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What was truly fascinating, though, was that despite all these similarities, there were vast differences in the methods each camp used to accomplish these tasks. Beyond that, each camp had its own specific areas where it may have placed just a little more emphasis than the others. Camp Takajo had come up with some breakthroughs in the way it managed the camper transportation process. Laurel and Laurel South were particularly focused on their billing methodologies. Mataponi had spent a lot of time and energy thinking about the best way to manage its health center.
The truth is, the camps made my job easy. Every day, I would hang up with one camp that provided a smart idea, and then I’ d call the other camps to ask them what they thought. My purpose was to find consensus and to continually add more efficiencies into each management process. Even though the suggestions were rarely mine, it was music to my ears when I’ d hear voices on the other end of the phone exclaim,“ That’ s a great idea!” That meant I would get to spend the next many hours doing what I loved: listening to some tunes while hammering away at my keyboard and watching an imagined concept turn real before my eyes.
To this day, each camp brings something unique and interesting to the table and further pushes the envelope by coming up with innovative ideas to manage a camp business.
Fast forward to August 2010,
and I’ m in Paul’ s office in our
Boulder, Colo. headquarters.
The phone rings, and it’ s
Jamie Maxner from Camp Tel
Yehudah. We both say hello
and Jamie politely inquires,
“ Hey guys, I’ m just checking
to see where you are with the
staff application.”
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At CampMinder Camp 2, back in January, Jamie attended the staff application session where we started to gather preliminary ideas about what a revamped staff application might look like. Tel Yehudah, like many other camps, had been using CampMinder’ s original staff application, the first CampMinder feature ever developed and that had been in use since 2001.
“ We started to design the layout, but the reality is that this is a huge project, and it most likely will not be ready in time for this hiring season,” says Paul.
Jamie, affable as she always is, responds,“ OK, that’ s great. Just wanted to check in.”
I interject,“ Jamie, while we have you on the phone, remind me: do you want to be able to ask different questions to different position types? For example, nurses versus counselors?”
“ We don’ t care if a nurse can play basketball, but we don’ t have a separate set of questions we ask nurses,“ says Jamie,” Maybe we should?” Jamie continues,“ We do ask different questions to new versus returning staff, though.”
Knowing that the reinvented staff application will handle both of these cases, I smile.“ You’ re gonna like what we’ re putting together here,” I say.
“ Are you coming to CampMinder Camp?“ asks Paul.“ We’ re going to have the designs ready for a brainstorming session, and hopefully you can be there to tear them apart with everyone.”
“ Obviously,“ she replies.
We hang up, and now that Paul and I are thinking about the staff application again, we put our heads back into the project. Forty-five minutes later, scattered around Paul’ s desk are printed screenshots of our current staff application with handwritten notes practically covering each page. We Skype with our user interface designer, Nicholai, and walk through the new mockups page-by-page with him, making sure we have addressed all the scribbles on the printed pages. We also cross-reference our notes from CampMinder Camp to make sure we haven’ t missed anything.
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Over the ensuing weeks and months, Nicholai sends along his progress with the user interfaces and we make minor tweaks here and there. By Thanksgiving, we have a functional mockup of the entire staff application, and it’ s ready to face the jury.
On January 27th, 2011, the
first day of CampMinder
Camp 3, we host a group
brainstorming session focused
specifically on confirming
our vision for the new staff
application. A room full of
people, including myself,
Paul, Stuart( our CTO),
Frank( Director of Client
Development), and 40-or-so
of our clients sit together to
review and critique
our designs.
This brainstorming session goes down as my favorite CampMinder Camp session to date. It was intense. You’ ll always hear me raving about the way camp professionals are“ the most collaborative competitors in business.” At least that’ s the way Sarah Applebaum of Camp Thunderbird put it at the time. But there’ s a limit to competitive collaboration, and that limit is the point at which“ I need it to work like this” and“ I need it to work like that” collide.
If there is one thing I have learned in my now 10-plus years of focusing almost all of my daily energy trying to make CampMinder work for just about every imaginable situation that may arise, it is: THIS AND THAT MUST NEVER COLLIDE!
It doesn’ t take long for this and that to collide during this particular session.
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On the second page of the application, where the applicant indicates the positions he or she is interested in, a lively debate ensues. One population of camps wants the applicants to choose across a broad selection of positions, like“ Activity Specialist” or“ General Counselor.” Another group is vying for very specific positions, such as“ Head of Basketball.”
Both groups have valid reasons for why they operate the way they do, and it’ s our job to build a system that can accommodate the wide range of needs. We’ re talking day camps, resident camps, two week / multi-session camps, full season traditional camps, so on and so forth.
We leave the session with a page-long list of suggested improvements to our mockups. This list provides us with plenty of food for thought. In the months leading up to the summer, we table the discussion to instead focus on the pressing matters that affect the upcoming camp season. In the back of our minds, however, we know that The Big Enchilada looms.
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It’ s a beautiful July morning in Boulder, and camps nationwide are in-session and running smoothly. It’ s time to tackle The Big Enchilada. There’ s something creative and inspirational about the Boulder Creek. It’ s our version of the peaceful camp waterfront. Paul and I decide to take advantage of the sunny day, and we walk and talk along the path beside |
the creek, creating a master plan as to how we are going to address this enormous project. We eventually get to the point where we have a fairly solid idea of what we think the new staff application has to do in order to accommodate everyone. Time to bring in the team. |