Summer camp is the only hope for this brain dead teen. Being outside experiencing real connections with peers would have saved her life. Don’t let this happen to more children. This digital age claim one more victim. [this is satire]

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

Help Today: Change a Life: Send a Child to Camp

Just $35 will send a child to camp for one day. Just one camp experience can positively change a child’s life forever. [this is real]

Learn About and Make a Donation to American Camp Association’s Send a Child to Camp Fund

Change a Life Today: Help Send a Child to Camp

Above photo is part of a full page ad the Conservation Fund did: Chat Room, Open Space, Instant Message

People may find it hard to believe that I spend a lot of my time as a camp director finding my employees work at other companies. It is a philosophy I think companies will start to employ as the economy turns around and the competition for the top talent heats up. Let’s face it, even if you are not a summer camp, the staff you now have don’t stay for 30 years and the gold watch as in generations past. People that work for you now may be people who end up in positions to hire you in the future. My passion has always been helping people find their best work and it happens to help my recruitment and retention because people want to work somewhere that values who they can become.

Here are a few of the things we do at camp to help our staff find another job:

Resume Writing: Lets face it, no one likes to do it and the worst time to write a resume is when you find that great job posting. By that point you should already have a resume ready to be tweaked rather than starting one from scratch. At camp we give people computers and deadlines to get draft resumes submitted and get a group of people reviewing it. This is a great time as a summer camp director or supervisor to help your employee get the bullet points for their current position written correctly.

Interviewing Tips: We do often have people interviewing over the summer for jobs in the fall. I realize a more traditional workplace may not be as open to helping an employee interview but I think this is healthy. Let’s face it. When people are looking for a new job it will be with or without your help. Lending a hand improves the workplace and makes it more likely you will be recommended to their friends as a great place to work. Employees who are supported also stay around longer. We drill our staff going out on interviews, help them gain confidence in their story and find examples that go with all their positive traits. It also helps us build work systems that lives beyond any one employee. If we talk about the fact that no one works here forever, it forces people to think about a succession plan for their position so critical information is not lost when they leave.

Recommendations: Schools, more than future employers, often want letters of recommendation. I do quite a bit of letter writing as well as serving as phone references. It is helpful if staff ask if you can provide them a “positive reference” so you don’t have to tell a less than stellar employee that you may not be their best choice to serve as a reference. I know some people are hesitant, on a reference call, to be honest when asked about an employees “weaknesses.” I am often very passionate about a person when I give a reference and it comes through on the call. I can pull-off talking about a “weakness” in a way that makes someone happy to hire the applicant. Not everyone can do that and so I would make sure you are clear on your company’s policies with regard to giving references and take some notes ahead of the phone call so you can hit your main points succinctly and with confidence.

Cover Letter: I suppose this should have been grouped more with resumes. Cover letters seem to allude me. I deal more in email when staff apply for a job than in traditional cover letters so they have not always been an area of strength for me. This post from Lifehacker, How to Write a Cover Letter That Employers Will Actually Read, and it is quite helpful. I will be adding it to my reference list to refer to as I help staff find their next place of employment when they move on from camp.

Do you have favorite resume, cover letter, job seeking sites? How do you help employees find their next job? Post them in the comments.

Found any typos? send me a note jennselke (AT) gmail.com

The American Camp Association is offering 3 Career Development Webinars in partnership with Teach for America,

You must register by noon on the day the webinar is to begin.

Part 1: Resume and Interview Workshop
January 25, 2012, 7:30–9:00 p.m. ET
Learn how to effectively highlight your knowledge, experiences, and abilities on your resume and during interviews and become better prepared for the “behavior-based” interview approach that employers are most likely to use today.

Part 2: Developing Your Leadership Potential
February 1, 2012, 7:30–8:45 p.m. ET
Learn how you can develop your own effectiveness as a leader and find out about a wide range of resources and tools for leadership development.

Part 3: Developing Your Brand Identity
February 8, 2012, 7:30–8:45 p.m. ET
Learn what a personal brand is all about and discover how to translate your educational, volunteer, and work experiences into marketable skills and values that will help strengthen your personal brand — making you more attractive to potential employers.

An additional resource for job seeing and other issues related to work check out the Brazen Careerist http://www.brazencareerist.com and their series How to Get a Job You Love. Their webinar series is not free but may be what you need to jump start your search.

