Open Letter to Space Camp from Alumni for and about Alumni

[Boomerang]

Dear Space Camp,

I'm writing this as a open letter to whoever will listen and is willing to accept some constructive criticism from an alumni and former counselor. I hope this letter will be received in the spirit in which it is intended. I do not intend this to be anything other than constructive and I hope this will bring about change. This letter is concerning Alumni and Alumni relations. I also encourage any fellow alumni here to voice their opinions as well in this forum in hopes alumni will be heard and changes can be made.

I have been attending camp for nearly 20 years now. To date I am a seven time camper and have also had the honor of working as a counselor for a season. I love space camp and its programs some of my best memories from my life revolve around the camp, its programs and the friends I have made there over the last 20 years. I am one of more than 500,000 alumni in Space Camp's history. Even though their are this many alumni many of whom are grown and have children old enough to attend camp themselves now, there has been very little effort on the part of the camp to reach out to these alumni.

There have been a few attempts some even have shown promise. 2007 was the 25th anniversary of the camp and their seemed to be a real effort to reach out to alumni. Alumni Andi though a fictional personae kept alumni up to date on all the plans for the summer. There was a regular alumni newsletter and an updated myspace page. Two alumni camps were held one had 2 full teams and the second also had a full turn out this was with all alumni and never had to resort to filling in the empty spaces with staff members with one exception myself who had paid to attend the camp before i was employed as a counselor. The camp's had problems but everyone had a great time and suggestions were made on how to improve the camp to make it a bigger success. These camps had been 4 days instead of the standard 3 day weekend adult camps. In 2007 alumni were made to feel welcome and were encouraged to attend camp in hopes of making the 25th anniversary as big as possible. A lot of alumni my self included thought this was a good beginning to trying to keep alumni involved. We had talked with staff during the cams about ways of improving the camps and how to keep alumni involved through an alumni association of some form. We thought we had been listened to. As it turns out it seems the camp only was interested in alumni for the big anniversary and beyond that atleast to many of us it seems the camp doesn't care whether we ever attend another camp as long as you have sessions throughout the year filling up. After the anniversary was over alumni relations completely collapsed.

In 2008 their was a single alumni camp held. However there was no real effort to let alumni know about the camp. Without the Alumni andi or other resource like a alumni newsletter such as that oublished in late 06 and throughout 07 Alumni were not aware for the most part of the camp's existence. I attended the camp in 08 but instead of what i hoped would be an improvement on the previous year what i found was this. The camp was now 3 days instead of 4 but the price was just as much. More than half of the atendees were staff members because not enough alumni had signed up for the camp. The 3 days were so packed little was actually done since The Space Camp Hall of fame and Apollo Saturn reunion took up two of the evenings of the camp. Gone was any sign of aviation challenge activities. Gone were any kind of tours to show alumni the changes to the facility. Gone was talk of any alumni association. Gone were any ideas given by the previous years attendees. The one and only improvement being the missions were now using Enterprise but were still only an hour long. In all honesty alumni would have gotten more out of attending a regular adult academy session. However this was still better than 2009.

I could not attend in 2009 and have only heard stories. However their was one major problem from the start. The camp was not even announced till a month before the date. Then once again it was still 3 days and from what i understand it was still maid up of at least half staff members. This kind of thing makes alumni feel like an after thought. I don't know what happened to result in this but it just shows a continued lack of communications with alumni.

Here it is 2010. The only mention of anything relating to alumni camp has been here on hab 1 by a then counselor. There has been no official announcement here on hab1.com, facebook or elsewhere. The dates are not listed on the website. No mention of it has been made on facebook, myspace or twitter. I know the camp this year is in August but if you want to have a good turn out announcements need to be made to give people time to request off of work plan travel etc. Plane tickets are already getting more expensive due to the oil rig explosion in the gulf and will get more expensive as the date of the camps approach. The later you wait to make people aware of things the less people you are likely to have. Letting people know some of the plans for the camp would also be a way to attract people to the camp as well. So far the only thing i have seen mentioned that weekend is the Hall of Fame it's advertised all over the place but the camp that is the same weekend is not mentioned once.

Space Camp you are isolating your adult alumni. You encourage youth to attend year after year but do nothing to keep in touch with alumni and to keep them involved once they are adults. Your web site has been collecting alumni information for several years now yet what are you doing with it? There is no newsletter being sent to alumni via email or snail mail. I have never seen a mailing to alumni since the mid 90s. Space camp has a large group of adult alumni who would be willing to help or even do the work to create an alumni association. Their are alumni who could easily out out a newsletter to alumni if they had contact information. Alumni are willing to do a lot of work to help if given the chance even on our own time. Keeping everything in house is not working. If you are going to use facebook, myspace, and twitter to update alumni on upcoming events then do so. But do it. All i see is news articles about the upcoming Star Wars exhibition and other traveling exhibits. Keep alumni informed about alumni events not just the hall of fame. I know the camp has financial problems currently everyone does but alumni could make your job easier if you let them. We have heard talk of training center upgrades but other than on a few staff members personal paged i am yet to see an official photo or update. There has been mention of a camper finder being created but even talk of that gets buried and most people dont hear about it. If you want to keep your alumni involved you need to keep them informed. Don't wait till the 30th anniversary to make an effort again. When alumni offer their help and i know some have then make use of them don't blow them off or ignore them. Don;t wait till the last minute to announce camps. Use the official page, as well as unofficial pages to let people know what's going on. If you ask for alumni suggestions listen to them don't just ignore them. I know multiple people are updating things on facebook it is obvious when you read that its ore than one person. One person whether an employee or not should be handling alumni relations maybe 2 people but they need to work closely together working apart isn't going to work.

