Podcast Day Camp

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/camper-refunds-2023 Parents are the most important partnership a camp can have. But how do we balance the financial needs of our camp and our parents when it comes to deposits and refunds? As we head into the camp season, we’ve got plenty of parents hitting us up with refund request…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/staff-training-2023 As you gear up for another year of staff training, tune in for some expert advice from the experts, Roz and Jed! It’s just about time to get our staff together, get them energized, and get them trained up as much as we can for the arrival of our campers. Who bett…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/variety-show Staff training is on the minds of camp pros nationwide. Dave and Dave are here to share their two cents on the hottest topics of the year! At the past ACA National Conference in February, I had the pleasure of experiencing both Dave Malter and David Phillips both in ses…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/boss-convos Even if you’ve known your boss for years, interacting with them can still be nerve-wracking! Dan is here today to share his experience navigating this tricky power dynamic. Managing up, quiet quitting - most people have a pretty dysfunctional relationship with their supe…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/genz-hacks Staffing emergencies call for emergency podcasts! Are we really in a “hiring crisis,” or do we just need to change the hiring process? Justin is back to share the inside scoop on how to appeal to Gen Z applicants. I just got back from Tri-State, where I’ve been attending …

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/public-relations-2023 Sometimes building public relations requires a bit of creativity, or at least some planning ahead. Tune in to hear Michael’s tips and tricks! Delivering a great summer camp program is paramount to the success of our camps. But what often gets overlooked is the …

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/best-inclusion-practices “No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.” – Mahatma Gandhi. Let’s work together to make sure all children get the camp experience they deserve. Inclusion for our campers with disabilities is one of the biggest topics in all of camping. Our annua…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mentoring-and-developmental-support Investing in your staff is investing in success! Our friends from e21 are here to tell us more. I don’t know about you, but when it comes time for my middle management to sit down with the front line staff for formal evaluations, I get very nervou…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/training-new-leadership Even with the pandemic in the rearview mirror, camps are struggling to find staff with experience. Leadership training will be more important than ever this year, so be sure to tune in to hear some advice from the legendary Michael Brandwein! Hey there Day Ca…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/scott-arizala Scott is no longer the “cool young buck” of the camp industry. Tune in to hear about the lessons learned from his years of experience! Scott Arizala is one of the greatest staff trainers that I’ve ever learned from. He’s a master teacher, able to translate big concepts…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/maximizing-use-of-facility How can you pivot your traditional Day Camp program and facility to help with year-round revenue? Andy and H are here to tell you how! COVID-19 forced us to be more creative than we’ve ever been before. From program to staffing to facilities, we re-writ th…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/day-camp-trends Joanna has assessed and consulted over 500 camps… ya, you won’t want to miss this one! There are a lot of Camp Consultants out there, helping nice, well-meaning, camp operators get their act together, and run their camps like businesses, and Joanna Warren Smith is on…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/incentivizing-staff Front-line workers have certainly felt the pressure these past couple of years. Tune in to hear Ross and Adam’s tips on encouraging staff to keep coming back! Once upon a time, there were day camp staff that worked the full season, full days, and missing time was…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/young-thoughts-with-justin There is LOTS to learn from our up-and-coming youth! Justin is back to share some key insights of the corporate world from the Gen Z point of view. Two of our most popular podcasts last year involved the perspectives of the opinionated young man, Justin Pr…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/learn-from-corporate-america Corporate practices are just as applicable to camps. Tune in to hear Mario’s top three! Camp is a warm fuzzy place. AND it’s a business. And our friend Jonathan Gold likes to remind us, we have to run a good business FIRST, in order to do the good things…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/burnout-episode Burnout. We’ve all been there. Some may say it is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to be that way! Are you a typical Day Camp operator that works so hard that you forget to smell the roses? You put your Camp first and you second? Didn’t the pandemic teach you that GRI…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/registrations-and-refunds The world is in an economic crisis. How are Camp Pros supposed to respond to it? As Day Camps continue to rebound from the pandemic, inflation is hitting hard and we just can’t raise prices as much as our costs are increasing- So what then? Well, we can loo…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/debriefing-and-decompressing Summer 2022: A summer of lesson, laughs, and learning opportunities. Summer 2022 is in the books- Woo-Hoo, Congratulations. And by all accounts, it was a helluva lot better than 2021, which ain’t saying much. After a more normal school year, our campers …

