Hidden Valley 4-H Camp Launches
New Camper Registration Portal
Hidden Valley 4-H Camp
Jennifer Sweet, Camp Director, [email protected]
I recently attended a presentation by Professor Joe Martin entitled “Stop Parenting, Start Coaching”. The presentation aimed to give parents the opportunity to learn how to take a more active role in their child’s life and education.
Since my arrival as the Camp Director of the Hidden Valley 4-H Camp in January, 2014, it has been exciting to see so much growth in terms of camper enrollment, the addition of horseback riding and the new Cloverbuds Day program. The progress the camp has experienced in recent years, however, has rendered our current registration system unusable and unfriendly to both our families and camp staff.
The challenges parents faced with the most recent registration system include the lack of communication abilities between the main Cooperative Extension of Schuyler County office and parents, the inability for parents to view their financial statements and the inefficient access of all the paperwork parents need to complete and return to the camp office.
An additional problem of the recent system was that it only allowed parents to enter the system a single time to register their child for camp. This limitation required parents to contact the camp office to check on their accounts or cabin assignments, if needed. Finally, the view of the system was not communication friendly. Often parents did not realize there was paperwork required for their child to attend camp and resulted in added stress on the families.
The exciting growth of our camp and the needs of our families and campers led us to make a change in our registration system for the 2016 camp season. We are excited to launch our new Registration Portal by Camp Management and EZFacility.com. The premier launch of our system began on Cyber Monday and we received positive feedback by the parents who used the portal that day.
Our new enrollment portal allows parents to log in, view their accounts and make payments at any time, easily select the weeks their campers want attend and complete the paperwork without mailing it to our office. Finally, parents and campers will be able to preregister for their weekly activities prior to coming to camp. That will save time on Sunday evenings and Monday mornings when campers want to spend time with their new cabin mates. The best part of the entire system is that it is easy to get to. Parents can go to the camp website and click the link that will automatically take them to the portal.
Our camp staff and administration will also benefit from this new system. Camper files are much easier to view and the nurse will be able to view files when campers arrive at the health office. We will be able to generate e-mails to parents and campers with any information that needs to reach families prior to their arrival. Also, cabin assignments are easily accomplished in our new system and campers are automatically assigned to cabins when they register. Finally, we will be able set the weekly program schedule ahead of time so staff know what activities they are leading and what campers they will have in attendance.
We are all looking forward to the 2016 camp season and thrilled that we get to offer a registration system that will be more user friendly for our families.