The Best and Most Effective Staff Training Schedule - with Shoshi Rothschild - Camp Code #166

Find full show notes and links at: https://www.gocamp.pro/campcode/the-best-and-most-effective-staff-training-schedule

Designing Staff Training That Actually Prepares Your Team

On this episode of Camp Code, Beth and Gabz sit down with consultant and former camp director Shoshi Rothschild to explore how to design a staff training schedule that truly prepares people for the realities of camp. Instead of cramming information into a packed week of lectures, Shoshi encourages leaders to think intentionally about the staff experience; building a sequence that develops confidence, relationships, and practical skills. Great training, she argues, should leave staff energized and empowered, not overwhelmed.

The conversation dives into practical strategies: structuring training around either the individual or the community, balancing session types (interactive, peer-led, recreational, and lecture), and prioritizing experiential learning wherever possible. From creative simulations like a “day-in-the-life” relay to thoughtful scheduling that accounts for energy levels and returning staff experience, the message is clear—learning sticks when staff are actively involved. By designing training that emphasizes shared experiences, reflection, and clear expectations, camp leaders can build teams that feel confident, connected, and ready to create an incredible summer for campers.

Best Practice for Leadership Training

From Shoshi,

One of the most effective ways to improve staff training is to ask your staff what they actually need. Shoshi recommends surveying staff twice: once before training begins and once near the end of training week. Sending a short survey after contracts are signed allows leaders to understand what staff are excited about, what they’re nervous about, and what skills they hope to build. That insight can help shape a training schedule that speaks directly to their needs—and shows staff their voices matter.

She also suggests surveying staff a day or two before training ends rather than on the final day. This timing gives leadership teams the chance to adjust or reinforce topics if staff are still feeling unsure about something. Instead of discovering gaps after training is over, leaders can course-correct in real time—helping ensure staff leave training feeling confident, supported, and ready for the summer.

Special Guest:

• Shoshi Rothschild, Founder and Principal - in.tent Consulting and Facilitation

Your Hosts:

• Beth Allison, Camp Consultant - Go Camp Pro
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau
• Ruby Compton, Chief Exploration Officer - Ruby Outdoors

Thanks to our sponsor…

UltraCamp

Imagine camp registration software that actually gives you MORE time for what you love - CAMP! With UltraCamp, you can effortlessly track attendance, manage staff, streamline registration, and more. Explore now at ultracampmanagemnent.com/campcode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Camp Code, the podcast where we explore what it really takes to build strong staff, thoughtful leaders, and meaningful camp experiences. Today we're talking about something every camp does, but not every camp does well. Building a leadership training schedule that actually prepares people for the real work of camp. Join us as we learn from Trishy Rothschild, founder and principal of Intent Consulting and Facilitation, how best to set up the most effective staff training schedule. Running camp should be about people, not paperwork. Ultracamp helps you manage staff, registration, and communication in one place. So you spend less time on tasks and more on camp. Find out more at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. Welcome to Camp Code, a podcast brought to you by GoCamp Pro. We have been podcasting for 11 seasons. This is now number 12, and we just knew we needed to continue. Because just like people grow and change, so does our industry. So here we are, ready to discuss new challenges, new ways of handling situations, new advice from those doing the work, and new ideas to help us all do our jobs better. Our commitment to intentional leadership training just grows stronger every year. So welcome everybody to another episode of Camp Code. I'm really excited for today's topic. I got to attend Shashi's session at the OCA last month, and it was brilliant. So we definitely wanted to have her on the show. But as always, before we get to the good discussion part, we're going to begin with introductions. So Gabrielle, could you go first, please?

SPEAKER_03 1:48

Hey everyone. My name is Gabs. My pronouns are she, her, and, and I work at Camp Warro. At Camp War, we try to create a positive environment for girls and gender minorities, and we try to do that in English and French. And I am also very excited to have Shoshi here today.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

Thanks. All right, Shoshi. Tell us a little bit about you, please.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, my name is Shoshi Rothschild. My pronouns are she, her. I am thrilled to be here today on the Camp Code podcast. I am a former camp professional. I was the associate director of a summer camp based out of Montreal, Canada, which is where I am recording from today. I was the associate director there for nine years. And now I have my own consulting practice where I work with camps among other types of organizations to ensure a positive staff experience and that our staff are happy and healthy and feel valued that they want to come keep coming back to camp year after year.

