We have the greatest staff in the world

Why haven’t we paid them like it?

I truly believe Unirondack has the greatest camp staff in the world. Do we make mistakes? Of course. But when I see the level of intellect, creativity, and community building energy that they create each summer I am blown away. And in the overwhelming majority of situations in which our summer staff miss the mark I can almost always find places in which leadership staff or myself could have or should have intervened sooner, provided more support, or created a better system. We live and learn. And yet, with such faith in the value of our staff as individuals, in 2018 our summer staff pay was roughly 60% the national average. (Yes, that is among non-profit summer camps.)

Staff pay has been discussed over my years at Unirondack and the same points are always raised. It’s true that we are much smaller than other camps and organizations and we have a smaller overall budget. And like any summer camp, we have many other places we need to spend money — especially being a space that has so many justice-oriented goals. And… yes, staff pay was worse back in [insert era here]. Of course, we have made improvements, and I don’t want to ignore those efforts in the past 10 years, but for some reason I resigned myself to believe it was a problem we couldn’t truly handle.

In late early 2021, however, several of my most talented staff members and staff alumni, started talking and organizing. Discussions about staff support are always complex, but there was one thing that stood out as a clear concept. We needed more staff and we need to pay our staff more. When the group approached me for help and information I was excited. I started digging through the archives of our budgets and staff pay documents by year to give them as much information as I could to be able to put together a presentation to the board. While I felt I could do a lot of the work that was being asked at the staff level, it was good to have all leaders of the organization informed to the potential changes that we’d be after. The ask was simple: In 2023, summer staff should be paid at or above the national average of $2,750.

“We are no longer exploiting our community member’s love for giving back. If we want to get people excited to work at Unirondack, we have to pay a competitive rate. Yes, we are an amazing community, but that doesn’t help our staff pay the bills. And without a previously rooted love of camp, people outside our organization will and have looked elsewhere.”

Did we get there? Yes. In 2022 we raised initial staff pay from $1,600 to $1,800 and ended up able to pay staff $2,200 by splitting up salaries from people who backed out after being hired. (Essentially splitting the pot to fewer people, although it obviously made our summer harder!) In 2023, we have budgeted to increase our staff by 25% and our base pay will be $2,800. The impact of the increases we had last year have already been felt. We had more staff from outside our community than ever before — something I have always felt was a strength. We are no longer exploiting our staff’s love for giving back. If we want to get people excited to work at Unirondack, we have to pay a competitive rate. Yes, we are an amazing community, but that doesn’t help our staff pay the bills. And without a previously rooted love of camp, people outside our organization will (and have) looked elsewhere for work.

And of course, the national average is not everything. Even at it, the summer camp industry at large (like many non-profit industries) is one that relies on individuals working for less than they are worth because of care for the mission. Nevertheless, I am proud of the progress we have made.

So how did we make it happen? There are two major changes happening in addition to minor budget adjustments to where we spend our money. The first is changing the fee structure to allow registrants to elect into a higher fee. While entirely optional, we expect enough people to increase their fee to cover the majority of our increase to staff salaries. The second is in the addition of Winter Camp which will add additional revenue.

I want to take a moment to share my appreciation for the staff who made this initiative a reality. As organization leaders we do our best to listen to the suggestions that people raise and take action. We can’t do all the things we want. Increasing camperships, making camp more accessible, better camper transportation systems, better housing for campers and staff, making the program better each year, lowering our carbon footprint… the list goes on. But we’re happy to share this story of success in our ability to take action in support of the values we believe in. Of course, there is always more to be done to make the staff experience better, but that’s what makes running an adaptive and justice-oriented organization fun.

Kris Fiore,
Director

Sign up for our first ever Winter Camp!

By renting facilities in Huegenot, NY we are able to offer our summer camp program in February and April of 2023! Visit our website for more info and click below to register!

Register Here!

Interested in supporting the work we do? Projects like this and many more are made possible through generous donations from our community. Consider a small recurring donation to our organization today. All donations are tax deductible based on Unirondack’s status as a 501c3. Donate Here.