The All-Access Pass for SCampCon 1 offers over 40 video presentations and accompanying Q&As by summer camp and industry professionals sharing their insights and knowledge on a variety of topics.

Purchase this All-Access Pass and come away with ideas and actionable steps to make this summer the best one yet! All for only $97 (normal price is $247).

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There are 5 Modules - Administration, Marketing, Programming, Staff Development, and Youth Development.

ADMINISTRATION

Building a Successful Team: 7 Foundational Elements to Make Your Organization High Functioning, Profitable and Desirable presented by Dave Malter (Professor Dave)

This session promises to help you identify the speed bumps to hiring a successful, lasting team and learn how to avoid them on the road to building a successful and thriving organization. You will walk away with 7 actionable steps to improve and simplify your hiring process so you are not sacrificing quality for quantity.

Camps in Greece – A Model for Free 15-day Camps for Children of the Unemployed presented by Alexia Sideri

Ever wondered how camps look like in another country? The first part of this session will be on how Greek camps operate and under which requirements. The second part will be on a very successful program that allows for 75000 campers to attend camp for free for 15 days per summer.

Creating Super Simple & Effective Staff and Parent Training Videos presented by Becky Dunlap

If a picture speaks 1000 words, then what could video do if you utilized it to its full potential? In this session, you will learn the various stages of planning, recording, and editing a video that you can use to educate staff and parents in preparation for your summer camp and programming! From this course, you will have the skills and knowledge you need to create a five minute video for training purposes.

How to Fire a Friend presented by Michael Jacobus

Camp staff dynamics include friends who are now supervisors and multi-year relationships that carry-on far beyond camp. Terminating employment of a camp-friend is akin to kicking a family member out of the house.

In addition to common best practices, this session will explore ways to make a very difficult situation a bit smoother, including how to identify challenges, documentation methods and ways to break-the-bad-news.

Learn to Create an Enrollment-Boosting Registration Form using Jotform presented by Annabel Maw

This session will give an in-depth tutorial on how to get started, build, customize, and launch an online form with JotForm. It’ll also dive into popular camp use cases and outline tips to create an enrollment-boosting registration form.

Parentception: Creating a Foolproof Plan to Answer Parent Questions Before They Even Ask presented by Allison Vining

How many times in the weeks prior to camp do you get the same parent questions? Instead of banging your head against your desk when the fourteenth parent asks you “what time is check in?,” create a pro-active plan that will give parents the information they need before they can even ask for it.

In this session, we’ll talk about frequently asked questions, resources we can create for each step of camp (from registration all the way to post-camp), how to get parents to read the information, and when to send the information out.

Productivity 101: How To Motivate Yourself to Accomplish More Than You Thought Possible presented by Mandi Miller

Do you strive to create a habit of productivity and organization but struggle to follow through? Are you looking for new tips, tricks and systems to utilize in your everyday work? During this session, we will unpack Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Framework and discover your own tendency.

Are you an Upholder, Obliger, Questioner or Rebel? Discover the unique-to-you approaches you can draw upon to build habits, be more productive, and accomplish more before summer then you ever thought was possible! We will also explore some practical systems that you can implement easily that will help you be more focused and on task.

Race, Racism and Justice at Camp presented by Cole Perry

This session will attempt to cover a range of racial justice issues that implicate camps. With access and diversity only scratching the surface, topics will also include training, policy, discipline, history, and camp culture. We’ll also ponder how race matters at various levels, from the industry down to the personal level and to camps in communities.

The Benefits of a Camp Electronic Health Record for Risk Management and Emergency Planning presented by Michael Ambrose

A recent study concluded that the majority of camps are missing critical components of disaster and emergency planning, leaving campers and staff at risk. Camps are adopting Electronic Health Records (EHRs) now more than ever, and establishing an emergency procedure for your camp is critical. Together we’ll explore how EHRs can help you prepare for a disaster or emergency, effectively communicate procedures to your camp families and staff, and help your staff avoid critical mistakes. Don’t get left behind!

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MARKETING

Are We Asking the Right Questions? presented by Michael Garcia

Talking to parents so you really know what they want out of their child’s summer experience. Learn the steps to take a deep dive into really finding out what your camp families need from you. Then the basic steps to meet expectations.

Blog Basics – An Introduction to Blogging for Camp Pros presented by Kendray Rodriquez

Blogging! You’ve heard you should be doing it as a part of your marketing strategy, but you don’t know why or how to get started. In this comprehensive introduction to blogging, we’ll talk why and how it can fit into your current marketing plan. We’ll also discuss the nitty-gritty of how to write effective blog posts (how long should they be? how often should you post?), ways you can repurpose your blog content (meaning less work for you!), where to find inspiration for blog posts, and tools to help you write the best content possible.

