The HabForum

I called Space Camp today to see if they might be planning an alumni weekend. They said they had no such plans. I asked if they might have a 6-day Adult Aviation Challenge and they said there is only ONE 3-day Adult Aviation Challenge planned. I checked the website and this is all they show. They also have very few Adult space camp programs available. I am very disappointed in how they are cutting back on opportunities for adults to attend their programs since so many of the past years alumni from the children's programs are now adults and might be interested in returning. Not to mention people like me who only attended as adults and would like to return.

Back in 2004 they only had a handful of adult weeks as well, all in the September timeframe. There were 3-, 6-, and 8-day Space Academy programmes as well as the teacher week. There was only one 3-day Aviation Challenge weekend then too. There was no week-long Aviation Challenge either. I don't think they have really cut back that much; it looks the same now as it was then. (Minus the alumni weekends that pop up once in a while.)

In reality, when I registered in 2004 the week I chose didn't reach minimum enrolment so they cancelled it and pushed us all to the 8-day camp several weeks later. We definitely enjoyed the result. So I'm guessing the enrolment problem still exists and adults aren't registering as much as you'd think. If there were waitlists for every adult program, then they may consider adding more options, but there aren't.

That's my two cents. But I live a gazillion kilometres from camp, and don't know exactly what enrolment numbers are, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

considering the space and rocket center has a new CEO right now things are changing. And talking to some people and seeing what they are doing with the alumni community section of the website i think Alumni camps will be back maybe not this year but in the next year or so. The new CEO seems like she wants to reach out to Alumni the way they should have been doing for years.

Considering the way the alumni camps went in 08 and 09 and a lack of planning leading to last years being canceled i'd consider a break and reorginization a good thing. Remember next year will be the camps 30th anniversary.

They promised after last year's debacle that they'd make up for it this summer and not fail us for alumni weekend. They still have plenty of time to make it right.

I asked around about it at the Tranquility Base Rendezvous and it didn't seem like anyone was making plans yet. I reminded folks to start thinking about it and let us know as early as possible so we could make plans.