From the consulting editor.

What is an acceptable risk?

Your first reaction to this question may be, "No risk is acceptable!" When you think again, you may realize that every aspect of living - even outside of camp - has some elements of risk associated with it.

The most critical and, least enjoyable, element of a camp professional's job is risk-management planning. Facing the reality of the number of things that can go wrong is a daunting task. As is knowing that even though you may have done everything right, something can still go wrong. You can't control every variable.

While the camp director ultimately is solely responsible for bringing together all the elements of managing risks, the staff team has an important role in developing and carrying out the plan. Staff specialists, from cooks to waterfront staff, know their areas best and can assist a director in developing policies that minimize risks. An additional benefit of staff participation in plan development is the ownership they develop in the team effort.

Once the risk-management plan is written and the policies developed, directors must rely on staff to follow the plan. The best plan in the world can't reduce risks if the right person has not been selected for each job, or if staff have not been properly trained to do their jobs. Mature, competent, well-trained staff are a camp's greatest asset in managing risks.

Camp professionals live on the edge - balancing the weight of the awesome responsibility of caring for others against the certainty that camp programs contribute to growth and development. Camp is not always comfortable. Discomfort comes from being homesick, from walking to the outhouse in the dark, from climbing the perch pole, and from piloting a sail craft for the first time. The process of learning to deal with these discomforts - some would say challenges - in a safe, supportive environment leads to positive growth.

Camp professionals are a special breed. We review and analyze the challenges of life at camp each day and still come to work! We control as many variables as we can. If we have done our job well, we will save our staff and ourselves from the awful gut-wrenching feeling that hits when someone reports, "There's been an accident!" We can feel good when our planning and precautions minimize critical incidents and our programs traverse safely through one more season. While we give a sigh of relief at summer's end, come the following June we'll be ready to do it again. It is an acceptable risk.