SPEAKER_02 2:43

See, now you see all of a sudden why we want her on the show, right? Like already. She's in. Okay. And I'm Beth Allison. I'm co-owner of Camp Hacker and GoCamp Pro. My pronouns are also she, her. I'm a camp consultant and trainer, and I'm an author who eats, sleeps, and drinks staff training. I see opportunities everywhere I go. I write them down and I keep them for next season's trainings and our podcast. Honestly, it kind of gets annoying after a while. But anyway, all right. So let's be honest. Too often training schedules feel packed but not purposeful. We rush to cover information, policies, uh, logistics, and then we wonder why staff still feel unprepared when campers arrive. A great training schedule is not just a checklist of sessions, it's a sequence. It builds confidence before responsibility and practice before performance. So we're excited to learn from somebody who spent years helping camps design training experiences that truly develop leaders, not just deliver information. And we are joined, as you know, by one of our co-members of the Women in Camp Summit. So this is a mini reunion of sorts for the three of us. So it's so nice to be together again and talking about something different but still camp. So we're going to dig into how you can design a schedule that sets your staff and your summer up for success. So, Shoshi, welcome. We are so glad that you're here to help us rethink how we build leadership training from the ground up. And since you are an expert on staff training, Gab and I would really love to focus on practical strategies, philosophies, actionable tips that our audience of camp directors and trainers can apply this summer. So we have questions. So I'm going to start things off. So we've been looking forward to this because staff training can make or break a summer. But so many camps struggle to get the schedule right. So, Shashi, you have worked with dozens of camps on this. Can you start by telling us how you define great staff training? What does that look like in practice?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Well, I like the way you phrase that question, Beth, because you know, how do I define it? What does it look like in practice? I think those can be two different answers. So, in terms of how do I define it, I mean, I define a positive staff training experience as one where staff finish off with their training experience feeling motivated, excited, and empowered. And also that they have the skills they need in order to successfully do their job, that they understand exactly what is expected of them throughout the course of the summer when it comes to their job, but also that they feel energized. And I think what's so what happens unfortunately so often is that by the end of the staff training week, maybe we've tried to relay all the proper information to them, but they're exhausted and they feel overwhelmed. And so I think if we focus on the energized, empowered, motivated, as opposed to just packing in as much information as possible, that's one of the most important things. And then to answer the second part of your question of what does that look like? I love to see staff training where there are staff participating in shared experiences that end up helping them develop the skills they need to be successful in a role, but that they are learning through doing. So they are learning through action, through experience, through going through different exercises on their own and in as part of a team in order to learn the skills that they need to succeed. And we also know that shared experiences really builds trust and it helps to build relationships. So the more learning we can do through action together, not only are your staff going to feel prepared and have the training they need, but they also will have had a lot of time to build relationships and trust with the team that they're working with this summer. And that to me is one of the most important parts of staff training as well. It's not just about the skills, it's also about creating a really positive team environment and helping staff to build relationships with their co-staff, you know, with any other staff member as much as possible throughout the course of their training.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

So for those of you who are only listening and not watching on YouTube, Gab is furiously writing, first of all, for her recap, but also she's got her fist in the air and she's pumping it away. It's just excited.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

It's just so good because I think it's what Beth and I talk about often. But I think what I'm excited about, we're gonna get to it, is the the practicality of this because I don't want I don't want new camp directors and and uh I'll shout out to the oldies being like, I want that, but how? Like there's so much to do. So I'm gonna pass it back to Beth, but I'm already so excited.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

So I would like to know, because this might help answer that question, Gav, but what are the biggest mistakes that you see camps make when they're designing that staff training schedule?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Yeah, so I I think that it's really important to be very intentional about the scheduling. So the actual scheduling of what does the day-to-day look like, what and what does the whole whether you're doing two days, five days a week, what does the what does the week look like? How does that play out? And being really intentional about certain things. So, first of all, timing of scheduling. It is known that people tend to be sleepier in the afternoon and especially right after a meal. So it is really, really important to really think thoughtfully and intentionally about what you're scheduling in that time period. If it is a kind of forward-learning lecture style, there is a chance that your staff members are going to fall asleep. So that would be a great time to do a great team building exercise, something that involves moving around, running around, laughing, having fun, building shared experiences, building trust, that's a really great session to put immediately after lunch or in the afternoon when people are tired. Also thinking about the types of sessions that you're running back to back and what you're experiencing in a day. Is this day really heavy for staff? Did we do a lot of really intense, you know, safety protocols and missing campers and emergency and healthcare and all of that? That could be a lot for people to digest in one day. So I think it's really important to spread that out and also be really intentional about the types of sessions that you're building. I always say to the camps I work with, it is really important that in each day of your staff training that you make sure there are experiential experiential workshops. So where staff learning learn through doing, that there is time for them to bond and create memories and experiences with one another, that there's time for them to rest, that there's time for them to have fun. It's not just throw in one staff rack one evening of a five-day training. There should be something every day that's focused on the staff experience. And so, really just kind of looking holistically at what are all of the things you need to do? What are all of the sessions that you want to do? And how are the needs of staff and experience of staff being woven into this? So we can make sure that at the end of the day, the staff experience comes first. Because you can run as many sessions as you want and pack the staff full of all of this information. But if they're not paying attention, they're not listening, and if they are exhausted, it's it's not going to be worth it. So it really is important to prioritize the staff experience and how they're going through each day, each session, each week, whatever it is, whatever time period that you're working with, really thinking intentionally about how are they going to be experiencing this and how can I make this easy for them to digest this information and make sure they're still having a good time.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

