Many people ask us, “What do you do in the winter?”. Well, we get to hang out and wait for summer! Just kidding- There are LOADS of items that have to be done year-round in order to run a smooth and successful summer camp. This winter has been particularly busy, which is great.
So what are we actually doing? Well for starters, there is a lot of admin work and keeping in touch with existing families and staff. Then, there are the big task of hiring staff for next summer and doing outreach to get new families to ILC. In the fall we redesigned our camp brochure and promoted the Spirit of Independent Lake video, produced this past summer. This winter ILC has attended over 40 camp fairs for campers, even more home & school visits, and 6 hiring fairs for staff. Admin work again…Organizing staff paperwork, answering questions from potential families, answering questions from counselors, registering new campers, & updating camper and staff manuals and resources for families.
We will attend the ACA Tristate Camp conference in March where we get to take continuing education workshops and learning lectures as well as network with other camp directors and camp professionals.
Winter is also a time for us to review last summer, come up with plans of actions for next summer, and start on improvement projects and ideas. We are adding additional parts to our water obstacle course splash trax. We are adding a whole new department this summer- Nature department- that we are so excited to bring back (after more than a 15-year hiatus). And of course, we worked on getting out a new revamped website!
