I heard someone say that innovation is not a young person’s game, it’s an inspired person’s game. He could have been talking about almost anything; it is certainly true of camp leadership. The problem is that leadership also requires a lot of experience, and experience fights inspiration. So how do we strike the right balance? How can we be the most inspired camp director in the room, and also the most experienced?

Two words: outdoor adventure. Adventure, taking meaningful risk, requires creativity at the very moment we are most afraid of failure. It also requires us to commit to a course of action longer than we would otherwise. If this is what we want for our campers it should also be what we want for ourselves.

So commit to spending some time on the trail, river, rock, or maybe just take the risk of investing in a person who may respond poorly, because these kinds of adventures are about muscle memory. They are about learning to take the right risks so we can play the inspired person’s game.

Adam Boyd   

Camps Timberlake and Merri-Mac

Adam Boyd
Adam Boyd
Summer camp has been a way of life for Adam Boyd. His father, Spencer Boyd, opened his first camp in 1954 and after graduating from Wofford College, and later earning a M.Div. and D.Min. from Reformed Theological Seminary, Adam returned to camp where he served for ten years as the Timberlake Director. In the fall of 2001 Adam began directing Merri-Mac also. Adam and his wife Ann (who he met at summer camp) are committed to sharing summers of fun and growth with camp age children. They have two sons who are Timberlake campers and a daughter who is a counselor at Merri-Mac.