We attend about 25 camp conferences each season. With the end of ACA Mid States, that concluded another season. We will be back on the road again in September! For the past conference season, we facilitated panel sessions at many conferences, called “Camp Admins Unite: We’re All in This Together”. The objective was to assemble a panel of experienced camp administrators and cover topics that administrators care about such as information to collect on forms and when, manual versus online forms, discounts offered and their effectiveness, payment plans offered to parents, etc. Personally, I facilitated the sessions at OCA, ACA Tri State and ACA National and I can say the discussions were lively and packed with fabulous information. It was not just the panel sharing their knowledge and experience but the whole room chimed in with great ideas. Often, we were taking polls in the big groups to get a sense of how many camps offered XYZ. The feedback afterwards was really excellent – the sessions turned out to be a unique opportunity for administrators to compare details with other camps, particularly on topics that don’t often get covered at conferences. My only regret was that we did not have enough time!

I should note that these sessions were not CampBrain-specific – we covered topics in a generic way, just trying to uncover trends, best practices and new ideas…regardless of a particular software. We will definitely submit proposals to run them again at the various conferences for next season. I would be really interested to hear if there are specific topics you might like to cover….and if you would like to participate on a panel, let me know.

I would like to acknowledge and thank the panelists that put themselves on the hot seats!

OCA

Mike Greenfield, Camp Widjiitiwin

Sam Butcher, Onondaga Camp

Patti Stulberg, Camp Robin Hood

ACA National

Jeff Cheley, Cheley Colorado Camps

David Martin, YMCA Hayo-Went-Ha Camps (*home of the first inductee to the Camp Administrator Hall of Fame, John Bouwmeester)

Liz Kimmelman, Camp Ursa Major and Tumbleweed Day Camp

Northeast YMCA

Craig Dawson, YMCA Camp Jewell

Tony Sharillo, YMCA Camp Ingersoll

ACA Tri State

Dan O’Neil, Congressional Schools and Camps

Vinita Ahuja, Georgetown Day School

John Latimer, Camp Seale Harris

Jane Megginson, Baltimore Yearly Meeting

ACA Spring Leadership Conference

Tom Horner, Catalina Island Camps

Andy Kimmelman, Tumbleweed Day Camp

Ryan Rosen, Camp Kinneret Day Camp

ACA Mid States

Elizabeth Wheeler, Waycross Camp and Conference Center

Andrea Groves, Jameson Camp

Thanks everyone! Looking forward to continuing to UNITE CAMP ADMINS at next year’s conferences!