It reminds me, my very first year of directing, I worked for a board and I had my evaluation at the end of the summer. And the board member said to me, which I thought was a trick question, but she said, Who are the most important people at camp? And I know she was waiting for me to say campers, and I said staff. And she just looked at me and she she leaned in and went, you know, you're supposed to say the campers. It's like, well, why I say staff, exactly that. Because if you've been well trained, if you've thought that through that, you've built that trust and relationship with them during training, and then your campers will uh by default have a better, safer, more creative, amazing experience. So exactly put that staff number one.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

And I I'm glad you said that, Beth. I always say that whenever, you know, whenever I'm speaking, I always because I always talk about the staff experience, and I always say this might be controversial, but I think, you know, people think the most important constituents of a camp are the campers. I always believe that it's staff and you can have a camp that is packed full of campers. Every single bed could be full. But if you don't have staff that are well trained and that are excited to be in their roles and that are taking care of those kids, it actually doesn't matter how many campers you have because they're not going to have a good experience. So I am I'm right there with you. And they'll be in the bunks next year. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Yeah, they really are one in the same, aren't they? We're we are treating staff members the way we want them to treat the campers. And only staff members that feel cared for, you know, can care for. I mean, I'm not saying that if you're not cared for, you're not going to care, but what I'm saying is that it's a sticker gap's a sticker. It's a sticker. You're right. We need so many stickers. But this this is this is I I like the controversial piece, but it connects back to what you know the the bottom line always wants to connect back to, which is the campers. Yeah. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:56

All right. Well, we're gonna take a quick break to hear from our amazing sponsor, and we'll be back with the how-to's in just a moment. For camp code listeners, unlock UltraCamp's operations checklist for new directors, a free download to help you prepare for a smooth season. Find it at ultracampmanagement.com slash campcode. Running camp comes with countless moving parts. Ultracamp helps you stay on top of them. Organize activities and daily schedules, manage wait lists and cabin assignments, automate billing and payments, centralize all camper and staff info in one place. With UltraCamp, camp operations run smoother so directors can lead with confidence. Book your free customized demo at ultracampmanagement.com slash camp code. And we are back. I'm gonna turn this over to Gab because she's got some questions.

SPEAKER_03 12:56

Well, I do. I have so many questions, but Beth has limited me to a couple, so I'm gonna go with some of the favor. For now, you'll get to a chance to ask some more. So I, you know, it's it's uh it's funny because I just did my research of my first aid two-day classic course, which we've all can teach by now. And I'm I am always curious about the process for deciding what order of sessions during training, during the training week, what order do you do you pick when it looks at when you look at sessions? Because that is such, you know, when I was looking at this first aid coordinator, he was actually really, really skilled on how he was weaving through the information. But where do you start? So if you're giving advice to a camp director, where would you tell them to start with deciding what order your sessions to do?

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, it's a great question. I actually think there's a few different ways that you can go about doing it. And the two ways that I like to recommend recommend the most are one is to start with the individual and work out, and two would be to start with the community and work in and to build your schedule around either of those. So if we're starting with the individual and working out, it would mean that the the first few sessions of your staff training would really be focusing on people understanding who they are as a leader, what their strengths and challenges are, how they want to bring their strengths to their role this summer, how they can help use the support from the people around them to help them overcome their challenges and really kind of starting to understand their role, not just as a staff member, but as a leader and what does that look like for them. And then from there, once we've taken time to help them understand leadership and their own values and how they tie into the values of the camp, because that's really where we start to get into the culture. And I'm such an organizational culture nerd, and I think it's really it's so important in staff training that we emphasize the importance of the camp culture, but also the culture within the staff team. So if we start looking at who we are, what we can contribute, like where our values match those of the camps, where there might be gaps, and then you start to work outward. So now I've understood myself who are the people I'm working with directly. How am I gonna use those strengths and challenges to complement my co-staff? And we're gonna start to build our little community with, you know, if you're in an activity area or in a bunk with that group of people that you're working with the most often. And then we're gonna move out and out and out until we are looking at the camp as a whole. So that's one approach. The other approach would be to work the other way. So we start with community. You know, you welcome the staff and you explain to them you're all part of something bigger. This is our camp, this is our community, this is our culture. And you start really big and then you start to narrow it down. So you would start maybe with the trainings that focus on camp culture, camp traditions. You know, here are the things everyone needs to know about our camp. And then you start narrowing down. So then you say, okay, now if you're working as if you are a cabin counselor or if you're an activity specialist, we're gonna go into your specific training. We're gonna talk about camper care, big picture, and then we're gonna narrow it in. Okay, you are with 12 and 13 year olds. Let's talk about what camper care looks like for that. You are, you know, on sailing. Let's talk about like day-to-day scheduling, activity planning, what that looks like. And then you narrow it in even further and you end with a really personal, how do I interpret everything I've just learned this week? What does that mean to who I am as a leader? And then I always love to end with goal setting. I think it's so, so important for staff members to be setting goals for themselves, both personally and professionally, and to have those goals matched with how they're gonna be evaluated throughout the summer. So to always end your staff training or weave it in somewhere towards the end, show them their evaluation form and what that's gonna look like. Explain to them how they're gonna be evaluated, what they're gonna be evaluated on, and then say to them, what are your goals? What do you want to work on this summer? How can we evaluate you on something that's important to you? So those are the two ways that I would suggest setting it up. In terms of trying to plot in all those other trainings, I don't know if we're gonna get there, but I really like to encourage camp leadership team, leadership teams to make a list of all of the sessions that you, you know, the mandatory, like the trainings, the things you have to do. And then also to reflect on the previous summer and identify some challenges they had on the staff team that summer and to prioritize designing and bringing in sessions that address those specific challenges that also go in the we have to category. So let's say, you know, last summer you noticed that there was your staff. This is something that's come up a lot lately, that your staff aren't taking initiative in problem solving. Right. They're seeing a problem and they're either walking by it, not doing anything about it, or they're saying, I don't know how to fix that. Who can help me? So I'm getting a lot of requests are on how do we train our staff to better identify and solve problems on their own. If that's a big issue, that's a topic you need to cover this year. So write it down and put it in the must-haves. And then once you have all of your sessions and topics laid out, that's when you can start to plot them in to see, okay, which one fits into the individual, which which one fits into bigger community? Do all the staff need to hear this or just a handful of them? And you can start kind of piecing it together that way.

