Camp camp camp

There have been a lot of small changes going on this week at work, and now I’m pretty much heading toward “overwhelmed.” I’m not overwhelmed yet, but I can see the potential to head there rapidly. So instead of doing the stack of work I brought home this weekend, I made some down time for me.

Sure I still had some telephone interviews to do, because they’re unavoidable right now. And I had to go to 2 fabric stores on Saturday morning to find material to make costumes out of for summer. But other than that, I ignored the pressing need to rewrite the woodshop tool use policy, as well as to do a calendaring of all the hundreds of tasks which need done between now and the beginning of May.

Today is Monday though, and while the program team is technically “off” I’m going to try and sketch out everything so I can get with our volunteer recruiter and see when it might be good to schedule some hands in to help. The arts and crafts building needs a serious bit of love from some women’s group full of organizational ability. The theater needs a new set designed, by some people who are good at that sort of thing. The costume closes also need a serious overhaul, because a lot of the things in there are tattered and torn. The gym equipment needs sorted and the Fab shop needs a complete overhaul.

I know it can all be done. I know it WILL all be done. But right now, staring at the wrong end of the list, it’s a bit daunting. Because I also have two weekends at home in Texas to teach, a family weekend here at camp, and several staff training days to fit in this month. And the interviews. Always the interviews.

Each person we interview gets a phone call to set up a telephone interview. Then we read the application and autobiographical essay, which takes about twenty minutes. Then we call them for the interview, which takes about an hour and fifteen minutes. Then the answers from that interview are reviewed, which takes another half hour or so, and a second interview is scheduled. That one only takes an hour, and then those answers are reviewed. If the candidate is up to scratch, then a third interview, which is about ten to fifteen minutes long, is scheduled and an offer is extended. Hiring someone around here is exhausting. But it is how we get the best staff possible for camp.

So a lot to do today. And my first interview of the day is now, so I’d better get to dialing…