7. The leader's roles, communication and child protection
Part of Camp leadership basics, an introductory course on general camp-leadership knowledge. It is not the official material of any certification course.
In this lesson
- Counselor and operations roles
- Practical communication skills
- What the 7-38-55 rule really says
- Child protection basics
Two roles
Every leader does some of both: the counselor role (living with campers, noticing who is homesick or hurt, running activities) and the operations role (watching the schedule, transport, weather and supplies, and keeping the director informed). Know both, even if your job is mostly one. And beware of "I've done this before": experienced leaders still need to hear the safety briefing.
Communicating
- Listen first. It's harder than it sounds.
- Lead with the conclusion, then the reason. Keep it short.
- Check understanding with a back-and-forth, not a one-way speech.
- Choose where you stand: face the sun yourself so campers aren't squinting; pick a circle, semicircle or line to suit the purpose.
- Watch for nonverbal signs. A child who says "I'm fine" may be pale, quiet or not eating.
You may have heard that communication is "7% words, 38% tone, 55% body language." Albert Mehrabian, whose experiments produced those numbers, cautions that they come from studies of communicating feelings and attitudes, and that unless someone is talking about their feelings or attitudes, the equations don't apply. Nonverbal signals matter; the percentages don't generalize.
Child protection
CDC identifies six key components for preventing child sexual abuse in youth-serving organizations: screening and selecting employees and volunteers; guidelines on interactions between people; monitoring behavior; safe environments; responding to inappropriate behavior, policy breaches and allegations; and training. ACA calls child protection a shared responsibility. Its standards include screening and interviewing staff, criminal background checks (required for ACA accreditation) and minimizing one-on-one interactions out of sight of others.
- Never be alone with a camper out of sight of others; use the "rule of three" or open doors (our practical suggestion).
- Know your camp's reporting procedure and follow it.
Think it through
- Rewrite a safety briefing you've heard so that it fits in three sentences.
- What would you do if a camper asked to talk to you privately in your cabin?
Everyday
Practice giving instructions in one sentence, then checking that they were understood.
When it counts
Short, clear, checked instructions reduce confusion in an emergency.
Sources and when we checked them
- Albert Mehrabian, Silent Messages: description and caveat (checked 2026-10-31)
- CDC MMWR, Preventing Child Sexual Abuse Within Youth-Serving Organizations (June 15, 2007) (checked 2026-10-31)
- American Camp Association, A Partnership of Caring (checked 2026-10-31)
- American Camp Association, The Most Important Question a Parent Can Ask (checked 2026-10-31)
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