Day Camp Dismissal Practices That Every Camp Should Use - Guest Post
Brought to you by PikMyKid
Day Camp Dismissal is a stress-filled time of day for all involved - Parents, Campers, and Staff Members. That's why today, we're going to go over the best dismissal practices for all involved. We’ve broken up this post into 3 different sections depending on what your role in a day camp is. Whether you’re in administration, a staff member, or a parent/guardian. Let’s jump in!
Fundamental Camp Dismissal Practices For Camp Administration
Summer Camp Administration members are typically the first on the scene for adapting new practices, software, or procedures. That's why it is critical that you understand what is best for your role in adapting dismissal best practices.
Overview of Best Practices for Camp Administration
Understand Camp Dismissal Software from all Perspectives (If you're using Software)
Use Guides for All staff Members
Practice Your Processes
Evaluate and Adjust Regularly
Designate the Different Areas Used in Pickup
Consider Staggered Dismissal
Encourage Carpooling
Store Camp Dismissal Practices on Your Website
Use Software
Dozens of dismissal software solutions have been developed in the past decade. PikMyKid is the first product to pioneer the concept and is the dominant player in the market.
Dismissal software expedites the process, increases safety, simplifies procedures, and adds accountability to the entire system.
Understand Dismissal Software from all Perspectives (if You're using it)
Dismissal has been described as an intricate dance; there are dozens of people involved, and everyone must complete each step on time, or the whole thing falls apart and gets offbeat. Software can further complicate the process while simultaneously simplifying and adding accountability to it.
If you're using software to improve dismissal, take the time to understand all sides of it. Specifically what it will look like for each group of people using it. Dismissal software often appears different to the administration, staff, and parents because they each have different roles.
Do your best to understand each side's differences and nuances. You will be dealing with the management side, the staff side, and the parent side. Be prepared to answer questions from all sides.
Use Guides for All Staff Members
Since these processes are complex and the software can complicate things before making them simple, distributing guides to everyone using the software will make everything easier for everyone to understand. If you're not initially provided with them from your software provider, be sure to ask if they have some.
Practice Your Processes
Just as a dance takes practice to complete the steps at the right time, your dismissal processes will take a bit of use before they reach perfection.
Evaluate and Adjust Regularly
Keep in touch with all your staff about improvements they think would benefit the processes.
Designate the Different Areas Used in Pickup
Many camps create color-coded maps of their campus and display them in various places: online and through distribution. They guide parents, campers, and staff through the different areas of your campus used throughout the dismissal process.
Consider Staggered Dismissal
Staggering the dismissal times for different groups of campers and staggering where campers are dismissed will speed up the process because there will be fewer campers to keep track of at a given time and in each area.
Encourage Carpooling
When parents carpool, there are fewer cars in the dismissal line, the process gets faster, and there are less harmful emissions put out into the air. A win-win situation for everyone if you ask me.
Store Dismissal Practices on Your Website
Create a space on your website where you display updated dismissal process information. Include any software you use, any staggered times or areas, and such. That way, when new parents or staff have questions, you can direct them all to one concise place.
Along those lines, make sure you notify all parents and staff of all relevant updates to dismissal. Things only work as well as the people operating them understand them.
Camp Dismissal Practices For Camp Staff
The Camp Staff are an integral part of the daily dismissal practices at camps around the world. They keep kids entertained, organized, and on track of what's going on. Without them, the whole system would fall apart. Here are a few tips for them to help make the dismissal process better!
Overview of Best Practices for Camp Staff
Embrace the Chaos and Fun
Learn Processes and Software
Stay Updated on the Dismissal Process at Your Camp
Share Improvement Ideas After Implementation
Embrace the Chaos and Fun
Changes take time to implement. Encourage yourself, coworkers, campers, and parents to go with the flow and accept the changes and new processes as they come.
Learn Processes and Software
New software and processes can take a lot of time to understand. You need to know how it works, why it works, and your role in all of it; before you can be effective.
Stay Updated On the Dismissal Process at Your Camp
Be mindful of periodic changes to your camp's dismissal practices. As we've established, dismissal is an evolving field, and you deal with those changes daily.
Each software and process update typically includes new training materials. Staying current on them helps you excel at dismissal.
Share Improvement Ideas After Implementation
As someone who is probably daily involved in your camp's dismissal, you're acutely aware of changes and how they impact the process. Because you have that unique perspective, you are in an excellent place to suggest improvements and voice your concerns and opinions.
Keep in mind, though, that changes need adequate time after implementation for proper assessment. After that period, you can productively voice concerns and pain points to administration.
Camp Dismissal Practices For Parents
Parent adaptation is critical for any dismissal process to work correctly.
Overview of Parent Dismissal Best Practices:
Understand Your Camp's Dismissal Practices
Practice with your Kids
Ask Questions Before You Get in the Pickup Line
Set Up Software Early
Understand the Traffic Patterns
Use a Carpool
Embrace the Changes
Understand Your Camp's Dismissal Practices
Take the time to review all information shared with you by your camp about the dismissal process. Do your best to understand what the process entails and your role in that process.
Practice with Your Kids
This process will heavily involve your kids for the duration of their camp; they need to understand what’s expected of them. Take the time to answer any questions they have.
Ask Questions Before You Get in the Pickup Line
One of the biggest goals of all camp dismissals is to make the process as efficient as possible. I'm sure you'll have lots of questions about the process, but unless they're crucial to you picking up your child today, save them for a time when you're not in the pickup line. Send an email to the staff when you get home or call them first thing in the morning.
Camp dismissal is a stress-filled time for all involved, especially for the staff; asking irrelevant questions will only complicate and lengthen the process.
Set Up Software, Early
Dismissal software has been evolving in recent years, making dismissal safer, smoother, and swifter. If your camp uses software for the dismissal process that requires parent access, take the time to download it, log in, and play around with it before you get in the carline.
Understand the Traffic Patterns
Some camps are in calm, residential areas where traffic isn't a huge problem. But some camps aren't. Take the time to understand the traffic patterns and where your children's dismissal route will interact with that traffic.
Go over traffic safety with your kids and help them understand how you expect them to behave during dismissal time and around other cars and traffic.
Use a Carpool
Carpools between families are an excellent way to minimize traffic and dismissal problems.
Apps simplify the whole carpool process. From finding members to managing your carpool to tracking how the drive is going.
In Conclusion
Camp Dismissal Practices are essential, effective, and efficient. Without them, the end of the day would be a disaster. That's why it's crucial to keep up to date on changes in the industry no matter what your role is in dismissal.