SPEAKER_03 17:53

I I love, I love, love, love that. And what I'm hearing you say is that in all cases, no matter what, we have to focus on the individual and we have to focus on the community. You can't be part of a community without being acknowledged as an individual that that you just have to feel seen, but you can't only focus on the community. You have to help staff members see the big picture, which is basically the people that they're working with and building those those relationships. So I I love that focus and the must-haves and adjusting every year, I think is is is wonderful. I think like one of the things that that that comes up for Beth and I is with camp directors, is we have so much information. We know we have to do interactive type sessions or experiential sessions, something that you talked about at the beginning of the podcast. You know, how do you what advice do you have for camp directors in balancing that theoretical versus trial and error? Because we know that moving and doing is almost like an arrow into your knowledge part of your brain in a positive, non-harmful way. So, what what advice do you do you have for for them?

SPEAKER_01 19:07

Yeah, it's a great question. And I've heard me talk about this when I spoke at OCA a couple of weeks ago. Any session, I think it's really important to challenge yourself, your leadership team, whoever's working on staff training, to really think outside the box when it comes to how can we present this information. Any session that can possibly be done through an experience is always gonna hit harder than a camp director standing up in front of a room full of staff members and speaking for, you know, an hour of 45 minutes. So I like to use the example of the camp that I was, I used to work at. We would go through a day in the life and everyone had their staff manuals, and we would sit down and we would explain, you know, what their roles and responsibilities are at breakfast and how we do meds and mail and and you know, the line from the tech shop and all those things. And it was really boring and no one was listening and no one was paying attention. But it was really important information, right? The staff need to know where they are supposed to be at what time of day and what their responsibilities are. So we had a program director that came to us one year and he said, you know, I this no one's listening. It's so boring, it's a waste of time. I want to put together at my camp, we called it a GTR, a giant team relay. And he said, I want to put together a GTR that takes staff all around camp. And as they're running around camp in this team relay, they are doing different things at different stations that are reflective of what we expect them to do there during the day. So the the race followed a typical day. It started with wake up, it went to breakfast, to med call, you know, all the things along the way. And there were staff stations in each place and they were running around and they were doing kind of silly examples of what they really should be doing. And what happened? A, the staff understood where they were supposed to be at what time of day and what they were supposed to do there. B, they had a hilarious time. They were laughing, you know, they were bonding, they were building trust with one another, you know, they were sharing in experiences, creating inside jokes. So that is amazing in terms of team building. And it was instead of, you know, 40 minutes of them sitting on an auditorium floor with like that really sad one fan spinning and it's really hot out, they were enjoying the outdoors, they were having fun, they were running around, and they got to spend 45 minutes outdoors and having a good time with that. So I think that's a really good example. And as much as you can do that for anything, say to each other, you know, how can we make this more fun? How can we make this more interactive? There, is there any way? And when there absolutely isn't, that's when, okay, so you do, you know, the 45-minute frontal facing lecture. But I think the goal is to have as few of them as possible. If you can keep it to one a day, that that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

That is a wonderful goal. One a day is a great goal. And and and, you know, So, you're not, you're not saying every single session is a running game. You're saying absolutely put in the theater goal. But then what can you do off of that? I find myself with my leadership team members giving them the information and saying, Okay, how can we practice this? How can this and and and the word fun I think is such a great piece? Like, are we gonna be laughing while we're doing this? What kind of feedback can we do afterwards? So, but we listen, the the study team, if you're still not convinced, the studies are out. This is how you're gonna get people to absorb the information you want them to absorb. And at the very least, they are building friendships and they need that to do their job well during the summer. So that that that long relay was is is so great. We do something similar and we we call it camp in an hour, and they have to do something similar. Beth, I know you have a couple of burning questions. Do you want to take it away?

