worked with a child who pushed all of your buttons did a really hard job/distasteful task shared your faith in an awkward situation shared your faith in an easy situation put someone else's needs before your own. We then ask follow-up questions like -- What happened after? Tell me more. How did it effect you or your life? What would you do differently if you could relive it? Returners -- What were your top three goals for last summer? Talk about achievements and failures. What are your top three goals for the upcoming summer? What will you do to achieve them? How do you find great international staff? We have used Camp America for International placements and have generally been pleased. We are looking for some very specific skills and so have a limited group from which to choose, and we will only choose from candidates who are from countries. We conduct at least two Skype interviews with International candidates. We also have a friend who is a former International staff member (still comes back twice a year to help with camp and a New Year's reunion we do) who lives in the UK and helps us by following up with all references. What mistakes have you made in the past and what do you do now? Two mistakes we have made: Giving in to the desire to make long-time campers (and their parents) happy by allowing them to get "passed along" through a leadership program where they don't truly belong, as well as hiring them when they are of age, but they don't really have what it takes to make the transition to staff member. At our present camp, we made the mistake of re-hiring the 2011 summer staff on the recommendation of the 2011 program director (who was to be the 2012 program director) for the 2012 season (our first season at this site). My husband, the ED, had been hired to make some sweeping changes to the program and the way the summer youth camp was run. Most of these staff members had grown up at the camp and their families had a long history of camp involvement; they were NOT the people calling for change :). If we were to fall into this situation again, we would have everyone re-apply and would start from scratch with and re-hires. Those same staff might be hired back but with eyes open to what would be happening and how they could help.
What mistakes have you made in the past and what do you do now? It was very hard not to just hire a person after an interview and checking were warm, bubbly had all the right answers—but now we talk it out make sure we see them with the group of staff we already have, try to see what they are bringing to the table. Making sure we didn’t over/under staff – with numbers rolling in until the first day of camp (or later) having enough but not too much staff is always a challenge Now –we work much harder on making sure of the what each staff member can do/help/bring to camp—our overall goal is once orientation is over each staff member is able to manage the group, work out when things aren’t going the right way and improvise as needed. Johanna jsievers@jcys.org I use a lot of high school students for camp counselors. I always email the Guidance Counselors at all the local high schools in the area for them to distribute to students and to hang flyers in the schools. For interviews I always do one on one. I like to throw in a fun question to help them relax and also to really make them think! My favorite two are: If you were a crayon, what color would you be and why? If you came with a warning label, what would it say? – this one always stumps them! Angela Angelar@limerickpa.org Where are the best places to find quality staff applicants? In the past, we have just walk in s or advertised on our website. We are looking to do a job fair this spring. We have used the local colleges as I typically like to hire education majors. How do you run your interviews (one-on-one, panel or group)