I know this letter seems critical but it's the truth. I hear it from other alumni frequently. You have more than 500,000 alumni now don't shut us out, keep us out of the loop and expect us to just keep coming back.

Please other alumni here on hab 1 post your opinions as well. We can't get change without support.

[Conan]

I agree with this completely. As a 12 time camper, and one who attended the Alumni Reunion in 2007, I am disappointed in the information sent to alumni and the lack of opportunities for alumni to participate.
As well, I was an Enterprise level member of Space Camp for many years, sending a large donation to support the programs as the U.S.S.R.C.
A few years ago, my membership expired because I was never sent a renewal notice. I called several times and spoke to the Membership office and I emailed as well asking for a renewal notice to be sent so I could continue to support Space Camp. It was never sent and I am no longer a member of Space Camp. I wonder how many other people who are willing to support Space Camp are being treated this way. A thriving membership program would be a good source of income for the Camp, but it seems to have been allowed to die out.

[SpaceCanada]

Interesting letter, Boomerang. I feel the same way.

I really liked the newsletters and updates from 2006-2008! They were a great source of information and excited me enough to come back and spend a day at the alumni event in August 2007. I could have flown midlessly to Florida, but no, I stopped at Sapce Camp to join in the alumni activities because of those newsletters and the resulting excitement on the Hab1 forums. (And a nice invite to meet Vincent and Boomerang in person!)

Now, Space Camp is second or third down my travel priority list. It's not because I don't want to go, but the alumni camps are too short to attend when you are from outside America, and the short notice even if the camp were longer is prohibitive in itself. Some more newsletters and updates could definitely give Space Camp a better chance of making me return sooner. (for an 8-day adult camp, with my husband)

I am one of the alumni Boomerang mentions who would help set up an alumni organisation of some sort.

Many schools and camps have alumni organisations. Those organisations often have a membership fee and typically bring back alumni and their families to the school/camp on a regular basis. Maybe Space Camp needs to talk with another camp or school to see how they do it and draw from that.

It will be interesting to see what response you get from this letter.

[Hotdog]

+1 on everything Boomerang touched on in his post. We have needed an Alumni Association for years, and in 2007 it looked like we might be getting close to having one. Instead, we got put back on the backburner.

I am using my marketing skills and drafting a presentation for an Alumni Association: its purpose, organization, benefits and duties that will be both exciting for alumni and beneficial to the Rocket Center. I will submit a draft to several of the leaders of this board to get your ideas and input before publicly posting it and sending it to the mothership for consideration.

I hope to have a draft ready sometime next week.

[bnaivar]

Well said Boomerang. However, with whats been happening and the loss of manned space flight, I'm afraid that Space Camp as we knew it may be gone forever. I hope I'm wrong. Someday I'd like to return with my grandchildren. I just hope there's something to return to.

[Hotdog]

I hope you're wrong too! If they close Space Camp, then they might as well close the Rocket Center as well, because I can't see either of them surviving in the current economy without each other. And just because our country is taking a temporary leave-of-absence from manned spaceflight doesn't mean kids will stop wanting to go into space. The dream was there well before NASA and will continue. Hell, the Apollo program ended over 30 years ago and I still wanna fly Apollo sims, so if they don't want to continue with Shuttle at Camp then let's go to the moon!

[SpaceCanada]

Hell, the Apollo program ended over 30 years ago and I still wanna fly Apollo sims, so if they don't want to continue with Shuttle at Camp then let's go to the moon!

Absolutely! The dream of spaceflight is still there, and Space Camp nourishes that dream.

You should have seen my space presentation at Brownie camp two weeks ago. All I set out to do was show them my Moon globe, talk a little about spaceflight, look at the Moon through the telescope and watch the ISS fly by outside. What was supposed to only take half an hour lasted well over 90 minutes because the girls kept asking brilliant questions and wanted to learn more. I was thrilled!

There will always be kids who dream of space and will want to go to Space Camp. Sure, flying in the shuttle will be history soon, but it's what the kids know so far. If camp incorporates more 'design for the future' activities, ISS missions, and keeps up with the present spaceflight initiatives, it will still draw kids to its programmes.

[pilotgirl21]

It's been a while since I've been on this site, but Boomerang, you linked me back to the hab through your facebook post.