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/including-non-neurotypical-campers Every child deserves a camp experience. Period. Allison Krabill and Sam sit down to tell you how to help non-neurotypical campers have a successful camp experience. We’re grateful to welcome The Summer Camp Society’s new executive director, Allison…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/staff-not-coming-back Justin Pritikin returns to give you an inside scoop on why your staff are not coming back, quitting and in general, “done” with the camp industry. Picking up from our past episode 66, and the Tri-State Camp Conference Session that he and I gave last week in Atl…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/staff-holding-hostage A proactive approach to working with this post-COVID generation of staff This past summer was intense, especially in the realm of managing our staff who have been through a lot in the past two years. Managing staff resistance is something that comes with the jo…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/equity-in-camp Staff training is the opportunity to show how important DEIJ is at your org. Daniel Morias and Leslie Keller are two awesome camp professionals who over the pandemic started the Equity in Camp Initiative- and have launched a successful consulting business supporting c…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/day-camp-office-admin Keeping the Trains Running on Time! The Day Camp Office is the nucleus of the organization during the off-season and during the summer. Filled with multitaskers, databases, spreadsheets, phones, Emails, texts, push notifications, weather reports- and as technol…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/purchasing-2022 Don’t say we didn’t tell you so! We’ve all heard the news- The shipping containers stranded outside Los Angeles, the supply chain issues, the lack of truck drivers, the lack of workers everywhere - THIS IS NOT FAKE NEWS - this is Purchasing 2022, and if you want cups…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/living-your-core-values You say you’re an “inclusive camp”…but are you living that every day? DEI! We can’t talk about it enough, because frankly - it’s THAT important. We’re fortunate to be joined this week by Danny Tobin, who has experienced camp, and life, from unique perspective…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/appreciating-staff-brandwein It’s your friend from Chicago…Michael Brandwein! We all want our staff to be professional, and we all want to support them. Great. We also want the pandemic to go away, voting rights, and peace in the middle east… These situations are HARD, and take crea…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/from-the-mouth-of-babes Have you asked your camp staff what their summer was really like? Andy and Sam did - and we found out their staff are incredibly honest. For our first podcast of 2022, we’re going to the source- the staff themselves- so you can hear their debrief of last summ…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/2021-resolutions Here’s how our hosts are (and you can) set yourself up for success in 2022! 2021 has come to a close, and Sam, Tiff and Andy have some New Year’s resolutions to make 2022 the best it can be for our camp, and especially our staff. SUPPORT, training, diversifying reve…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/extreme-heat-2021 The heat is ON! Here’s how to not just survive, but thrive when the weather is at it’s hottest! 2021 was literally the HOTTEST SUMMER OF ALL TIME. The heat is on, people, global warming is real, and it ain’t getting any cooler. We need to do what we can as camp ope…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/dream-big-cannabis Mary Stein is here to tell us how she dreamed big…and how she was one of the first camps to face marijuana legalization at camp! Mary Stein started a private day camp from scratch in a neighborhood that at first didn’t realize how primed for it, it was. Dream BIG …

