Conservation Education Waterfront Director (Camp)
Conservation Education Waterfront Directors are counselors with additional waterfront duties and responsibilities. Many of our staff are former DEC campers, and they bring a passion for sharing ‘camp magic’ and their love of nature with the next generation. The waterfront director's primary role is to teach and supervise campers, which makes up about 85% of their duties. WDs also ensure the safe operation of camp’s waterfront and water related activities such as swimming and boating which amounts to about 15% of their time. They live in an assigned cabin that may include another counselor and a small group of campers for whom they are responsible. Waterfront directors teach lessons on field, forest, aquatic habitats, and human impacts, often working with a second counselor as co-instructor. Waterfront directors do crafts, perform skits, sing songs, and entertain campers throughout the week while ensuring their safety. They are on call 24 hours/day during the camp week, but they get one 4-hour block of time off sometime between Monday-Thursday during camp, and then have Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday morning off.
Waterfront Director/Counselor responsibilities include:
- Implements/oversees buddy system and board system or other approved bather accountability system
- Coordinate Life guard schedule with Camp Director
- Train and supervise waterfront staff
- Participate as a member of the camp management team to plan, direct, and supervise evening programs, special events, overnights, and other all-camp activities and camp functions
- Survey waterfront area daily, and keep the area free of hazards and debris.
- Supervises the campers on a 24-hour basis; are responsible for the wellbeing and health of the campers
- Teach environmental education lessons, lead trips, programs and assist as needed to fulfill the programmatic needs of the camp program.
- supervises the campers on a 24-hour basis; are responsible for the well being and health of the campers;
- instructs the campers in the core environmental science curricula; and
- Responsible for the planning and conducting of recreational activities, including maintaining camp inventories.
- Counsel campers who become homesick or disruptive.
- Assist in the purchasing, inventory and delivery of supplies, materials and equipment.
For more information, visit the NYSDEC website: https://www.dec.ny.gov/education/1869.html