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What’s Up With
Research??
While you have all been focused on running great camps this summer, we have been
busy gathering information and developing resources to help answer some of
the questions we get from you. We want to highlight just two of these projects
and let you know where you can find more details.
- ACA Camp Business Operations Report: 2006 (ACA Members
Only)
This project provides you with the latest
financial data from over 1,000 ACA-accredited
camps. The information is broken down by
day and resident camps. For each one, you
can look at a summary of findings by region
and sponsorship, or you can look at tables
broken down by gross revenues and sponsor
on areas such as annual camper days, gross
revenues, expense categories, weekly fees,
profitability, and revenue and expense
by camper day. The information is available
in PDF format for
members only. It is now also available
to the public for purchase. Visit
the ACA Bookstore to order. Also look for a new
book to be published in 2007 to help camps
with financial management!
- Look for your mailed copies of Inspirations in
September and Innovations in October!
These booklets provide the benchmark
(starting point) of eighty camps who
participated in Phase I of the Program
Improvement Project (PIP) that assessed
youth development supports and opportunities
at camp. Inspirations provides
a summary of this information based on
camp and camper characteristics. Innovations is
the third in this research series focused
on outcomes and opportunities for youth
development in camps. This booklet provides
a summary of the strategies and practices
implemented by twenty-three camps that
went through a program improvement process
and offers camps a step-by-step way to
carry out your own improvement process.
Both of these projects were generously
funded by the Lilly Foundation Inc. Besides
the mailed copies, you will be able to
download both booklets on the ACA
Research Web site (www.acacamps.org/research).
Also look for the article "The
Role of Supportive Relationships," in
the September/October 2006 issue of Camping
Magazine; the article is first in
a series of four articles entitled Building
Camps That Care About Kids, which will
describe the PIP research process and
results.
Stay tuned this fall for several other
exciting research-based resources! Here’s
a hint of what is to come:
- New Outcomes
Tools that
are camp specific as well as age-appropriate
are currently being tested. We hope to
have six to seven outcomes available
for next summer that are modular (you
select the ones you want to intentionally
target) as well as a way to easily score
and interpret what the numbers mean!
This project was funded by the Independent
Not-for-Profit Council and by Lilly Endowment
Inc.
- New Enrollment
Data will be collected
in September and October, so be sure
to go online and enter your information!
This information is one of the most requested
sets of data, so watch for the e-mail
request to add your enrollment numbers!!
- A
New Salary Study will be conducted
in September and October. Like the
financial/budget data, this information
is critical to camp professionals,
so we need your input!
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