Jack's Camp Friends Newsletter |
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Camp is a super tough sell when you really think about it.
Parents just drop off their kids with people they don’t know. Pay sometimes hella money. Trust a bunch of teenage strangers. Let their hearts and souls disappear into the woods.
Meanwhile, coding course down the street with a clear pitch: “Your kid will learn Python.”
Sports club? “Professional coaches will improve their jump shot.”
Academic enrichment? “PhDs teaching advanced math.”
Those programs are easy to explain. The value prop is right there.
Camp’s value is real.
We know camp shapes kids. But articulating why parents should trust us with that experience? That’s harder.
I’m really feeling like the answer isn’t claiming we’re experts in everything.
It’s understanding where our expertise actually lives and how it connects to what parents and researchers already definitely know.
Quick Ad Break:
Last summer, when I was new, The Campanion app photo updating was a lifesaver.
Learned a whole camp’s worth of faces for the summer.
Onboarding was super easy, plus registration was a snap.
The Triangle of Expertise
Check out that very accurately-drawn triangle that doesn’t at all look like a kid wrote it.
Three corners: Camp. Your kid. Science.
Parents are the experts on their kid.
Researchers are the experts on youth development.
Camp directors are the experts on their camp.
The job isn’t claiming all three types of expertise. The job is understanding how your camp connects to the other two.
Own Your Corner
For starters (and maybe enders): You’re the expert on your camp.
How it runs. The culture, the traditions, the best activities, that one loose floorboard in the dining hall.
You know what happens in a full session at your camp. Which moments create legit breakthroughs, and which are just poppin off camp fun.
You know your staff. Your values. Your environment.
No one else has this expertise. Not parents. Not researchers. You.
This is real expertise. Operational, cultural, experiential. Own this 100% completely.
But it also means knowing what this corner doesn’t include.
Not the expert on someone else’s kid. Not the published expert on the latest developmental research. You’re the expert on this camp and what happens here.
That’s a foundation. Everything else is about connecting to what others know.
Connect to What Parents Know
Second corner belongs to parents.
They know if their kid is anxious in new situations. They know if their kid struggles with transitions or thrives on them. They know their kids’ friendship patterns, emotional needs, what works, and what doesn’t.
You don’t have that expertise. They do.
Your job is drawing the connection between what they know and what you know.
When a parent says “My daughter gets overwhelmed in large groups” I’m not at all trying to diagnose anything (like at all!) No way I know a kid better than a part.
But I’m definitely trying to connect. “100%. I totally get that. Here’s how cabin time works at K&E. Also, our activities and free periods look like this, which handles all kinds of social energy.”
Taking their knowledge and showing how it maps onto camp.
Not being the expert on their kid. Being the expert on how camp connects to what they already know.
Not “Trust Me, I Know Kids!!!!”
More like, “Hey, here’s how what you know about your kid connects to how we run camp.”
Connect to What Research Shows
Third corner: the science.
Self-determination theory. Attachment research. Social-emotional learning. Risk and resilience.
Researchers are the experts here. Not me. I just know how to read.
Always trying to understand how camp aligns with what research shows matters for kids.
“Research clearly shows that kid-driven play helps kids learn how to make decisions. Here is how free play works at camp.”
“Did you know on average kids sit for 7 hours a day? At our camp last summer, kids walked on average 20,000 steps.”
I’m not out here conducting research studies, which, by the way, I would be terrible at. Just working overtime to connect the dots.
Showing how what happens at camp aligns with what researchers have proven matters.
Because often parents are asking some form of, “Is there something real happening here, or is it all just nostalgia?”
The answer can often come from connecting camp to the science that’s already floating out there in the world.
Drawing the Lines
Three corners. Three types of expertise.
Your camp→your expertise. Their kid→parent’s expertise. The science→researcher’s expertise.
Don’t need to own all three corners. I think we just need to understand how our corner connects to the other two.
And then making those connections clear.
“Based on what you know about your kid” + “what research shows about development” + “here’s how our camp works” = parents loving camp.
Own our corner. Draw the lines. That’s enough.
You got this,
Jack
Kind of a Big PS:
Work with me (part-time & remote)!
Ambitious camp pro looking for your next big thing?
Run social media for everything we're doing:
- Camps Kenwood & Evergreen
- The Summer Camp Society
- Other publishing plans we have cooking
- Me?
This job is perfect for someone who wants to work super effectively, get connected to lots of camp people, and catapult your career.
Full Job Description
Do this for a year, crush it, and I’ll go to bat for you to land your dream next job.
Application window is super short.
Apply here by 10 pm EST Thursday Nov 20th.
Let’s do this!