Reflections from Midwest Jewish Camp Gathering

This past month, the Full-Time Team travelled to the far away land of Skokie, Illinois to attend this year’s Midwest Camp Leadership Network. Our friends over at the Foundation for Jewish Camps set up a wonderful conference for us to interact and learn from other Midwest Jewish camp professionals from 11 other Jewish camps. We touched on a multitude of topics including general programing, staffing and most notably conversations around difficult topics that may arise at camp this summer.

On day one, we heard from a representative at Resetting the Table who lead us through a training about reframing challenging topics, and about how we approach conflict and disagreements. She helped remind us that disagreements aren’t always a negative thing and showed us a more productive way to facilitate conflicts.

On day two we talked about what leadership looks like at camp, and how we can help our staff become strong, more confident leaders in our camp community. We touched on feedback and how our full-time team as supervisors of other supervisors’ model those expectations. We also spent some time to connect with other camps about any challenges, new and exciting things, or just updates about where they’re at for their summer planning!

It’s always a pleasure to connect with our friends from neighboring camps and we look forward to hearing all about their summers!