This was sent out as an email to our parent body.  I am re-posting it on our blog, as many readers are not on our parent list.

At Ramah Outdoor Adventure, we are constantly striving to improve our camp program.  While we know that children and counselors have transformative experiences each summer, we understand that a successful program must constantly evolve.  Each summer we ask our current camper families to evaluate their child’s experience at camp using a third party survey.  We are pleased to share the results of these surveys with you at this link.

Here are the headlines from our survey:

Areas of strength:

  • The outdoor adventure activities at camp are top notch.
  • We excel in creating a space where children feel proud to be Jewish and where they internalize these Jewish values.
  • Expertise and professionalism of the summer staff counselors and specialists.
  • Leadership of the year round staff.

Areas where we need to continue to improve & what we are doing to improve on these things:

  1. Offering more variety at meals:

  • Next year, we plan to continue to improve our meal offerings by adding more eggs to the breakfast menus, a pasta bar to the lunch and dinner menu (at base camp) and a broader range of snacks in the dining tent throughout the day.
  • We are continuing to explore options for adding more meat to the menu, but we are severely limited with our options given the size of our kitchen.

2.   Better communication during the summer:

  • In the summer of 2013 we will be adding a communications specialist to our office team.  This person will be in charge of uploading photos, editing and posting videos and writing more frequent blog updates.  While we will still have limited bandwidth at the ranch, we hope to increase the level of our summer media communication.  The camp parent(s) and director will still be available by phone and email for specific updates.

3.  Improved camper care.

  • In comments from parents there were a few references to specific camper care issues.  In 2013 we will be expanding our camper care team to address many of the issues that arose this past summer.
  • We will continue to hire excellent, mature counselors and will also add a new position of “director of camper care”.  This senior staff person will work throughout the year to assist families in readying their child for camp.  During the summer, the director of camper care will be assisted by a “camp parent” and a “special case coordinator” to ensure the emotional & physical needs of all campers are being met at camp.   For example, this team will work with the counselors to ensure that campers are practicing good hygiene, are speaking respectfully to each other & are well integrated into the camp program.  Should there be any issues about which a parent would want to be informed, a member of this team will reach out directly.

Overall, we are delighted with the results of this survey and from the many conversations we have had with camp families since their children arrived home.  Thank you to everyone who made summer 2012 such a success!

We are currently coming to the end of our super-early enrollment for the 2013 season.  Please remember that any camper who registers before the end of October will receive a free Ramah Outdoor Adventure fleece vest. And remember, deposits are 100% refundable for any reason until March 1, 2013.  To see 2013 session dates, please click here. To register for camp, please click here.

On behalf of the entire crew at Ramah Outdoor Adventure, thank you for helping us spread the word about this amazing Jewish camp in the Colorado Rockies.

-Eliav