When building camp registration forms, you want to learn enough about your campers to effectively run the camp, provide personalized experiences, and plan its structure.
At the same time, you don’t want to ask so many questions that you overburden the parents and cause form abandonment.
Today, we’ll help you strike the right balance between gathering intel and keeping it brief.
We’ll share the most important questions to ask and also give you some best practices for choosing which fields to include in your online registration forms.
- Campers’ Personal Information
- Campers’ Health Information
- Campers’ Knowledge and Interests
- Camp Program Selection
- Parents’ Contact Information
- Parents’ Payment Information
- Agreement With Terms and Conditions
- Conclusion
Campers’ Personal Information
First, collect the basic personal information about your campers:
| The camper’s full name |
| School grade level |
| Home address |
| Birth date |
Alongside the basics, also ask for personal information that will help you plan your activities.
For example, if one of your events includes taking the campers to a bowling alley that requires that each visitor rents specialized shoes from the facility, it’d make sense to ask for shoe sizes.
If you’re worried that parents may become annoyed at a specific question, you can always specify on the form why you’re asking for a specific piece of information.
For example, next to “height”, you could write “(for theme park field trip)”. This will attach a purpose to the field, and the parents will have no reservations about filling it in.
To easily create custom fields and online registration forms, consider using a camp registration software like Regpack that comes with a drag-and-drop online form builder:
Source: Regpack
These custom forms make it easy for parents to sign up online.
Regpack’s conditional logic forms also guide them through the registration process, only showing them the fields that relate to their specific situation so that no time is wasted.
Campers’ Health Information
To be prepared in case you need to help a camper deal with allergic reactions or other medical emergencies that may affect their camping experience, collect the health information of your campers at the time of registration.
Here are some fields to include on your camp registration forms:
| Allergies (food, medicine, plants, etc.) |
| Relevant medical conditions that could interfere with camp activities |
| Phobias—are they deeply afraid of anything? (heights, dark, etc.) |
| Special accommodations |
Note that mental conditions fall under health information.
Knowing whether a child has a specific fear can spell the difference between a traumatizing event and a big moment of personal growth for the child.
For example, during a hike up a mountain, if the counselor knows of the child’s fear, they could stay close to them and coach them through the experience.
This is a perfect example of information that is easy to collect in a registration form filled out by a parent and difficult to collect in person from the campers.
Children may not be so forthcoming about what frightens or sickens them, especially if you’re working with middle and high schoolers who want to seem brave and tough.
Campers’ Knowledge and Interests
To get to know your campers on a deeper level, ask about their knowledge and interests.
This will help you design a camp experience that helps expand their current knowledge and cultivates their unique interests.
Here are some questions to ask on your form:
| What is the camper excited to learn about at camp? |
| What would you consider your child to be knowledgeable about? |
| How knowledgeable is the camper about {camp topic}? |
| List three of the camper’s interests related to the {camp topic}. |
| Name three of the camper’s favorite things to do. |
It makes sense to ask questions related to the topic of your camp here.
For instance, if the camp takes place on a farm, you might ask what farm animal the child likes the most. Then you could focus on giving each child time with that animal.
If you run a science camp, you could ask about their favorite fields of science and then design a personalized curriculum based on their answers.
Some educational camps like a math camp may also include a math placement quiz in their application process to test the camper’s knowledge.
As an added benefit, inquiring about the child’s interests and knowledge shows the parents filling out the form that you’re serious about providing a personalized and educational experience to their children.
Camp Program Selection
If your camp offers several programs simultaneously, or different camp sessions of the same program, use your registration form to ask parents to select the ones they want their child to attend.
If you have your campers choose their activities beforehand, this is also a question you should ask on the form.
| Which camp program do you want your child to attend? |
| Which session of the program do you want your child to attend? |
| Please rank order the afternoon special activities your child wants to do. |
Sleepaway camps might also ask children about sleeping or cabin arrangements.
For instance, if your cabins are different, you might ask campers which cabin they prefer:
Source: Jotform
Further, if a lot of campers come with friends, you should ask the child to name their preferred cabin or group mate.
Taking the step to ensure that children are paired with their buddies is a surefire way to improve the camper experience.
Ignoring their requests, on the other hand, might expose you to complaints.
Parents’ Contact Information
Camp registration forms should also ask for the parent’s contact information. This will allow you to communicate with them throughout the camp experience or during an emergency.
Here are the details to collect from parents on your registration form:
| Work phone number |
| Mobile phone number |
| Email address |
| Address |
| First name |
| Last name |
Additionally, the email addresses you collect will be vital for your confirmation email and email marketing campaigns next summer.
Saving them in your camp registration tool will allow you to send promotional emails to parents and secure them as long-term customers.
Parents’ Payment Information
You might as well take the registration form as an opportunity to collect payment information from the parents as well.
Instead of having two different forms and processes, you can integrate payments into your forms using registration software like Regpack, which will process the payment securely online.
Here are some key payment fields to include in your form:
| First name |
| Last name |
| Card number |
| Expiration date |
| CVV |
Of course, if you use a software platform like Regpack, you can also allow parents to pay using other methods, like ACH bank transfers.
In this case, the parent would first select their payment method on the form, and then the form would adapt to display the payment information fields related to their chosen method.
To illustrate, parents who choose to pay with a credit card would see the following:
Source: Regpack
Meanwhile, those parents who selected ACH would see form fields for account number, routing number, and the name of their bank.
Designed for camps, Regpack understands that some parents may not be able to afford to pay for the camp in full right away.
Therefore, the tool also enables you to build personalized payment schedules and offer them to parents during online registration
Source: Regpack
This payment flexibility increases your sales because it stops you from losing customers on pricing and payments.
Agreement With Terms and Conditions
At the end of your summer camp registration form, write your terms and conditions and ask parents to sign the form before submission.
Many camp registration tools empower parents to make this statement of agreement with an electronic signature field that’s embedded within the registration form.
Adding this field onto your forms should be as simple as filling it out is for the parent:
Source: Regpack
You’ll also be able to save and track the signatures inside of your registration platform, which will ensure that you have evidence of the parent’s agreement should your camp receive any legal threats.
Conclusion
Asking the right questions on a camp registration form ensures that you as a camp director have all the necessary information to effectively plan and operate your summer camp, day camp, adventure camp, and more!
Questions should span the categories of camper information, health, knowledge and interests, program selection, parent contact info, payment infor, and agreement with terms and conditions. Along with any additional forms like financial assistance forms or health forms. You can even collect registration fees!
To learn more, check out our camp registration page, where we give you all you need to know to create an efficient camp registration process that parents will love.