Handed down from our honoured camping pioneers we have inherited the "art of camping". In 2004, the Society of Camp Directors celebrated its thirty-fifth Anniversary. The Society was formed in 1969 for the purpose of "directors of children's camp establishing themselves as a profession in the field of child welfare". Dr. Harry Ebbs made this statement in March 1959, to the then president of the Ontario Camping Association, Mr. Bertram Danson, in a letter following his presentation to the O.C.A. Conference, held at the Royal York Hotel on March 1st.

The idea of forming an "academy" spread to the American Camping Association and a Task Committee, chaired by Mrs. Douglas Haskell, A.C.A., Stanley Michaels, president of A.C.A., Fred Rogers, and three Canadians; the late Dr. Don Smith, president of C.C.A., Lorne Brown and Dr. Ebbs. In 1963 A.C.A. finally turned down the recommendations, but the proposal was revived in Canada in September 1967 when Dr. Ebbs accepted the chairmanship of a committee to be appointed by the O.C.A. president, John Latimer, "to establish a Society of Children's Camp Directors with suitable entrance requirements for the purpose of establishing high standards for persons who control children's camping".

On November 29, 1967, an O.C.A. "Open Meeting" was held. The eighty-four persons present tackled three questions, one of which was, "Should Camp Directors be accredited?"