Brandon Hults

Kenneth Willmott 

OGL 481 Pro-Seminar I

Arizona State University

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 A petition was created on social media by a group of former staff called “Better Camp
Chi” during the summer of 2020 that was targeting issues of inclusion that they believed
were not being addressed. The director and full-time staff members took immediate
action to open a dialog with the group to address their concerns. My role in this situation
was not direct, but as a current employee observing how it was handled by the full-time
year-round leadership team. Along with this point of observation into the situation is my
personal reaction also as member within the alumni community. The petition circulated
to members in the alumni community prompting hundreds of comments that attacked the
premise of the petition as taking advantage of the current environment of social unrest,
and while some of their ideas were in good faith, they went about it in a destructive
manner choosing to go public before any dialog with the camp was attempted. Camp Chi
formally responded to the petition in a post to the alumni Facebook group explaining how
they have either already taken action to address many of the issues brought up, or are
actively working towards many of the goals they set. In the response they provided
specific examples of how they have addressed many of the issues brought up and the
grants that they received to make it possible. They wanted to emphasize that they have
not been as publicly outspoken about changes that taking place in camp as they could
have been. They also included their email and phone number stating that they are always
open for anyone in the community to share ideas, concerns, and feedback.

The assumptions of the political frame explain that organizations are inevitably political,
and Camp Chi is no exception. The full-time team at the camp are just a small part of a
much larger organization that ultimately answers to the board of directors and the
foundations that provide us with a large amount of financial support. During a typical
summer at camp there is constant political tension that exists with the push and pull of
finite time, space, and resources. Goals and decisions emerge from bargaining and
negotiation among competing stakeholders jockeying for their own interests (Bolman &
Deal, 2017). At camp this could be two village leaders making a trade to run their
program in the gym today if the other village leader can use the field for their program
tomorrow. Showcasing the influential tool of reciprocation, these simple trades happen
often, although they are not always so clear cut in other situations involving superiors.
Staff can get frustrated with navigating the politics of the system they work within and
when this frustration builds, they become resentful to the organization and its leadership.
Staff may disagree with policies and practices that are used at camp but feel powerless to
do anything about it. This is where conflict forms and the relationship between the
authority and partisan begins to antagonize. The petition brought to the camp by former
staff members is result of them reflecting on dealing with the frustration of navigating an
environment that made them feel powerless to address social issues that they found
troubling.

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 Scarce resources and enduring differences put conflict at the center of day-to-day
dynamics and make power the most important asset (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The
petitioning group understood this statement and worked hard to leverage their power as
they made their petition public. One of the sources of power they utilized was
information and expertise. They were able to set up an Instagram page linked to a
document that compiled information and a list of demands they had. They understood
how to leverage social media to spread their message quick and with an extensive
understanding of their target audience. They used framing, which the textbook elaborates
that “establishing a framework within which issues will be viewed and decided is often
tantamount to determining the result” (Bolman & Deal, 2017). They took issue with how
the camp handles inclusion and diversity and framed their personal experiences of
navigating a gendered camp environment as LGBTQ+ individuals through the lens of the
current social justice movement. We know that this group’s intentions are good, but we
believe that using the BLM movement to frame their sometimes-frustrating experience
working at camp was wrong. It was taking advantage of the current environment of
unrest and deviates from the ideas of the BLM movement to satisfy a personal agenda
and ultimately takes away from the core message that Black Lives Matter. The group
used their petition to gain power through alliances and networks. They sent private
messages to everyone and anyone they knew associated with the camp urging them to
sign. They posted in the camp alumni group because they knew how important the
funding dollars of alumni is to the organization, what they did not expect was the alumni
to point out the holes in their petition’s legitimacy. They wanted to execute coercive
power over the full-time camp team to make fundamental changes to how they operate.
Their petition was ultimately a political play to mount enough pressure to have camp
respond to allegations and make changes that support the agenda presented in their
petition.

The concept of scarce resources suggests that politics will be more salient and intense in
difficult times (Bolman & Deal, 2017). This situation occurred during the most difficult
time for the camp. The summer of 2020, our 99th summer, was unfortunately canceled
due to the safety concerns of running a summer camp during a pandemic. The whole
agency has been affected by the shuttering of many of our programs. The money stopped
coming in and many employees have had to be furloughed and the remaining ones are
left with figuring out how to stay relevant. While running an alternative family style
camp program, the camp team was taken by surprise with the news of this petition. The
petition involves a handful of former and current camp staff, and given that I have
addressed how it was dealt with mainly from the full time perspective I will focus on
analyzing the alternative course of action from the perspective of the seasonal employee,
the position that the petitioning staff are in. During the summer it seems like everything is
happening fast and issues that are more overarching organizational issues tend to get put

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 on the backburner to be reassessed during the off season. This could leave seasonal
employees that want to bring up issues feeling like there is nothing they can do to change
their circumstances. From my experience, camp leadership has an open-door policy and
is always open to talk to you about anything. There is an anonymous comment box for
staff to address concerns, this box is checked daily and if you want to attach your name
the camp director will find you within 24 hours to address your concern. The people that
hold positions of power in our organization are genuine individuals and share the same
community values. They will sit down and listen to criticism and be receptive to new
ideas and change.

I would consider petitions to be a final resort to take when an organization is unwilling to

listen to you and make changes. As an alternative course of action for these former
employees, I would suggest they have written up their concerns and brought them to
camp leadership with a proposition to start a committee or task force to recognize and
address LGBTQ+ issues that they may have experienced. This would have allowed them
to recognize problems and make change much earlier than when they did. A few years
ago, there were two staff that recognized that our staff were not educated enough to
support LGBTQ+ campers and fellow staff. They brought this up to camp leadership and
suggested an educational training. The next summer every staff in camp went through a
training created by theses two passionate staff members and it had a real positive impact
on the community. I recommend that the petitioning group should have had a similar
approach of bringing the ideas they have to camp leadership to discuss how they can
create change. Their approach created divisiveness and tension where there could have
been partnership from the beginning. While the group is now communicating with camp
and meeting to work together on these issues, it could have been this way from the very
beginning.

The political frame points out the push and pull of power between different levels of
authority within the organization. The pressure of politics in organizations is also
perceived differently by everyone involved. In camp we often exist within subgroups that
share similar responsibilities and they often discuss difficulties that come with their jobs.
The assumption of enduring differences implies that political activity is more visible and
dominant under conditions of diversity than of homogeneity (Bolman & Deal, 2017). The
power struggle between the needs of different groups is apparent at any leadership
meeting I attend at camp. Limited resources bring about political conflict in any
organization as individuals use power and tools of influence to achieve their interests.
The political frame has taught me that this conflict is not necessarily a bad thing, rather a
natural part of being involved in collective work. Conflict challenges the status que and
encourages new ideas to solve problems (Bolman & Deal, 2017). Having learned about

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 this frame I better understand why this group felt the need to stir the pot in their pursuit of
addressing issues that they felt powerless to speak about at the time.
I would have probably reacted less defensively to this petition at the time of its release
given my new understanding of the political frame. I would have understood that the
group was petitioning to gain power and influence, even if I did not agree with their
methods. I still would have suggested that they at least try to talk to camp about these
issues before considering a petition. Agreement and harmony are easier to achieve when
everyone shares similar values, beliefs, and cultural ways (Bolman & Deal, 2017). After
talks with the group we understand that our values and beliefs are the same. We realize
that we both want to see a better and more inclusive camp, and that to do that we need to
work to put our power and influence to use together rather than dividing the community.

Reference:

Bolman, L., & Deal, T. (2017). Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership.
New York, NY, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.