Finders Keepers

Revise all publicity materials. Whether these materials are for campers, parents, agencies, prospective donors or prospective staffers, they are potential staff recruitment tools. Materials should include

• full-color trifold brochures (for applicants who may have no first hand experience with the camp);


• electronic slide shows (for prospective staffers who wish to get an instant overview of the camp and its program);


• single page pdf fact sheets written in a Q and A format (for those seeking more substance and facts than the imagery provided in a slide show, or for those being recruited at a distance, or blindly from a bulletin board posting or a campus placement office);


• a web page (for general camp information, of course, but also with reserved sections for new and returning staff; should include Frequently Asked Questions, as well as an interactive component;

All materials should include current web, social network (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), email, and snail mail contacts.

Contact staff from the previous three summers. Get those new publicity materials into their hands (including extras to hand out to friends). Let them know what they can look forward to in the coming season. Contact them in person; they will be flattered that the boss is reaching out to them personally. At this time you may also consider contacting rejected applicants, or those who did not accept a contract with you last summer. The time may now be right for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Also, specifically seek out those staffers who transitioned to your camp from another. Ask them, "Who at your old camp would be an asset to our program? Who was a great performer?"

Use reference forms from those staff that performed well. Contact their references, stating how pleased you were with their referred applicants. It is rare that a person asked for a reference will ever hear back from the employer! They will be flattered to learn that a student they recommended met all expectations. Then, ask if they know of other young people in that organization who might be interested in working at a summer camp. In some cases, these references may be college faculty members who would agree to posting your camp's materials in their classrooms or on their department bulletin boards.

BONUS: Recruit the references. This is especially effective if references are in certified positions that are difficult to fill (such as waterfront and nursing). Some individuals who work with students during the school year are likewise free during summer months, and my be seeking employment as well.

Have college students post flyers or distribute brochures to placement offices at their colleges. Your top staffers probably know and associate with other top students. These college kids can also help to publicize camp at colleges prior to planned visits. Ask if the placement office maintains a list of students who have expressed an interest in summer camp employment. If such a list is available, students can be contacted via email, snail mail, or telephone.

Many colleges now post all job opportunities on digital forum, where they can be accessed by students 24 hours a day. See if this is an option, and if you can have privileges to post your own job openings.

Contact national service fraternities such as Alpha Phi Omega or Circle K, an affiliate of the Kiwanis Club. These organizations are always looking for service opportunities. If your camp is in any way involved with youth programs during the school year, enlisting help from these organizations may lead to summer employment opportunities. A local leader of one of these groups may be able to recommend candidates for camp work.

You might also consider contacting volunteer organizations such as Youth Service America. Local chapters may be able to identify young people looking for summer employment, or they may be able to provide volunteers on a limited basis for an isolated project or program related to camp (such as organizing a camp library, creating a camper clothing depository, planting a garden in spring, or clearing or maintaining trails and campsites).

Locate and become involved with local networks of youth leaders. Many have full responsibilities for teen programming during the school year, but they may be seeking meaningful experiences for these same kids during the summer months.

Hold a staff reunion, but invite staff from the two previous summers. Also, encourage every staff member to bring a friend. Be sure that the event utilizes video and other media to highlight the memories and traditions of camp. If a large percentage of a camp staff is from a particular geographic region, you may even consider providing transportation from that area. Timing this event during Halloween or the Christmas break will encourage more staff to attend. Remind staff to bring their memory sticks with pictures for downloading, and their old photos for scanning.

Go to "the source" for specialized staff. This means shopping for recreation personnel at universities which have rec programs, posting ads at YMCAs and colleges which sponsor water safety instruction, etc. Browsing past applications will provide you with several sources for future recruiting. You may find that a former nature director, for example, volunteered for two years at an animal shelter. A call to that shelter might produce another like-minded individual.

If yours is a Christian camp, contact local churches and youth pastors. Church leaders will want to see their teens find meaningful work in an environment which supports the teachings of the church. This may lead to a reciprocal relationship if that church is willing to follow up on seekers in their local area.

Recruit from those groups which utilize your camp in the off-season. They are already familiar with the site, and if they've had a good experience there they are more apt to send their teens.

Sponsor training events at your camp, and recruit from those that participate. Some training events, such as ropes course certification, may require that the camp have specialized facilities. This training may also require a substantial investment of money which may need be recouped from participants. Other types of training, such as Project Wild and Project Learning Tree, are offered through government agencies free of charge or at minimal cost. Training events typical attract students who are out to improve their skills set; these are the students your camp needs! Do not recruit those participants who you know to be signed staff of another camp or agency.

Offer your camp site and recreational resources to local colleges. Sponsor training events during the school year which would be of interest to those students majoring in Recreation, Education, Social Work, Biology (nature studies) and related disciplines. The colleges themselves may provide the required personnel if the camp provides the facility at cost.

Offer camp personnel (especially the Camp Director) as guest speakers to colleges with programs in Christian Education, Youth Leadership, Education, Recreation, and related disciplines.

Update your website to include a staff section for returning and prospective staff. As a part of this site, design a series of interactive, self-checking quizzes. They may be strictly for fun, or they may quiz a potential staffer on their "camp smarts." Possible topics:

• Survivor! (given a brief scenario, such as being lost in the woods, test-takers are asked to choose from a number of options, only one of which would guarantee survival)


• Rules of the Game (given a sport or traditional game, test takers are asked to "make the call" based on that sport's rules or specifications)


• Master Scout (given a number of outdoor/nature challenges, such as the identification of poison ivy, the test takers are asked to chose the proper response)


• History Repeats Itself (test takers are quizzed on the history of the camp, from its earliest roots to its more recent happenings of the past summer)


• Body Parts (shown just a snippet of a body part, veteran staffers are quizzed on its owner's identity)


• CSI (Camp Staff Investigation requires test taker to identify staffers whose images have been fractured, stretched, blurred, or otherwise morphed beyond simple recognition)

The site should allow staff to enter their emails and be notified when new challenges or photo albums are posted.

