Day Camp Question

[Twocubdad]

I'll try to dig out the official job description for you. I teach day camp administration at National Camp School and just received this year's materials. With the holidys, it may take me a while to get in to it all.

 

At camp school you will be cross trained to serve as either camp director or program director -- it's the same training and certification for both positions. Generally, the CD is concerned with administrative stuff and the PD, obviously, handles the program stuff.

 

Because both of you are cross-trained, that means that you have the ability to craft a division of labor between the two of you that suits your abilities and interests. Although I was officially camp director, I always enjoyed developing the theme and activities so I was really more functionally the program director.

 

The important thing is that you work with your other director to make sure things run well.

[ghermanno]

S'mom,

 

Okay, the District picked the theme. Now you need to create a Program around it. Catapults, archery,....

 

The outstandding Program Directors are the ones that "enlarge" the theme. Get someone from the library or good orator to read a story during a lunch period about knights or soemthing from the period, get the local SCA inolved to teach the "real" period of chivalry. Maybe get a Renn group to do a mock sword-training in costume.

 

There are a lot of things that can be done. Our Friday closer (after picnic dinner) was to launch eggs from catapults to see if they would survive (they can use egg cartons or Leggs cartons for shells) the launch. All participate and all are winners.

 

Good luck. Schedule completely. Get CD approval of schedule and crafts (the CD runs the budget). Also, athough you will probably try to sell the camp to others (because of belief in camp and desire to do a good job) the job of advertising/fund raising is the CD not the PD.

 

Rick

[Twocubdad]

Found it. This is from the Cub Scout Day Camp Administrative Guide, page 29. You'll get a copy of this in you registration materials for camp school

Day Camp Director

The day camp director is the volunteer or professional on site conducting the Cub Scout day camp. The day camp director shall be a man or woman 21 years of age or older of well-known good character and ability. In additional to being certified at national Camping School for administration or management, the day camp director shall:

 

Be responsible to the day camp administrator Supervise the personnel and operating details of the day camp

Recurit, interview and train day camp personnel

Conduct, in cooperation with the program director, a camp staff training course befor the opening of camp to familiarize the staff with the day camp program

See that standards for leadership, program activities and health and safety are maintained

Be a freelance person at the day camp

Always have a "Plan B" Possess and display a maximum of the day camp director qualities shown on page 31

Evaluate

Program Director

The program director is the volunteer or professional on site responsible for the Cub Scout day camp program. They plan the program with the help of the area directors or session directors. The program director shall be a man or woman 21 years of age or older of well-known good character and ability. In addition to being currently certified at National Camping School, day camp program or the program director shall:

 

Be responsible to the camp director

Promote day camp attendance at roundtables, pack meetings and activities

Help unit leaders plan and carry out a successful day camp through the use of personal coaching, training and program aides

Help the camp director conduct a camp staff training activity

Train and supervise a group of program aides to help unit leaders

Evaluate

[John-in-KC]

Lots of good comments here. I'm going to ask some questions, so we can see how big the elephant is... before we start taking "one bite at a time" on it.

 

How many Cub Packs in your District? How many attended the past 3 years?

 

What was gross attendance for same last three years?

 

Those two numbers matter because one of your first decisions is to block units into manageable groups for the various stations. Our District uses a working number of 40 youth to a station as a max. Part of that is some facilities (ranges, cooking, and wood project) simply will not support more than 40 youth at a time.

 

Do you have folks lined up to run the (up to) 3 shooting sports usually operated (BB guns, archery, slingshots)? Qualified folk here are a must! Kids love shooting sports.

 

Do you have a pool or lakefront (qualified flat water) for swimming or canoeing? Again, specially qualified folk are a must-have to actually run these areas.

 

Here's the neat part of program development: Anything you do, just about, can be brought under the theme of Knights of the Round Table! Your area heads and staff can angle many of their theatrics to the theme...

 

As far as staff goes, have you thought about tapping into not only Cub Scouters, but also older (14-15) year old Boy Scouts? Scouts can provide a source of staff for many activities at Day Camp, and free staff T-shirts and a lunch or two go a long way in compensating them. Of course, telling the good ones you are willing to be a reference when they go for real, paid jobs is also a help

 

Have fun, and keep remembering KISMIF!

[shortridge]

40 kids at a single station? Wow!

 

The camps I've staffed have split kids up into dens or packs, with an average of about 15 kids. They can combine with other groups for larger activities - the pool will support a couple groups at the same time, for example. But there are only so many practice ropes to go around for knot-tying, say, and nature hikes aren't manageable with giant groups, so those are only scheduled one group at a time.

 

Another general consideration is that a lot of what you can plan depends on the facilities you have available. If it's at a council camp, you'll have a lot of the infrastructure ready to go and be able to adapt the area pretty freely. If it's at a rented space - a state park or a community college campus, for example - you'll have much less flexibility.

[Eagle92]

40 kids to a station, I wish. last year we only had 32 in attendance total.

[SctDad]

Eagle92

 

Are you talking about the one in the beginning of November. I know that the one a few weeks ago was pretty slim on the attendance too. But I did not think it was that low.

