Ten things your camp Web site absolutely must have - Technology

1. Contact in formation, front, and center

Your (prospective) camp parents need to be able to reach you, and the first place many look to is your Web site. This means you need your contact information (or a prominent, easy to find link to it) on your camp's home page. Your contact information should include:

* address (off-season/mailing and camp address, if different);

* phone number (off-season/mailing and camp numbers, if different); and

* e-mail address.

This information should be "above the fold" meaning it should be visible when the home page first loads so someone visiting your Web site does not have to scroll down to find it.

TIP: Most people have their computer monitors set to 800 x 600 pixels so when you are checking to see if your contact information is above the fold, make sure your monitor is on that setting as well.

2. A camp photo tour

The Web is visual so don't just tell people why they want to go to your camp. Show them.

Depending on the resources you have available, this section can be as basic as static pages with pictures and text or an elaborate "virtual tour" with panoramic or 360-degree scenes with camp songs playing in the background. But there's no excuse to skip this section -- even a simple yet artfully done photo layout can go a long way.

3. Session and enrollment information

Don't make prospective parents hunt for this information. Tell them what they need to know -- when sessions begin, how much they cost, how to sign up, etc. Sounds basic, I know, but many camps don't.

A single page with this information is the bare necessity. Without too much extra effort, you can post enrollment forms on your Web site so parents can print them, fill them out, and mail or fax them back to you. If you want to get a little more fancy, you can turn your camp forms into Web forms that parents can fill out online and then send you an e-mail with their data. If you use camp management software such as EZ-Camp, you can even hook the Web form directly into your database and eliminate some of the manual effort, but this can get a little tricky.

TIP: Unless you are very tech savvy and have the time and money to spend, do NOT try to take payments for camp online yourself. Any time you ask for a credit card number, you need to assure your camp parents of a level of security that is beyond the resources of most camps. NEVER ask for a credit card number to be e-mailed to you -- e-mail is about as secure as a postcard.

4. A FAQ page

Tired of answering the same questions over and over again? Guess what? You don't have to. Make a list of the top ten (or twenty or thirty) questions parents or prospective parents ask you, and put those questions (along with their answers, of course) on your Web site. You'd be surprised what a difference this makes.

5. Directions to camp

Save yourself a lot of trouble. Text directions are OK; a map is better. When parents call for directions, let them know that directions are on the Web site -- they typically don't want to copy directions down by hand any more than you want to (yet again) read off directions over the phone.

Ideally, set up your site to generate door-to-door directions by linking to map and directions Web sites such as MapQuest or MapBlast. This is a little difficult to do but looks very impressive to your camp parents.

TIP: Some camps choose not to post directions online because they are concerned that they'll fall into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, "the wrong hands" know how to use a map. Generally speaking, keeping this information off your Web site protects no one and inconveniences many.

6. Help wanted!

Unless you have no problem staffing your camp, you need this section. You need to make the information in this section easily accessible. This section should list the jobs you want to fill, a short job description, job requirements (e.g., age), salary (at least a range). and a clearly marked "Click here to apply" link. Also, if you have a lot of jobs, organize this section well so they don't give up before finding the job they want.

If ever it was important to let someone apply online, this is it. Fax and mail are not going to cut it. These kids were raised on e-mail, and you'll lose them right off the bat if they can't apply online. At a bare minimum, let them e-mail you their resume. Better yet, put together a Web form for them to fill out so you can be assured of getting the basic information you need, but keep it simple. Make it too long and they won't finish the application. Collect the bare minimum you need to know if you want to call them. You can request more information over the phone, if necessary.

TIP: Don't assume the applicants will remember to specify which jobs interest them. Build that information into the system.

7. E-mail to campers -- so many ways to shoot yourself in the foot

Few camps want their campers to be sitting in front of a computer reading e-mail but parents increasingly demand the convenience of e-mail. What's a camp to do? The solution most camps have been forced into is accepting e-mail, which they print and hand out at mail call. This solution is far from ideal:

* Time: Each e-mail needs to be read and printed. You have to determine which camper it is for (not easy when an e-mail is signed only "Love, Mom") and look up each camper's cabin. Your office staff will hate you.

