Summer Camp Marketing & Successful Summer Camp Ideas

Many camps & councils have wondered how to increase participation in their
summer camp program through marketing. I have served on the Camp Thunder
Summer Camp staff on and off for 16 summers from 1979 to 1996. In that time
I witnessed am incredible transition from a very non descript two - week
week camp that attracted some 300 scouts a year to one of the largest summer
camp operations in the Southern Region with all nine weeks and every site
filled up for 1997 months ago.

First, you have to have a good product, and Camp Thunder has had some
wonderful volunteers, dedicated council leaders, and for the past 10 years
(until Nov '95) had two great Scout Executives (David Allen, now SE at
Peidmont Council and Les Baron now SE at Gulf Ridge Council) who did the
necessairy things to take that tired old camp, refurbish buildings, improve
the infrastructure, a new dining hall, and establish a new high adventure
camp on the other side of the mountain on our 2200 acre reservation. With a
great product, benefactors were solicited to pay for the initial cost of a
professional camp promotion video (They used a firm called Camp TV in Dallas
Texas that does great work) and ran ads in Scouting Magazine. Other
marketing efforts included apperances and info tables at Scout Shows &
Trade-O-Rees and the hiring of a full time Council Marketing Director who
doubled as Summer Camp Director. Thunder has E-Mail and a Web Site which has
had over 2000 visitors

All of these things allowed camp to grow by leaps over the past 10 years. I
suppose if the sites were available we could probably have taken in an extra
80 - 100 troops for the 1997 season that have been told all sites are filled
up. It kind of makes Thunder Scout Reservation about as popular as Philmont
in so far as the competition to get a reservation in is concerned.

Producing hundreds of videos and mailing them out and running display ads in
Scouting Magazine (the one currently running I created myself) are not cheap
but they are effective. Perhaps the best advertising is word of mouth. We
have noticed that if one troop from a council has a great experience, the
following year we are apt to see several troops from that very same district
make the trip up, especially if the home camp of that council leaves a lot to
be desired. On any given week there are apt to be as many Central Florida
Council scouts at Camp Thunder as there are Flint River Council (the home
council) and Central Florida Council is 300 miles away in another state.

I for one think good scout troops owe it to their scouts to investigate camps
outside of their council, especially if there they find their own camps
lacking. Don't let any scout executive high pressure you into supporting the
"home camp" if they refuse to add new programs, to send all of their
directors to National Camp School for training, have decent food in good
quantity, and excellence in programming. If your council views summer camp
as a training ground for new District Executives and constantly replaces them
from year to year so there is no consistency or build up of experience, or if
they use Camp and Program Directorship duty as a kind of punnishment or
threat to harried DE's who don't raise their FOS goals while they try to keep
Day Camps and other things running back in the districts, or if they
lethargically allow supply division to do their thinking for them as the
single source for everything in their camp Trading Posts - creating a bad
value for your scouts, or if they set up their Trading Posts to go out of
business the day they open, hoping to have barren shelves by the last week of
camp (meaning that last weeks scouts don't get half of their needed supplies)
then it is time to take your dollars and scouts elsewhere. Summer camp
should be an enjoyable positive experience for the leaders and scouts. If
you are in the hot humid south, has the camp done anything to make the
experience more plesant with air conditioned buildings for staff, and campers
like the Dining Hall?

Marketing is a key to camp growth and survival. The camps that pay head to
this and work year round on developing their product, with good and well
written leaders guides, with an excellent and seasoned staff, great training,
and a Camping Committee that is legitimate and not a phony bunch of old men
on paper is the camp that is likely to survive and grow. We have all read
stories about camps that slop together leaders guides in March & April, doing
nothing except upping the price by five dollars and changing the dates from
year to year. There are camps that are viewed as a necessairy evil by the
Scout Executive, something to be gotten through as painlessly and cheaply as
possible. While there are many Scouting Professionals who love their camp
assignments and thrive at the exciting challenges and produce a tremendous
program while still keeping things running back in their districts, backed by
good Field Directors, Scout Executives, and volunteers who know their jobs
there are also quite a few Camp Directors who are simply makring of the days
until the can send the staff home and call it a summer. Who don't even focus
on summer camp until the very end of May and who do most of their staff
hiring at the last minute, who spend more time out of camp back in their
districts while the camp drifts rudderlessly through the summer. If this is
you situation then VOTE, VOTE with your feet and money to go to a camp where
that view does not predominate. Go to a camp where the leaders guides are
out in the fall of the previous year, where phone calls and letters are
answered by knowledgable people, where the camp is a vital part of the
council and operates year round with events and activities.

YIS,

Ed Henderson
Retired from the Thunder Scout Reservation Staff, end of 1996
Most recently as Business Manager & Chaplain and before that Program Director
Where will I end up in 1997???? Stay Tuned
DISCLAIMER
These views are mine alone. I would never presume to speak for the current
Scout Executive of the Flint River Council.

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