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Well, first of all, just to wrap up that last piece, you had a slide during your OCA presentation that was like a grid, and you were trying to move people from lecture style over. Can you just sort of give the titles of the grid so that people can kind of think about that? Because I thought that was really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Yeah. So I like to kind of separate workshop session types into really four categories. So the first is interactive. So these are experiential, hands-on, facilitated workshop, but they encourage participants to learn by doing. So this is kind of what we've been talking about, what Daph was just speaking about. The second is pure facilitated, and that's when you will divide your staff members into small groups, maybe even in pairs. And they're kind of self-facilitated, self-managed small groups, or they're facilitated by a member of the staff team. Recreational are really just pure fun. And I say pure fun. They also, you know, do a lot in terms of building trust, team building, you know, developing relationships, but really just fun group activities that bring the group together, that create shared experiences and lead to better team dynamics. And then the final one is lecture. So that is the, you know, the frontal facing somebody, an educator who's standing, typically standing at the front of a room and is speaking for the majority of the session. So I always say that anything that you can possibly move from lecture to interactive or peer facilitated, that is the goal. Like, like I said before, as few lecture-based workshop sessions as possible is really ideal with, you know, let's the goal of one a day. I think that's kind of a really good place to work from. And if you can take sessions that in the past have been lecture and find ways to turn them either into interactive or peer facilitated, incredible. Even more incredible is if you can take the interactive or peer facilitated sessions and try to turn them into recreational. So how do we, let's say, have, you know, the camp that I was at, there was one day during staff week where we always did like a beach party and we'd have all the staff down at the beach and it was, you know, open lake and they could go swimming and and, you know, play beach volleyball and use all the boats and everything like that. How can we take that and make it a little bit more intentional? So they're still doing exactly everything that they were doing before, but maybe there's a piece of learning that gets brought in, brought in. Maybe there are some of our camp values that get woven into some of the activities that we do while on the beach. So they're still having a really fun time, but we're also checking off our list, or maybe we're we're putting them in buddies and they're making, we're making them do buddy call like they would if they were at general swim. So we're checking something off our list. They now know how general swim works, they now know how to do the buddy call, but they've also just had a really fun time swimming together. And so we can check off the rec the recreational and over and doing the overview of how free swim or general swim works. So those are the those are the categories, Beth, that I I was talking about at OCA. And yeah, like I said, as much as we can move away from lecture and move into interactive, peer facilitated, or recreational, the better experience it's going to be for the staff.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Perfect. I thought that was just brilliant. When I saw it on the screen screen, I was like, yep, that's a great visual to move stuff over. Okay, one more question before I pass it back to Gab. How do you design sessions to build confidence while not overwhelming these young people who have come to work for you for the summer?

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Yeah, that's a great question. I think it's really important. Whenever I'm designing a session, I always start with the goals. Like what do we want the outcomes of the session to be? What do we want the staff members to walk away with? So, what are the skills that we want them to learn? What is it that we want them to understand and really focus on that specifically? I find sometimes we try to pack too much in, or when we were too broad, it becomes very overwhelming. So really narrow in on specific goals, specific skills, and then share that with the staff members at the beginning of the session. So in this session, we are going to talk about, we're going to talk about dealing with difficult conversations, let's say. And here's why we're talking about it. And here is what we are hoping that you gain from this session. You go through the session, really again, focusing on those outcomes, focusing on those really, really specific points. And then towards the end of the session, when we're doing a debrief, go back to what you shared with them at the beginning and check in with them and say, you know, the goal of this workshop was to give you the skills in the conference you need to have difficult conversations with your co-staff when you are facing conflict. Let's say, here is how we did that today. So we did this by putting you into pairs. We talked you through an exercise in appreciative inquiry. We talked you through different communication skills. How do you feel now? And how might you use these skills real time in dealing with a conflict with your co-staff and have them respond? I think hearing sometimes having other staff members explain how they would use that, how that translates to real life is going to help the staff members who don't necessarily haven't gotten there yet better understand how they can also use that. I think it's really important to call on participation from the group as much as possible and have them contribute because the more other people see how their co-staff might use these techniques in real life, the more they're the better they're gonna understand how they can do it themselves. And I think just constantly checking with staff to make sure, like, are you getting out of this what you we wanted you to get out of this? Do you understand how to use these skills that we just taught you? And if not, let's let's go back, let's review, let's course correct, and try to figure out how we can make you feel really, really confident by the end of this session. Great, Gabrielle.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

I pass it to you. Yay. In a perfect world, everybody would come to camp with the same level of knowledge at the same time, all on the same bus. Wait, that doesn't happen? Apparently not. So, so how do we, you know, we we've had we have to bend for our staff. Sometimes we have to bend for the fact that they're gonna come a little bit late due to school, due to whatever reason. We do also have staff members that have been with us three, four, five years. They might not be able to stand up and lead a flawless session, but they could definitely, and maybe some of them could, but they could definitely, they know what they're doing when it comes to like dealing with campers and tough situations or standing up in front of you know large clouds, crowds. So, how do you adapt when staff arrive at different skill levels or different experiences or even different times?