Provide contracted staff with preseason training. Many staffers get restless once they're signed; they truly want to get back into it! Sending them to local training events is simple now that the Internet has made conference and workshop information so easy to access.

Offering CPR and First Aid classes at the camp's expense is a start. Camps with ropes courses should consider training and certifying facilitators; camps with Waterfront personnel who are certified to train lifeguards should offer that as well; organizations can be brought in to provide training in environmental and nature education (see #14 above). Sell your training opportunities as a genuine benefit of your camp staff.

Many agency camps (such as the YMCA and the Salvation Army) rely upon off-site personnel to recruit their campers. Remind your face-to-face contact people in these departments that the camp hires high school students. Many of these workers have had relationships with their client families over several years, so they may be able to recommend teens with whom they have had first hand experience. Have your agency plan a day for these professional staff members at the camp so that they can experience for themselves what the camp has to offer.

Interview your best staffers from the previous three years. They can provide valuable information for recruitment, marketing, and program.

What made you finally say yes to working at our camp? What was the deciding factor?
(This can help you to identify those "triggers" which will lead to a "yes" when recruiting those students who are considering multiple offers).

What lesson did you learn at camp that you can apply to the rest of your life? (This will yield information which can in turn be relayed to prospective staffers. It helps them to consider the whole of what the camp experience has to offer them. Some are wondering, "What will camp add to my resume?" Many prospective staffers at religious camps may be wondering, "How will this camp allow me to serve God?" Information from your former staffers will prepare you to answer both questions).

What is your single best memory of camp? (This question definitely yields "selling points." The answers to this question remind you what your particular camp has to offer in comparison to all the rest. This question may also begin to provide you with ideas for the "Essential Experiences" which you would like all campers to enjoy during their stay. If several staffers mention, for example, that their fondest memory was the night beach volleyball game, then that might make for an excellent Essential Experience for the oldest campers' cabins).

Design a "Junior Staff' camp experience. This all-expenses-paid experience for teens that are too-old-to-be-campers yet too-young-to-be-real-staff will allow these "future" staffers to experience aspects of many camp jobs while allowing you to observe their attitudes and behaviors.

Provide feedback to rejected applicants. When rejecting applicants or discouraging those who have little chance of making the "final cut," provide them with constructive feedback on what they must do to become "qualified." If possible, suggest "parallel" job opportunities (such as corps day camps) which may provide them with the experience which will allow them to come back better qualified. These applicants, if treated with respect, will, in fact, come back.

Provide a work-study option in conjunction with your state higher education association. This will allow in-state students to receive matching grants of around $500 for their work at summer camp. Pennsylvania camps employing Pennsylvania college students, for example, can go to Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency for information on how to get involved. Other states may have similar matching funds.

Some camps have also partnered with local colleges to grant credits for students in programs related to work at camp (recreation, education, socail work, psychology). Such partnerships should be heavily publicized.

If you operate a resident camp, you may want to consider offering training sessions to day camp staff. This allows you to promote your camp as an authoritative source in the service of youth. It also allows day camp staff to experience the camp first hand. These staffers may, at some point, recommend campers for the overnight experience. Another advantage is that many day camps do not run through the entire summer. This may allow you to recruit these staffers if there are unforeseen shortages (firings, resignations) or foreseen openings (early return to university).

Create traditions which set your camp apart from other experiences. Traditions create memories, and memories create loyalty. Many camps rely upon sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, to fill both the camper and staff rosters of their camps for years to come.

This isn't some New Wave or hippy suggestion. I simply mean this: go to the Internet and, without typing your camp's name, try to find it in a Google search.

Imagine you are a college student looking for a summer job (not even a camp job). Which search terms would you use? Try a search using those terms and see what results appear. Do any of these generic results hold a possible market strategy for your staff recruitment?

Now try doing a Google search using more specific terms for a summer camp job. Again, what are the first results returned? Is your camp's name among them?

Keith Schoch is a 6th grade Reading and Language Arts teacher in Bedminster, New Jersey. During his 20+ years in teaching he earned a Masters in Instruction and Curriculum, served on the New Jersey Department of Education ESPA Mathematics Item Review Committee, piloted tests for Educational Testing Service, assessed candidates for The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, and was named a Governor's Teacher of the Year.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Keith specializes in professional development for organizations such as the New Jersey Education Association (NJEA), the New Jersey Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development (NJASCD), the New York State Reading Association (NYSRA), The New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS), and the American Camping Association (ACA). He also shares his expertise with colleagues through three highly acclaimed blogs: Teaching that Sticks, Teach with Picture Books, and How to Teach a Novel.

Keith is also the author of The Salvation Army Eastern Territory Camp Staff Orientation and Training Manual which is used in Salvation Army day and resident camps throughout the Northeastern United States. He continues to be involved with that organization's camping ministry through leadership development and staff in-services on such topics as behavioral interventions, programming, training, and camper and staff recruitment. During the summer, Keith serves on the leadership staff of LakeView Day Camp in East Brunswick, NJ.

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