Tag: camp registration

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4 Ways Day Camps Can Build Camper Groups With Our Bunking Board

Posted on by Michelle Panelo

It’s that time of the year where you must make the final touches to your summer camp planning. With so much uncertainty in the air this year, it’s difficult to know exactly what needs to be done. But as summer quickly approaches, there is light visible at the end of the tunnel as states issue green lights to summer camps with the agreement that they follow all issued safety guidelines – including maximum camper group sizes.

For camps running this year, a huge aspect of their planning will involve building a solid camper group structure that adheres to these guidelines and the goals for their camps.

There are many benefits to assigning campers to groups. Not only do you and your team reap the logistical benefits, but your campers benefit from group settings as well! By assigning your campers to different groups, it encourages friendships and helps foster a sense of belonging. 

If you run an overnight night, those camper groups consist of cabin and bunking assignments. While if you run a day camp, it may entail creating camper groups for your day-to-day activities. 

No matter how you group your campers, we can all agree that having the right tools can revolutionize how this process is done. The best camp grouping tools should be flexible and include easy to use features. In CampSite, we offer a camp grouping tool (‘Bunking boards’) that offers just that. 

While designed with the overnight camp in mind, you don’t have to be an overnight camp to benefit from this tool. So we’ve compiled a list of the top 4 different camper groups non-overnight camps can easily build through our grouping tool. 

1. Age Groups

This ranks high on the list of common camper groups. This type of grouping structure is popular among both overnight and non-overnight camps. As a result, campers are able to socialize with other campers their own age. Age groups are also a great option if you must tailor activities to the different development needs of each age group!

2. Grade-Level Groups

Like age groups, grade levels also place high in the ranks of common camper groups. Campers will be able to interact with not only campers of the same age, but also with campers in the same grade. With campers grouped by grade, you can easily incorporate grade-appropriate activities for each group too!

3. Classrooms

If you run educational programs that involve getting kids into a classroom, this is a great option. Using our grouping tool, you would be able to easily organize and place campers in the right classroom environment.

4. Teams

You don’t have to be a sports specific camp to utilize this type of grouping structure! If you have your campers participate in sports-related activities, having this already prepared can save you and your staff a great deal of time. As a result, allowing more time spent with your campers.

The End Objective is Always the Same

We understand that each camp has their own preferred method for grouping campers. Hopefully this post will provide a little inspiration as you determine the best way to organize campers for the coming season! At the end of the day, the objective is always the same – making sure campers get the most out of their summer camp experience.

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Online Camp Registration: How an Updated Process Helps Parents

Posted on by Erin Lehmann

There’s no way around it: people are automating and simplifying their lives by opting in for solutions that prioritize convenience. When it comes to camp registration, there is little exception. CampSite’s camp management platform comes not just with a fully-stocked administrative dashboard. We also host an intuitive, responsive Parent Dashboard designed to make registration easier than ever. Read on for the benefits of forgoing a clunky, paper-intensive process in favor of a sleek online registration system.

Time

There’s certainly an advantage to offering your families an easy and convenient way to register their campers. To start, it cuts down the time and energy they might otherwise spend filling out and submitting a paper application with payment or navigating an outdated registration portal. In contrast, our Parent Dashboard boasts a convenient responsive design. This allows parents to register their campers on any device without sacrificing format or layout. This turns camp registration from a laborious task into a process parents can easily complete without the added effort.

Ease of Access

A well-designed online camp registration process also allows parents to easily view and select the right sessions for their campers. Plus, they can make requests and add important information to their camper profiles. With their own unique login, parents can enter the Parent Dashboard at any time to update information on their campers. The responsive dashboard allows for real-time changes on-the-go, which is particularly useful for busy families. 

Intuitive Process

CampSite admin can customize their parents’ online camp registration in a variety of ways. Show parents only the sessions their children are eligible for based on demographics or logical conditioning to reduce overwhelm. Choose and create forms your families should fill out to build a comprehensive camper profile that helps your team better manage campers. Parents experience a smooth, step-by-step registration process complete with electronic signatures and secure checkout. 

Camp Credibility 

Not only will your camp enjoy the added credibility that comes with a smartly-designed registration process. Hosting registration on a central platform like CampSite helps this effort. Registrations are free of system time-outs, payment errors or any number of technical hiccups a self-hosted registration system might encounter. Plus, you can customize the experience with your logo and camp colors so families feel like they’re on your website. 

The benefits your families will experience when you host online camp registration through CampSite are many. Your families will enjoy an intuitive, convenient Parent Dashboard customized to their needs! 

Ready to see how CampSite can change the way you run camp? Request your free, personalized demo!

Blog

Online Camp Registration: The Benefits of Taking Camp Digital

Posted on by Erin Lehmann
campers after camp registration

Camp Management Software

CampSite was created by camp directors, for camp directors to help streamline and automate a lot of the redundant tasks associated with camp management. It’s hard to believe there was a time when we all conducted business solely on paper – even camp registration!   It’s even still harder to believe many camps are struggling to find the best camp management solution for them.

That’s where CampSite comes in: our robust, intuitive camp software holds a lot of power, but its accessible and easy-to-navigate interface makes it easy to learn. Therefor, even if you don’t have a lot of experience in tech, you’ll become comfortable with it in no time.

We built CampSite around the task of all tasks: camp registration. Where camp, and most camp director’s headaches, begin! Our Online Camp Registration portal is a total game changer. It gives parents the ability to enroll their campers quickly and easily whether from a desktop, tablet, or smartphone. This on-the-go functionality is a hit amongst busy parents who don’t want to sit down to hours of paperwork. There’s no scanning, faxing, or mailing either – everything is digitally filed and sent directly to your management portal!

