Group Leaders

Typical duties include:

• Waking up the counselors

• Making sure campers/counselors are going to breakfast

• Supervising room clean up

• Inspecting the campers rooms

• Daily duties include:

  • Going to "group" meetings​

  • Taking attendance

  • Going on rounds 

  • Organizing and delivering mail

  • Supervising Evening Recreation

  • Supervising laundry 

  • Performing office hours

• Taking or overseeing recreation activities​

• Head On Duty (HOD):

  • Wake up, class announcements, and curfew calls​

  • Dining room duty

  • Camper/counselor curfew 

  • Nighttime supervision 

• Evaluating counselor performance ​

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Details: 

WAKING UP COUNSELORS: Some counselors will not need waking up as they have an alarm and are responsible enough to wake campers at the elected time. Others will need waking up and sometimes more than once. After waking the counselors, the Group Leader (GL) goes down to eat early breakfast. When Head On Duty (HOD) announces wake up, the GL goes back to their floor. You do this so you can relieve counselors who's campers are not ready to go. The counselors will go down to breakfast and you are the adult supervision for your floor (some counselors will want to go back to bed after they wake up their campers- this is not allowed).

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GOING TO BREAKFAST: All campers and counselors must go to breakfast (unless it is the counselors assigned day off). As you are already on the floor, check that no one has gone back to bed. 

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SUPERVISE CLEAN UP: Stay on the floor and check that counselors are supervising clean up of their campers' rooms. Counselor rooms must be neat and respectable as well as your own! 

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INSPECTION: Inspection is done at the start of morning rehearsal. Each room is "scored" using a scale out of 10 with points deducted for clothes on the floor, messy bathroom, waste basket not emptied, etc. Make a score chart and display it in the lobby of your area for all to see. If a room is scored badly (less than a 6) on one day it is a warning. If it is bad the next day, the campers must stay in during Afternoon Rec until it is cleaned.

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DAILY "GROUP": Each day at 10:30am, all the GL's meet with Barb to discuss the activities of the day, individual floor problems, any issues from the night before, etc. 

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DAILY AND SPECIAL DUTIES: After room inspection, daily activities are incorporated into your schedule. The day you are HOD, you will do rounds to check that all counselors are where they are supposed to be. Other duties divided between the group leaders include: 

• Mail will be sorted and labeled every morning by assigned counselors. The GL will then distribute this mail during mail meeting. Any packages need to be opened in front of the GL or counselor at mail meeting. 

• Posters, decorations, and planning will need to be done for the evening activities. 

• Laundry is sent out once a week on Monday for the campers in laundry bags that are provided and assigned to each room. The GL in charge of laundry must remind all counselors/campers on Sunday that laundry must be in the lobby by breakfast the following morning. Laundry is then returned on Thursday and the GL in charge of laundry must remind campers to get the laundry out of the lobby. 

• Trips off camp require school buses. Each bus should have a GL or a responsible counselor who takes attendance and keeps order. No bus should leave to or from camp without role being taken at least twice. 

• Recreation is split into two times periods-afternoon and evening. Each time will have different activities scheduled and it is the GL who keeps things running smoothly and on time. Throughout the summer, GL's are assigned ahead of time to activities to keep things organized and safe. Available counselors are also assigned. 

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HEAD ON DUTY( HOD): Every day one of the GL's is in charge of the daily running of the activities. This includes: 

• Wake up and meal calls on the loud speaker

• Dining room duty: At each meal it is the HOD that makes sure that the counselors who are on duty have arrived. It is the HOD that checks to be sure that there are no campers missing. It is the HOD that is in charge of trouble shooting issues that may arise. 

• All GL's eat early meals-especially when on HOD

• Class attendance needs to be supervised and absent campers must be found

• HOD carries around night time snacks for the counselors and checks to be sure all is well

• HOD must be in the lobby when counselors return from night out to be sure that everyone who has left has come back and they have come back as functional human beings 

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EVALUATING COUNSELOR PERFORMANCE: Every session GL's must write a short report on each of the counselors, just as counselors write one on the campers. This is to communicate who is doing well and who needs more supervision. 

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Summary:

You will need to be flexible and understanding throughout the summer. You will have to cope with many varied problems. Counselors may come to you with problems and hassles, this may be a simple problem like scheduling, or it may be a personal problem like homesickness. With campers, the GL will play the heavy and the counselors will play the friend. Listen to the people around you. Join in with what they are doing instead of always being the one telling them what to do. Let them know when they are doing great, not just when they need to be corrected. 

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You have to remember to laugh! This is a fun job! You are going to meet exciting people from other countries and you are going to see more theatre than perhaps you have seen in your whole life. Working with kids, making new friends, and watching magic unfold around you - what a great way to spend the summer! 

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