The evolution of technology is quickly changing how camps operate, and more importantly how they communicate with both campers and parents all year round
Building strong relationships with families should be a priority for every camp. Luckily for today’s camp owners and directors, staying in touch with both campers and parents has never been easier.
From e-mails to online registration to web-based photo albums, today’s technological tools are allowing camps to connect with campers and their families on a whole new level.
“From our perspective, the web is becoming the tool of choice, not just for communication, but for everything,” says Daniel Ashley of UltraCamp, a Maryland-based developer of web-based camp management tools. “The Internet allows access to parents in a way that is really feasible.”
Indeed, the web opens up many realms for parents to research camps, contact them, enroll their children, learn about what their kids are doing, receive online newsletters, photos and much more — all in a fairly quick and convenient way.
Take online newsletters as an example. At Camp Walden, near Bancroft, Ont., director and co-owner Sol Birenbaum publishes a newsletter, called Sol’s Corner, which he says is great for fostering a strong rapport with parents.
“I write an article about what’s happening at camp to try and give a broad perspective and to capture the spirit of camp,” notes Birenbaum. “We’ll include four or five pictures and parents get a sense of what’s happening with their child.”
If newsletters aren’t enough, there are online photo albums that allow parents to enter the camp world in an entire different way. With the use of a digital camera, pictures of all kinds of camp activities can be taken and then posted on a secure web site where parents can sneak a peek. While a number of camps use these, there are pitfalls camps should consider before jumping on this bandwagon.
“There is a great up-side because it allows parents to see what’s going on at camp, but it opens up opportunities for criticism,” says Ashley. “They could see pictures of their son or daughter and notice that they have a band aid, so they’ll call and be concerned.”
There are also logistical issues with the online albums, such as the time it takes to gather, upload and maintain the photos. And once albums start, parents come to expect them, which means taking them away at a later date could be met with a backlash.
One of the biggest changes in the way camps conduct business, and thus communicate with families, is through online registration.
Rather than the traditional paper-based, mail in application, parents can now enroll their children for camp on the web and pay for camp sessions online, too.
“This has helped bring credit card processing to the forefront,” says Rob Carmichael, principal of CampBrain, a camp management software company based in Toronto, Ont. “And it really is reducing the administrative side of things.”
Parents often have questions for camp brass during the summer and with e-mail, they can send those queries with a few punches of the keypad and click of the mouse. However, the sound of a real, live voice is still more comforting, so parents are still calling camps to ask pertinent questions.
As for contacting their own children, in addition to letters or the occasional phone call, one-way e-mail is becoming a trendy service.
Because camps want to preserve the whole unique experience of kids being away from the trappings of regular life, such as computers, there are applications available that allow parents to send an e-mail to their children and then have the kids respond without being on a computer. In the interest of maintaining the ‘world like no other’ quality that makes camp particularly special, some camps place limitations on the number of e-mails parents can send.
“There is a special quality that camp offers, an experience that’s like no other with kids being on their own, and I would never want to take that away from the kids,” says Birenbaum. “So we’ve struck a balance with parents being allowed to e-mail their kids three times per summer.”
During the off-season, technology also plays a vital role in marketing camps to both existing and new customers. Web sites are a growing marketing tool in this regard, as are mass e-mails.
A new, tech-based marketing resource that camps don’t necessarily have control over, but can gain free advertising from, is online chat rooms and social networks, such as MySpace.com. These forums, which are entirely person-to-person and not administered by camps, can feature everything from photos to conversations about camp activities.
“Kids and staff post everything about camp on these sorts of networking web sites and it is being created online completely distinct from us,” observes Birenbaum. “This is going to be the issue for the future.”
Another possibility down the road may be video. Video clips are already appearing on camp web sites, but similar issues that arise with photo albums would very much apply to video as well.
As for the day-to-day management of camp, computer software is definitely making life much easier for both camp owners and directors, with scheduling, list reporting and transportation plans all being done without a single shred of paper being printed. Not to mention the amount of time it saves office staff by venturing online to accomplish certain tasks.
Simply put, technology is improving the way camps communicate with parents and that can only be good for business.
Adam Michael Segal is a freelance writer based in Thornhill, Ont.
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