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Yeah, this this one, it look, it's tough and and like all our problems, so she solved it. And we're going to camp on day one and be needing to learn the same things, and everybody would be done by day six, and it would be wonderful. But like you said, unfortunately that doesn't happen. So again, I really see this. I'm a visual learner, so you'll see me use my hands a lot, but this is really one big puzzle. And so, you know, I think that it is important to, and again, because I'm visual, I would probably map this out using a bunch of post-its. Often they would probably be color coordinated. I always have a bunch of different colors at my desk. And think about okay, in terms of, you know, our accredit or certifications, what are the things that people absolutely cannot miss? So if I'm doing first aid training and I know that every single one of my staff members needs to do first aid training, that's non-negotiable, right? And then I would start to look at, like you said, Gabs, you know, who are the returners that may already know some of these things, who are the new staff and prioritize it from there. But I also think it's really important. There's two things I really want to mention here. The first is I think we have a tendency as camp directors to prioritize all of the lecture style frontal learning sessions, because those are the ones that often are the really important ones. So the safety protocols, let's say. It is really important that every single one of our staff members knows how to deal with, you know, a missing camper, a missing camper. So for the missing camper drill, they have to be there. But then what ends up happening is that if there is, let's say, only one or two days where every single staff member is there, that's when we we go back to what I was talking about before with intentional scheduling, where you pack all the less fun sessions, the more intense sessions, into two days. I think it's really important that we prioritize team building and camp culture as much as we prioritize safety protocols. Because if somebody is coming to camp and all they've heard are the safety protocols and they haven't had time to bond with their co-staff and they haven't had time to get an understanding of what the culture of the camp is and what our values are, then yes, they will know what to do when, you know, hopefully they would never encounter an emergency situation. But if they do, they would know what to do. But they're not gonna fit into the greater community of camp and they're not gonna have the time and experience that they need in order to feel safe and comfortable and welcome here. So I think it's really important that we also make sure we are prioritizing those sessions as well. And now I know people are gonna say to me, Well, we can't do everything. How are we gonna do this? So look at your returning staff. How can you use them? And not just, and I don't mean they should be running a session, but you know, when do we really need them to be part of this? And when do we maybe not need them as much? What is information we can share with them and then have them share to others? It also helps to empower our returning staff and to make sure they don't get bored in sessions that they find are repetitive. So again, what I would do personally is I would make a color-coordinated list of post-notes with each individual session on it. You have your absolutely all staff must attend. And then you have your, you know, different, this is for activity leaders, this is for cabin counselors, whatever different sections you have. You have all the sessions written down and start to piece it out based on when your staff are going to be there and when some will be missing. What can be missed? What can be retaught by someone else at a later date? Like you can use your senior staff to let's say there's a session on camper care and you have some staff that are missing it. Can the senior staff then do that another night before bed with the people that missed it or at another time? Like a lunch and learn is a great way to squeeze in sessions that people might have missed, kind of condense. You're gonna, you know, all of the first year staff that missed this session on camper care are gonna have lunch with this section ahead and we're gonna talk about what the important things that you missed, but again, also prioritize that they get a chance to spend time with their community, with their co-staff, with their, you know, their co-counselors so that they get to experience the fun parts of camp, the magical parts of camp, build those relationships and they're not just coming in for the intense, you know, security and safety protocols. And I will say it's never gonna be perfect. It can't be. I think that the ultimate goal is that every single one of your staff members finishes staff training feeling as though they have been prepared, they're prepared to do the role that they signed up to do. They understand the role they signed up to do, and they feel like they have the support system and the team around them to help them succeed in that. And those are the three most important goals. So, whatever you can do to make sure that you've touched each of those three goals and or that every single staff member has had a chance to kind of touch each of those three goals, I think that's kind of best case that you can base case scenario out of a tough situation.

SPEAKER_03 33:41

Yeah, I I I I love that. I I I you know that's what that's my hope. I also tell my staff, you're not gonna know what you're doing until week three. So, you know, we're gonna all jump in together and that's why we lean on each other. The the piece I really like too is the retaught part. I think a lot of camp directors, including myself, struggle with keeping engagement with our returning staff members. And I could see myself, you know, appointing two staff members with a leadership team member, saying, during this session, you're gonna be helping onboarding the next group that's coming in that, you know, come a little bit late because of graduation. It's gonna be a lunch session. So please pay attention to this, this, and this. And then afterwards, as a team, you can discuss how you want to present it. I think I know that they will feel honored. I know that they'll, and of course they're gonna be paying attention even more, which is what we want. And for those that are, you know, it it also helps as a minor bridge between being a camp counselor and then becoming maybe a leadership team member. If you have these opportunities now, it's not such a jump, hopefully, when when they become leadership team members. So I really, really love that. Definitely. I do have one little last one before I pass it off to to Beth. But it it really is about, you know, any effective ways to train staff members who are maybe anxious or hesitant. And and I know that has to do with community in some ways, like people feeling like it's you know, it's okay to make mistakes in this community. We work really hard at camp to to do that, but we are also inheriting staff members that are stressed out, that are part of cringe culture, perfectionism, and and and and we we need them to take that step. We need them to try, especially in an environment that you're strongly suggesting and I agree with, which is experiential, which is putting yourself out there, which is doing. So, so how do we help support those staff members in the try factor?

