Why Are You Shutting Down the Free Facebook Group You've Provided for 12 Years?
It’s FREE. Can’t you just leave it there?
In decisions like this one (and big ones we’ve had to make in managing significant change at camp…), there are often easy choices and right choices.
Yes, it would be easy. Someone else could take this over - we’re certain folks will offer.
Easy isn’t right in this case.
New Camp Directors and year-round staff don’t use Facebook. That’s who we need to serve to keep this industry moving forward and moving together.
You know how it feels when camp staff say, “But this is how we’ve always done it!”? This is that moment for the Camp Pros community.
We welcome you to join us; click here. To keep us moving together, Go Camp Pro has created this new space where you are welcome.
Frequently Asked Question:
Why don’t you give the group to someone else?
Short Answer: we’ve tried for 2+ years. No one wants to or is able to commit to the 50 hours/month of volunteer time (plus the volunteer management time) it takes to run this space safely.
Longer Answer: We won’t hand the group over to a team unless they are willing and able to make the HUGE commitments it takes to keep the group going smoothly. As Candice said in her post: in any other industry, a group this size would be managed by a team of multiple full-time staff.
Managing this group looks easy… because of the work of about 25 people who have handled the behind-the-scenes management for the last 12 years. People don’t see the anti-queer, anti-trans, racist or antisemitic posts we have taken down. People don’t see how many times per week we ask members to take down posts or comments that are against the rules. People don’t see that problems mostly arise at 10:30 pm on Friday nights.
We’ve had no one new volunteer to help since 2020. If folks cannot commit to helping the Summer Camp Professionals Group when the job is easy (split with an experienced group of moderators), we get why they wouldn’t step up now. Even at this time when folks are upset and anxious about the group closing, we have had no one step forward with a plan to do what it takes to keep the group going.
We have spoken with other businesses serving the summer camp industry about transferring the Group (businesses with 500% more staff than Go Camp Pro does)… they won’t consider taking over because of the time commitments.
We won’t allow this place that will always be associated with Go Camp Pro, and we have all worked so hard to create - you included - to devolve into an unsafe, unmanaged space on the internet.
Other Questions?
We’re sure lots of people have them. Use this form to email Travis:
