Superb Staff Training - with Paul Kupferman - The Camp Owners Podcast #4
One of the best investments a Camp Owner can make is time spent on building a great staff training.
For a lot of full-time camp owners and professionals, staff training is the best part of the job.
Many of us got into this industry because we love to teach and work with youth. Then, the cold hard realities of budgets, insurance and property tax sets in and it feels like we lose a bit of what inspired us to get started in the first place.
Staff training is our chance to reawaken that love of teaching, playing and mentoring. Not only that, but when you give your staff a truly remarkable training experience, they will be best set up to deliver a truly remarkable experience for the campers.
Great training = great staff = great camper experience = camper retention = happy budget.
Simple, right? Maybe not.
A great staff training takes an incredible amount of time and intention to make incredible. Not only that, but a good director will constantly be looking to innovate to best serve their staff and keep the material fresh, engaging, inclusive and relevant for all ages and abilities of learners. It can be mentally exhausting to feel like you have to start from scratch every year.
Luckily, you’re a smart director and listen to Podcasts like this one!
To help you build the best training you can, Kelly is joined by Paul Kupferman from Catalina Sea Camp. Paul is a deep thinker when it comes to staff training. He’s shared his wisdom at many camp conferences and we’re glad to have him here with us for this episode.
Tune in to hear about:
What is Paul’s camp origin story? - How did he fall in love with camp?
What the perfect start to staff training looks like?
What are some of the biggest “don’t do’s” for staff training?
What tools can you give your staff to help them retain the absolute TON of knowledge they need to know?
How can technology help your pre-staff training and even during staff training?
How do we help different aged staff properly connect with each other?
How to empower your staff to take on leadership during training with a mini-conference
What will you do to intentionally set up? Let us know in the comments!
What Inspires You? - Things that inspire our hosts and guests to be the best Camp Owners they can be.
Kelly: Brene Brown’s Podcast - Unlocking Us
Paul: A compassionate mindset from the Executive Director of the organization. You’ll have to listen to this one. It’s great.
Host Links:
Hosts:
Kelly Schuna, Owner - Hidden Pines Ranch
Guests:
Paul Kupferman, Summer Operations Director, Catalina Sea Camp
Thanks to our sponsor - CampBrain!
CampBrain provides management and registration software to camps and conference centers. Serving 1200+ camps since 1994, with a dedicated staff of 45+ providing personal, caring support and building beautiful, intuitive software.
For more information visit them at https://www.campbrain.com/
What is the Camp Owners Podcast?
Whether you are a Camp Owner, an aspiring camp owner, or a lover of some of our other Go Camp Pro podcasts, we’re so happy to have you here.
The Camp Owners Podcast is here to explore a side of the summer camp world that is experienced by those that have the privilege of running an independent program.
In this world of camp, the stakes are high. Not only do private camps have the same goals, aspirations and responsibilities that other camps have, but there is also usually a ton of personal livelihood on the line. When you OWN a camp, you really do own the successes and failures that any for-profit enterprise faces.
On this podcast, our hosts, Howie Grossinger and Kelly Schuna will be joined by some seasoned prime camp professionals to dive deep into the issues that most private camp pros will need to face, and the best practices that they use to create, and sustain a summer camp for their campers to enjoy summer after summer.
In season one, tune in to the podcast monthly to hear about topics like Camp As a Business, Camp Insurance, Buying and Selling Camps, Work/Life Balance, Pricing, Staff Training & Engagement
Thanks for tuning in! If you have any feedback, please get in touch with our producer, Matt at matt@gocamp.pro.