I never even noticed the lack of alumni e-mails until I saw that someone had mentioned that on facebook too. I remember hearing that there were changes happening on the training center floor, but we alumni can only find out through people who are in Huntsville (most likely working there) and find the time to update the rest of the alumni. I agree that there needs to be some kind of alumni association that will help to locate the alumni and to once again promote Space Camp not only for the alumni, but for (some of the alumni's) children, nephews, nieces, or any other family member, friend, or neighbor who is interested in space travel and may want to learn more about the programs offered in Huntsville.

I would be willing to help out with getting an alumni association off the ground during free time. I am currently a student (not taking any summer classes), unemployed, and trying to recover from a minor illness that doesn't seem to want to go away, thus preventing me from doing much else. Also, my boyfriend/roommate is also a fellow alumni and former counselor who, as of right now, has nothing planned for the summer.

So, hopefully this can get into the right hands out there in Huntsville and something can get started to keep the alumni interested and promote the camp.

[Boomerang]

Well once posted on space camp's facebook page one of the people who run it said this would get to the right hands. hopefuly it has i guess we will see but nothing as of yet. i look forward to seeing hotdog's proposal. Something needs to be done even an official alumni camp announcement would be a start but so far we don't even hve that. We are exactly 3 months out from the camp date but still the only mention of it was here by a counselor last year and the add for the hall of fame says there will be an adult alumni camp that weekend but you cant register for it on the web page and they are not reaaly advertising it. Guess it will be staff camp again for the most part this year because noone outside of camp will know bout it.

[airkale]

I agree with Jason's statements however, taking into consideration the lack of support directly from the USSRC staff, I would have to propose that we, the alumni, could do a better job ourselves of keeping in touch with our peers. After all, look at this site Vincent has created, it is a great resource to stay in touch. It was what got me back to the center after a long period of not even thinking about rockets in Alabama.

I would propose that if we wanted a better job done in communications, we could do it better through having alumni administer the extra services, like news letters and the like, that we are looking for. The obvious issue is getting into the pipeline.

If we were to start with an email service or newsletter from a site like Hab1, we would need to have addresses to sent these emails out to. But where to get the addresses? The USSRC is not going to allow access to thier database of addresses for privacy purposes, so that leaves us out in the dark with reaching the alumni who we want to contact.

On the other hand we could work with the staff at the USSRC to use thier webmail/newsletter services to send out our own newsletters. However, I doubt we would get much support, as an outsider would be authoring the content being sent to thier subscribers. Obviously, the staff is not going to want to administer or moderate what the alumni group wants to send out; it takes away from thier time.

So what does that leave? How about a marriage of the two ideas. We start a newsletter service at a site like Vincent's, and then approach the staff at the center about possibly making a one time email advertising the alumni group and our web space to the vast list the center has. As you can imagine we may only get a limited reponse from the vast amount of emails sent, however, we could capitilize on our better service to get the people we do contact to do some of the leg work for us. How about integrating a web page to recomend the alumni site to other fellow alumni that someone might want to bring into the loop? What about all the social media web sites. As much as I hate the facebooks etc out there, this is another outlet which could be used by the alumni group to build a base of members and keep everyone in touch with the pulse of the USSRC.

So all this being said whats the point? Obviously, the space and rocket center has proved to us that they suck at PR, expecially when it comes down to the alumni. So why not let a group of alumni work together to fill in the gap that the center can't fill. After all, this will let the center focus on the important work of putting more energy in making the place a better center to visit. Hell we might even make the place a couple of bucks to do some improvements.

[Boomerang]

Kale i think this is along the lines of what hotdog plans to propose here in the near future just based on talking to him. if all else fails we use facebook and myspace to get in touch with alumni as much as possible and spread the word. There are facebook space camp groups with hundreds of members and are still growing plus some of us stilll have contact with former teammates as well. i'm interested to see what otdog wil propose. i am also curious to see if this post will ever get any response from space camp since they don't seem to be lookin g at this forum much these days. A link however wa posted to the official space camp facebook page and i was told this would be passed on to someone who can respond though as yet this has not happened. i guess we will see what hot dog proposes and go from there.

[airkale]

Hey Jason,

Good to see that your up late buring the midnight oil with me here!

It will be interested to see what will transpire. I can definatly see someone putting together an alumni organization thats third party from the center. I'd love to see it hosted as a joint site from Vince's Hab1.

Bottom line though is I don't think anyone will do it better than an alumni. Hell I think you you be a great candidate to head up the effort. Especially in light of your 10 minute replies to my posts!

As you know, when it comes to selling something, you have to always remind the customer about why your product or service is the best or is important. I know only someone who loves the center and the whole space geak life style can do that. Additionally, I think it needs to be someone who is third party because they don't have to deal with all the BS like the USSRC staff. Those poor folks are probably burned out as all hell at the end of the day from hard work. They are already short staffed and facing many difficult chanllenges. Again this is why I think the alumni group would be a great idea because of thier isolation and possitive attitude.

You see right now if we were the self appointed alumni group, you could be writing thoughful newsletters to send to the members and I could be writing code for our web apps and site instead of bitching about all these problems on the Hab forum!

Anywho, good hearing from everyone.