Camp Registration Speeds it Up
Registration Success for a Vacation Bible Camp
“It was like I was selling concert tickets,” laughs Lisa Winston, a children’s ministry coordinator. When registration for summer youth programs opened, one camp filled up in eight hours. The previous record? Ten days. Another camp reached capacity in two days instead of a month. Winson says, “It was such an affirmation.”
Winston was debuting the updated web-registration program offered by Cogran. The system took her all-paper registration to a streamlined online program. “I loved the flexibility of the system,” says Winston. “I could customize different fields, so I was able to change one to allow children to make a friend request for the camp. I also created check-boxes for baptism and to see if a child has received a student Bible.”
Thanks to the speedy registration, Winston is able to move forward in preparing for the summer youth program by ordering supplies such as custom-made t-shirts now. The all-paper system meant that even a simple task like inputting email addresses was a data-entry chore.
This was the first year that King of Kings had offered online registration for the summer youth programs, but it won’t be the last. The church worships around 800 congregants each week and offers five main camps, as well as other events. Winston already envisions using the online registration system for adult volunteer programs, monthly events for fifth and sixth grades, for confirmation retreats, and other church events.
“This is so much smoother on the user end,” says Winston.