A Reason to Stay: Staff Retention at Jewish Overnight Summer Camps

ABSTRACT

Veteran staff members play a key role in a camp’s success. They preserve camp culture, maintain traditions, and serve important roles in the peer-training environment that camps depend on. It is not surprising, then, that camp counselor retention is important to the business of camping. This study focused on five counselors from Jewish camps in the United States, all of whom were about to return for a fourth summer. The research explored common phenomena of young adults’ experiences as counselors, how they made sense of their experiences, and their motivations for returning to camp. The data offer insights to camp directors interested in increasing counselor retention.

KEYWORDS:

• Jewish camp
• staff retention
• summer camp

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Appendix: Interview Protocol

Initial Conversation: Demographic and Other Information

1. How old are you?

2. Gender?

3. How many summers have you worked at camp?

4. Which camp do you work at?

5. How many days (or weeks) was each session at the camp you worked?

6. What was your role at camp each of the summers that you worked there?

7. Did you attend camp as a camper?

a. Which camp?

b. For how many summers?

Second Conversation: Semistructured Interview Questions

1. Tell me about your experiences as a camp counselor. You can start with telling me why you initially wanted to become a counselor.

2. After your first summer, were you certain that you wanted to return to camp as a counselor again?

a. Why? (or why not?)

b. What were the specific feelings you remember about wanting to return to camp again?

c. Were there specific goals that you had in mind for yourself for that second summer?

3. After your second summer what were your thoughts about returning to camp?

What were the specific feelings you remember about wanting to return to camp again?

a. Were there specific goals that you had in mind for yourself for that second summer?

b. Was it different being at camp for the second summer?

i. How was it different? (or how was it the same?)

4. And at the end of last summer, your third summer at camp, what were your thoughts about returning to camp?

What were the specific feelings you remember about wanting to return to camp again?

a. Were there specific goals that you had in mind for yourself for that second summer?

b. Was it different being at camp for the second summer?

How was it different? (or how was it the same?)

5. What kinds of specific skills do you think that being a camp counselor has helped you gain?

6. Did you ever feel any pressure (academic, parental, financial, other) not to come back?

7. Is there anything that you would like to add?

Third Session: Member Checking

1. Did you have a chance to look over the transcript that I sent you via e-mail?

a. If not, do it together during the session.

2. Does everything seem correct? Did I understand you correctly during the interview?

3. After reading it over is there anything that you would like to add?

4. (If applicable) I actually have a couple more questions, just to clarify a few things, is it okay if I ask you a few more questions?

Clarifying questions if necessary…

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leah Zigmond

Leah Zigmond is the Camp Director at Camp Daisy and Harry Steinin Prescott, Arizona. She received her Doctorate in Education in2017 from Northeastern University. Her dissertation was on thetopic of staff retention at Jewish overnight camps.