Double Check: the Ultimate Checklist for Your Website and Social Media presented by Stacie Simpson

In the hustle and bustle of our busy recruiting seasons, we’re so focused on active marketing: email campaigns, postcards, phone interviews, reunions and open houses, oh my! It’s all too common for our website content and social media presence to fall a couple notches down the priority list. It’s critical, though, that your online presence – both for your camp as well as for your year-round staff – will meet and exceed expectations of your prospective staff and millennial moms.

How to Get the Most Out of Your Camp Photography presented by Katherine Spencer

This session will help camp photographers understand best photo practices in a camp setting and help them to assure ample photo coverage camp-wide.

Lights, Camera, Action: How to Put the Power of Video to Work for Your Camp presented by Mike Perlow

Perlow Productions’ President Mike Perlow, who is on-location overseeing all camp video productions every summer, will discuss the challenges every camp encounters in creating engaging video content and strategies for crafting videos families watch from start to finish.

Straight-Line Sales, or The Wolf of Wall-Street in Camping presented by Arcadie Cotruta

Straight-Line sales technique focuses on closing 6 areas of ‘’doubt’’ that clients have when considering to buy something; unless one closes them all – then the likelihood is that the parent will delay the purchase (or not buy entirely); any delay reduces the probability of buying though, as the client gets ‘’colder”, can have other options/touches with other camps, or simply forget about your offer.

Trust, Then Tools presented by Travis Allison

In a job with so many demands on our time, it can be very hard to make time to take on new challenges in marketing this “product” that we love.

Luckily for us… other businesses have been running the experiments for us and we can learn from them. In this session, Travis will walk Camp Pros through the strategies and tactics that other businesses use but that aren’t widely seen in the camp industry.

Year One: Building a New Day Camp presented by Isaac Brubaker

Whether it’s year one or year 101, you can shape your camp the way you want. All it takes is intentionality and communication. Learn how it worked for someone who directed a camp with over 100 years and then started a brand new camp that filled in our first year.

Your Camp Logo (and other design elements) Makes You Look Sloppy! presented by Travis Allison

It’s important for us to understand that parents who don’t already “know” camp judge us based on the cues we put out in the world. Campy to them means… they won’t trust us with their kids.

In this session, Travis will show several easy ways to improve the impression that non-camp parents get about your camp. It’s important that we use Every Tool Available to build trust and get more kids to camp.

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PROGRAMMING

Create Trendy Pop Up Museums at Camp presented by Karen Lovelace

Pop up museums are trending right now in big cities. The Ice Cream Museum, Color Factory, and Candytopia are sold out months in advance in San Francisco and New York. You can bring these Instagram moments and celebration atmosphere to your camp on a budget. It’s a fun new event that can be run as a night program, or at a day camp. 

Free Play at Day Camp – Important and Possible presented by Andy Pritikin

Research shows that kids learn social skills while playing, and not in adult directed play—kid-directed free play. Give ALL your campers (not just preschoolers) the opportunity to flourish in a relaxed setting that promotes creativity and collaboration, the way that kids played before the days of smart phones, internet, hi-def video games, and central air. No excuses about time and scheduling restrictions, day camp folks—be creative yourself, and make this a priority.

How to Take Your Program to the Next Level presented by Philip Drake

In this presentation, we will discuss some practical ways of creating dynamic programming using your current programming as the basis.

We want to ask ourselves several very important questions throughout the process that will help us realize how simple it is to make our program activities better, more exciting, more novel, and more memorable.

Kids Need Structure Not Control – Building Sandboxes At Camp presented by Jack Schott

There is a major misconception in the youth development world. Structure is confused with control. Structure is about being consistent, reducing anxiety around the unknown, and building a safe space for kids. To control is to determine behavior; to decide for kids how they are to behave or act. Children learn best how to make decisions by making them. They figure out what works and what doesn’t by interacting with the world. We need more “sandboxes”, places where kids understand the structure of the space but are free to create, explore and learn alongside other kids and compassionate adults. Come learn how to build more “sandboxes” at camp.

Ritualizing the End of Summer: Smoothing Transitions Mentally and Emotionally for Year-Round Staff presented by Angie Atkinson

As camp directors we are great at doing things intentionally, especially for others, but not always for ourselves. Transitioning from the busy summer season to the off season (which can be just as busy for some camp pros) is vital for creating a healthy and thriving workspace. This presentation will examine the psychology of transition and guide participants through different ways to intentionally end the summer and move into the off season through creative rituals/traditions. Giving ourselves and our year round staff time to integrate the summer on a personal level, as well as a professional level, is vital for our own mental and emotional health.

