"Alumni: Best Friends, Worst Enemies"

1. Alumni:
Best Friends,
Worst Enemies
Tri-State Camp Conference
March 11th 2019

2. Dan Weir
• He/him/his
• Sr Director, Program
Development & Enrichment at
YMCA of Long Island
• dan.weir@ymcali.org
• @danlovescamp

3. Jeff Daly
• He/him/his
• Summer Camps Programs
Director, ARO at International
Exchange of North America
• Jeff.Daly@iena.org
• @Jeff_Daly

7. Ground rules

8. Language Matters

9. Be real

10. Be kind

11. Goals
for
today’s session

12. Understand
what makes alumni
passionate about camp

13. How to
best utilize
an alumni’s energy

14. How to
avoid pitfalls
with alumni

15. All slides will be at
DanLovesCamp.com
by 10am tomorrow

16. Why are alumni
so passionate
about camp?

17. See through
different lenses

18. You grew up there and afraid
to make decisions

19. You did not grow up there and
don’t understand why
decisions weren’t made

20. You now use the camp in a
different light - i.e. send your
kids there now

21. Or your friends send their
kids

22. Nostalgia
Feeling
Special
A powerful
moment
Feeling
loved

23. “Wanting to return
to a formative time”

24. “… a place that one feels
emotionally tied to.”

25. us/blog/hide-and-
seek/201411/the-
meaning-
nostalgia :
Nostalgia back
when it started
was referred to as
a mental

26. Sehnsucht
“longing” or “craving”

27. Saudade
“…something that has been
lost and may never be
regained.”

28. (dan is going insert a picture
of his family’s summer home)

29. Nostalgia
Feeling
Special
A powerful
moment
Feeling
loved

32. Insert Jeff’s vadar photo

33. Nostalgia
Feeling
Special
A powerful
moment
Feeling
loved

35. Peak moments

36. One of us shares a story

37. Nostalgia
Feeling
Special
A powerful
moment
Feeling
loved

39. Safety
Secure
Sooth
Seen
4s

42. Nostalgia
Feeling
Special
A powerful
moment
Feeling
loved

43. How to
best utilize
alumni’s energy

44. Train your staff
Everyone is special
Inside knowledge
Channel their enthusiasm

45. Train your staff
Everyone is special
Inside knowledge
Channel their enthusiasm

46. Energy,
Enthusiasm,
& Execution

47. Customer 1st

48. Knicks - James Dolan
makes Spike Lee go
out and come back in

49. Engage with warmth

50. How do you
train your staff?

51. Train your staff
Everyone is special
Inside knowledge
Channel their enthusiasm

52. Make everyone
feel like special

53. How do you do this with
family that aren’t alumni?

54. Make everyone
feel like special

55. Does your camp
really have
a customer first mindset?

56. How do you
make your families
feel special?

57. Train your staff
Everyone is special
Inside knowledge
Channel their enthusiasm

58. Treated like an insider,
but they are still
a customer

59. They know what’s behind the
curtain when they were there

61. Dan’s joke to alumni “we
watch the kids now”

62. “... that
last week
of camp.”

63. Some people just need to
hear from the director. The
job title does matter.

64. Dan’s story about
family camp

65. Quick messages
go a long way

66. How do you
treat people
like an insider?

67. Train your staff
Everyone is special
Inside knowledge
Channel their enthusiasm

68. Volunteerism

69. Open up their living room

70. Testimonials

71. Word of mouth

72. Fund
raising

73. How do you get their money
without making them feel like
all you want is money?

74. Any other ways
to use their
enthusiasm?

75. Train your staff
Everyone is special
Inside knowledge
Channel their enthusiasm

76. How do we
avoid pitfalls
with alumni

77. When they
get sold out
of a session

78. When something
happens
to their kid

80. What does
“feeling special”
mean?

81. Managing your online alumni
world

82. “Hug Your
Haters”
book

85. Alumni also have
a perceived notion

88. If you don’t love them, they
will flip on you

89. Jeff Daly
• He/him/his
• Summer Camps Programs Director,
ARO at International Exchange of
North America
• Jeff.Daly@iena.org
• @Jeff_Daly
Dan Weir
• he/him/his
• Sr Director, Program Development
& Enrichment at YMCA of Long
Island
• dan.weir@ymcali.org
• @danlovescamp
All slides will be at
DanLovesCamp.com
by 10am tomorrow