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SUMMER CAMP DAILY BRIEF
The Summer Camp Daily Brief is published every morning, bringing fresh ideas and inspiration to camp professionals all week long. Mondays explore Leadership & Staffing, while Tuesdays dive into Operations & Systems for smoother, smarter camp management. On Wednesdays, our Professional Development series draws lessons from The Summer Camp MBA. Thursdays celebrate Camper Experience & Program Design, and Fridays look ahead with Industry Trends & Forward Look. Each weekend, we shift gears: Saturdays feature AI in Action, highlighting real-world tools transforming camps today, and Sundays offer the AI & Camp Weekly Summary, a thoughtful reflection on how the week’s AI news connects to the future of camp life.
Summer Camp Daily Brief
Summer Camp Daily Brief : November 14, 2025: Headlines, Trends & The Road Ahead
Good morning, camp professionals! As we move deeper into November's planning season, let's dive into what's shaping our industry today and where we're headed next. Today's Headlines Making Waves Market Growth Hits 7.5% Annual Rate The numbers don't lie: our industry is booming. With a global market size reaching $26.5 billion in 2025, summer camps are no longer just a "nice-to-have" for families. We've become essential infrastructure for working parents and child developmen
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 14
Summer Camp Daily Brief : November 12, 2025: Choose Your Response (Extended Edition)
Every day at camp, you face dozens of moments where your response shapes everything that follows. A camper melts down during activity transition. Two staff members clash over scheduling. A parent calls with concerns about their child's experience. In each situation, you have a choice. Research from Stanford's psychology department shows that leaders who pause before reacting make better decisions 73% of the time compared to those who respond immediately. That split second of
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 13
Summer Camp Daily Brief : November 13, 2025: Movement as Opportunity
Here's something that might surprise you: only one in four high school students gets the recommended daily hour of moderate to vigorous activity, according to new CDC data. Daily PE participation? Also under 25%. But here's the thing – that gap isn't just a problem. It's your biggest opportunity. While schools struggle with schedules and limitations, your camp can deliver movement at scale every single day. And the research backing this approach just keeps getting stronger.
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 13
Summer Camp Daily Brief : November 11, 2025: Cybersecurity, Continuity, and Health Readiness
Tuesday, November 11, 2025 Focus: Operations and Systems Story of the Day A cybersecurity incident forced Manassas City Public Schools in Virginia to close all buildings on Monday while they worked through the problem and restored systems. The district alerted families on Sunday night and kept learning remote until services were stable again. This isn't just another tech headline. It's a wake-up call for every camp director who thinks cybersecurity is someone else's problem
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 11
Daily Brief : November 10, 2025: Stay Interviews and Gen Z Staff Engagement
Story of the Day A new piece from Harvard Business Review this weekend highlighted research on "stay interviews," short one-on-one conversations used to strengthen staff commitment and prevent burnout. The data showed that employees who felt their leaders listened and acted on feedback were nearly twice as likely to stay through challenging seasons. Meanwhile, Forbes featured a roundup of Gen Z workplace insights. It emphasized how young employees value connection and purpos
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 10
Summer Camp Daily Brief : Friday, November 7, 2025: Camp Industry Growth and The New Rules for Staying Ahead
Story of the Day Here's a trend that camp professionals should keep on their radar: the global youth summer camp market is projected to grow significantly over the next decade: and specialization, technology, and wellness are driving much of that change. A market-forecasting report estimates the youth summer camp market will reach USD 1.52 billion by 2034 (up from roughly USD 0.843 billion in 2025), registering a CAGR of about 6.5%. What's more, other industry data point to
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 7
Summer Camp Daily Brief : Thursday, November 6, 2025: Why Camper Choice and Co-Creation Matter More Than Ever
Story of the Day Fresh research is giving us powerful validation for something many camp professionals already suspected: kids don't just need to participate: they need to co-create their experiences. This week, Education Week reported new data from the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) showing that children thrive most in environments that balance autonomy, collaboration, and challenge. The study found that when children help design parts of their own day: ch
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 6
The Summer Camp MBA : Leadership Series
Wednesday, November 5, 2025: Why Camp Is the Best First Job There's a moment that happens in every first-year counselor's summer. It's 2 p.m., the sky threatens rain, and your carefully planned schedule just collapsed. Half the cabin is restless, one camper forgot her water bottle, and you've got ten minutes to invent Plan B. You improvise a scavenger hunt, recruit the CIT to hide clues, and: before you know it: the group is laughing, running, and completely re-energized. Tha
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 5
Summer Camp Daily Brief : November 4, 2025
Story of the Day A new review from Campium highlights the rapid growth of integrated camp-management platforms: so much so that their "Top 5 Camp Management Software Platforms for 2025" article (published October 27, 2025) identifies cloud-based solutions with registration, forms, payments, staff management and scheduling all in one. In short: the systems you run behind the scenes matter...and they're changing fast. Camps that still manage registration, attendance, staff sc
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 4
Summer Camp Daily Brief : November 3, 2025
