just share a little emoji that's what we have our staff do when we want them to read something they read it they put a little emoji whatever it may be please specific is terrific. Now when we're doing all of that just before camp when they arrived in camp there's a couple of things that we want to integrate within our training program that helps them understand that this is a real job. Why not celebrate? Give them a sticker says hashtag I got a real job. Talk about all the people at home that think that this is not a real job and then say what is the actual responsibilities you're going to see their mind shift real quick. And then we can say these are the type of things that show other people what is important when it comes to camp such as most importantly that I heard Beth talk about is safety, communication, time management, the clothing that you're going to be wearing together with your staff members, figure out what is professional for you make sure that it's nice and clear, reinforce it by teaching your leadership team members how to do so and just remember hashtag they're still learning and so are you.

SPEAKER_01 38:08

Perfect recap as always. Thank you there you all right this is how you can get involved. So you can tell us any topics you would like us to discuss. And today's topic actually came from one of our listeners who wrote in and asked if we would do a topic on professionalism. So thank you so much for that. We're very grateful. We'd also like to hear any guests you recommend we have on the show next season and any great leadership training tips that you have to share we would love to hear from you. All right Gabrielle how can they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yes so you can check out where I work at war.com. You can also get in touch with me at info at war.com and Warospelled O U A R E A U.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Thank you. You can find out more about GoCampro at gocamp.pro or email me directly at Beth at gocamp.pro or I'm on threads at topaz underscore fay f a e. And our next podcast podcast is going to be teach them how to recover. So building a staff culture where mistakes become growth. So we've often talked about making sure that it's okay to make mistakes but how do we move them to the next bit of it? We'll be talking about that next. And this week's best practice is coming from Gabrielle.

SPEAKER_02 39:24

Yay this is actually kind of a kind of a camp hacker tool of the week slash best practice but mine is the Ontel battery carrier. So basically it's a carrier that that you can put ever almost every sort of battery that that you need at camp in one little case as well as it has a a little gauge that can tell you if the batteries are dead or you know still still thriving. It the official the official name for it is a battery daddy. And I was like Matt I'm gonna laugh when I say it but I eat I don't know why but the battery daddy is like one of the best things we bought at camp. I bought one and now we have three of course in the past we've always had a place for our batteries and it was behind a lock and key but this was really great to share with our maintenance team I had one our healthcare had one and it just made our lives so much easier. Also side hack for a little camper care note I had a camper that was missing home and then she tested almost all the batteries for me while I was you know chatting with the parents on the phone and it was great. So the battery daddy can find it almost anywhere Canadian tire in the US I would say Amazon but we'll share it in the links in our show notes. But if you're looking for a present for your maintenance team, they're gonna love it.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

Thanks Gab. All right if I were wrapping this up in a leadership training room full of staff I would say something like this we hired you because we believe you can do something really important. This job is joyful and playful and meaningful but it is also real. Children are relying on you families are trusting you your team needs you camp needs you. Professionalism at camp does not mean being stiff or perfect it means being someone others can count on. It means communicating well showing up fully following through making thoughtful choices and honoring the responsibilities that come with this role. We want your creativity we want your warmth we want your fun but we also need your reliability your judgment and your care the best camp staff are not just memorable they're trustworthy and that is one of the most important things that you can become at camp. That is really what this is about not polishing young people for appearances but helping them become more dependable thoughtful trustworthy and more worthy of the responsibility that they've been given. And honestly that is leadership development that is life development and it's about what camp is doing best. So thank you for listening to Camp Code. If this episode sparked ideas for your staff training share it with another camp leader who's thinking about how to better prepare their team. And if you try any of these activities with your staff this year, we'd love to hear how they go because the goal isn't perfection. As we say all the time, it's counselors and staff who are thoughtful, observant and ready to respond when real camp life happens. Camp Code is part of the GoCamp Pro Podcast Network and you can check out all of our other podcasts at gocamp.propodcasts thanks for joining us today and until next time here's to building camps where staff feel confident supported and ready for the moments that matter most thanks for the listening friends.

SPEAKER_00 42:38

Please remember no other industry shares their best practices the way summer camps do. If you use an idea you heard on a GoCamp Pro podcast please be professional and remember to give credit where credit is due. The Camp Code is brought to you by GoCamp Pro.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

Thanks for listening friends Camp Hacker bringing your world into focus