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/sleepaway-spirit-4 An annual tradition of ours…where we talk about…traditions (and other great stuff!) Every season on this podcast, we discuss the “secret sauce” of camp- with a couple of crossover day camp pros, who have special insight. Today, we welcome Dave Skolnik from Hampton…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/staffing-and-reorg What to do when it feels like you need to rethink EVERYTHING? Summer 2022 is the time. What more of a kick in the butt do you need? Staff need to be paid equitably, programs need to be rethought, value-added means something totally different nowadays and we need t…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/camps-at-school School’s out. Camp’s in! You can run a great camp program ANYWHERE! If you’ve got the right people, a solid program and a can-do attitude, you’re in. Running a day camp in a school setting, but it definitely also has some major advantages! For millions of kids across…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/2022-staffing-pt1 Was staffing a slog in 2021? We have a cheat code for 2022 - her name is Kim Aycock Kim Aycock dedicates her life to the ins and outs of camp staffing- Recruitment, Hiring, Retention- All-round Best Practices. She trains camp staff, she posts great content on socia…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/multicultural-camp-dcp Just because your marketing materials say you are multicultural, or diverse, doesn’t mean you are. Here’s how Kevin Gordon did it, and how you can, too. Kevin Gordon is a camp owner and director who started Camp Kupugani from scratch, as a multicultural camp e…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/summer-2021-debrief We’re on the other side of the Summer of 2021 - Let’s unpack it together. How are you? After a first, or second COVID-summer, many Day Camp Pros are only now coming out of hibernation. It was, to say the least, a tough summer. But have no fear, the Day Camp Pod i…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/2021-mental-health The perfect, and most important way to wrap up our season together - Thanks for being a friend of camps everywhere Dr. G! 2020 and 2021 have been quite a shock to our camp community. The clinically inclined would call it trauma. Same as a 9/11, a war, or other exp…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mini-not-for-profit-like-for Welcome to the meshugganah motivator himself, Aaron Greenberg! The not-for-profit camping world has had it tough this past year, with nervous funders, shoe-string budgets, furloughed staff and such. But not as much so with the Jewish Camps that work with…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/supporting-trans-campers-staff We can’t keep doing things the way we’ve been doing them if our goal is to keep all of the campers in our care safe. Welcome, Chris Rehs-Dupin! Day Camps have gone through all kinds of changes through the years. In the 1950s and 60s - the talk was prob…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mini-games-games Curt “Moose” Jackson is with Sam to share his best games and best gaming practices. This mini-pod is all about games! Games are the bread and butter of a great camp staff member and you can never have too many favourites. We’re grateful for Curt to join us on this e…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/circle-taco Using circles (…and tacos?) to help our campers be their best this summer. Welcome, Emily Golinsky! Most Day Camps fancy themselves masters in the art of Circle Time, but we doubt that most look at it as an act of restorative justice. To quote a golden Bob Ditter metapho…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mini-camp-training-dave-malter Welcome back to the Podcast, Dave Malter! Andy and the great Professor Dave Malter are here to talk about the complexities that will go into training staff to serve kids that have been living in a pandemic for a WHOLE YEAR now. It’s going to be a diffe…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/frank-brandwein Welcome back, Michael Brandwein! Like a day camp guardian angel, Michael Brandwein has been bestowing wisdom upon us for longer than many of our listeners may roam this earth- How does that make you feel, Michael? The defending champion of Day Camp Pod guests returns…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mini-camp-activities SPONSORED CONTENT - Thanks to Camptivities for their support! Day Camp schedules come in all ways shapes and forms, but most of us have the same goals- to create a wide-ranging and engaging program that kids can enjoy and learn from. Set activities, electives, s…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/liquid-sunshine It’s time to learn to dance in the rain, folks! At day camp we don’t have rainy days, we have Liquid Sunshine, and it’s not raining until we say it is. My brother lives in Seattle, where it rains almost every day, and nobody complains. As we camp directors like to sa…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mini-advocacy-gold Welcome back, Jonathan Gold! Review us on iTunes! Please help us welcome back the man, the myth, the legend, Jonathan Gold to this Day Camp Mini-Pod! Tune in to hear more about: WHY Government advocacy- It’s like an insurance policy- and it’s also a bit pricey. Fo…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/you-can-do-it A Love Letter for Camps Considering Running in 2021 - from Go Camp Pro Review us on iTunes! If you’re able to run camp this summer, we want to make sure you know you can do it. This special Go Camp Pro Podcast is for camps out there who are on the fence about running t…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mike-stillson Meet Mike Stillson - A True Day Camp Maverick! Review us on iTunes! The Camp Industry has some great leaders. We've interviewed a bunch of them, and we’ve got another one for you. Mike Stillson showed tremendous leadership in guiding his organization to open last summe…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/mini-marcy-brower A spotlight on a wonderful woman in camping, Marcy Brower Review us on iTunes! There are some amazing people who blaze a trail for change; Marcy and Bob founded and operated Circle M Day Camp in Wheeling Illinois for 45 years, one of the first private camps to hire…

Find full show notes and links at: https://gocamp.pro/day-camp-pod/parks-and-rec-pod The ins and outs of one of the largest groups of day camp providers, Parks & Rec departments! Review us on iTunes! Municipal Parks and Rec. programs might have more day campers across North America each summer than all the private camps in the United States combine…