Summer camp directors have long since known the benefits of summer camp on a child’s development. New research on the benefits of non-directed play have finally caught up with what camp professionals have known all along. Stuart Brown, in his Ted Talk, says play is more than just fun. On many occasions I have to defending our play time to parents. We have a very structured camp and have segments during the day that is supervised and unstructured play time. Parents, coming upon what looks like kids running everywhere, complain, “There is nothing going on. Why aren’t you running more activities?” We supply supervision as well as some tools to be used in play, like balls, games, etc. Kids seems to like rocks and sticks and dirt. They get time to run, sit, talk, and be self-directed. We all know how play changes when the adult is involved, children naturally look to the adult to solve the problems rather than working together to negotiate the conflict. Back in the day when you went out to play until the street lights came on, you had to work out everything from what games to play, who to play with, and most importantly, how to solve conflicts. If teams were uneven, you found a way to even it out, sometimes that meant changing the rules. We learned how to compromise, solve problems, argue, and communicate.

Parents are depriving children of play

Look at children today. When do they get time to play? I don’t mean on the soccer team or going to swim practice or at “play dates” where the parents are there to intervene at the moment of conflict. Parents want to spare their children the grief that can come with play and by doing so are depriving them of one of the most fundamental aspects of growing up. Parents want every moment of camp to be planned and structured because they see that as good value. I argue it is far more valuable to have a child supervised yet allowed to play in the truest sense of the word. I do understand. Camp is expensive and parents view the teaching and structure as something they are paying for. We need to educate them that part of the value is allowing their child to play with other children without adults running them through a lesson plan and an organized basketball game. Sure, there is a time for that during their day, but that is not their entire day. I think day camps can have a harder time with this since the day can be very packed. On my accreditation visits to overnight camp, I find children have more opportunities for unstructured time. Day camps have to be a bit more intentional in creating those moments for play to be child-directed and child-mediated.

Play has a biological place and is critical for problem solving and brain development

Work at the National Institute of Play is researching the benefits of play on the brain. It has been deemed so important in the creative process that Stanford has an engineering class “From Play to Innovation” They are noticing that workers who have experience with mechanics and building things with their hands as children are better engineers as adults.

7 patterns of play

Research from the National Institute of Play, working to identify the elemental forms of play, has outlined seven patterns of play that make up our play.

1. Attunement Play – the grounding basis of play when a mother and child gaze back and forth smiling and responding to each other

2. Body Play & Movement – related to human movement, rolling down a hill, standing on your head, moving your body through space for the sake of moving

3. Object Play – using objects in play like balls, boxes, blocks, is foundational for later problem solving as an adult

4. Social Play – from playing “chase” on the playground to a pick-up game of flag football, this aspect of play is integral and often the most challenging for children with social cognitive deficits like Aspergers or Autism.

5. Imaginative and Pretend Play – creating and playing in an imaginary world is essential in understanding and trusting others as well as in the development of coping skills. This can be seen throughout life as no matter how old you are, even an empty wrapping paper role becomes a light saber or sword.

6. Storytelling – Narrative Play is learned early on and often carried through a life time from a parent reading or telling you stories to you crafting the story of your life in your self-made narrative. This helps you make sense of the world, delights and entertains you. We only need to look at the popularity of shows like This American Life to see how much storytelling is valued.

7. Transformative-Integrative and Creative Play – is using play to generate new ideas. The Tinkering School is a fun summer program run by Software engineer Gever Tulley that encourages kids to play with fire, throw spears and take risks. He has a book and web site on 50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do. As parents become more attune with the value of this type of play for future work place success, they will demand it in educational and summer camp settings.

Do you have play in your summer camp?

Stuart Brown says that if the purpose is more important than the play itself then is probably is not play. Do you have time for kids to play at camp? We know this helps children learn to share, control their impulses, to reason, negotiate, and plan for the future. Have you ever had to justify play time to parents? How do you balance more adult-led and structured lessons and activities with child-directed play at camp? Do you think parents are paying for structure and teaching and they can play on their own time?

More Resources

New York Times Article Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum
US Coalition of Play
Free Range Kids (blog)
Stuart Brown says play is more than fun (Ted Video)
Gever Tulley 5 dangerous things you should let your kids do (Ted Video)
Web site 50 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do
Book 50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)

Did you find a typo? I am a poor proofread so send me a note jennselke [at] gmail.com

How NOT to Use QR Codes

I spoke at a conference this weekend and everyone was QR Code Happy. They were everywhere, like a bible at a Southern Baptist Convention.  The passion with which people were proselytizing their uses missed all the ways that they are implemented poorly. Used well, QR codes add value, delight, and surprise your customer. Used QR Codes poorly and your customers will wonder why they are even there. Here are just a few ways I have seen QR codes used this weekend that did not make sense.