Steal This: Ideas of Awesomeness for Your Camp That Won’t Break the Budget presented by Chris Kallal

Chris presents a slew of ideas that you can steal and start doing at your camp. After attending several conferences, he realized that the biggest thing he wanted and didn’t get was a bunch of stuff that he could start doing tomorrow! If you feel the same way, then this session is for you! Chris will have gobs of info on tons of activities so that you can take these ideas back home and implement them into your programming immediately! The best part is: Almost everything is free or very cheap! This is the class for Camps who don’t have HUGE programming budgets, but want HUGE ideas!

STEM is Everywhere: Encouraging a Culture of Inquiry to Combat Summer Learning Loss presented by Tara Laidlaw

STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education is a hot topic in schools these days. How can camps support this crucial academic work in fun, engaging, and memorable ways over the summer, without leaving campers feeling like they’ve been in summer school? In this session, we will connect the dots between national education frameworks, inquiry-based learning, summer learning loss, and camp programs, and we will explore a few simple tools to help staff cultivate and model the culture of curiosity and creativity that is at the heart of scientific and engineering processes.

The No-Drama Approach to a Theatre Program – and Why Your Camp Needs One presented by Lindsey Sigler

Kids who are involved in theatre are shown to have more confidence, creativity, focus, discipline, and communication skills, among other things. We will discuss the major benefits your campers will see in a drama program and how you can implement basic curriculum to help them grow.

Top 10 Aquatic Best Practices presented by Ruby Compton

Whether you have an aquatics background or not, the amount of risk that camp directors manage at aquatic activities is extraordinary considering that an average of 10 people drown every day in the U.S. During this session, hear ten implementable ideas that you can take to your camp this summer to create safer (and still fun!) aquatic activities that ensure everyone on staff–and participants too–take ownership of risk management at the water.

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STAFF DEVELOPMENT

Building Community – It’s the Most Important Thing presented by Beth Allison

Drawing from 30 years of Leadership Training, Beth will share some of her very best techniques and activities to create a strong and vibrant community in which staff will thrive. Focus will be on building successful relationships with staff, bridging the gaps in communication, creating respectful and compassionate environments, and opening doors to a climate for effective learning.

Creating an Interview Rubric for More Effective Staff Hiring presented by Ruby Compton

Sometimes staff applicants just “feel” like a good fit for camp. While that may seem true, that is also another way that bias rears its head in hiring. During this workshop, learn how to identify specific qualities, experiences, and skills in your staff applicants through a system that reduces the amount of personal bias that factors into a hiring decision. This process is helpful for the lone-ranger who wants validation to support their hiring decisions or the team of hiring managers who can’t agree on certain candidates. This workshop also includes a PDF of the presenter’s field-tested favorite interview questions.

Ghosts are Great for Halloween, Not for Staffing a Camp presented by Katrina Dearden

How to engage your summer staff and create buy-in between the time you hire them and their start date at camp.

How To Effectively Obtain Buy-In presented by Andrea "Ash" Boynton

Change is scary. If you ever have struggled to obtain support for a change, then this is the session for you. We will dive into why individuals are resistant to change, and how to effectively obtain buy-in. You will walk away with different strategic tips and solutions that you can implement immediately with staff or adapt to work other constituents.

Inclusion and Diversity Planning – Supporting Trans, Trans+ and Genderqueer Campers, Families and Staff presented by Amanda Grassick

Gender diverse individuals report higher rates of violence, harassment, discrimination, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicidality than their peers. Camps can play an integral role in supporting gender diverse individuals but often camps do not have the knowledge to take a proactive approach. This leaves staff to react and adapt existing policy when they are being pulled in multiple directions during program season.

This session will provide a framework for developing Inclusion and Diversity Plans that will equip organizations and staff with guidelines, tools and language to take a proactive approach in supporting gender diverse individuals.

Make It Memorable: Staff Training that Stands the Test of Time presented by Kim Aycock

Nothing can be more frustrating than investing time and resources to train staff before the season only to find out that information is lost when needed most. Learn the truth about your current training process and discover the best and worst ways to boost the learning power of your staff. Find out how the brain works and make simple adjustments to your teaching strategies that will improve retention of critical information. Make learning memorable this summer while indulging staff with innovative teaching methods in order to forge information into memories that stand the test of time.

