Best Practices

Arrival & Orientation at Camp

Meet & Greet

First impressions are long lasting! Encourage returning staff to meet and greet new arrivals. An immediate support structure promotes smooth transitions and begins the orientation process in an effective manner. Ask your camp leadership (unit heads, program directors, etc.) to set an example by reaching out to international staff.

Orientation

Create effective orientation strategies. Use experiential exercises and role-playing examples, provide handouts and conduct meetings, rotate group composition and group sizes to encourage maximum exposure. Provide staff with enough time to process information between each orientation activity. Downtime also allows for greater participation, discussions and social interaction.

Play Time

Use traditional camp activities to educate staff further and to break up the potential monotony of orientation. It is possible your international staff members may not be familiar with popular games like capture the flag or Simon Says. This is a great time to teach them, so they can soon play with their campers! They may have a similar game they want to teach the group too.

Integrate

While you will need to set aside time to train counselors in their specific duties, you should try to conduct as much of the orientation with the entire staff as possible. Whenever you break down into smaller groups, double check that every group includes both American and international staff. 

Throughout the Summer

Basic Needs

You are responsible for providing international staff with appropriate housing, three nutritious meals a day and a stipend for the duration of their contract dates. If your camp shuts down for weekends or for a few days between sessions, please make sure that participants are not left without food or shelter during this time.

Staff Meetings

Everyone appreciates having someone to listen to them. Set aside a specific time for staff to offer feedback about camp on (at least) a weekly basis. Let them know you’re there to guide them! Whenever possible, incorporate staff suggestions into camp life. Staff meetings are also an excellent time for you to address ongoing issues with your staff.

Personal Evaluations

Take a few minutes to sit down with each staff member after a reasonable adjustment period. Encourage each person to do a verbal self-evaluation, then add your own praise and/or constructive criticism. If you are not happy with a staff member’s performance, say so! Honest, diplomatic conversations prevent future conflicts and misunderstandings. Be sure to end the meeting by offering positive reinforcement and concrete suggestions for improvement, whether related to job performance, engagement in American culture or general interactions.

Staff Lounge

A space that is designated as “camp staff only” is a nice way for staff to meet peers, relax and take time to re-energize. This is a great place to allow staff to access their electronics, or other items that are usually limited throughout the work day.

Computer or Phone Time

Provide participants with access to devices where they can email or contact friends and family back home. Please try to accommodate them in the hours when their family will be awake! Not everyone will be able to contact their families between 10 and 12 PM EST. 

Off-Camp Transportation

International staff generally do not have access to vehicles while at camp. Before the summer begins, have someone research the most time- and cost-effective ways to provide staff transportation.

Some possibilities:

• Run a camp van into town or to the nearest bus station once a week.
• Speak to a rental car company about discounted rates for the summer.
• Invite staff who are off-duty to join campers going on out-of-camp trips.
• If you provide use of bicycles, please confirm the safety of the roads and discuss bike safety with your participants. Helmets and lights must be provided if participants will use bicycles as a method of transportation.

Time away from camp relaxes and reenergizes your staff! Please try to be aware of if your International staff are getting left behind on time off. The number one complaint we see in our check ins with staff is lack of access to transportation off camp property, and an unhappy staff member may choose to leave camp early.

Laundry Services

If there is no laundry facility on camp property, please provide your staff with information on and transportation to the nearest laundromat.

At the End of the Summer

All staff members should receive any/all compensation prior to leaving camp. The compensation amount is listed on the job offer you sent to them and can be viewed at any time. Please look into the best ways to pay international staff so that they can access the money for their travels. This may be cash from their paycheck or a paycard of sorts.