Staff retention

I'm on the e-mail list for a blog by Steve Maguire. Steve is a dynamic speaker that I met last February at a camping conference. After reading his last blog, I started to be more proactive with staff from last summer. Thinking she wasn't going to be asked back, one of our staff who we would like back had already started to apply to other camps. We only gave her positive feedback over the past two summers, so that was a surprise. We needed to contact her earlier, probably in October sometime. After contacting the returning staff we want back, I already have a good idea about what areas we need to start addressing. We have moved our camp from Bethel, Maine to Unity College, in Unity, Maine. It is a very exciting time as the communities around Unity, especially Belfast, seem to be very artsy & full of creative and talented teachers. We need to transfer that message to parents and staff, to get them ready for a new adventure this summer. Within the week, I'll follow several of Steve's suggestions, including either listing returning staff at our Facebook page or e-mailing staff directly about summer 2010. He has many other great suggestions, including getting their input about camp (we have done this by phone over the past few weeks and by evaluation forms at the end of the summer), thinking about ways returning staff can take on new responsibilities and leadership roles, and getting out summer 2010 agreements in the past few weeks. Here is the full article from Steve's blog. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Rick Mades
owner of Camp Finders and MySummers
owner/director of Maine Arts Camp