Nurturing Staff and Campers To Be Confidently Self-Resilient presented by Dave Malter (Professor Dave)

Camp is a wonderful opportunity for campers and staff to develop increased self-confidence without the fear of failure or ridicule. It isn’t as easy as just “getting to camp” and there are ways to help them become the people they want to be. This interactive session will provide participants specific tools to help campers and staff become more confident and self-resilient.

RRV – Work Through Anything With Anyone presented by Ronnie Ferrans

RRV is about being able to respond to anyone in any state and diffuse the situation by reading between the lines, hearing what they don’t say, as well as what they do and ultimately – have everyone feel as though they are listened to and understood. The presentation is a mix of lecture, participation and playing with ideas.

Using Personality Theory to Understand and Invest in Your Staff presented by Riley Peak

Come hear how Personality Theory has dynamically influenced the way I seek to understand and empathize with volunteers and staff members. I will seek to break down the major workings of Personality Theory, explain the practical uses of it, and share some great tools that have helped me in understandings and utilizing it in my daily tasks at camp.

We are Here: Connecting with the Next Generation presented by Gwynn Powell

Join this lively discussion where “Gen Z”ers share their perspectives on work, supervision, dreams and fears.

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YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

AMPP’d up on Conflict Resolution presented by Kelly Nagl

Ever try to resolve a conflict with an employee, colleague, participant, or customer and it ends up getting very heated very quickly with no real resolution? AMPP’d up on Conflict Resolution will talk about methods you can use to better meet the needs of the person(s) in conflict and how to have those conversations in a calm and understanding manner.

Campers Decide it All presented by Laura Johnson

From creating the rules to deciding the day’s schedule, we let campers decide it all. The power of autonomy, group decision, reciprocity, setting boundaries, speaking up for yourself and more stem from allowing children to make decisions. Learn how one camp model of child-driven culture increases confidence, creativity, social intelligence and grit in campers.

Creating Leaders…a CIT Program That Works! presented by Elaine Weismer

Making the transition from camper to counselor is not easy. How does your camp train future leaders? Are you looking to start a new CIT program or revamp the one you already have? This session will provide camps with an outline for how to create a successful CIT program that works for your camp. The handouts will include a variety of activities to use so you can tailor your program to work for your camp. I am a day camp director but there will be tools in this workshop that can apply to overnight camp directors too!

Fostering Self-Esteem in Teenage Girls presented by Beth Allison

Being a teenage girl in 2019 isn’t easy. In addition to hormonal changes and challenging peer relationships, these young women must battle with societal and cultural pressures to attain perfection, leading to higher levels of anxiety and lower self-esteem. Discover the unique issues affecting teenage girls in today’s society and how you can foster positive interactions and boost self-esteem through practical hands-on activities.

Promoting Positive Relationships with Food and Body Image at Camp presented by Nikki Misner

Youth today are facing more pressure from diet culture than ever before. Research shows that 50% of 3-6 year old worry about being fat. 80% of 10-year-old girls have been diet. And over 50% of females between ages of 18-25 would prefer to be run over by a truck then be fat. These statistics are alarming. Camps are perfectly positioned to create body-positive environments. They are able to promote healthy relationships with food and teach youth about evidenced-based nutrition principles. If summer camps are not intentional about providing their staff members with the knowledge of how to promote these environments for their campers, diet culture will continue to be prevalent.

Safe Discomfort: Building Camp Environments For Optimized Grit and Perseverance presented by Jen Dundas

Grit and perseverance are known to be success factors for long term success. Moving safely through discomfort in modified camp structures and with new ways of communicating can help build grittiness.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Camper Behavior presented by Scott Arizala

This session is about the strategies and techniques for supporting the best behavior and guiding the learning from more challenging behavior. There is a direct correlation between supporting, guiding, and creating the right environment for positive behavior and a decrease in negative behavior. We will specifically discuss the culture and philosophy at camp that supports this change in perspective, how to develop and train on these ideas, and what all of this looks like in the field.

Use Your Words: Writing and Presenting Meaningful Reflections presented by Alana Matteson

Whether you’re sharing a piece about your faith, your dogs, or you’re trying to inspire your staff to plunge a toilet, using your words effectively is important in our line of work. Using her background in Campus Ministry and faith-based camping, Alana will guide you in using your words to create a reflection or message that will get your point across. Take some time to think about how to use them effectively!

What I Learned About Inclusion From My Campers of Different Abilities presented by Sandra "Sam" Thompson

What is the difference between accommodating and including? Is my camp culture one of Inclusion? What are the benefits for all campers and staff in an inclusive camp? We will discuss these questions and learn ways to start down an inclusive path.

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