 

I have talked with the steak thief about some new BB Guns. He has also asked me for suggestions for a possible program.

[Eagle92]

No I'm talking the week long daycamp in the summer. There were only 32 registered. And that is an all time high if I remember correctly. I remember when I first got here in '98, there were only 12 registered. I was not involved as I was assigned summer camp duties, but that number blew my mind. I'm use to 120+ cub daycamps from my youth.

 

I emailed the steak stealer about whether the CS on Demand program is incouncil only or if out of council packs can take advantage.

 

 

[Twocubdad]

I suppose the real answer here is that this is all stuff you will learn at camp school. I wouldn't sweat the details too much until you get trained and have a better understanding of the program and your job responsibilities.

 

I do, however, think you need to have a heart-to-heart with your DE regarding your concerns about the camp program and camp director. If your little voice is telling you to tread lightly, you need to listen. Unfortunately, there are a lot of folks out there -- in BSA and out -- who aren't particularly interested in change. They've found their comfort zone and are happy where they are.

 

If your DE is worth his or her salt, he or she will understand that enthusiasm is the #1 qualification for running day camp. It may well be that the DE sees the same problems you do and is looking for someone with your enthusiasm to shake things up. But if that's not the case, you need to understand the politics and where the thorns are.

 

Whatever the situation, it sounds to me like you will be a great addition to the day camp. Program director is by far the best job to have. You get to do all the fun stuff and let the camp director handle all the administrative headaches. And camp school is a blast! Have fun!

[speeglevillemom]

Thanks for all of the advice. After talking to some people who have been up at the district office for awhile I better understand what has gone wrong with our camp. Last year it seems the program director refused late registration so a bunch of scouts didn't get to go. My jaw hit the floor. How could anyone tell a little boy no he couldn't go to camp? The CD is awsome and really into camp she just got over shadowed last year by the pd which I thought was interesting. I think we will work well together and make this program outstanding. I am so excited and ready to hit the ground running.

[ScoutNut]

Accepting late registrations can be a double edged sword.

 

Yes, you do not want to turn away kids.

 

But how do you plan when you have no idea how many to plan for?

 

You have enough supplies for games, crafts, and food for 100 campers. Great! What do you do when you have boys sign up right before camp and end up with 150?

 

You have to see if you can come up with additional supplies, often blowing the camp budget out of the water in the process. Then you have to re-work all of the groups, making them bigger. Or add an extra group, and then have to re-work the entire camp schedule.

 

You start planning NOW for summer camp, and you MUST have some idea of the number of campers to plan for. We look at what our camp numbers have been for the last few years and then pad it a bit. We have a registration end date, and that is what we publish, and push. At the end of registration, we look at the numbers to see how close we are. If we still have supplies for more campers, we will take late registrations. Usually this is not a problem. However - We do NOT announce that we will take late registrations. If we did no one would register on time, and we would be up a creek!

[diogenes]

Do you know which unit was turned away last year? I'd give them a call now, explain that you're the new pd, and ask if they plan to attend this year so you can get a rough count of how many will show up. You can even include a gentle reminder about the need to register on time, even though you just contacted them. A bit of extra work, but you can probably soothe any sore feelings from last year and boost attendance for this year and future cub camps. Otherwise, you (they) may have lost this unit for a while, if not permanently.

 

Heck, calling all the units in your area might be a good investment in the personal touch. There may be other units that don't attend due to past problems. Its amazing how many groups don't attend certain functions because of "something that happened in the past" which may be years or decades old.

[speeglevillemom]

My plan is to get dressed in costume and hit every pack meeting in Jan and Feb. I want the kids to be so excited that they beg their leaders and parents to get them signed up. Plus I figure it will get the adults interested in checking out the changes to camp. My thought is the more excited I seem the more buzz and excitement it will generate. Plus it would be fun to dress like a princess for a few months.

 

As for late registration... to me there is no acceptable reason to turn away kids months in advance considering they only gave them two weeks to get it in in the first place. Last year there was a lot wrong with camp and I am not the only one with a bad taste in my mouth. All it would have taken is a simple phone call to see if a pack was going to attend and there was a problem with paperwork or not to get a general number of attendies. The pd last year didn't feel it necissary to advertise the camp so noone was prepared. There was a lot of miscommunication between cd and pd last year that I think will not happen in the future. Atleast I am going to try to keep everyone on the same page.

 

Question about food.... how many day camps provide the food? I have heard of camps doing it either way. I would like to have different places provide lunch for our kiddos, but not sure if other groups found it difficult or easier than them brining their own lunch.

[Bob White]

Speeglevillemom

 

Something has tickled my curiosity since your openinig post in this thread.

 

Why would you even conider taking a job from someone who did not tell you in detail what the job was and what training and respources were available to assist you?

 

This to me would be a huge red flag to stay away from this "opportunity". This is not a position that one should be expected to walk blindly into. The fact that they had no one developed to pass the job onto tells you that this is not a good situation.

 

If you need to come on the Internet and ask strangers how to do this job them something is terribly amiss in your District/Council.

[Eagle92]

While BW does ask a good question, do not be discouraged. Soemtimes it takes fresh blood and ideas to get somthing. going.