Category: Mario’s perspectives
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Experts Unplugged: Leadership in Camping
I had the pleasure of kicking off a leadership speaker spotlight series ahead of the Tri-State Camp Conference. Joanne Newborn from Newborn Evolution, in collaboration with ACA New York / New Jersey, is highlighting the stories and perspectives of select 2024 conference speakers, and I was delighted to chat through some of my favorite musings…
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The 3 things Mohawk Day Camp got ABSOLUTELY right
A start to a new year is a great time for reflection. Reflecting on my time as a Division Director at Mohawk Day Camp this past summer, here are three things Mohawk got ABSOLUTELY right. Summer Staff Structure Mohawk employs hundreds of seasonal staff members each year; training, motivating, and retaining these young adults is…
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The Power of Expeditions – Interview with Clay Colvig
Clay Colvig from Colvig Silver Camps The phrase “summer camp” evokes a very specific image for many people – large campfires by a lake, eating in a mess hall with hundreds of other campers, making life long memories in your cabin. But what if there was more to overnight camping than this conventional picture? Recently…
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Feedback at Camp – Interview with Sarah Horner Fish
Feedback is a gift. I expand upon this concept highlighted in a previous blog during a recent interview with Tom Sawyer Camps’ Executive Director Sarah Horner Fish. What stood out most about Tom Sawyer’s counselor evaluation process is that staff are consistently providing each other structured feedback. Rather than merely receiving feedback, as is the…
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Camp’s Golden Metric
In an earlier blog post and in this podcast, I mentioned adoption of a single golden metric as a tangible practice that camps can learn from Corporate America. As a reminder, a golden metric is the key measure of success for a company, defining the relationship between the customer problems and the company’s offering. Golden…
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The Dream Camp Director
After speaking with 50+ camp directors and traveling the country visiting camps, I’ve developed a sense for what makes a camp director succeed. With this perspective, if I were to craft my dream camp director, I’d call upon six components from these camp standouts… The heart of Shibley Day Camp’s Heath Levine – Just as…
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What Camp Can Learn From Corporate America
Last post, I wrote about the 3 lessons that corporate America can learn from summer camps. In this post, I’ll describe the inverse… the three largest lessons that summer camps can learn from the traditional business world. 1) Feedback is a gift – seek it out The single most important lesson I learned at Stanford’s…
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What Corporate America Can Learn From Camp
Summer camps have a lot to teach the traditional business world. As one of the most long-standing and recession resilient industries around, summer camps have gotten some things absolutely right. I believe the three most important lessons that corporations can learn from summer camp are: 1) Improvisation wins the day The late, great John Wooden…
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The 3 things Camp Champions got ABSOLUTELY right
17 summers spent singing songs and stampeding through the wilderness has solidified camp’s place in my heart. I’ve spent the last two years at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Graduate School of Education looking critically at what makes camp so powerful. This summer I traveled the country visiting day camps and overnight camps, trying…
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The First Blog – Goals
To tip things off, I have three goals for this blog: To practice putting consumable content out into the world To document my unique and evolving perspectives on the camp industry To stay connected with the camp community Goal setting is a crucial component to both the business and camp worlds, but that importance will…
The Camp Consultant 