This past summer we switched to using a camp software program (www.schoolleader.com) and wanted to briefly share our thoughts.

Entering *all* of our camper information from the previous summer into the computer was something we chose to do in order to streamline the process for the upcoming year. This manual data entry was time consuming and really quite a bore.

However, once the registrations started coming in we simply had to activate the students account as we already had all of the personal information including medical data on file.

BENEFITS:
We could print a report, anytime, with a list of all of the students at camp with a medical condition. We could also sort this by cabin/grade and give info to staff.

Check In: As a day camp (100 kids per day), we chose to use the softwares automated check-in feature. This meant that parents would type a code (their drivers license #, in our case) onto a touch screen computer (mouse and regular screen works too). Once they do this, a menu pops up where they can select 'sign in' and it shows a list of all of the students that they have authorization to sign in. This makes security very high for us as we also used the feature to print a 'check out' label when an adult checked out a child...so the child would be identified by the staff as having been checked out by an authorized individual. Also, the computer kept track of which adult picked up the child and when which can be useful when parents neglect to communicate with one another and come asking where their child is!

WHOSE CHECKED IN? At anytime we could run a report to show how many kids were checked in...and which kids...and in what grade/cabin...and did any of them have allergies/medical conditions...etc.

While the process of preparing for the use of a software program was fairly time consuming, once the data had been entered we felt MUCH safer knowing all medical info (without having to flip through binders), enrollment #'s, and so much more.

Would be happy to chat more about our experiences. Send an email to david@campdoodles.com or give me a call at 415 215 4760.

(We used www.SchoolLeader.com by Kressa software)