Lots of heads were put together in order to come up with a more efficient check-in for the beginning of each session. I should have said "an even more efficient check-in" because in the past few years it's been already quite good. When parents and campers arrive, and find out that this form or that (or many forms) are incomplete or missing, they've had to discuss it with the director right there at the table and then wander through various administrative set-ups to finish the paperwork. (I say "paperwork" but I don't mean it's trivial stuff. We're talking about whether we know the camper is going home by bus, a crucial piece of info. Or via health forms, about the medication the child is taking.) But for the start of session 2, we assembled a high-level team of staff, with access to the database of forms via computers. Parents arrive down the hill and are giving a green card if there are no forms missing; these folks move right through to meet directors and go up to the cabins, whereupon mom or dad makes the bed, greets counselors, says goodbye and hits the highway. If you don't have a green card, you move through the room in this photo above, where your forms are completed and any further work is described. Basically, we're just using the square footage of our site a lot better, to keep the lines down and move along fast those who can. Everyone seemed happy with this.
This is the sort of blog entry only former directors or true FV wonks will want to read. But I'm one of 'em, so there you go.