Story of the Day A new case study published in The Sport Journal has camp professionals talking: and for good reason. Researchers examined summer camp coaches and recreation staff to discover something many of us have felt but couldn't quite quantify: supervisor leadership style directly impacts staff satisfaction and retention in ways that go far beyond basic management. The findings? When supervisors offered regular input, recognized emerging leaders, and gave staff more
Matthew Kaufman
Nov 3
Youth Take the Lead: Why Gen Z's Global Activism Signals a New Era for Camp Leadership
Across the globe, young people are no longer waiting on the sidelines , they're leading. A recent Associated Press story described how nationally coordinated protests in countries such as Madagascar were powered by groups self-identifying as Gen Z, harnessing social media and grassroots tactics to demand systemic change. In many cases, these youths aren't just reacting, they're organizing, planning, and driving leadership in real time. For the camp industry, this is a power
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 31
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 30, 2025
When Universities Get Serious About AI Learning: What It Means for Your Camp Picture this: You're wrapping up your post-season planning when news breaks that Old Dominion University just partnered with Google to launch "MonarchSphere": an AI incubator designed to revolutionize how educators teach and students learn. Your first thought? "That's nice for them." Your second thought should be: "What does this mean for my camp?" Here's why this matters more than you might think.
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 30
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 29, 2025
The Moment Every Camp Leader Recognizes Picture this: you're standing in front of your staff, explaining the new activity rotation schedule. Some counselors are nodding enthusiastically. Others look politely engaged but distant. A few are clearly wondering when this meeting will end so they can get back to their campers. Sound familiar? You've just witnessed the difference between compliance and commitment. In camp leadership, we call this the buy-in challenge. It's that mag
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 29
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 28, 2025
Story of the Day , Parenting skills training literally changes teens' brains Here's something that should make every camp director sit up and take notice: A groundbreaking randomized clinical trial published in JAMA Pediatrics just proved that when caregivers learn better emotion-coaching skills, it literally rewires their kids' brains. The study followed families through an 8-week program called "Tuning in to Teens," and the results were remarkable. The 10-12-year-old daug
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 28
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 27, 2025
Why Camps Need to Think Like AI-Ready Schools: Smarter Staff Training, Workflows, and Camper Experience The school bell rings differently this fall. Walk into any high school classroom and you'll find something remarkable: 84% of students are using AI tools like ChatGPT for their assignments. Meanwhile, their teachers are scrambling to redesign homework, rethink assessments, and figure out what learning looks like when everyone has a digital assistant. But here's what caught
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 27
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 24, 2025
Story of the Day Here's a development that might not scream "summer camp news" at first glance, but it carries huge implications for how you design programs, train staff, and build that growth-mindset culture we all love. A recent article in Inside Higher Ed reveals that ed-tech companies are rapidly embedding AI into learning management systems: but not just to dump more content on people. Instead, they're creating personalized coaching experiences, real-time tutoring suppo
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 24
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 23, 2025
Story of the Day Picture this: You're sitting in yet another staff training session where everyone's eyes are glazed over, staring at slides about safety protocols. Sound familiar? Well, there's fresh research that might just revolutionize how we think about teaching: both our staff and our campers. A groundbreaking study just dropped that explores how artificial intelligence can transform learning management systems. But here's the twist: it's not about replacing human conn
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 23
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 22, 2025
Picture this: It's week three of camp, and your 20-year-old counselor Maya approaches you during evening staff check-in. "I love working with the kids," she says, "but I feel like I'm not growing professionally. At my winter job, my manager helped me learn new software. Here, I just feel like I'm babysitting." Sound familiar? If you've been scratching your head about Gen Z staff retention, you're not alone. But here's the thing: Maya and her generation aren't asking for the i
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 22
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 21, 2025
The story everyone's talking about Picture this: Over 5,000 kids in grades 3 through 6, spread across Canada, all participating in a massive study. The researchers wanted to know one simple thing, does screen time actually affect how well kids perform in school? The answer? A resounding yes. The study found that as screen time increased, reading and math scores measurably declined. We're not talking about toddlers glued to tablets here. These are 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12-year-ol
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 21
The Summer Camp Daily Brief – October 20, 2025
Good morning from camp world. Today's brief circles around one theme that's becoming impossible to ignore: how we're handling AI and automation with kids. The news keeps pointing to the same truth: tech companies are scrambling to put guardrails on AI interactions with young people, which means we need to get ahead of this at camp. Story of the Day Meta Introduces New Parental Controls for Teen-AI Chats Meta just announced new parental controls launching early next year tha
Matthew Kaufman
Oct 20
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