Mandi Baker Series
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What is the Mandi Baker Series About?
Are you worried whether your staff will last the summer? Are you questioning whether you have the juice to even get to the start, let alone the finish, of another camp season?
The answers are at your fingertips. Camp and youth program providers are already masters at providing enriching, rejuvenating, and personal development experiences. However, these same leaders are often not well equipped with the skills and strategies required for nurturing and managing their own (super awesome) reserves of care and support. These same people are also inundated with many layers of responsibilities and stakeholder demands. Some of which, they may not yet recognize as draining or problematic. This workshop series uses evidence-based knowledge (yay for science!) and experiential education to set you up to administer care and camp without burning out.
What Can I Expect From the Series?
Join Dr. Mandi Baker in this four-part mini-series that supports leader well-being and the management of emotional labor that leads to burnout. Each workshop is 1.5 hours and will include foundational knowledge and experiential activities. Each workshop will explore a different ‘layer’ of how burnout occurs, how it can be decreased, and how wellness (mental, physical, social, and emotional) can be improved.
Date/Time
Thursday, January 16, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PMOverview
In this workshop, we will explore how burnout happens for staff in youth development programs (especially camps). We will explore the ‘layers’ that interact and intersect to improve or diminish staff and workforce wellbeing while, also, defining what wellbeing is. This workshop will, then, consider the art and science of self-care and how these strategies can (and should) be activated in camp contexts (yes, even while in full-swing camp season). This workshop is 2 hours to accommodate all the vital information and to make sure we start “doing” care.
Workshop Registration Fee Levels
Early Bird Rate: $65.00 when you register between Tuesday, June 25, 2024 through Monday, December 16, 2024.
Attendee Rate: $95.00 when you register between Tuesday, December 17, 2024 through Thursday, January 02, 2025.
Workshop #2: Caring for Staff (The Practical and Impractical)
Date/Time
Thursday, January 23, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Overview
Staff who deliver youth development experiences like camp counselors, educators, and youth program facilitators face frequent, diverse, and intense emotional demands. Staff need a host of social and emotional intelligence abilities to meet these as well as benefit from workforce strategies that support wellness and flourishing. This workshop will explore the nature of the emotional demands staff face and how to anticipate, reduce, and address these. We will also explore necessary strategies, both intangible and practical, that proactively strengthen and protect staff from work stressors.
Workshop Registration Fee Levels
Early Bird Rate: $65.00 when you register between Tuesday, June 25, 2024 through Monday, December 16, 2024.
Attendee Rate: $95.00 when you register between Tuesday, December 17, 2024 through Thursday, January 02, 2025.
Workshop #3: Fostering a Culture of Care, Community, and Citizenship
Date/Time
Thursday, January 30, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Overview
The culture you generate amongst your staff, participants, and community can make or break the experience for everyone. Camp cultures are especially known for being positive and inclusive, where people feel valued and safe to be silly and test out new aspects of identity. This is no mistake! And is usually done with a high level of intentionality however, not everyone thinks about how this unique cultural experience can drain and put unusual demands on those who create, maintain, and deliver it. In this workshop, we will look at how the cultural and community aspects of care and demand (i.e., gossip) effect employee experiences.
Workshop Registration Fee Levels
Early Bird Rate: $65.00 when you register between Tuesday, June 25, 2024 through Monday, December 16, 2024.
Attendee Rate: $95.00 when you register between Tuesday, December 17, 2024 through Thursday, January 02, 2025.
Workshop #4: Embedding Care Into Policy Practice, and Artifacts
Date/Time
Thursday, February 06, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Overview
Space speaks! The structures, routines, and texts in a work environment shape what people come to expect from it and how staff are expected to behave. These messages are delivered in diverse forms. Camps, for example, are represented in a range of movies, social media posts, and advertising efforts. Additionally, expectations of camp staff are delivered via policies, practices, and artifacts (i.e., position descriptions, staff manuals, and daily routines). This workshop will explore the dominant messages and how these shape the behavior and psycho-social expectations of people in these spaces.
Workshop Registration Fee Levels
Early Bird Rate: $65.00 when you register between Tuesday, June 25, 2024 through Monday, December 16, 2024.
