Innovative, web-based

tools to revolutionize

camper groupings.

CampMinder ' s COO Paul Berliner( right) during his first summer at Camp Saginaw.*

Frank Fagan CampMinder

If you’ ve never had the pleasure of organizing bunks or groups, I’ d like to paint you a picture. You’ ve just spent nine months tirelessly navigating through all of the necessary tasks preparing for the start of camp. Then you’ re handed a puzzle. The puzzle seems simple at first glance … it’ s a numbers game, really. You have X number of children who need to be placed into an existing blueprint of bunks or groups. The cover of the instruction booklet, however, offers an ominous warning:“ The future of your business is dependent upon the successful completion of this puzzle.” With a growing sense of anxiety, you open

the booklet. The instructions spill out all over your desk and land with a thud onto the floor. These instructions, otherwise known as“ requests,” are overwhelming.

“ Please put Johnny with George

but not with Louis.”“ Suzie

would like to be with Alice, as

long as Alice isn’ t with Lucy.

Otherwise, she wants to be

with Ellen.”“ Jeffrey is new

to camp, and he would like to

be with other fun boys from

the Baltimore area.”“ Jessica

enjoyed being with Lisa and

Josie last year, but she wants

to see if she likes Jamie’ s bunk

this year. If she doesn’ t like it,

please move her back.”“ Jimmy

MUST be with Lance, but only

if there is a bed by the window

available. Otherwise, please

make sure he is with Chuck

in a top bunk.”

Suddenly, this once-simple puzzle becomes a bewildering web of seemingly impossible scenarios. To make matters even worse, these requests often change following the completion of the puzzle. Such is the process of Bunking and Grouping.

Unfortunately, it is simply impractical to expect you can automate the process of organizing bunks and groups without sacrificing the human element. There are too many variables, too many changing

requests, too much knowledge stored in the head of a camp director. After all, camp directors understand their camps’ philosophies. They know their returning campers well, and they listen to the parents of new campers. They recognize the difference between the needs of a young camper and a six-year veteran. A camp director is full of knowledge that can never be translated into numerical equations or digital sequences. In fact, much of a camp’ s success can be attributed entirely to the thought process of its camp director. That will never change. What can change, however, is the level of efficiency with which a camp director puts his or her thoughts, philosophies and knowledge into action. That’ s where CampMinder’ s new Bunk & Group Administration tool comes into play.

Camp directors use a wide variety of methods to design their bunks or groups. Some spread out sheets of paper, each representing a bunk, and start writing the names of each child in blanks found on the pages. Others cover their desks with note cards, each representing a child and including important information about the child, and place them into stacks representing groups. Regardless of the method, they all parallel the primary functionality of a Delaney Book in one respect or another.

The Delaney Book has been used for classroom design in schools for over 40 years. As such, a Delaney Book can be used just as effectively for the bunks or groups associated with a summer camp. Envision a book wherein each page represents a bunk or group. On each page is a series of slots within which a card representing a child and containing information about that child is placed. The cards can be moved easily from page to page as necessary, and upon completion, the book represents the entire set of full bunks or groups. Turning from page to page allows the camp director to view each of their bunks or groups and the children within.

As with any paper-based management system, there are drawbacks to the original Delaney Book. How would a camp director run a report of the information contained within the Delaney Book pages? How would he or she( or any administrative staff, for that matter) see information relative to their bunks or groups if they are not within arm’ s length of the Delaney Book? How does a camp refer to historical bunking or grouping information without amassing bookshelves or filing cabinets full of Delaney Books? And what happens to that historical information in the case of fire, flood or loss? These, among others, are the reasons that camps are moving head-first into the digital age. They store health forms, camper applications, staff background checks and reference forms, financial data, notes, and other information digitally. Why not bunking or grouping information? The short answer: it’ s hard to abandon the tried-and-true method that has been successful for years, and there has never been a digital version of note cards spread across a desk or sheets of paper upon which camper names are written. Until now.

CampMinder’ s new Bunk & Group Administration tool moves“ tried-and-true” bunk and group design methods into the digital era without interfering with a camp director’ s knowledge or process. The intuitive interface allows the camp director to easily configure and“ build” their bunks or groups, while simultaneously viewing important information about each camper, accommodating the ever-evolving list of parent requests, and monitoring crucial details such as capacity, staff coverage and unassigned campers. A camp director has complete autonomy to create bunks or groups within session-specific plans supporting multiple sessions, even if their dates overlap, while also setting very specific criteria( such as gender, grade, location, capacity and age) for each. He or she can create temporary holding bunks or groups to keep certain campers together while deciding where they should be placed. Bunks and groups can even be built to accommodate only those staff who might not live with campers. The drag-anddrop functionality allows for easy placement into and removal from these custom-built groups or bunks. Highly-detailed reporting offers camp administrators the ability to quickly view or print bunk and group information at any time. And because CampMinder operates entirely within the cloud, all of this functionality and information is available anytime, anywhere.

You’ re smart, and you know your camp better than anyone … we get that. But use your brain power for important things, like making Johnny and Suzie happy. Let the power of technology help you with your sanity.

BUNK AND GROUP CONFIGURATION

Connect bunks and groups to sessions, and then assign campers and staff to them. It ' s easy to do, you get to keep all your information in front of you, and you ' ll never have to stare at a desk full of note cards again!

BUNK & GROUP ADMINISTRATION PANEL

Drag-and-drop campers into a bunk or a holding area. Filter for campers or staff using whatever criteria you want. And do it all without losing sight of your camper parents ' requests.

Frank Fagan spent 11 years as associate director at Camp Laurel South in Maine, a camp that turned out to be one of CampMinder’ s first clients. Following two years as director of an international camp staffing agency, Frank joined CampMinder as Director of Client Development in January 2010.

Frank Fagan frank @ campminder. com