--- Amy West at Higgins Armory <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> In Feb
> and now in April we have only about 12 kids signed up. Which is actually
> nice and manageable, but cuts into the ol' profit margin (as I understand
> it). We had no behavioral problems this time round, and probably won't
> again because of that small number.
12 is small? How many did you have before? I've done 6 years worth of summer
camps and never had over 12 for a session. 15 is pushing it. Now I have done a
couple of Bible Schools with like 20 kids in my class but we were *very*
structured and only a half day.
> My boss likes to have me break
> down each days activities *months* in advance into a grid specifying what
> we will be doing at specific times each day. And that is mailed out as part
> of the brochure before kids sign up. I haven't seen anything like this in
> other camps pre-sign-up mailings.
I think that's a little much. The most I've ever done is send out a camp
description and a break-down of a typical day - morning activities, snack time,
recess time, craft time, lunch, nap time, afternoon activities, etc. If the
camp included field trips, special speakers or some other scheduled
presentation, I'd include those times as well.
Planning things out to the minute is okay as long as you know that it will be
useless as soon as the kids arrive. While kids need and like structure, as one
parent said, too much structure, especially in a camp program, is bad. They
don't want to feel like they are at school but they do like to know what is
coming next and what to expect. The younger the children, the more structured I
make things. For example, pre-schoolers have the same schedule every day and do
the same things for the first and last 10-15 minutes of the day. This gets them
into a routine and by the end of the camp session, they are moving from one
activity to the next smoothly.
For older kids, I still start and end the same way but the middle activities
are more varied. They don't need the structure of circle time, game time, story
time, snack time, circle time. Plus it's more fun for them to vary their
routine so it doesn't seem like they are in school. With a few activities set
throughout the day, you don't get the constant barrage of questions like "when
snack?, when's recess?, when's craft time?, etc."
So getting back to your question about falling attendance and advertising, camp
attendance tends to go in cycles depending on what kind of population you have
around you. Sometimes there are just gaps in the number of kids that are
around. One set gets too old for camp while the next big set is still too young
to start. Then you'll have more kids than you know what to deal with for a
while but they'll move on and you'll have fewer kids for a while. As long as
you aren't getting a handful of kids each session, I'm sure things will rebound
again.
As for profit margins, I'd try and use as much recycled material as possible
for crafts and stick with bulk craft products. Mixing your own paint can be a
pain but it's way cheaper than buying it in the little jars. You can get boxes
of like 200 crayons for cheaper than a few boxes of crayolas. Newpaper printers
will often times give you the ends of rolls for free to use as coloring paper.
There's a ton of ways to keep costs down so that you can have a nice size camp
of like 10-12 kids and still make money.
Deb
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