Change continues to be in the air as we seek to grow our team again. Everywhere I have served on a year-round camp staff, people always ask, “What do you do the rest of the year?” It’s no surprise that people don’t understand the work of program evaluation and development, research and development of new programming, recruiting, recruiting, (and more) recruiting, and the complexity of working with multiple licensing and accreditation agencies. It is amazing to me how much energy in the fall, winter, and spring it takes to make eight weeks of the summer successful. A big part of our ability to continue pushing summer programming forward year after year is developing the internal capacity to continually look at what it takes to be 10% better than we were last year.

I love this question because everyone has an answer for it—it’s easy to narrow down on a couple of small enhancements. If we can improve by 10% every year, after 5 years, that is a lot of meaningful change.

The recent staff reconfigurations are bringing us closer to creating the space on our team to ask and pursue that 10% improvement question. Bringing a year-round assistant director on board is an important step in that direction.

We are seeking an experienced camp professional to serve alongside our camp director in delivering on the mission of the State YMCA of Michigan and Camp Hayo-Went-Ha on Torch Lake. This position will serve as the primary program leader in the summer and work as part of a team of leaders supporting our fall, winter, and spring program needs. This position will play a key role in preparing for a successful summer program in camper and staff recruiting and ongoing program development.

Find more information on our website.

Growth through challenge is not just for campers; I’m excited about the opportunity this position will create for us to continue finding challenges, growth, and the best camp programming out there!