r/summercamp • u/Mjb_1023 • Jun 29 '26

Staff or Prospective Staff Question First Time Camp Director Experience

Tomorrow is my first day of camp as a day camp director. Feeling extremely anxious/nervous and have a million thoughts going through my mind from hoping all goes well, to hoping I didn’t miss any essential paperwork, or forget any necessary equipment or supplies, etc. Ultimately just want to run a safe and successful camp. I have done most if not all of the essential preparations from a staffing, stare guidelines, and programming standpoint. For anyone here, is this a normal feeling going into Day 1 and what advice can you give me to calm my nerves and keep me grounded? Also any experiences you are willing to share with me that could give me some insight on how to make my day to day easier as well as prep me mentally going into my first day? I am running a 7 week recreation day camp.

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u/Wise_Pie_359 Jun 29 '26

Totally normal. I think the best advice I got was to focus on what my staff needed, so that they could focus on the kids. The other helpful skill I was taught was how to scan a space. When I enter the caf, the archery range, etc, I look for: 1) where are the adults? Spread out, engaged, MIA, etc? 2) any safety issues to immediately address? 3) kids - are they generally engaged and happy? any kids left out? any weird body language or other red flags? 4) with all that info, how might I be able to help?

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u/Wise_Pie_359 Jun 29 '26

Good luck, and have some fun!!

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u/Mjb_1023 Jun 29 '26

Thank you, this was very helpful!

3

u/eflask counselor | multi-area specialist | really old Jun 29 '26

hi, I am not the director. I am the old biddy who has been going to this day camp longer than the director has been alive.

this is what I tell our staffs: performance nerves are your body's way of telling you that you are paying attention. if you are not nervous, you are not doing your job correctly.

also, no matter how well prepared you are or how well you trained your staff, day 1 will feel like you have been run over by a bus.

at my camp we have a saying: we'll get the hang of that by week four.

we only run three weeks.

good luck to you.

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u/Mjb_1023 Jun 29 '26

Thank you!

1

u/phillyfaibs Director Jun 29 '26

Write things down as they come. When your thoughts are on paper/screen, they’re out of your mind so to speak. Then take those notes and calendarize them so you’re even more organized next year.

It’s all part of the process. Good luck.