Big Idea: Know Your Limits

Hi everyone,

So today I thought I'd just take a moment to let you know what the biggest thing I learned in my first year of being a DDCD (Ditzy Day Camp Director). The biggest thing you need to know is your limits.

Trust me, day camp or any camp is super crazy. Your office (if you are lucky enough to have one) has a revolving door, the phone keeps ringing, problems arise, parents need to speak to you, it rains, kids get bloody noses or huge goose egg bumps on their head, the schedule gets lost....the list just goes on. As prepared as you can be, you'll never fully be prepared for all the things that are going to happen and the problems and issues that will arise. So, I'm not saying this to discourage you or make you feel more overwhelmed but to suggest you get help....AND LOTS OF IT.

The biggest lesson I learned last year was that I can't do everything, as much as I want to, or try too, I can't do everything - and neither can you. I sometimes like to think I'm super woman (and the fact that my dad's ringtone for me is the superwoman song - helps to add to the allusion), but the truth is that we all need help.

So I guess the thing I'm trying to encourage you with is, that you need to know your limits. Try to be as realistic as you can and realize you can't do everything. Ask for help, search out help and then use that help. If you have trained your staff and assistant director (if you have one), then you need to trust that they can do it and trust that they are capable. And trust me...if they have a problem, question, concern, mistake they will come get you. Asking for help doesn't mean you are lazy or not involved...it means you are wise enough to realize you can't do it all and you are smart enough to know when you need help. If you try to do it all, you'll burn out, or break down and your staff and volunteers will think you don't trust them or have faith in their abilities.

Now trust me, I am the biggest ditzy day camp director out there. I forget my own lessons. I do. This summer we started a new leader in training program called Counsellors in Training and I thought to myself this is going to be a lot of work but that's okay...I can do it...I wanted to organize it all and put it all together - plus since it was sorta my baby, I didn't really want to give it up. Thankfully, I have a great boss and friend who kindly came alongside of me to say, "Tori you can't do this too...you need to let someone else coordinate it." And as much as it stinks to have to give up the control, I know he's right. I'll scream it from the roof tops now, "I NEED HELP!"

Okay...that sounded a little worse then it was meant too. I'm super happy we've hired an awesome coordinator to run the CIT program and I know it's going to be awesome!

So through my mistakes and life lessons I hope you learn this big lesson of knowing your limits and asking for help.

Good luck finding the perfect people to help with whatever it is you need help with.

Yours,

The Ditzy Day Camp Director

Deep Breaths

Deep breaths everyone...yes...it is indeed June! Just saying it gets my heart racing and makes me feel sorta nervous. I've never bitten my nails before...but part of me wants to get started.

If you're anything like this Ditzy Day Camp Director and you're planning for day camp right now, I know you must be going crazy with all the preparations you need to do. I know I am.

I have

• t-shirts to design
• t-shirts to buy
• busses to book
• trips to pay for and choose
• counselors to hire
• promotion to do
• curriculum to plan
• staff training to organize
• flyers to hand out
• Jr. High camp to figure out
• Leadership in Training programs to start
• websites to update
• emails to answer

And the list could go on forever and ever - well for myself at least. I hope your list is slightly smaller then mine and you are slightly less frazzled and crazy then I am.

Just know that you aren't alone and there are many of us out there running around like crazy trying to plan in the few short weeks we have left.

Anyways I just wanted to send out an encouragement note...now that it's June (oh wait there is that panicy feeling again), and say you can do it! I also wanted to let you know that you should check back often because in the midst of all things crazy day camp I am planning on posting a ton of helpful hints, websites, resources etc so that I can try and help you as much as possible because I know how crazy this can be.

Anyways I'm off to go figure out how to start, plan, figure out a L.I.T. program....I'll update you with what I find and what I figure out soon.

Hang in there....38 days left till camp!

