Subscribe to the Immersive1st newsletter for new openings and smart job search tips. Hiring? The next issue will show how your organization can reach the right candidates.
When It’s Time to Make A Change
|
September can be a split-screen month for summer camps. Most are full steam ahead into fall, getting ready for next summer. And that’s always a great feeling. But a few just wrapped July and August, walking straight into the biggest change an organization can face: an empty seat at the very top. It's what happens when a director leaves, and now the camp is making a change. Sometimes this looks like an interim director coming into the fold. And other times, a different kind of transition is needed. In the Fall, there's some time on the shot clock, though not forever time. There are two kinds of questions often being asked. 1: What kind of leader do we want in here next? 2: What should this place be going forward? When it's simply a question of getting a new leader in, an interim director will often do the job. They can walk into the camp office, take a look around, and help shepherd everything to the next person. I've watched a lot of retired executive directors do this work, and plenty of them are great at it. But when it's a question of what kind of place you want to be, that often requires a different kind of transition. And it's where a team of three, like we have at Immersive1st, works. Managing the day-to-day operations, managing the finances, and working with the board and the steps forward is all part of the work. A moment like this requires a whole different kind of capacity. The camp is evaluating how it's been operating, what it's operating as, and what it should be going forward. That deserves to be looked at in full: the operations, the money, and the governance, each with someone whose full attention lives there. This kind of move also means the board doesn’t have to bet the next chapter on any one personality. Three sets of eyes with three areas of expertise means one honest picture of where the camp is standing in the moment. And it’s worth mentioning there’s a second version of this we’ve seen before as well. A camp has a very talented number two, and that person is eventually going to take the top role. That person doesn't need a new boss for a year. They need mentorship on the operations side, financial support, and governance support around them while the transition happens. So if your camp is somewhere in that second question this fall, wondering what this place should be going forward, that's exactly the conversation to have right now, while there's still time on the clock. Sincerely, Senior Consultant at Immersive1st PS: Most of these conversations are just thinking the moment through together with a board or a director. If that's useful to you, let's talk. Learn more about Immersive1st's Approach |
Immersive1st
Subscribe to the Immersive1st newsletter for new openings and smart job search tips. Hiring? The next issue will show how your organization can reach the right candidates.
I was walking around Meadowbrook Day Camp and Willow Lake Day Camp a couple of weeks ago with a few hundred other camp professionals thinking, “It really shouldn't work this way.” These were two camps opening their doors to, in many cases, their direct competitors. Showing what was working, what wasn't, and giving everyone a very honest and open look at their current operation. These camps are selected because they run a high-quality operation, one others can, for sure, learn from. There...
40% of camps haven’t opened registration for next summer. Let me repeat that number a little louder for those in the back. 40% of camps haven’t opened registration for next summer. That’s what’s coming out of a Day Camp Community survey we’re running right now. With the fall leaves changing colors, two out of five camps haven’t opened literal or figurative or online doors yet. I was shocked at this number, considering trick-or-treaters are about to knock on doors and winter holiday gear is...
Camp people are artists. I can say that confidently because I know artists. Heck, one of them is working out in my garage right now. My wife, Alison, is a potter. She runs her studio out of our garage. For a year and a half I tried to convince her to work with Sophia's team on social media marketing for the business. During that year and a half, which felt long, every time Sophia came up Alison had a version of the same thing to say. It was something like, "My pottery should speak for itself....