Junior Staff Information 2012

"My favorite part of camp, as it is every year, was being a part of such an inspiring community. Being on staff made that extra special, 'cause I was a part of the force that allows camp to exist." --a junior staffer

Before applying for a junior staff position at NBTSC, here are a few important things to know. Roya

This is more or less a slightly-glorified volunteer/worktrade position. We pay you $200 (for a 1-week session) or $300 (2 weeks) to help cover your travel expenses (sometimes subject to social security and income tax withholding, sorry). You don't pay anything to come to camp.
If we hire you, we count on you. On rare but traumatic occasions we have had a junior staffer bail at the last minute, or call a few days before camp to say they'd be a day and a half late (this last person was necessarily disinvited and his job was given to an 18-year-old camper we knew we could count on). We know you would never ever mess with us this way, thank you.
Usually junior staffers work about 45 hours during the 8 days of a camp week, plus around 8 more hours on each of the 2 days before camp starts--up to about 60 hours over the course of 10 days. If an emergency or strange situation comes up, we might even need you to work a bit more. It's often fairly gruntish work, like pots-and-pans scrubbing, helping the cooks, supervising campers' chores, running errands (short ones and long ones), stuff like that. Not very glamorous, and sometimes it feels like a lot of work. (During a 2-week session you can expect to work about 90 hours over the course of 15 days.)
For Oregon Session 2, we may require you to get an Oregon Food Handlers' card. This can be done online, requires learning a little bit about food safety and taking a simple test, and costs $10. (Your certification lasts for 3 years.)
Jr. staffers are needed from 1 or 2 days before the start of the camp session until about 5 p.m. on the last day of camp.
For Oregon Session 1 (Camp Latgawa) we may not need any junior staffers this year and if we do, probably just one (we’re not in charge of cooking or dishes, so our staffing needs are simpler). At Oregon Session 2 and in Vermont we’ll likely hire three or four junior staffers for the full 2-week duration. Sometimes we deviate from our plans, but, FYI, those are our plans.
Most or all junior staffers need valid drivers' licenses. We can't always hire non-drivers.
It is essential that junior staffers come to camp to serve, and that they keep their eyes open for ways that they can help, even when they do not have a specific task assigned to them. If you want to get away with doing the bare minimum, this is not a good position for you--you'll find that senior staffers resent you and, probably, that you leave feeling bad about yourself or your camp experience.
We expect junior staff to not only fulfill their grunt-work roles, but also to be actively involved with campers as a role model, informal peer advisor, and generally an exemplary and compassionate leader. Also: if you become aware of anything problematic going on at camp (such as agreement-breaking), you need to be comfortable enough in your staff role to completely disclose that information with senior staff and particularly with camp directors. For many former campers, this means that applying for junior staff makes more sense after taking a one-year break from being a camper.
Another thing we firmly expect of you as a junior staff person is not to get involved with a camper romantically (or of course sexually) during camp, at all. This means if you develop a crush and the person you're crushed out on is on the older and more mature side, it's OK with us if you talk about it in a non-dramatic way with that person, but no acting on it during camp--no kissing, no nothing. (And depending on the camper's age and maturity level, it may be a better idea not to share your feelings with that person at all. Feel free to talk all of this over with Grace at camp if you're unsure how to proceed.) We have other guidelines and expectations for junior staffers too, but once, someone seemed put off about this aspect of being on junior staff, so we want to make sure that it's clear up front that this is part of the agreement you're making with us.
Junior staff is kind of an in-between role at camp--you're not exactly campers, and you're not exactly senior staffers. For example, you won't attend most staff meetings, because they're almost too big even without junior staffers, and because we discuss confidential information about campers. We'll do what we can to help you feel at home in your new role, and you'll have your own daily team meeting with your supervisor (usually the logistics goddess), but it's important that you come ready to take charge of your own experience and actively reach out to people for what you want and need (and can give).
Some people apply to be on junior staff because they think that way we'll hire them later for senior staff. And yes, it's true that many years we hire 2 or 3 senior staffers from the previous year's pool of 9 or so junior staffers. But unfortunately there's never room for all the former junior staffers who would love to continue on, so please don't apply if you see junior staff merely as a stepping stone to senior staff.
We love hosting campers from Canada and other countries outside the U.S., but unfortunately, we can hire only U.S. citizens (or folks holding green cards and such) to work at camp.
Although there have been notable exceptions, we do not normally hire people of normal camp age to work on junior staff. Generally speaking, the minimum age for junior staff is 19. (JS typically range from approximately age 19-22.)
Also, though there have been notable exceptions (Nicole, Damian, Matt, Jasmine....) we usually hire former campers to work JS. People new to our community don't have as good a shot at these positions.
Postmark deadline for applications is February 29. We'll get back to you by March 31.
We want you to know that our decisions are not necessarily personal -- that is, sometimes a former camper we POSITIVELY ADORE applies to be on Junior Staff and for some reason we are not able to create a staff position for said person... it breaks our hearts to say no, especially when we imagine that you might take our "no" as a personal rejection. Anybody who ever came to NBTSC as a camper is part of our camp family forever, even if we aren't able to hire you.
We really love and really need our junior staffers! Thank you for applying!

Our junior staff application in PDF format is here.

Photos of junior staffer Roya and of junior staffer Rosa (with Taber) in the staff skit, by Newt, 2005