In the summer of 2009 I was a camp counselor at Camp Horizons in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The previous summer I was a Counselor in Training (CIT). There were a group of us that were first year counselors after our summer of training and we were the youngest counselors at camp. We were mixed in with very experienced counselors and those that were much older than us. Some of us were only two years older than the oldest camper. This led to a whole slew of problems. There were problems in the cabins, within teaching activities, and even just over-seeing evening activities and campfires. There was tension and unhealthy relationships that were forming on camp. Something had to be done. Below is the group of "support staff," or counselors in charge of each village and activity at camp.
So What?
Having an absense of trust within our staff at Camp Horizons led to all sorts of issues. The older counselors did not trust us to properly teach any of the activities. In the picture below, I am standing with my basketball class and it appears that I am close in age to my campers. But, it only meant that I was a little less strict with them and I let them decide what we would do. I didn't run drills with them. They were at summer camp, they came to have fun so that's what they would do. But, the older counselors thought that this was wrong and that I should have been teaching lessons. The unwillingness of the counselors to be vulnerable enough to trust us to lead well was what was getting in the way. The lack of trust led to a fear of conflict within our staff. Because these counselors didn't trust us as new counselors, they feared that the campers would not be satisfied or safe with us. They thought that we were legitimately incompetent with our actions. In one situation, I was in charge of planning an evening activity. It was a really nice night and I wanted to plan something with water balloons. It turned into a huge water fight and kids were running around all over the place. The older counselors felt like I was displaying a lack of leadership and they feared conflict and injuries. The fear of conflict led to a lack of commitment. The older counselors essentially forced us out of our own authority. They continuously would take over when we were in charge and our group never had a clear consensus of what was going on. Because we quickly became an uncommitted team, our confidence quickly diminished which led to avoidance of accountability. We were not committing to a clear plan of action and the younger counselors soon became very hesitant of their actions. This lack of accountability led to a few counselors holding personal resentment towards a few of the other staff members.
Now What?
In order to avoid all these issues from happening, the camp has enacted a few new aspects to the counselor program. It's understandable that the camp is no longer hiring staff directly after their CIT summer. They wait a year to let them age and mature a little bit. Having an equal staff is very important because if the campers realize that there is conflict going on within the counselors, it could become a greater problem. Also, there is now a week long training program before camp starts in order to allow the counselors to all get to know one another better and really build teamwork before they have to be responsible for campers all summer long. Also, each counselor gets 24 hours off on the weekend to leave camp and have personal time. This allows the counselors to rebuild themselves since being a counselor at a sleep away camp is a exhausting job. It's important that counselors all get along and have fun together because if not it would be impossible to have fun with the children. Below is the group of younger camper's female counselors enjoying the Disney dance.
