Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here Aging is kind of a scary thought, right? To be honest, I’m not so interested in getting old (however you define old!). And camp is for kids, so it’s a bit weird to talk about what happens decades and decades later. Except that growing up and eventually getting wrinkled is one of those unavoidable things, so here we are. Science on longevity is all over the place, and I’m definitely no expert here (though I do follow Brian Johnson on Twitter by way...
7 days ago • 3 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here One of our campers this summer was an elite U13 quarterback. This kid has a cannon. High schools recruiting him. Getting all the accolades, all the attention that comes with being really good at one thing. In the world, he’s a football player. Plain and simple. But at camp, he did a lot of different things. Played ping pong. Shot basketball. Spent time at arts and crafts, laughing constantly. He still has to compete for sure, played U15 flag...
14 days ago • 3 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here Let’s get this out of the way. I like my phone. I love being able to text camp pro friends (Hey Sam! Hey Carolyn! Hey Lolo!), see what’s happening in the world, make quick connections with other folks, answer parent questions instantly, all of it. Phones make running camp waaaay easier in a million different ways. But (probably) like you, I spent loads of time this summer thinking about phones and camp at the same time. Screen time. Snapchat....
21 days ago • 4 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here I screwed up this summer. Not in some, "Yo! Call the insurance company!!!" way. More like a missed opportunity. Something I can kinda see clearly now, but was pretty blind to when the summer was starting. It’s late August, so a bunch of us camp folks are in that post-summer, deep breath, looking back window. Summer still burning fresh in your memory, but hopefully you’ve put your feet up, took a load off, and gotten enough distance to see what...
28 days ago • 3 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here Summer’s over for many of us. The final bus drove down the road, the last parent came for pickup, A&C is cleaned up, ropes and harnesses put away, soccer balls all back in the containers, Lost & Found emptied. Quiet. Done. Deep exhale out. Look, we can go on all day about the magic of camp. Life-changing moments. Skills kids develop. Basically running childhood development boot camps disguised as fun. Yada, yada, yada. We all get it. But can we...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here Man, it’s so crazy that camp is coming to an end. And you know what that means, it’s almost time to start thinking about it all over again. I know, I know. “Jack, give me a freakin’ break. We’re barely done with this summer, and you’re already talking about next summer.” Yeah, I get it, but here’s the thing, right now, while camp is still happening in your bones, is when all the best stories live. It’s when you remember exactly why what we do...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here When you're owning, running, or just working at camp, it can be easy (and necessary) to get real data-heavy real quick. Are we hitting our revenue targets? Is the food budget working for each week? Did the new activity equipment get delivered on time? Have we filled all of the camper weeks for the summer? Do we have the right staff-to-camper ratio at the waterfront or archery course? The list of things to count, add up, subtract, or dig into can...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here If you work at a summer camp (honestly, most of this list), the middle of the summer has a certain vibe to it. The excitement of staff training and Session 1 has worn off. You've dealt with every issue under the sun. The staff are falling into routines, the kids know exactly which counselor will let them get away with what, and weeks of summer still stretch ahead. We always talk about this as the Mid-summer slump (I even called it this last summer...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter Subscribe Here Working at a new camp this summer, I’ve had a ton of “first” conversations. Meeting parents for the first time. Meeting staff. Meeting families coming on tours, looking for a new camp home. For me, it’s been weeks and weeks of these first conversations. You know the kind. In a lot of ways, summer camp is all about conversation. There’s a lot (a lot!) of talking that goes into this job. I love it. But I’ve noticed something in these conversations,...
2 months ago • 4 min read