* Disappointment: With certain e-mails, there's just no way to know who the recipient is so the e-mail just won't get to the camper. Not your fault but will that matter to the parent?

* Cost: Needless to say, paper is not cheap.

* Viruses: You've just exposed your camp computer to viruses from your entire camp community. Have fun!

* Bandwidth: Most camps are pretty isolated and consequently don't have high-speed connections. That won't stop Mommy from e-mailing a 4 megabyte photo of Fluffy's new kittens. Your phone line will be tied up for hours.

If you want to accept e-mail for campers at camp -- and there's a lot of good reasons to do this -- do it via Web form. It's just as convenient as e-mail plus you can specify what fields are required (e.g., camper name, cabin number) and save your office staff a lot of aggravation. Even better, Web forms don't allow for attachments so viruses and bandwidth problems go away.

TIP: You can even charge for each note to defray the cost of providing this service. Since the alternative is buying a stamp, most parents are pretty understanding. Added benefits: when you charge for each note, parents are less likely to abuse this feature by sending five-plus notes a day, and they put more thought into making each note a substantial letter rather than a short, hastily composed e-mail. Doing this yourself is a bit complicated, but there are camp service companies that make this a snap.

8. Pictures -- the one-way window into camp

Don't just tell parents how much fun their children are having -- show them! Take pictures and post them to your Web site every few days, Nothing reassures parents like the smiling faces of their children staring back at them. A happy parent is less likely to call you for reassurance.

But be careful. Not everyone ought to look through every window. If you are going to put pictures of campers online during the summer, I urge you to make this section password protected. Not just a single password for all parents because if that gets into the wrong hands you have to change the password for everyone and make sure all of your camp parents get the new password. (Congratulations -- you've just made a lot more work for yourself.) Each parent should have his or her own usermame and password so if one is compromised, you can cancel just that account.

Expect parents to ask if they can get copies of pictures. While you can tell them to simply hit "print" to print out a copy of the picture they want, if you can get them photo-quality prints they'll love you even more.

TIP: Sounds complicated? It certainly is. Fortunately, there are companies that will do this for you. Some will even do it for free and may even offer you commissions on any photo sales!

9. Keep in touch -- message boards

Just because summer is over, doesn't mean camp has to end. Let your campers (and staff) stay in touch using message boards to send each other messages no matter how far apart they live. The tighter you keep your camp community together, the more likely they are to return year after year.

These absolutely must be password protected on the user level. It's the law. COPPA, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, is very strict about the steps you need to take to make sure campers do not inadvertently reveal personally identifiable information to strangers.

(For more information: www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/online/kidsprivacy.htm)

10. How am I doing?

At the end of the day, your Web site is not about you. It's about your camp community. So how do you know if your Web site is meeting their needs if you don't ask? Get feedback specifically about the Web site. At a bare minimum, add some text: "Comments or suggestions about this Web site? E-mail: [email protected]."

Better yet, think about what questions you'd like to ask parents about the Web site (e.g., Was the site ever down? Were the pages loading slowly? What features did parents especially like or dislike?). These questions become the basis for a survey that you can make into a Web form. Put the survey on your camp's Web site and/or e-mail a link to it to your camp community. This will save you quite a bit of money over printing and mailing surveys.

TIP: To be useful, the survey data needs to be entered, tabulated, and analyzed. You can manually enter this data from the emails sent to you by the Web form, but you can save yourself a lot of effort by using commercially available survey software that automatically writes all completed survey Web forms to a database and that has built-in, easy-to-analyze tools.

As I said, most of the missing pieces in this article are easy to add to your current camp Web site, and there are companies who specialize in providing these services to camps (often at surprisingly reasonable prices) so there really is no good reason not to make sure your camp's Web site has all of the above features. It will enrich your camp community's experience immeasurably.

Andrew Ackerman is the chief operations officer of Bunk1.com. Bunk1.com provides password protected community features, fall Web sites, staffing services to summer camps, and maintains a camp search engine. For more information regarding this article or Bunk1.com, please contact [email protected] or call 1-888-465-CAMP.

COPYRIGHT 2002 American Camping Association
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