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Pets
Yup, we have quite the menagerie here currently!

Prior peeps
Each has been their own person, for sure. That said, in terms of execution of their role/duties, they generally didn’t struggle. The person in this role can’t struggle executing their tasks — this is a central / keystone position, and the person needs to be fully competent out the gate. And, Augusta isn’t breezy for anyone; at times it was the long season, environmental conditions, internal patience for unprofessional behavior (not outwardly shown though), and generally the nature of Augusta having so many areas and so many puzzle pieces.

Calendar
April 1st to mid-September is the time folks are here. Programmed groups are May 1st through Labor Day. There’s a training before the season of 10 days, and about 3 weeks of opening and closing the site (about 2000 hours of work).
From training through Labor Day, the work is solid — 6 days a week. During the summer, the days off are between sessions.
End Sep and Oct – folks take most or all of that off. Nov starts hiring again, and some registration work.

Lake
FYI, our lake is totally dry, and has been for a month. Never happened like this before, so a mystery, but we usually do lose the lake after about 6 weeks of the summer. That wasn’t true 5+ years ago, but has been lately — who knows.

Days at camp
The days here are much closer to “getting things done” than strolling around or randomly joining various activities. Everyone is involved in at least one, and often two, programmed elements of the day — teaching a clinic, running a Playstation, playing an evening program, doing a story experience, etc. Outside of that, it’s meeting with people, preparing to meet with people, scaffolding people, and doing all the behind the scenes work of camp. The day starts at 7:30 (or earlier), and ends at 10pm. We very much want folks to stop working at 10pm, and generally most everyone does (counselors sometimes work on wookies and PLs or a wakeup idea while sitting around chatting).

Year-round staff
Year-round staff besides myself (Randy) and Kerry (part time) — 4 in hiring, 3 in office, couple site folks, and some other peeps that do specific tasks while they have another job somewhere else usually.

Here’s our staff training from this year.

Calendar / Remote
Outside of the main season – end of April through Labor Day-ish, being on site is not required. That means you could be anywhere in the world the rest of the year.
Hiring work isn’t completely discrete in terms of days. If applications are live or international agencies are active or a key lead comes in, that happens on the weekend when it needs to, as we lose people when we’re not quick / active. There’s a team, and it is a very small one.
Remote is also true in terms of community connection — you’re not around folks, so the connection is digital and infrequent.

Eyes are bigger than our stomach
At average camp scale (250+ campers), there is an economy of scale that allows for considerably more resources. Running a crazy-long staff training also doesn’t help. And, our wonderful (and costly) summer staff ratio.
Augusta maintains quality program gear across the board, but many other places around camp — charmingly rustic. 🙂
The other side of that seesaw is that Augusta is small enough to know one another, and that intimacy is worth loads to the people who are here.

Timesheets
Timesheets — folks track their time; what they’re working on, and how long they’re working on it. We don’t do that when we’re here / during the extended season, but we do outside of that. Here is the template for Project Based Timesheets.

Counselor ages
Most counseling staff = 21-25. They’re learning to be human, as we all are, and in that age range, there’s often a particular kind of learning to be human. 🙂 That can be an enormous joy and opportunity, or being pecked to death by ducks, or both. 🙂
We rarely have 20 year olds, and even more rare, 19.

California – double-edged sword
Environmental realities – Northern California – a beauty, and also a bear. We literally have bears go through camp nightly (and mountain lions in the back 40), but that’s not what I’m talking about. 🙂 Temperatures have risen (we track them), and we can get a couple weeks of the main season in the 95-100 range, sometimes a little higher; that’s rough. We receive no rain (usually), and that makes eating outside and programming easy, yet the lake being present for more than 3-4 weeks requires an average rainfall. Air quality can be a thing, and we’ve had to evacuate all campers and staff. We’ve also had to curtail programming numerous times, and evacuate staff outside of the main season.

Capital funds annually
We raise between $100K ~ $125K a year, which we utilize for capital projects. We don’t have a huge pool to draw from, as Augusta is quite small — 100 campers at a time, over 6 sessions, and family camps.
We generate about the same from operating income.
We have a solar field with about $150K loan left, and a house/property with about $300K left.
Big ticket items we’re wanting . . .
– $700K to replace the director’s house – we have enough to engage this project.
– $200K to replace a bathhouse (need 2 replaced, so $400K total)
– $300K to replace the camper cabins
– $175K to Create an arts area
– $175K to Replace shop
– $50K Nurse’s cabin remodel and add +2 bedrooms (one for nurse, one for isolation)
– $50K Manzi Bathhouse Remodel
– $45K to build a red-iron shade structure over the horses / arena area
– $150K for larger program improvements
– $750K to have a nest egg / endowment that has no earmarks — its presence is to ensure the longevity of Augusta for generations to come.

Other things to ask about later . . .
– “KM” file
– Clinic and Hero schedule