Graphics for Display booth being used at Men at the Cross eventsIt's crazy how time flies during the summer. I've been at Kanakuk Kamps for 8 years and every summer goes by faster than the last. Here in the marketing department we are in charge of making sure the photos get taken, posted to the web, and printed, video footage captured and edited, and collect new material for the upcoming year of telling the Kanakuk story.
This summer we had an intern, Adam McClure, from UGA. He was huge fun to have around and a great asset to our team. He had a hand in making sure that photos of kamper's were approved and posted to the website. He was also plugged in to the program at K-1. He stayed there and served in ways I'm sure I don't even know. Thanks Adam for hanging with us and making it a great summer.
My last Facebook message from Adam indicated that he was coming back next summer in some capacity. We love having staff back year after year. They come back, not because of the accomodations, not because of the huge paycheck :-), but because of the community of Christians that is created here. There is so much opportunity for Spiritual growth, for serving God through giving their time and hearts to the Kampers and other staff. In different ways those are some of the things that bring Kampers back too.
During the summer months, enrollment for the following summer usually hovers in the single digits and doesn't really take a big jump until people have had time to get home, get back into the school routines, and begin planning out the coming year. All of us are planning our lives in much shorter spurts and that means summer camp plans too. I know last year my wife and I waited until after Christmas to enroll our kids in Kamp and almost didn't get them in.
This year with some of the changes that Kanakuk has made the enrollment numbers are up considerably for this time of year. That means that some terms are full already. I know that heart of all our Director's yearns for the chance to see the same kids come back next summer. In many cases this is happening. Here are the numbers from today.
2008 Kampers enrolled for 2009: over all 18%, the highest Kamp is K-Kountry at 52%, then K-West at 21%, K-1 at 20%, etc.
Total enrollment is sitting at 23% of next year's available spots with more than 9 months to go!
We are headed towards a return rate of greater than 63%. That's going to make the Director's happy and a lot of kids too. I'm mainly sharing this information for our returning Kamp Families so that they can work now to get enrolled so they don't end up , not getting the spot they want.
More information about the other changes Kanakuk is making will be coming soon to your mail box.
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3 comments:
I've enjoyed reading your blog this summer. I did not realize that you are over photos...do you mind if I pass along a couple of suggestions?
1. At a party or other function when all the kampers are together, have all the sibling pairs/groups line up for the photographer. Parents love seeing their kids together :)
2. Send disposable digital cameras out on the trips to add some of those photos.
3. After a certain number of days, when the kampers are together, have the ones who know they haven't been photographed raise their hands so they can get in a shot too.
I've had a kid who was always in the thick of things (chief) and I never wanted for pics of him. My other kids are more reserved, and harder to find in the photos.
I'm impressed with photographers who not only capture the spirit of an event, or of the term, but also manage to show all of the kampers (hopefully multiple times).
You guys do awesome work!!
kw
kw (and all the blog readers)-
That's great feedback. I welcome your suggestions anytime. And anytime you want to suggest things or have a question you can do it here or drop me an e-mail at jay(at)kanakuk.com.
We are always working on ways to improve the photo program. I just took that job over and, having been through one summer now, feel better equipped to make changes. Photos are the biggest thing on the website during the summer and we want it to be excellent. I had no idea how big a job it really is. We collect around 750 GB of action photos each summer or approximately 220,000 images. This is done with just one photographer at each Kamp. If we can find resources I would like to add one more to each Kamp or at least a few more than can supplement. It's a costly endeavor when you add in labor, and equipment, etc.
It's always a fine line for the photographer and the Kamp staff to juggle the photo taking being a disruption to the program.
The dream we have for the photos on the website entails tagging more photos of your kids so that you don't have to hunt through all the photos to at least see something. It will also help us determine who has been photographed and who hasn't. The other dream is allowing you to tag photos and create your own "myPhotos" list. This is functionality that we are working on with our IT department and if all goes well we may see it next summer. There list is pretty long:-) We are also working towards high quality digital downloads of the photos. This would probably be fee based so that we could try and cover some of the cost of adding photographers.
Another thing we have thought about is providing photo based products that you customize on the website; like calendars, photo books, postcards, etc. Do you think that would be popular among parents?
It's really good to hear your ideas and will definitely pass those on to photographers next summer.
Thanks for the conversation and thanks for reading my blog.
Keep watching as so much changes around here during the winter! I hope this can be the place everyone gets a sneak peak into that.
Yes, I think the photo based products would be a nice idea to add....especially calendars for Christmastime.
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