evaluations

[runrachrunn]

do your camps have some sort of formal evaluation process for staff? if so, who does your eval, how often, and how happy have you been with them this summer? also, what did you learn about how you do your job?


At our camp, we have informal meetings with our direct supervisor 4x a summer and 2 formal meetings (evals). The head of swim did my eval, but they were signed off by the unit head of the unit i was working in, and the waterfront head. My second eval was definetly better than the first, which is what i've heard from most people. I think what I need to work on between now and next summer is my level of creativity. I'm so not good at designing or planning programs.

[Dave]

We have a mid-summer and end-of-summer evaluation. Our division head gives them, and they're approved (signed) by us and the camp director.

[camper]

ours are done in the middle of the summer, right after visiting day, by your respective group leader. at the end of the summer if there was anything we greatly improved on or did worse on, we are told. thats pretty much it haha.

[Fleur]

We have mid-summer evals, and then a second one at the end of our contract. Unit heads eval counsellors, specialty heads eval their assistants, and the specialty co-ordinator evals the specialty heads.

[prettysocks]

We have one eval at the end of each 10-day session, done by our sr. counselor, and approved by the head counselor. The 3rd (and last one, for many staff) is written by the head counselor and camp director, with suggestions given from your current sr. counselor.

I'm always very pleased with my evals! The vast majority of people are, because if they are doing something that a sr. counselor/head/CD isn't pleased with, they will discuss and fix it immediately. If the problem, after being discussed, isn't fixed, or is still happening without trying to fix it, the staff member will be fired. My camp is to important and busy to take crap from staff.

[rockinsmiles]

We are suppose to have "sit down evals" every other week, but that never happens. Who gives the evals is devided up by the director, assistant director, lead counselor, and our adventure program coordinator. This year I didn't like my evals so much. Mainly because the evals are suppose to be done at the end of the week long session. Well mine were done with campers around (of course not close enough to hear us) and never really had anything new or of much help to me on them. So it wasn't a big deal to me they just weren't that helpful this year like they were last.

[CAMPFRIEND]

I wish I had more time to do evals. We do one during training, one mid-summer and end of summer. We do have two staff meetings each week and I think that helps when I talk with the staff as a whole!

[Campy Measius]

Hey Campfriend,
An eval during training? What do you cover in that?

We do a formal written eval mid summer and end of summer. This past summer I also did an informal verbal one after the first week just to give some feedback and to get the staff comfortable with the idea of an evaluation. I also encouraged them to ask any time for feedback on their performance, and many of them did which was nice. I had a great team though, so evals were pretty sweet for me to do.

[YUrocks!]

We do an eval at the end of training - for a number of reasons:
- most staff are young and are not used to receiving feedback so it is a chance to get people used to the idea of having an open and honest conversation about how things are going and to help further the relationship between the evaluator and the staff member. It is also an opportunity (or should be) to have a very positive evaluation to start the summer off on a high note (really - how bad can you mess up during training?!?) and to motivate the staff by reminding them why you hired them and what you see in them that will be a good example for other staff. It is also a chance to deal with any "red flags" that arise during training.

We then do a formal eval at the end of the first week, mid summer and end of summer. This is combined with many random informal chats. It's always hard to find the time but so worthwhile!

I've also created a peer/self evaluation tool where the staff meet with their peer mentors each week to set goals for the next week and discuss how they did at working towards their goals the week before. This works exceptionally well with older staff who are on their way to teachers' college or other careers and are really looking to learn and grow.

If anyone is interested in exchanging evaluation tools, just PM me - I'd love to share!

[runrachrunn]

Camp attempted to put together a peer-mentor program this summer but it fell flat... I think it's so hard for kids to be mentors to each other when the age difference is so minimal, as is the difference in experiences.

[YUrocks!]

Camp attempted to put together a peer-mentor program this summer but it fell flat... I think it's so hard for kids to be mentors to each other when the age difference is so minimal, as is the difference in experiences.

Our peer mentor program was for staff to mentor one another. It wasn't set up to be "I'm the mentor and you are the mentee" it was a mutually beneficial relationship. If you are interested, I could send you the program I developed.

[Mouse...]

We don't really have a set time. If a problem arrises or a staff member is performing poorly the director or A.D. will speak with them. Everything flies by so fast it's difficut to have set times.

[campCardinal]

Our group heads perform evals on each staff member of that unit twice each summer. Once is during the middle of the summer... and then the second one is the last week.

They're pretty informal. Mine have never had major issues or concerns, just a "you could do this better" type thing. I'm sure it's different for people who have big things to discuss whether good or bad.

[Campy Measius]

Hey YU I would LOVE if you sent me the program you developed! I'm always looking for new ideas, and I was just saying to one of my staff tonight that I would love to do something along those lines. :)