1) In your email address to link to your web site
I am on my computer and don’t want to get out my phone only to find out that QR code goes to your non-mobile friendly web site. Wouldn’t it have been easier for me to click on a link to your web site in your email signature?

2) Not telling people what they get when they scan your QR code
I saw this on a banner in an Exhibit Hall.  The QR code when to their web site that was not mobile friendly. What was I supposed to do with that on my phone and why would I want to get my phone out, launch my scanner just to get a web site?

3) Pointing to a Facebook Page
You want to make sure you are going to give me something worth my time of scanning a code, something that would be hard to get otherwise. If I can type in a web address quicker, I don’t want a code.  You can already shorten Facebook addresses so if you give me: http://www.facebook.com/Megaphone I can just type http://fb.com/Megaphone  do I really want a QR code if I can type it in faster?

4) Where I Don’t Have Cell Service
I have seen QR codes on planes and train stations where there is no cell service. This only desensitizes people to the codes and they will become less interested in them. Sure, I can take a photo of the code and scan it later but is that really going to happen?  It will if you tell me what the content is and that content is of value. For example, in a magazine that offers me a coupon. If it is just information what wouldn’t I just take a picture of the ad?

5) On a Brochure
I have seen them on brochures where they link to a non-mobile web site for the organization. How is that useful? Why not link to a mobile sign-up page to either sign-up for the class or sign-up to get a newsletter or email about the class.

Marketers need to think about where the user will be when they see that QR code, how to add value and wow them, and make it easier for the customer to do business with them. Putting QR codes on everything without thought will only desensitize your customer and teach them to ignore them.

What bad examples have you seen? Start collecting bad examples on your own and we can all combat this horrible trend. Have you seen creative uses of QR codes?

I was contacted by the Washington Post to comment on the new law in Maryland that would require parental permission before kids can use sunscreen. It was the first I heard of the law.

The guidelines said, “Camp staff should limit touching the camper as much as possible. Under no circumstances should campers assist each other in the application of sunscreen.” The policy also prohibited camps from supplying sunscreen to campers.

A day later the Maryland state health department dropped all of the restrictions it had imposed. According to the articles, under the latest policy, parents will still have to sign permission forms allowing their children to use sunscreen, a policy that exists in a few other states. But the state now says that it “encourages the appropriate use of sunscreen during summer activities.”

As I told the Washington Post reporter, avoiding sun damage is the most obvious reason camp counselors help younger children with sun screen.  Most seasoned camp directors also know that sun screen in the eyes is the next leading reason why young campers need help.  Getting that waterproof/sweat proof concoction out of a screaming child’s eye is nearly impossible. Furthermore, all camps have policies and train staff on appropriate and inappropriate ways to touch children.  This applies to any camper contact such as sun screen application, teaching a child how to swim, or even administering first aid.

Do you have specific sun screen policies at camp? Will you as a result of these articles?

Washington Post Articles:
Maryland scrambles to revise camp sunscreen rules
Maryland officials scrap new sunscreen restrictions

Photo Credit [arib]

For many camp directors, these last few weeks before the campers arrive is our busiest time. Maintenance projects, supply and food orders, and staff training. It is an exciting time anticipating what we have been working towards all year. There is something magical about bringing people together in real life for a common purpose. Recently I attended a small social media conference hosted by Mashable which reminded me about what we do as camp directors to facilitate our staff’s experience. Mashable Connect, was designed to bring people together in a smaller setting where conversations and relationships could be fostered. By all accounts it was hugely successful. The Mashable team provided experiences and a setting for people to build relationships. As we do at camp, those experiences were initially directed by leaders but by the end were taken over by the attendees.  It is what we hope takes place over the summer is for staff and campers to take ownership of the process and nurture the relationships on their own.

Social media is a powerful way to connect with people but it does not fill the need for human contact. Children, teens, and young adults have been asked to do more with their 24 hours a day than ever before.  They fill their resume with classes and extracurricular activities for a college and work life that has yet to materialize. Social media provides a tool to connect with peers in their hectic and over-scheduled life. Just like the Mashable Connect group, children and teens coming to camp crave that in-person connection and relationships that goes beyond a social profile or large impersonal gatherings. I don’t think kids are less socially skilled at in-person relationships, they are time-deprived. Working with the 7 to 24 year old age group for the last 20 years I have not seen a decline in social skills but an increase in stress and future-focused pressure. Summer camp gives children, teens, and the staff who lead them the time to build a relationship that goes beyond the online profile and momentarily frees them from the stress of striving for that illusive prize.

