Why Tri-State is More Important Than Ever

by Jenn DeSpagna, Tri-State Conference Chair

The New Year is here, and we have flipped our calendars to 2022. With that one small act comes hope and excitement for what the upcoming year will bring. Glance ahead at your calendar to March — March 14th – 16th specifically. Seeing The Tri-State CAMP Conference blocked out on your calendar brings a smile to your face. It is the feeling you get on the first day of camp and it should be, as Jed Buck once famously said, “Tri-State is Camp for the Camp Professionals”. Tri-State is a time for us to grow and learn, connect, and meet new friends while reconnecting with old ones. The best feeling, at the start of the conference, is walking into the registration area seeing familiar faces, and then walking out at the end of the conference, feeling better prepared for the season ahead.

This year Tri-State is more important than ever. This is the Comeback Conference, celebrating the resiliency of all of us, individually, as camp professionals, and as a community that has weathered the Covid storm - we are standing strong.

We need to acknowledge and support all that the American Camp Association, NY & NJ has done for our community since that fateful Thursday when we were all last together in Atlantic City and learned the world was shutting down. Over the past two years, ACA had advocated and helped the camp community do more than just survive.

They have been and continue to be staunch supporters of the camping industry. ACA’s immediate response in the spring of 2020 was to lobby states to open camp, both day and sleepaway with no prohibitive restrictions and lobbying for PPP loans that recognize the seasonal nature of our business. Their focus, as always, was on how important camp is and how our campers need camp, now more than ever before. They understood the pressures we faced and allowed camps to manage their membership dues in different ways. ACA was always there for us, whether to answer individual’s emails and phone calls or by creating and sponsoring informative Zoom sessions and webinars updating us on the latest from the CDC and other venues. They did not lose sight of the importance of professional development, hosting virtual conferences over the past two years and collaborating with New England to successfully pull off the virtual Northeast CAMP Conference (formerly and once again known as Tri-State). All along ACA has been the best advocate for its members and camps.

Now it is our turn to give back to the organization that did and does so much for us. Tri-State is the engine that drives ACA, NY & NJ’s budget. Join us for all that Tri-State has to offer, from Keynote to Keynote and all the sessions and socializing in between. Nothing energizes you for camp quite the way a Tri-State CAMP Conference, live and in-person does. ACA knows how important camp is to us and we know how valuable it is to have ACA advocating and lobbying on our behalf. Be a part of something great; register today for the best camp conference in the industry!