Speaker, Social Media Consultant and Photographer
I will Consume Less and Create More.
Our Woodstock small business consulting company - Walking Maverick
I am a Woodstock wedding & commercial photographer
I am also summer camp podcaster
Using Video to Recruit Great Summer Camp Staff
Getting great people to work at your camp is an incredibly important part of a camp director’s job (keeping great staff is a bigger issue that I’ll write more about this winter).
I found this video on the recruiting page of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (a non-profit doing amazing things for hunger issues in the developing world). Let’s look at what it does for CFB:
- It gives the organization some personality - “Hey, we’re real people, with cool ideas, who can sort of draw.”
- It shows off the true spirit of the place - you understand from the video that this is a faith-based organization that is focused on bringing food to those who don’t have enough. We now know their values
- It allows the people of CFB to express themselves- by not “enforcing” a company line but allowing the people to write their own answers this video shows off the uniqueness of all of the people who work there
- It shows (not tells) us that this is a national organization - this also adds value to a potential recruit by demonstrating that there are people from across the country involved.
- It’s FUN - good music, personal pictures, people laughing and smiling.
I’d love to work there.
Your Recruiting Task:
- Ask your staff to send you a photo from their webcams at school, their phones when visiting cool places or their cameras at home answering this question: How does Camp _______ make the world a better place?
- Take a half an hour and put it together in iMovie.
- Place it on your website under staff recruiting.
I bet you’ll be surprised at how creative they can be!
How is your summer camp using all of the tools available to recruit the best possible staff?
Idea: (From @yoyojoer and @pearcewilliams camp) Greased Gaga.
Idea: Invite your local fire department out to camp - they love to talk to people about what they do (I know because I was a fire fighter on this department for seven years). It is also a great way to be connected to your local community.
Bonus Idea: Do it twice - once for the kids and once again when it’s just staff at camp. Staff loves a chance to get to try everything out when they don’t have kids there and they aren’t concentrating on letting the kids have a great experience.
Chant: One Duck
One Duck
A classic repeating chant that is a big hit because it takes several times through it (at successive campfires or sing-songs) to memorize the higher numbers.
To teach this chant always have a couple of accomplices in the crowd so that they will automatically repeat what you do and there won’t be a need for an introduction.
**Please note: I withdraw my sharing of this AMAZING chant that kids and staff alike will love if you ever begin it with “This Is A Repeating Song”. Seriously.
Thanks to my director when I was counselling at Camp Kintail - Scott Sinclair - for teaching it to us. It is one of my favourites to lead.
Another trick from Scott - rewrite #10 to make reference to a local landmark to make it your own.
Delivery: On your feet, full of energy. When it is your turn for the next line always start with One Duck and repeat everything that you have covered so far before adding on the next number.
One Duck
One Duck, Two Hens,
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises, Five Limerick Oysters
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises, Five Limerick Oysters, Six Pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises, Five Limerick Oysters, Six Pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers, Seven THOUSAND MACEDONIAN WARRIORS IN FULL BATTLE ARRAY
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises, Five Limerick Oysters, Six Pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers, Seven THOUSAND MACEDONIAN WARRIORS IN FULL BATTLE ARRAY, Eight Brass Monkeys From The Secret, Sacred Crypt of Ancient Egypt
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises, Five Limerick Oysters, Six Pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers, Seven THOUSAND MACEDONIAN WARRIORS IN FULL BATTLE ARRAY, Eight Brass Monkeys From The Secret, Sacred Crypt of Ancient Egypt, Nine Apathetic, Sympathetic Old Men on Roller-skates With A Marked Propensity Toward Procrastination and Sloth
One Duck, Two Hens, Three Flocking Geese, Four Corpulent Porpoises, Five Limerick Oysters, Six Pairs of Don Alverso’s Tweezers, Seven THOUSAND MACEDONIAN WARRIORS IN FULL BATTLE ARRAY, Eight Brass Monkeys From The Secret, Sacred Crypt of Ancient Egypt, Nine Apathetic, Sympathetic Old Men on Rollerskates With A Marked Propensity Toward Procrastination and Sloth, Rambumctional, Dysfunctional Mayan Monks Who Murmur Maniacally Mythical Medications Amongst The Maitland’s Murky Mists.
The 2009 staff of CAIRN’s Baysville Programmes - Glen Mhor & Iona.
For more information on CAIRN please click through to ilovecamp.org.
If you are in this video and would like to be tagged please add yourself as a Fan of the Subtlevox Photography Page on Facebook (artist.to/subtlevox_photography/). Once you are a Friend of mine I can Tag you there.
Stay tuned. I’m going to offer copies of your picture for you to use, with permission, on Facebook.
Thank you to the Podsafe Music Network - music.podshow.com and Pama International (www.pamainternational.co.uk/) for the music.
A Subtlevox Photography/Walking Maverick Production
subtlevoxphotography.com
walkingmaverick.com
