worked with a child who pushed all of your buttons did a really hard job/distasteful task shared your faith in an awkward situation shared your faith in an easy situation put someone else's needs before your own. We then ask follow-up questions like -- What happened after? Tell me more. How did it effect you or your life? What would you do differently if you could relive it? Returners -- What were your top three goals for last summer? Talk about achievements and failures. What are your top three goals for the upcoming summer? What will you do to achieve them? How do you find great international staff? We have used Camp America for International placements and have generally been pleased. We are looking for some very specific skills and so have a limited group from which to choose, and we will only choose from candidates who are from countries. We conduct at least two Skype interviews with International candidates. We also have a friend who is a former International staff member (still comes back twice a year to help with camp and a New Year's reunion we do) who lives in the UK and helps us by following up with all references. What mistakes have you made in the past and what do you do now? Two mistakes we have made: Giving in to the desire to make long-time campers (and their parents) happy by allowing them to get "passed along" through a leadership program where they don't truly belong, as well as hiring them when they are of age, but they don't really have what it takes to make the transition to staff member. At our present camp, we made the mistake of re-hiring the 2011 summer staff on the recommendation of the 2011 program director (who was to be the 2012 program director) for the 2012 season (our first season at this site). My husband, the ED, had been hired to make some sweeping changes to the program and the way the summer youth camp was run. Most of these staff members had grown up at the camp and their families had a long history of camp involvement; they were NOT the people calling for change :). If we were to fall into this situation again, we would have everyone re-apply and would start from scratch with and re-hires. Those same staff might be hired back but with eyes open to what would be happening and how they could help.
worked with a child who pushed all of your buttons did a really hard job/distasteful task shared your faith in an awkward situation shared your faith in an easy situation put someone else's needs before your own. We then ask follow-up questions like -- What happened after? Tell me more. How did it effect you or your life? What would you do differently if you could relive it? Returners -- What were your top three goals for last summer? Talk about achievements and failures. What are your top three goals for the upcoming summer? What will you do to achieve them? How do you find great international staff? We have used Camp America for International placements and have generally been pleased. We are looking for some very specific skills and so have a limited group from which to choose, and we will only choose from candidates who are from countries. We conduct at least two Skype interviews with International candidates. We also have a friend who is a former International staff member (still comes back twice a year to help with camp and a New Year's reunion we do) who lives in the UK and helps us by following up with all references. What mistakes have you made in the past and what do you do now? Two mistakes we have made: Giving in to the desire to make long-time campers (and their parents) happy by allowing them to get "passed along" through a leadership program where they don't truly belong, as well as hiring them when they are of age, but they don't really have what it takes to make the transition to staff member. At our present camp, we made the mistake of re-hiring the 2011 summer staff on the recommendation of the 2011 program director (who was to be the 2012 program director) for the 2012 season (our first season at this site). My husband, the ED, had been hired to make some sweeping changes to the program and the way the summer youth camp was run. Most of these staff members had grown up at the camp and their families had a long history of camp involvement; they were NOT the people calling for change :). If we were to fall into this situation again, we would have everyone re-apply and would start from scratch with and re-hires. Those same staff might be hired back but with eyes open to what would be happening and how they could help.
summer-camp-hiring-roundtable.docx