The Ditzy (going crazy) Day Camp Director

Protection: Protect Your Kids

Whether you are a day camp, an overnight camp, a vbs, or you simply work with children it is incredibly important you protect your kids. Parents want to know they are sending their kids to a safe place where they know your volunteers and workers are screened individuals.

Doing police checks is important, but it's not enough! Your staff and volunteers need to be trained in reducing the risk of child abuse and how to adequately protect children.

The greatest resource I've found is Winning Kids. And yes I have an invested interest in them (because my mom is the President), but there really is nothing else out there that is as good as them.

Winning Kids does police checks and training in order to help you protect your kids, protect your workers, and bring peace of mind to the parents.

So on that note, I wanted to let you in on a promotion they have right now which could save you tons of money and help you protect your kids, your staff, your camp.

Right now they have a promotion for unlimited online abuse prevention training for $149 for one month and additional months for only $49. This is a huge savings! Usually these online trainings cost $25 per person. If you are planning on training more then 6 people you will be saving money for sure! Most camps, vbs, day camps, day cares have way more then 6 people ... I know we do. These online trainings are the perfect way to make sure your staff and volunteers are adequately trained to reduce the risk of child abuse. NOTE: This offer expires on June 3rd at 5pm...so hurry before it's too late!

Features:

- Unlimited access to on-line abuse training

-Addresses all key aspects of abuse prevention

- 30 days to complete the training

- In one sitting, the training takes approximately 2 hours

- Individual registration and long on for each volunteer or staff member

- Certificate issued upon successful completion of training *80% pass

- Notification sent to program leader upon successful completion

This is definitely a great resource to check into at www.winningkidsinc.ca or 1-877-455-35555.

Please note: This is not a paid advertisement. It is simply me trying to share a great resource with you!

Have a great day, I'm off to plan, plan, plan.

The Ditzy Day Camp Director

Staff and Volunteers: Dealing with the Toxic Volunteer and Screening Volunteers

Hi Chickadees,

So today I say these two resources on twitter and I found them super informative and helpful and I wanted to share them because I thought they might just help you too. I learned so much!

Both of these articles deal with volunteer screening and management. Most day camps have some kind of volunteers and volunteer management can be a crucial aspect to your job description.

Volunteers can be the most amazing resource and the most frustrating part of your job. And trust me when I've said I've had to deal with both types.

When you get a great volunteer they can be simply irreplaceable. We had this one volunteer last summer, Red, and she was fantastic. She was so helpful and willing to get involved. She never complained and was always there to help. I honestly don't know what I would have done without her. I wish I could hire her to be my full time assistant.

But in the past I've also had to deal with the lazy, irresponsible just frustrating volunteer. I hate to say it but sometimes you wish they wouldn't volunteer. But the problem is that sometimes these volunteers have been around longer then you have, they are board members kids, they went to that camp as kids, or they are well liked. So you have to make sure you handle the situation with tact. In her article, The volunteer as bully = the toxic volunteer, Jayne discusses the perfect way to deal with these individuals. She provides a list of tips and tricks to make sure you don't step on too many toes and don't provoke the bully volunteer.

Jayne's Trips and Tricks

• Document everything so that if you have to go to senior management you have evidence of your concerns.
• Be consistent with rules with all volunteers.
• Be willing to loose the bully volunteer and be ready to deal with the backlash with tact and decorum.
• Don't trash talk the volunteer, EVER.
• Look out for misinterpretations or misunderstandings of your actions and correct quickly.
• Don't think the situation will resolve itself on its own. Be proactive.

This is just a brief list of those tips and tricks...head over to her article and read it for yourself to get further information about each of Jayne's tips.

The second article is also written by Jayne and it's about Screening volunteers for attitude. In this article Jayne talks about how you can screen volunteers to make sure you get the best possible ones. Here she provides assessment questions that can help you make sure you get highly-responsible, long-term volunteers with good attitudes. Head over to the article to see the long list of questions Jayne provides.

