There is no time better to be a Camp Director who appreciates technology. The sheer number of programs and technologies related to all aspects of a director’s job is staggering. I was a camp director long enough to remember my first colour computer and the first time I used dial-up internet from my office in the camp courtyard.
I was no longer a camp director by the time I owned an iPhone, but I am married to a director, and I often think of the tools that would make her camp life (and yours) a bit easier.
Dropbox
Dropbox is the “easiest way to store, sync, and, share files online”. By automatically setting up a folder on your computer that gets sync’d between as many computers as you need (plus your iPhone), Dropbox makes it easy to access your most important files. I also use Dropbox for a simple backup folder for my address book, Lightroom catalogue and 1Password database. You start out with a limit of 2GB of free storage but you can buy more.
For a camp director, often on the road for promotion or home visits, having access to your most important files can make your job a lot easier.
Tweetdeck
Tweet
deck keeps Twitter usable. By allowing you to create Groups (and soon to import your Twitter Lists), Tweetdeck makes it possible to sip from the firehose of information flying by in tweets.
I have 3 main Twitter lists that I use:
- Camp People (my former staff members, professional camp staff, tweets directly from camps)
- School & Parenting (schools, educators, parent bloggers).
- “Very INteresting” (techies, photographers, environmental design folks, locals)
When I need to focus on one area for my Our Kids work or would like to check out photographers on my personal time I can focus on one column.
On the iPhone, Tweetdeck makes it super easy to tweet from multiple accounts, take a picture and send it as a twitpic, and sync your columns from your phone to your desk (although I admit this feature isn’t working the best right now…).
As a camp director of a camp with mobile phone access, or if you are in the city at an event, you can snap a picture of a cool camp activity, add a link on a map and post it to your account within seconds. (Here are a couple of pictures that I took at camp this summer and tweeted out.)
Best Camera
If you are a follower of mine on twitter, you know that Chase Jarvis is one of my favourite photographers, as much for how much he shares with the community as for his amazing pictures. Chase just recently released the Best Camera app for the iPhone and it allows you to edit and improve pictures on the phone before you download them to your computer.
A cool feature of the app that will appeal to the marketer in you is the ability to share photos on a webpage at thebestcamera.com. You can create a page for your camp (with a link to your website) and post regular pictures without having to take the camera to the office, find a USB cable, download the pictures and then upload them again.
Evernote
We have had a number of discussions on Twitter (camp director friends and I) about the amazing benefits of the free program called Evernote. Evernote claims to be “your electronic brain”. The beauty of having Evernote on your computer and your iPhone is that it make it dead-simple to clip little bits of information and access them afterwards via tags or searches.
As a camp director, I would constantly use the voice memo feature on the iPhone app to make notes to myself (and To Do Lists for others). What I do is record stuff while I’m driving and write it out once I get home to my desk and computer.
MotionX GPS
This application is great for tracking your walks in the woods. One of my favourite things to do for myself at camp was to get up early and take the dog for a walk on the trails. Cairn had a great figure-8 loop that would give me the choice between a 20 or 35 minute hike. MotionX GPS is an app that will help you track your course, average speed and miles/kilometers covered. A great bonus to this app is that it allows you to use the iPod function of your phone and listen to whatever you would like. Snowshoeing and podcasts for me!
You can click here to check out MotionX GPS (Available for iPhone)
I may yearn for the simpler times of camp “directoring” (imagine a life before we had so many concerns about our drinking water!) but I do Not miss the heat from the overhead projector nor the smell of the Gestetner.
What do you use on your smart phone to help you be a better camp director? Leave us a comment and share your ideas with everyone.
Tags:
Camp,
iPhone,
iPhone apps,
social media,
summer,
summer camp,
tech,
Technology 
As the new Social Media Manager at Our Kids, I am pleased to be your school and camp’s communications contact. My role will be to share your school or camp life (stories, special events, application deadlines, training courses etc.) with our network of more than 850,000 families.