Attendee Rate: $95.00 when you register between Tuesday, December 17, 2024 through Thursday, January 02, 2025.
Bonus Session #5: Drop-in Q&A/ Consultation
Date/Time
Thursday, February 13, 2025, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Overview
Do you have a burnout dilemma that you don’t know how to tackle? Do you have a workforce problem that you haven’t untangled (yet)? Want to know more about how to put what you’ve learned into practice? Want to hear live problem-solving of real issues? Bring all your ‘curly’ questions to this drop-in style Q&A/consultation session.
Please Note: This session is a bonus for participants who purchase all 4 workshops. You must register for the Full Series in order to attend.
ACA Illinois Visitor Incentive
ACA Illinois Visitors will receive a $15 Rebate for an individual webinar or $60 for the package of all four webinars.*
*Folks eligible for the ACA Illinois Visitor Rebate program must be currently active Visitors for ACA Illinois during the current year. Participants must attend to receive the rebate. This is not transferable to other persons.
Who Should Attend This Workshop Series?
This workshop series is to inform and equip executives, directors, and managers about how burnout happens and how to beat it. The first workshop is perfect for seasonal staff and front-line employees. This workshop series draws on research across many fields of study including health, sociology, leisure, and youth development. It has been tailored specifically for leaders in youth development programs like camp.
Why Attend This Workshop Series?
The reduction of burnout causing threats and improvement of work conditions has been shown to not only improve the functioning, efficacy, and effectiveness of your staff but also support and improve their (holistic) well-being and resilience in and outside of the immediate work context. Proactive approaches to employee wellbeing and flourishing have also been shown to improve workforce and knowledge retention.
Create a legacy of being the place to work because you, and your leadership team, know how to infuse (radical) care in all ‘layers’ of the work experience for your staff (and you). Cultivate a culture of care, service, and flourishing for all that ‘step into’ your space.
Register for Series
Register Early. Space is limited and expected to sell out! Click here to register today!
Pre-registration is required. Walk-Ins will not be accepted. Registration closes for Full Series on Thursday January 2, 2025.
Event Registration Fee Levels - Full Series
Early Bird Rate: $200.00 when you register before Monday December 16, 2024.
Attendee Rate: $275.00 when you register Tuesday December 17, 2024 through Thursday January 2, 2025.
Location/Style of Event(s)
This event is a live, virtual event and will utilize the online Zoom Meeting platform. ACA Illinois will not record this event.
What to Bring/How to Prepare
This is an interactive training course. Each person should be prepared to have their camera on, access to audio, including the ability to speak and hear, and interact within the Zoom room via a computer. Bring a notebook/paper and pen for activities.
The Fine Print
You must pay for this event at time of registration. If you would like to pay by invoice/check, please contact registration@acail.org prior to registering.
By registering and attending an ACA Illinois event or meeting, virtually or in-person you are agreeing to all the event policies listed here. These policies include the photo release, refund, link sharing, Code of Conduct, and other relative policies.
You must have a Member Profile to register for this event. If this is your first event with us, please click here to create a profile. It's free!
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Mandi's research explores the emotional demands (emotion work), people skills (Affective Abilities) required, and organisational contexts (power-relations) of people-centric service work. She explores these concepts in organised outdoor experiences, youth & community development, recreation and leisure contexts, and, more recently, in health service provision. Her work explores everyday work experiences through sociological concepts to offer fresh insights to ethical and sustainable leadership and education. More recently, Mandi’s work has delved into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) practices within outdoor leisure as well as gender in family leisure.
After completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Waterloo in the department of Leisure Studies and Recreation Management with a speciality in Therapeutic Recreation, Mandi then went on to complete her graduate studies, and doctoral dissertation at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Mandi is a passionate camp researcher, professor/teacher, sociologist, author and storyteller. Her expertise includes emotional labour, relations of power, and human flourishing within leisure settings. Mandi’s work aims to bridge the gap between knowledge and practice to maximise the benefits to end users.
She has published two books, Leisure Activities in the Outdoors: Learning, Developing and Challenging, and Becoming and Being a Camp Counsellor: Discourse, Power Relations and Emotions (Leisure Studies in a Global Era), in addition to several academic articles, is and currently working on a third.
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