This is the Referral Rundown, the newsletter that helps camps grow through word of mouth.
We’re the newsletter that gives you more insights than your therapist when she’s on a roll.
Today’s estimated read time: 1 minute 24 seconds
❓A Simple Way to Track Camper Experience (Without Surveys)
At camp, we have a term for campers who visit the infirmary over and over again:
Frequent fliers.
Sometimes they're genuinely sick.
But often, they're not.
Maybe they have a headache. Then they need a Band-Aid. Then they just want to check in with a nurse.
The symptom changes, but the pattern doesn't.
After you've worked at camp long enough, you learn something:
The infirmary visit usually isn't the problem.
It's the signal:
Maybe they're homesick.
Maybe they're struggling socially.
Maybe they just need an adult who feels safe.
You don't need a survey to know something is going on, you just need to notice.
That got me thinking about camper experience.
A lot of camps measure it through surveys.
Surveys are useful, but they're also late.
By the time a parent writes:
"My daughter felt left out."
The session is over.
You can't change that camper's experience anymore.
You can only learn from it.
What if there was a simpler way?
One that worked while camp was still happening?
One question I've seen work well is:
Who had the best day today?
And:
Who had the hardest day today?
That's it.
No rating scale, no dashboard, no complicated system.
Just observations.
Something interesting happens when you ask those questions consistently.
Staff start paying attention differently.
They notice the camper who made a new friend.
The camper who finally got up on skis.
The camper who seems a little quieter than usual.
Patterns emerge.
And most importantly, you can do something about them.
The goal isn't perfect data.
The goal is early signals.
Most camp problems don't arrive all at once.
They start small:
A camper eats alone at lunch.
A friendship gets strained.
Someone stops participating in activities.
If you catch those things early, they're often easy to address.
If you catch them on a survey, it's too late.
This applies to the positive stuff too.
Noticing who's thriving is just as important as noticing who's struggling.
Some of the best camp stories start when a counselor says,
"You should have seen her today."
Those moments matter, and they should be noticed too.
The takeaway
Surveys tell you what happened.
Attention helps you change what will happen next.
If you want to understand camper experience, start by looking for your frequent fliers.
They're usually telling you something.
Even when they don't know how to say it.
🤣 The LOL Lodge
Until next time,
Peter “S’more Snatcher” Elbaum