SPEAKER_01 35:38

It's such that is such an important topic that you brought up, Gavs. And I'm I'm really glad you did. I I always start staff training by telling my staff that you are all going to mess up this summer. I am gonna mess up this summer. We are all gonna mess up this summer. And what is important is how you deal with it and what you learn from it, and then how you move on. And then I actually I always share an example of something that I did when I messed up. And I think it's really important that we not just like teach it, but that we model it. And I think there's a lot of camp directors, a lot of leaders, not even camp directors, anyone in a leadership role that the people are hesitant to do that because you want to come off as strong and confident and successful. And it's really hard to admit our own shortcomings and where we've messed up. But I think it's really important, A, so they know that you know, it's it's not just you're not just saying it that you actually mean it. You're giving them a really specific example of something you did, and then you're explaining how you moved on and what you learned from it. And I think showing them that process is really, really helpful. So that's number one. I think it's really, really important. And then I would say throughout the week to call back to that, to even, you know, have a session where we talk about like what is your biggest fear? What are you scared that you are gonna mess up this summer? And then what would happen if you did that? Like, I do a lot of coaching as well. And whenever someone shares, you know, a fear with me, I always say, and what's the worst case scenario? Like, what's the worst thing that could happen if that comes true? And then here are all the people around you and all the systems we have in place to make sure that if that does happen, we're gonna be here to support you and we're gonna help you fix it. And so if you are covering a tough topic, like a topic that you either can see in your participants, in your staff, that there is some like anxiety around that, that staff members look scared or uncomfortable or uncertain. I think it's really good to just like name it and to say, I know this topic is really heavy. Let's talk about what would happen if this went wrong. And then let's talk about how we would deal with it. And then also I always think it's really important. And this is, I know we're gonna come to best practices at the end of the episode, but one of my best practices is, you know, check in with your staff throughout the week. And I don't expect the camp director can check in with every staff, but have your supervisors do it. Check in with staff, see how they're doing, say to them, like, what stood out to you today? What was your biggest learning moment? Is there anything that scared you from what you learned today? Is there anything you're still unsure about? And I think that's when you can really identify, okay, this staff member is panicking a bit right now and may need some extra love and attention, may need some extra coaching. And that's fine. You know, we think they can get there, but I think it's really good to just acknowledge that. And again, I know I'm repeating myself, but I like address the elephant in the room, which is this is a scary topic. And here's what would happen if you mess up and here's how we're gonna, there's a safety net to support you. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

And to say, what if it goes wrong? Like what could happen that could go wrong? Yeah. Oftentimes we don't want to talk about that during staff training. We only want to talk about how to make it go right. And the other thing that I love the, you know, asking, checking in with staff throughout training and just what did you learn? Anything you're feeling uncomfortable about. I think it's also really important to front load that at the beginning of training that you as the director will be asking these questions or that other leadership team members will be asking these questions so that they don't panic and say, oh my gosh, Gab just came and asked me what I'm not feeling confident about. I must not be doing a good job. But if they know this is something that is gonna happen already, then they're like, oh, it's my turn for Gab to ask me that question. But exactly that's that's really great. Anything else you want to say, Gab, before I pass it over for the famous recap.

SPEAKER_03 39:22

Oh gosh, I was just happy you were talking because I'm I am feverishly writing notes. Like these are these are my notes. You can't see it, team, if you're not on YouTube, but basically I've got a lot. I'm ready. I'm ready for recap time. All right, recap, recap, recap. I'm excited. Okay, team, listen, we covered more ground than I expected. Okay, and it is it is exciting stuff because the thing is is that Shocius is handing us a little a little guidebook, and and there's just a couple of things that if you keep in mind and you connect with your staff and your leadership team and and and put this together, you're gonna have a great summer. So we're gonna start at the very, very, very beginning. Where do we start? Well, let's look, reflect back in last year, and let's look at some of the must-haves. So we're not saying pendulum swinging here, but we're picking one or two must-have conversations or topics that we want to focus on throughout our whole staff training. And guess what? It could be anxious staff members. That could be one of the things that we're we're all trying to overcome together. But when you're looking at your beginning, you're also looking at the mission, you're looking at celebrating self and connecting to community. So if you're looking at your first 72 hours, start there. Now, when you're planning your entire session, your entire training, there are four categories that Beth helped us like remember, which is four different categories for sessions. So we want interactive, we want peer-led, we want pure fun, and we would like lecture. And if you're kind of like me and want a little extra challenge, Shoshi's saying, hey, why not just have one pure lecture a day? That is a great goal team. If you get, if you get that down to there, let us know how you did that. Let us know how how you experienced it. But it's a wonderful, wonderful goal. Now we're going to go back to the human, the person, that staff member. Beth and Shoshi both agree that staff are the most important people on camp. And that's because they care for our campers. And one of the things that she said was we are looking at building memories and we're looking at building confidence. And we do that through shared experiences. That's why three out of the four categories are done with people. And this is all wrapped in the glorious thing that we get to do at camp, which is fun. If you're keeping fun as a focus and individuals in your heart, you're going to create an amazing summer and staff training experience. Thank you so much for joining us today. I had so much more to say, but So you, we need to have you back on. This was fantastic. I would love to come back.