Customizing the Parent Experience

Camp directors can customize the enrollment process, too. Add enrollment options, pose important questions, display necessary waivers and forms, and offer add-ons. In addition, you can set filters, such as age, interest, or other logic restrictions, that will allow parents to only see the enrollment sessions that are available to their children. This provides a more catered camp registration experience for the parents instead of having them browse through endless, irrelevant options. You can easily set all of this up with the help of our CampSite support team, or with your staff (it’s really that easy!).

Plus, for families who aren’t yet ready to enroll or just need some more information, camps can choose to add Request for Information forms and lead tracking tools for marketing purposes.

The Benefits of Online Camp Registration

So, what do the camps that use CampSite and our online camp registration tool gain? Time, energy, and the freedom and creativity to focus on other initiatives. Brainstorm up new program ideas, work on bunk scheduling, and of course, use our transportation module to plan and route all  bus and carpool schedules! The bottom line is that camps run more efficiently and professionally with camp management software. Online camp registration is a hit with parents; we’re sure your management team and staff will love it, too!

Read the five things everyone in the camp industry should do before end of summer!

Thinking of making a software decision soon? This post is a must read.

Explore all the features CampSite has to offer here.

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The Best Camp Software: 4 Parent-Friendly Features

Posted on by campmanagement
4 Hit Features of Parent-Friendly Camp Software photo

For camp software to be at its best, it needs to appeal not only to camp directors and stuff, but it must also be parent-friendly. This doesn’t just mean that it should just look nice but that its functions go beyond satisfying the basics of parent expectations.

Parents are the customers your camp business must appeal to first. Which is why parent-friendly camp software is a big deal. So, what is parent-friendly summer camp software? It’s software with easy-to-use features that parents want to engage with—and if your current summer camp software lacks them—it may be time to consider other options. Here’s an idea on what to look for when it comes to parent-friendly summer camp software.

1: A Clean Parent Dashboard

You want enrollment that makes it easier for parents, year-after-year. To ensure that, the display of the Parent Dashboard should be simple-to-use and pleasant to look at. This way, parents can get to their financial pages, print out receipts and add in their payment information without additional help from your staff.

Remember that ease of use doesn’t just benefit your camper parents. It benefits your staff too. The time that your staff saves by not having to help guide a parent can now go toward anything pending on the camp agenda. With parent-friendly summer camp software, you are continuously satisfying both parties.

“The ease of which you can re-enroll, log onto the parent dashboard, fill out all their forms in one location. And frankly parents have said, this is the most efficient and easiest way for them to go about doing what they need to do.”-Brian Cohen Associate Director, Iroquois Spring

2: Advanced Email Tracking

How a software communicates is everything. Understanding the success of these communication lines is a big part of that everything. But, how do you measure successful email communication without the ability to sufficiently track it? You deserve to know what happens to the emails sent out to your camper parents. Parent-friendly camp software, like CampSite, takes care of that with Email Tracking.

Was the email opened? How many views did it get? Email Analytics tools take care of that. They allow your staff to ensure that no stone is left unturned. In Campsite’s summer camp software, camp staff can track the success of any email campaign by analyzing ‘click-through rates’ from your families.

“With the different features at CampSite we can specialize all kinds of marketing tools for our families, it’s really helped us move our enrollment earlier and faster and grow our business.”-Michele Rowcliffe Executive Director, YMCA Camp Cory

3: An Interactive Photo & Video Blog

A private blog is a wonderful resource to share photos and videos with your camper parents. Let’s say you have one integrated with your software. Two weeks of summer camp have gone. Your blog is now full of photos of your campers. Nearly hundreds of them. Do you want these parents to sift through them all to find their child? No. They want something that can direct them to the photos they want to see—in a snap. They want parent-friendly camp software with an interactive blog that includes Facial Recognition. If your software doesn’t have this function, it could be time for a change.

So, what is Facial Recognition? It’s a feature that connects both parents and campers in a highly convenient manner. Intuitive summer camp software, like CampSite, will run Facial Recognition for added parent and staff ease-of-use and it works like this. It cuts down on the laborious process of looking through every single picture and instantly brings the photos of camper children directly to a parent. It’s the simple power of convenience that well defines a parent-friendly camp software.

4: A Texting Feature Between Parents & Your Camp

Of course, there’s more to keeping in touch with parents than through a blog. A photo and video blog – while awesome for camp parents – cannot effectively communicate in an individual and private manner. For instance, what if a camper fell and scraped their elbow at day camp? Or if a camper cried on their first night at sleepaway camp? These situations aren’t meant for a blog post that all camper parents can see. A private messaging system is much more suitable.

When you think about it, a private text messaging module that integrates with your camp software is parent-friendly by concept alone – it is an instant source of contact between camper parents and your camp staff. If you are using a text messaging system with your software, it should satisfy these functions.

  • Send one text or a hundred as simple as sending an email.
  • Archived correspondence for easy access through family accounts
  • All correspondence collected in one place, making sure you don’t miss any new replies.
  • A personalized phone number in your local area code – making it easy for parents and staff to get in touch!

Parent-friendly camp management software, like CampSite, can be your solution to running your summer camp just the way parents want it. With it, staying in touch with your camper parents becomes less tedious and more seamless towards nurturing a better parent-to-camp relationship. CampSite has a friendly easy-to-learn layout with happy, helpful staff to guide you along the way.

 

For more of CampSites favorite new tech features, check out this 4-min read.

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