Great check in tonight. Everyone arrived on time and got settled fine. So Open Age 2 and Wilderness Camp 2 are in and we are now just getting ready for the week – supose to be hot and humid – lots of water games planned for “Space Invaders” week.
As parents were arriving tonight I got to thinking about how great the opportunity is to be able to show off the camp and facility to the parents each week as they drop off their campers. The end goal is to move through parents and campers through the drop off process as quickly and positively as possible.
When I first arrived at Pearce Williams, registration/drop off night started at 7pm – on the dot. The only challenge was that parents started to arrive around 6pm. So the parents would line up with the campers an hour before the process was to start, then stand around in the heat waiting. Waiting. Waiting.
So one night I asked – why don’t we start to show in parents earlier. All of the staff were in place and ready and just waiting for 7pm – so why not start early? I was told that it was not 7pm – it started at 7pm.
That one experience lead me to think very hard about the the way that we do registration. We use to take final payment at registration – so the first thing those parents would have to do is deal with money and then with health and then with lice check…So over the past few years we have turned check in into more of a science.
We are set to go at 6pm and sign in campers as soon as they start arriving. A staff greets the cars as they come in at our sign. A staff or set of staff directs the cars in the parking lot. The Director and Executive Director greet each camper as they arrive and directs the campers to the lice check and the parents to the health line. Staff are around and willing to help during the entire process.
We want to use the opportunity to showcase camp and to have the parents see camp staff as professional and ready to give their children the most amazing camp experience.