SPEAKER_01 42:03

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_02 42:06

Well, we'll get to that part afterwards when we're all done recording, book something else. But if you would like to tell us any of your thoughts either on this episode or any other, you can get in touch with us directly and we'll let you know how to do that. But you can have let us know any topics you would like us to discuss, any guests that you recommend we have on the show, any great leadership training tips that you would like to share. We're all about sharing in this industry. So we would love to hear from you. And if you found our podcast to be useful, we would love it if you could leave us a rating or a view in your podcasting app. So here's how you can connect with us. So, Gab, where can they find you?

SPEAKER_03 42:44

Listen, team, you can check out where I work at warro.com and you can get in touch with me at info at warro.com. Warro is spelled O-U-A-R-E-A-U. The vowel camp. It is. All right.

SPEAKER_01 42:58

And Shushi, how can they reach you? Yes, so you can find my website. It is workwithintent.ca. And you can also find me on Instagram at workwithintent. And my email address is srothchild. That's s-r-o-t-h s-c-h I-l-d at workwithintent.ca.

SPEAKER_02 43:19

Perfect. Thank you. You can find out what more about what I do at gocamp.pro or email me directly at Beth at go camp.pro, or I'm on threads at topaz underscore fay. And for our next podcast, we'll be talking about the skill gap nobody talks about, teaching counselors how to notice things. All right. Before we sign off, we have our usual best practice. So of course we're going to use her brilliance one more time. So Shoshi, could you give us one more tidbit of information, please?

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Yes, sure. So when I my best practice, when when Beth and Gabs asked me to, they kind of gave me a heads up that I was going Sharing a best practice. And this is the first thing that popped into my mind. I know a lot of camps survey their staff. They survey staff, they survey their staff after the end of the summer. I hope you're all surveying your staff at the end of staff training as well. But I would recommend not doing it on the last day, but doing it a day or two before it is over because that gives you time to course correct. If there is something that you missed, if your staff don't feel confident, if they are scared, if they feel like they haven't learned something, there is only so much you can do with information if you receive it after the staff training period is over. And so I really recommend to try to get it out at least 24 hours before your staff training ends so that you can use that information to course correct if necessary. But the other thing I'm gonna add, if this is okay to kind of squeeze in a second best practice. Absolutely, absolutely amazing, is that you should also be surveying your staff before staff training. Once they've signed their contract, send them a survey and ask them, what do you want to learn about? You know, what are you, what are you anxious about this summer? What skills will be helpful for you? What are you hoping that we cover during staff training week? Not only is it going to help you design your staff training week and give you an inside look into the minds of your staff members to make sure you're touching on things that are important to them, but it's also gonna show the staff that you value them and that you value their experience and that you are designing staff training based on their needs. And that says a lot about the culture, the staff culture at your camp. And it says a lot about whether or not this is a place that values staff and whether or not this is gonna be a really wonderful place for staff to work. So if you want to show your staff that you care, survey them before staff training so that you can use that information to design a staff training week that really speaks to them and their needs.

SPEAKER_03 45:36

And and that is it's such a great, it's such a great tool. We've been doing that for a while now. And when we are trying to move into a little bit more experiential, we did ask how do people learn best? And we gave a whole bunch of a list of great things. That's amazing. And of course, some of it was experiential, some of it was listening, but we were able to present those statistics to to the rest of the group. And we also presented what stops you from trying in front of other people. And we presented that and we were able to say 90% in the room, this is X. And so we're like, hey, team, together, 90% of us won't do this if. And it it really shifted how people saw they a lot of times staff think they're the only ones that are nervous to speak up. They're the only ones. When you see that 90% of other staff members struggle with that, and this is what they need from others to learn, it's a wonderful tool. So I love this best practice.

SPEAKER_02 46:32

Well, Camp Code is part of the GoCamp Pro Podcast Network, and you can check out all our other podcasts at gocamp.pro slash podcasts. A very special thank you to Shashi Rothschild for being here with us and sharing her advice, experience, and wisdom. We're so grateful to you. And to everyone else, thank you for joining us today. If you have any questions or want us to dive deeper into any part of this, reach out. We're here to help you create the best staff training possible. So until next time, keep making camp a place where young people grow, not just campers, but the staff too. Thanks for listening, friends.

SPEAKER_00 47:06

Please remember, no other industry shares their best practices the way summer camps do. If you use an idea you heard on a GoCamp Pro podcast, please be professional and remember to give credit where credit is due. The Camp Code is brought to you by GoCamp Pro. Thanks for listening, friends.

SPEAKER_02 47:27

Camp Hacker.