If you have not met your life partner/spouse in college, it is likely you will meet them through work. The Gallup Organization has spent years trying to identify the consistent dimensions of workplaces with high levels of four critical outcomes: employee retention, customer metrics, productivity, and profitability. We base our management systems and philosophy at camp around this research. One of the 12 dimensions that consistently correlated with these four outcomes was having a friend at work. Not being overly social by nature, once I was able to see the business outcome of providing social opportunities for staff, I was sold. With so many workers telecommuting, the need for in person social connections is even greater.

Here are my three take-aways from Mashable Connect that may help you this summer:

Select the Right Group of People for Your Mission or Camp

Mashable did this by keeping the conference small and hand-selected people to participate based on the theme and goals of the conference. At camp we put our potential staff through an interview process to ensure we get the best balance and people for our specific camp. This is a long process but as camp directors we know this is what makes camp great not only for our campers but for the other staff. One staff member, during her interview, told me one reason she works at my camp is because I always hire people she would want to be friends with outside of camp. There is a lot of value both professionally and personally with having a friendship group curated for you by someone you trust. It is also a lot of responsibility when selecting a staff member to not only think about their ability to do the job but also their ability to fit in and be likable. If you do not have a good “likeability” radar, get someone on your hiring staff who does. It is a real talent. The most inspiring conversations I had at Mashable Connect, like most tech conferences, were in the hallways or on an excursion outside of the conference. It was the small size and select group of attendees that allowed that to happen easier than at larger conferences.

Scaffold Experiences, Proving Less Support as the Camp Progresses

Every camp director knows the value of group activities and learning. Running a 300 person staff or camp activity is not a task for a beginner. The first night of Mashable Connect, Adam Hirsch, the COO of Mashable, lead a huge activity of “speed networking.” Never easy to wrangle adults, he did an admirable job. I met a couple of people that first night that I connected with throughout the conference. As the conference went on, there were less directed activities and more time for people to self-select pre-planned activities like a Gowalla Scavenger Hunt or fireworks show. By providing the group a means to connect, people were able to break into even smaller groups based on personal interests. As camp directors we build around those introductory activities but may not always see the value in providing summer long opportunities to connect socially. I have found it to be less about me planning activities and more about providing a platform by which people can group and plan. Resident camps often have an easier time at this than day camps where we intentionally work hard to provide social experiences after camp ends at 4pm.  The goal for the end of the summer is to have empowered your staff to set up activities and to be inclusive enough to make sure anyone can join in. [photo credit 300 person speed networking: by-nc-sa/2.0 mashable.com]

Make it Easy to Stay in Touch

Social technology platforms like Facebook make it easy for staff to stay connected but it needs the commitment of the leaders to make it an extension of the camp rather than isolated people in conversation. I have seen this with the Mashable Connect group on facebook. As with the end of summer camp, everyone left Mashable Connect having spent an intense 4-5 days together only to have that typical summer camp withdrawal feeling. The Facebook group was a way to stay connected but I don’t think it would have been as successful if the Mashable leadership had not also gotten involved. Their involvement gave other members the cue that this is the place were you can continue the conference conversation. Photos and videos of the events are posted here and people are connecting around business interests and organizing their own online chats and in person connections. It is the evolution of a group when the members feel empowered to further the group culture on their own, apart from the organizers. What do you have in place for your summer camp staff?  I find that while college students use technology daily, they are less savvy in how to use it in a social group.  If you are going to use a particular social platform, take time to review it with staff, show them how to use it, and get key leaders involved. People will naturally go with the activity is so pick a social utility and build your community. Ignore it and people will branch off into splinter groups forming their own group without you.

What will you do this summer to help staff foster relationships?  What has been successful for you in the past?

Many photos for Mashable Connect, including the top photo are were taken by Michael Cummings, Dream In Pictures who holds the copyright.

Scholastic.com with New York Life Foundation, hosted a live, interactive webcast on the subject of Children and Grief. It was designed for schools however, the material was so useful, I thought it equally applicable to summer camp directors. I am sure every summer camp has had campers and even staff who have experienced a recent loss. What I frequently find, in my work in schools, is how often children deal with the same grief and loss as they enter new developmental stages. For example, a child who lost a parent when they were 7 years old may still be having difficulties coping when they are 13. Early adolescence brings new developmental challenges of identity exploration and they have to work through how that early loss has impacted them.

