Looking after your overseas staff

• Before they arrive, counselors will be eager to hear from you about camp life, their role on camp, the children, the camp location, the activities, their daily routine and absolutely anything else you think would be useful information.
• The necessity of communicating with your counselors once you have contracted them cannot be overstated. They will write to you and will ask many questions. It is disheartening if such letters go unanswered and can leave a counselor feeling very unprepared and unsure about his/her particular camp. Generally speaking it is not sufficient to send a copy of the standard camper brochure. This brochure can give a misleading impression to an overseas counselor who has never been to a US camp before.
• You may find that you need to supplement your pre-camp orientation with an extra session for overseas staff. Some camps have found it helpful to arrange for counselors to arrive a day or two before the American staff. This gives them a chance to recover from the long flight and find their way about before camp gets underway.
• We ask you to provide such things as sheets and blankets for overseas staff as they are not really able to bring such bulky items with them on the flight.
• Counselors will also appreciate as much help from you as possible in arranging transportation out of camp on evenings and days off. Inability to get out of camp in time off is a major source of frustration for overseas staff.
• Your overseas staff will thank you for the provision of internet and email facilities for them. Email is especially important since it enables them to easily and instantly stay in touch with friends and family.
• Counselors expect to share something of their own culture with their campers and fellow counselors. British nights (or Irish, Scottish, Australian, etc.), staff soccer or cricket games and the like are all standard fare on camps with BUNAC counselors.

Fees and Salaries

For information on 2008 fees and salaries, please call BUNAC on 1-800-462-8622 or click here for the 2008 Summer Camp USA brochure.