Here are the actual hyper links...

http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/research/rvol75.html

http://www.charityvillage.com/cv/research/rvol73.html

Special thanks to Jayne Craven's for writing these super helpful articles, Charity Village for posting these articles on your site, and Winning Kids (aka Melodie Bissell - my mom) for tweeting about them.

For other great articles, sites, and resources about providing safe environments for your kids check Winning Kids Twitter Page or website.

I hope and pray you can find dedicated, passionate helpful volunteers this summer.

Yours truly,

The Ditzy Day Camp Director

How to: Create a Website (if you don't have iWeb)

So don't fret dears without a Mac, I didn't forget about you. If you have a PC and you're interested in creating your own day camp website by yourself here is a website that could help.

http://www.weebly.com/

I have used this one before and it is super easy and free. It's not as easy as say iWeb on the Mac but it the same premise of drag and drop. There are many templates and content elements that you can easily re-arange. One of the great features is that it all done online so you can use a Mac or a PC and you can do it at any computer anywhere. Another great thing about it is that hosting is included (you won't have to pay for a domain host).

Now the one downfall of weebly is if you use their hosting services you're email will end with .weebly.com. So for example it would be campfun.weebly.com. If you don't care about that, then it's no problem. If you don't want it to end with the .weebly part you can use your own domain hosting but I'm pretty sure you'd have to pay for that.

But it really is a great source and super easy to use. Head over to weebly.com and check it out.

How to: Create a Website Using iWeb

So this is a follow up post to my last one, creating a website.

So our day camp website campsenda.com was made by your's truly the ditzy day camp director. I have no website design skills and no technology skills. Seriously, I am a the technologically illiterate ditzy day camp director but I managed to put this website together in a few hours (okay a bit more then a few but that's only because I'm a perfectionist). Trust me it was SO easy.

Now I own a mac and I was introduced to this amazing program called iWeb.

Trust me it is as easy as designing say a scrapbook. You just drag and drop all the things you like onto the page.

There are all these great layouts and designs you can choose from, or you can just make your own.

Using this program you can add pictures, audio, music, videos, clipart and tons of widgets. And all you need to do to put them in is drag and drop them on the page.

Don't know what a widget is? Don't worry, neither do I. :) The dictionary says it is a a small gadget or mechanical device, esp. one whose name is unknown or unspecified. Still not sure what that is but it basically means you can add internet tools like a countdown clock (we have one of these on the main page of our website), youtube videos and much more.

Some other really cool feature are the fact that you can create a blog, create hyperlinks to outside sources or your registration sheet, and set it up so people can email you right from the website.

Then after you're done designing to your hearts content you fill in the site publishing information.

Note you might need a little help from your internet provider or from a domain company for this information. And then you click publish site and you're done!

Yep, it's that easy! Plus Apple has step by step instructions, question forums, and a how to video on their website. Hope that helps you design a beautiful website. I'd love to see it when you're done - send me a link or post below.

Now don't worry if you're not a mac user...I'll look up some helpful websites and do it yourself website design and post it soon.

Have fun learning website design.

The Ditzy Day Camp Director

Creating a Website

So since this is my second year going at this I sorta know the things that work and the things that didn't work a bit better.

One of the things that was a great marketing tool was a website. People heard about our camp for the first time because of the website. It also was a great forum for posting updates and information, and pictures so parents and kids could see.

Now creating it was a pretty scary thing because I have no experience in creating a website or in website design. Now if your camp is anything like ours you might not be able to pay a big fancy company to make it for you.

So this is the time for you to knock people's socks off with the impressiveness of a website.

Head over to our website campsenda.com and I think you'll be impressed by the look of a website thrown together by a 20 year old student with no website or internet ability.

Son't worry it's super easy! If you don't have technology, internet, website design skills no worries. It's super simple and easy to do. I'll post a follow up blog with what I used to create ours.

P.S. let me know what you think! What do you like or what don't you like? I'd love to hear your input.

The Ditzy Day Camp Director