Open Letter to Space Camp from Alumni for and about Alumni
Posted: Mon May 10, 2010 3:03 pm
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.
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.