"Who's Actually At Camp Right Now?" Shouldn't Be a Hard Question

A parent calls. Their daughter got dropped off an hour ago but they forgot to tell anyone she's feeling unwell. They want to check she arrived okay.

Simple question: is she at camp?

You should be able to answer this instantly. But you can't. Because knowing who's actually on site at any moment isn't something your system handles. You have registration lists, sure. But that's who said they'd come. Not who's actually here.

Registration isn't attendance

This catches people out all the time. You've got your list of who registered. But then:

• Someone registered but got sick and didn't come
• Someone registered for the whole camp but left early
• Someone's grandparent dropped them off a day late
• Someone's coming for lunch on Saturday but not sleeping over
• Two siblings are registered but only one showed up

Your registration list says 47 kids. How many are actually here right now? That requires phone calls, radio checks, physically counting heads.

It shouldn't be this hard.

The clipboard solution

Most camps handle this with a clipboard. Someone stands at the gate marking arrivals. Great in theory.

In practice? Cars arrive at the same time. Parents want to chat. A kid needs the toilet urgently. The clipboard person gets pulled away for five minutes. Three families arrive during that window.

By lunchtime, the clipboard list doesn't match reality. Someone was marked as arrived but their parent took them home. Someone was never marked but they're definitely here.

Now the clipboard lives on a table somewhere. Is it current? Is it complete? Who knows.

Why this actually matters

It's not just about parent phone calls. There are real situations where you need to know exactly who's on site.

Fire alarm goes off. Everyone assembles at the muster point. You do a headcount. Someone's missing. Panic.

Ten minutes later you work out that the "missing" kid actually went home with their aunt an hour ago. Nobody told you. The clipboard wasn't updated. You've just had a very stressful false alarm.

Or worse: the kid really is missing, but you didn't know to look because your list said they'd already left.

This stuff matters. When you're responsible for children, knowing where they are isn't a nice-to-have. It's the job.

The multi-day problem

One-day events are manageable. People arrive in the morning, leave at night. But camps over multiple days? That's where tracking gets messy.

Monday: 32 kids arrive. Tuesday morning: 5 more join (late arrivals). Tuesday afternoon: 3 go home (school commitment). Wednesday: 2 of those 3 come back. Thursday: 8 kids leave early. Friday: Everyone goes home. Hopefully.

Try keeping that straight on a clipboard. Now imagine you need to know, at 3pm on Wednesday, exactly who's on site. And you need to be certain you're right.

What this should look like

Check someone in when they arrive. Check them out when they leave. That's it.

At any moment, pull up your phone and see: 34 people currently on site. Tap to see who. Filter by group if you need to. Export a list for the fire warden.

Parent calls asking about their kid? Search the name. See they were checked in at 9:23am and haven't been checked out. "Yes, they're here."

The data's already there from registration. You're not entering names fresh. You're just tapping to confirm arrivals and departures.

This isn't complicated technology. It's just taking the clipboard digital and making it work properly.

The question to ask yourself

Right now, at your last camp, could you have told me exactly who was on site at 2pm on the second day? Not who registered. Not who you thought was there. Who was actually there.

If the answer is "probably not" - that's the problem. It doesn't have to be that way.