Emerging Professionals In Camping

While we’ve been known to have some pretty great folks around here, did you know that some of our staff members are EPIC?  We’ll explain – The American Camp Association has a program called EPIC (Emerging Professionals In Camping) that is designed to help young professionals in the camp industry grow into the leaders of tomorrow.

The program strives to connect emerging professionals in camping from around the country to create a network that helps educate and create opportunities for them to grow in the jobs, and also to contribute back to the larger camp community.  Through out the year, there are also several community service projects (like the food drive seen in the photo above) that members can opt to participate in.

Here at the TLC Family of Camps, we’re always looking for ways to help our staff grow and learn to better meet the needs of our camp families.  So, last month, several members of our staff had the opportunity to take part in the EPIC Workshop that was held on the Tuesday before the Tri-State Camp Conference in Atlantic City.  This year, guest speaker Steve Maguire focused on the topics of Team Building and Leadership.  Being a professional speaker and having had lots of experience with different groups of people (teachers, students, campers and athletes!), he shared stories of how he has learned to successfully create a team atmosphere while also being an effective leader and role model.  Steve was a very enthusiastic & inspiring speaker, and left the group energized.

From the first icebreakers of the day, each of the EPIC participants got to become part of a larger “team” while also learning effective ways to implement what they learned back in to their own camps back at home.

We’re excited to see how our EPICs utilize & incorporate what they learned in to the Summer of 2012!