The Training Table

A guide to staff training week. The orientation connection.

By Jeffrey Merhige

Here’s the situation... You usually have about seven days before the children arrive. There is a room full of strangers and usually about half or more have never been summer counselors before.

All of the parents of the future campers are expecting a safe, fun and educational summer. What do you do? Train them!

24-7
Seven days is the usual amount of time summer camps try and train their teams. As a summer camp director or program director it is your responsibility to get them ready for the eight or nine weeks to follow.

It is a daunting challenge and it’s different for everyone because of the differences in all camps. These differences must be taken into account when you create your own staff-training week. Here’s a road map that you can modify for your own unique situation...

Here in Ann Arbor we have a staff at our residential camp of about 55; this does not include the 25 additional CIT we have in our counselor development program.

Camp Al-Gon-Quian is a small to medium size traditional camp program with 180 children each week, and the program week runs from Saturday to Saturday. When we create each year’s staff training week we base it on a Saturday-to-Saturday training schedule.

Resemble Your Week
It is important to acclimate your staff to what their summer day will be. When you create staff week base the meal times the same as you would during regular camp.

To increase the effectiveness of getting staff ready for what is to come base the days training as close to a regular day of bells and class times.

Make sure your staff starts getting up when they will be expected to arise during camp. Start that early morning bell as soon as possible!

If your camp has class periods during the day for the campers then try and have your lectures and subject matters during training fit the times.

Lastly, make sure you end all lectures in the evening at the same time you would end camper program. Don’t make it harder for your staff to keep the expected pace by not giving them a chance to get used to it without campers.

Work Projects
There are different thoughts on how much you should use the new team to set up camp and get it ready. Here in Ann Arbor we are big believers in work projects. It gives the staff the quickest feeling of ownership and a feeling of home.

Also, you get a great sense of people’s work ethic and commitment to projects. The weakest link will show signs during staff training and it will give the program team a chance to correct the situation before it becomes a future problem. The danger in work projects is how much and what type of work you should give the staff.

At Al-Gon-Quian the traditional staff large project is installing the dock system. It usually takes the entire staff two days. The water is freezing, the dock is in 45 pieces, there is a 25’ x 25’ platform to be constructed and a tower which stands 12’ on the platform to be placed.

It is the worst job in the world, but by the end of putting it in the staff has a sense of accomplishment, stories to tell, and also a shared experience that is looked back on each summer as one of their best and worst times. Everyone participates in the project (even the camp director).

We also have smaller projects...

1. Getting your cabin ready for the summer. All staff is assigned to their cabin as soon as possible so they have a week to nest and take ownership of their area.

2. Getting the activity areas ready for campers, and...

3. Cleaning up the common area buildings and miscellaneous areas.

Make sure whatever work projects you use in your training are those that the staff can accomplish on time and are achievable. Set your team up for success.

Important Subjects
Make sure that you cover the basics of camping. Plan lectures on the following subjects:

• Child abuse recognition and procedures

• Blood pathogens training

• First aid and CPR training

• Camp tours and emergency procedures training

• Discipline practices that a counselor is allowed to perform

• Recognition of eating habits

• Bed wetting procedures

• Homesickness

• Rainy day activity ideas

• Cabin time ideas

• Group games training and lastly, and very important!

• Song training!

These are areas that need to receive time during staff training. Make sure that you give them the time that they need and are performed by different people in your program team.

It is important while covering these subjects that you keep having different members of your team deliver the subject matter. It sets them up of success and starts the process of them gaining the staff trust and respect.

Program Team
The program team refers to the director, program director, health officer, assistant camp director, leadership director, kitchen manager, office manager, head male and female counselors and the waterfront director. These people make up our Camp al-Gon-Quian Program Team.

Whatever program teams a camp may have make sure they are built into the staff training as facilitators. Help to establish their authority and give them experience working with their counselors.

Do not allow yourself as the director or program director to facilitate each and every training session! It weakens your other positions on the program team, not to mention the staff will get tired of you running the entire show and giving every lecture.

Break up the lecture material and have each one explain their areas and what they do.

Fun!

Make staff training safe, fun and educational! That’s what we do for the campers! Why not for the staff?

Have a talent show at the end of the week, and make sure song training is done everyday! It gets them laughing at the beginning of each day and laughing right before they turn in for the night.

“A laugh at the beginning and ending of each day,” is an excellent philosophy for staff training.

Also, give the staff a chance to hang out. We give our team a male staff and female staff night out and then we release the entire staff early on the last day.

Have a rest hour each day so staff can relax and do what they want.

Play games! It is essential that you play games with these people. They learn a game to play with children and they remember the fun that they had with the other staff. And, as the camp director, play the games with them. You are the authority figure, but you also need to be approachable.

Organize
How do you do it? All of this subject matter! All of these things to get done, including fun activities – it seems impossible.

Try writing down all of the important areas you want to cover for your camp. Include the subject matter and the time you would want to give each subject (off the top of your head). Also include fun activities, work projects and meal times. Lastly, include time off and hang-out time.

Now, take you list and if you have access to a computer bring up an Excel spreadsheet. Down one column list times of the day from beginning to end in 15 or 30 minute intervals. Across the top place the days of the week. Now fill in your meal times first and begin inserting your list.

The flexibility will come as you rearrange things and combine subject matter into the same time slot to be accomplished.

If you do not have a computer take the same idea using a legal pad of paper. Use one sheet for each day of the week and pin it up on a wall for you to see all spread out (use pencil at first!). We have used this method for years and it has given us the ability to stay organized and flexible.

Good luck with creating your staff-training week and with the rest of the -summer!

Jeff Merhige is the director of camping services for the Ann Arbor YMCA – Camp Al-Gon-Quian.