This is an expcert from an article in Canadian Camping Magazine – December 1952
Long Range Plan for Camp Leadership
Ben Solomon – Editor – Youth Leaders Digest
From and address given at Springfield College
If the field of camping is ever to become the high-grade profession it most surely deserves to be and must eventually be, then the first and most important step that must be taken is to professionalize the position of camp director. Therefore if the camp director is to be a professional then he must have the benefit of the special kind of training needed for that job. It must be given in an accredited curriculum in an accredited school leading to examination, graduation and certification by law. This, naturally, means that he will also have to have certain personal and professional qualifications acceptable to the examining board.
But where do we hear of the qualifications or the training of camp directors? What personal, technical and professional attributes must a camp director have? He is more important in the operation of a camp than any counsellor. He, the camp director, is entirely and solely responsible for everything that goes on in camp. He is responsible for the health, the safety and the general welfare of all the children and all the staff. His responsibility is made particularly serious and difficult because the summer camp for children is generally located in a primitive outdoors area, mountain or forest country, distant from all the normal aids, inspections and controls of organized communities like cities, towns or villages. Yet for this position,, in too many cases, especially in private camps and day camps, you need no qualifications, no training, no experience, no education; you don’t even need to be of decent character to open a camp, and appoint yourself camp director.