The video below contains scenarios from children and parents. Childhood grief expert, pediatrician, and author Dr. David Schonfeld, MD, and Chris Park, president of the New York Life Foundation, talked about misconceptions, and provide valuable advice on how educators and all other caring adults can best support grieving children—whether it’s right after the loss or years later. Scholastic also have a website with additional resources that you may want to bookmark. Children and Grief

link to video

Of course the night before my talk on Facebook Pages for Summer Camps at the ACA National Conference, Facebook announced significant changes to the product. That has come to be expected with Facebook. I teach a few online classes on social media and Facebook changes keep me on my toes. Chris Penn was featured on Fox talking about iframes, one of the new changes announced by Facbeook. He is a fantastic teacher and explains complex material quite well. Below is the video along with some additional links if you are still confused about what iframes are and how to use them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=58qnIwy9V3E

[link to video]

From Blue Sky Factory
Tutorial on Integrating Facebook and Email Marketing

From HyperArts
Tutorial: Add an iFrame Application to your Facebook Fan Page - 2011 Edition

Customizing your Facebook iFrame Application - Reveal Tabs Fan-gating & Other Cool Stuff

It is that time of the year for camp staff when Facebook becomes a buzz with who is working where this summer and in what position. My day camp is no different. The other day I saw a status update by long time staff member Amanda wrote on her wall that she was completing her application. I had heard through the grape vine that she may be doing an internship on the East Coast so I was delighted to hear she was coming back. Well, I commented too quickly, didn’t proofread, story of my life. (My poor proofreading skills actually prevent me from writing on this blog more often.)

You can read the conversation below and the resulting song. Last names have been removed to protect the guilty. I also realized, since this took place on Amanda’s profile page, that many staff may have missed it if they were not connected to Amanda. Amanda woke up to a profile filled with comments and Todd got an idea for a song.

Amanda
filling out my Blue Camp app – 118 days!

Jenn Selke
wow – there was rumors you were on to bigger and better things.
Delighted you may have room for us for another summer!

Maddie
‎”there was rumors” step up your grammar jenn!

Megan
bold maddie… critiquing the lady who says you get hired… bold

Jenn Selke
well played Megan – life skills = Blue Camp

Kevin
Correcting the boss’s grammar just might be bolder than trying to take
the striker position away from Jarrett.

Maddie
not fair! i was being funny! i’m a funny person!

Megan
Looks like the jokes on you girly ;)

Maddie
apparently….

Tassy
bold Maddie, bold. we all know Jenn’s iPhone has as good of a
spell/grammer check as her brain ;) #teamJenn!!

Maddie
not fair not fair everyone’s ganging up on me! i’m on team jenn too!!!

Megan
Perhaps a valuable life skill has been learned here hmm… see camp
goes year round!!

Yamina
if you wouldn’t say it to Jenn’s face, then i’d keep it off facebook, sweetie!!
but like we say at Cal Poly… LEARN BY DOING :)

Maddie
lesson learned! love you all!

Jenn Selke
‎@yamina I bet Maddie would say it to my face. If she works in the
office I would count on her to catch those errors of mine before they
went mainstream. Maybe she just needs to see that text comments are
seen differently than in-person comments. Fortunately I know her to be
generally kind so she will not lose her possible job over this
egregious decorum faux pas. : )

Harry
ohhh that was quite the zinger of a last sentence and jenn pulled the
egreegious card. wheres jarrett? hed be soo excited.
and yea, maddie, easy on critiquing jenn, shes the head honcho. I’d
say ive never critiqued jenn. thats how i earned s…uch a special
place in her heart…right jenn? :D BTW ALSO FILLED OUT MY BLUE CAMP
APP. COWBOYS 2012!!!

Jenn Selke
well Harry – you do keep me in my place. I certainly wouldn’t want to
work somewhere I couldn’t be challenged. You can’t have shared
leadership and not expect to be critiqued. I love Maddie to taking
such ribbing tonight. As Harry knows, the office is a rough place.

Harry
TRUE. I see a piece of paper titled Merrors in her future lol. pro
points for that comment. office is a rough place. especially zach, hes
a wringer haha.

Maddie
BRING IT ON

Kevin
Most egregious slew of comments, EVER!

Zach
NO ONE could ever replace the Harrors list. NO ONE

Amanda
well this was entertaining to wake up to

Todd
I see a song in the works…

Todd
P.S. – quiet Harry.

Liam
unreal..

Todd
Had to do it: http://audioboo.fm/boos/280199-step-up-your-grammar-jenn