CODACON25

Everything you wanted to know about the business of summer camping. This session is designed for directors who want to better understand the business side of their organizations. We will touch on several key issues including but not limited to Interest Rates and how they can work for and against you, Regs and Land use, Basic Financial Management, Your P and L , and how to both build and understand your cash flow, and how to manage cash. For purposes of this session some basic accounting skills are a plus along with knowledge of spreadsheets.

In this session, Kara Alaimo, PhD, a communication professor and social media expert, will tell you how to run a session for campers teaching them how to protect and empower themselves on social media. She’ll address the critical kids things need to know, such as why they shouldn’t compare their lives and bodies to the glamorized pictures they see on Instagram, what to do when they or someone they know is bullied online, why they shouldn’t believe everything they see online, and how to protect themselves from dangers including catfishers and predators. She’ll also talk about how to teach kids to find healthy content and communities online and why it’s so important to seek out opportunities for offline friendships and activities. She’ll give you a script for running a rainy-day session that will be appreciated by campers (and their parents!) and for answering questions that often come up when we develop relationships with young people.

Join Mark as he reflects on a challenging experience where he navigated a difficult situation involving staff-to-camper abuse at camp. He will share the steps he took in addressing the incident, the difficult decisions he had to make under pressure, and what he might have done differently in hindsight. Mark will also discuss the key lessons he learned throughout this experience, including how it shaped his approach to leadership, crisis management, and ensuring a safe environment for both staff and campers. Don’t miss this insightful session filled with valuable takeaways for anyone in a leadership role within youth programs.

The staffing landscape has shifted dramatically since 2020, with the ability to effectively source and screen applicants, particularly domestic ones, becoming much more challenging than ever before. This session will aim to re-imagine the interview process, drawing from the perspectives of both camps and the staff members they’re hiring, while also examining how trends outside of the industry might be useful for camps to explore and implement. We need to re-establish the importance of interviewing as a screening tool — not as an opportunity for people to try and “sell” staff on why they should come to camp just to get them in the door. We’ll examine the Why, Who, & How we interview, what areas for improvement camps should consider, and what they can even implement right now.

Following her keynote, Lynn Lyons will host an engaging Q&A session where she will dive deeper into the practical applications of her talk. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask Lynn questions about how camp experiences can help children build resilience, independence, and self-confidence, while also addressing common concerns parents face regarding anxiety. Lynn will offer expert insights and provide actionable advice on how to foster a sense of adventure and autonomy in young people, both at camp and at home. This interactive session promises to leave you with valuable tools for supporting your camp community.

As our beloved camp counselors graduate high school and head off to college, they increasingly prioritize professional experience and career development. Camps, in turn,face a growing retention challenge with these counselors. This interactive session will explore strategies to help camp directors bridge the gap between counselors’ interest in gaining career development experience alongside their love for camp. Starting with a personal story and a spotlight on Sage Corps’ Start! program—a potential solution that offers professional experience for college students outside of June to August—we’ll dive into collaborative brainstorming and actionable ideas for counselor retention strategies centered around professional career development. We hope participants leave the session with fresh ideas, proven strategies, and a renewed commitment to retaining their best counselors while supporting their professional growth.

This session will explore how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of camp marketing. We’ll discuss how AI can optimize marketing strategies for summer camps, helping organizations efficiently target the right audiences, craft personalized messaging, and measure the success of campaigns in real-time. By the end of the session, attendees will have a deeper understanding of how AI can elevate their marketing efforts and drive more meaningful connections with potential campers and their families.

This session will help you take a closer look at your camp's operations and provide tools for improvement in many areas. Attendees will be able to:

1. Understand the key components of a comprehensive evaluation of a camp's physical plant, program, and infrastructure.
2. Learn effective strategies and tools for evaluating the safety, functionality, and sustainability of camp facilities.
3. Gain insights into evaluating camp programs for quality, alignment with camp goals, and camper experience.
4. Identify ways to assess and improve the infrastructure that supports camp operations, including staffing, technology, and logistical systems.
5. Develop an action plan for ongoing evaluation and improvement of camp resources.

To stay at the forefront of camping, owners must seek out learning beyond camping. Discover how insights from retail, fine dining, the military, strategy consulting, and big tech can revolutionize your summer camp. Learn how the best-in-the-business manage resources, create memorable experiences, build effective routines, identify valuable opportunities, and streamline operations. This session’s real-world examples will provide you with actionable strategies to improve your camp’s business efficiency and camper impact.

Most leadership staff are not mental health professionals. But we can still be prepared to support staff and campers who are struggling or even suffering while they’re at camp. This session will offer a framework for approaching “mental health” at camp in a functional way, without being a therapist. We’ll explore strategies to prevent problems before they occur, as well as specific tools and techniques for supporting staff and campers when they need individual intervention.

This generation of staff members are more focused on what experiences can do for them, rather than what they can bring to an experience. With this in mind, what happens when we ask staff members to set goals for themselves based on our camp’s mission and values and their own job descriptions, and evaluate them on their success in achieving these goals, instead of using evaluations to tell them what they are doing “right and wrong”? The result is that staff members are more aware of the impact that their role at camp has on their own growth and development, feel more satisfied with their experience, feel more valued by camp leadership teams, and are more likely to return to camp the following summer.
This session will challenge participants to reimagine what staff evaluations can look like, and how evaluations that are rooted in the individual personal and professional goal setting of each of our staff members will allow both supervisors and staff to see evaluations as an opportunity to celebrate growth and skill development, and offer support where staff are lacking. This session will offer practical strategies for reimagining staff evaluations that will lead to an improved staff experience and help to increase staff retention.

In this engaging breakout session, Cory shares the compelling story of how Camp Greenville faced the unprecedented challenges of a devastating hurricane. From navigating the immediate aftermath to working through FEMA and insurance processes, Cory will offer a transparent look at the complexities of disaster recovery for a camp operation.

Attendees will gain valuable insights into crisis management, stakeholder communication, and long-term planning for rebuilding and renewal. Through photos and first-hand accounts, Cory will highlight lessons learned, strategies that worked, and the moments that defined resilience in the face of adversity. Additionally, he will candidly discuss what he might have done differently in hindsight, offering practical takeaways for camp owners and directors to strengthen their own emergency preparedness plans.

Join this session to learn how Camp Greenville turned a storm into an opportunity for growth and reflection, ensuring the camp’s mission and community impact continue stronger than ever.

Camp culture influences every part of the camp experience – from how campers and staff interact to how they feel supported and valued. But who’s truly in control of your camp culture, and is it working for everyone? In this session, we will dive into the key elements that shape camp culture, focusing on both campers and staff.

Expect to walk away with practical strategies to assess, refine, and strengthen your camp culture to create a thriving, positive environment for everyone.