Summer camp jobs - a place to grow!

Welcome everyone to my blog. Running a residential camp (Maine Arts Camp), as well as MySummers (a staffing site) and Camp Finders (a summer camp referral service), I have gained a unique perspective about sleepaway camps. I first attended camp in 1970 in Maine; I'm still at camp and love it!



Rick Mades

Monday, January 18, 2010

Bullying at camp

One thing that we emphasize at Maine Arts Camp is an emphasis on creating an inclusive community where children and staff are accepted for who they are. We work hard on discouraging bullying and cliques. Chris Thurber is a camp professional who is at many camping conferences running educational sessions. He is one of my favorites as I learn a lot and he is entertaining at the same time. It must come from all of his years as a camp counselor and leader! I just read an article that Chris wrote about bullying at camp. Chris is right that camp is a place where bullying can be used as an educational tool to help campers grow. Modeling positive behavior from staff and staff complimenting campers on proper behavior is a start. As camp directors, we hope that campers have a positive growth experience at camp and that includes all campers. Sometimes we are not equipped to deal with behaviors that are consistently hurtful (physically or emotionally) to other campers, but most of the time we can work with the campers and help them become more empathetic and caring. Chris brought up one fact that was especially pertinent, that most bullies have been bullied. If we keep that in mind, it will help us as camp directors and camp counselors to find a way to relate better to our campers and what they're going through in their lives.

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

Saturday, January 9, 2010

Reference checks, interviews

We are in the busy time of the year for interviews of staff applicants. Along with the interviews, and very important, are the reference checks. I was just on the phone with a couple of references for a guy that we interviewed on Thursday. The interview went well. He was personable, caring, thoughtful and probably will become a good teacher upon graduating college. The first reference I talked to was an important one as the applicant had worked for two weeks last summer at a day camp. One thing the camp director said was that the applicant took directions well and doesn't take those directions personally. I asked her about this and she has had staff in the past who takes directions, constructive criticism and more personally. Haven't we all seen this at camp? It is almost human nature to take things personally to some extent. Although we have questions during the interview which address constructive criticism, it is always better to hear from an employer how an applicant actually reacts to constructive criticism. Hiring strong camp staff takes a good set of questions, strong listening skills during the interview and in talking to references, and a bit of luck. Parents often ask whether we do background checks, which we do, but such checks don't tell us anything about most applicants since 90% of the checks come up with completely clean records. Good luck to everyone with camper enrollment and staffing!

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