Attend any gathering of camp professionals over the winter and spring, and you are bound to hear bits of conversations about enrollment. . .“How is enrollment going at your camp?” “We seem to be up a little overall, but especially with our girls”; “You know, registrations are really slow coming in this spring — seems like families are waiting much longer to decide about sending their child to camp this year.” “We were a little down last year, but we seem to be doing better this spring”. To offer a comparison point for this year’s trends in camp enrollment, ACA conducts a very short spring enrollment survey — and the sneak peek results for camper enrollment are in! Camp directors from 251 camps provided us with insights on their current camper enrollment trends for this summer. Last year this survey was a good indicator of what actual summer camp enrollment looked like. The results deserve a rah-rah! So far, summer camp enrollment is up for most camps. If we continue on this path, even more youth will have the opportunity for transformational camp experiences this summer.
 
The highlights are:

1. Camp enrollment is about the same as last year (28%), or higher (53%).
2. Some camps have higher enrollment for boys (29%) and girls (37%).
3. Many age groups are seeing upward trends (teens and younger), with adults and family enrollment remaining about the same.
4.  In general, increased enrollments are seen in all session lengths with the most growth seen in shorter sessions (1 and 2 weeks in length).

While this information is mostly a good news story, your camp enrollment may not follow this same upward trend from last year. Camps have identified many challenges impacting camper enrollment, such as competition from other youth programs, and parents waiting to enroll their children until the last minute. There is still plenty of time available to market your programs, and wait for those last minute registrations to come rolling in. Finally, we would like to thank each camp director who participated in the 2016 Spring Enrollment Sneak Peek Survey. This trend information is valuable, and helps directors compare individual experiences, which seems to bode well for a lot of happy campers at the end of summer 2016!
 
Onward and upward as you keep up the great work!

Cait Wilson is an ACA graduate research assistant at the University of Utah.