We’ve worked with the team at Stone Mountain Adventures for several years helping to manage registration and online payments for their summer adventure programs.
Located in Central Pennsylvania, Stone Mountain Adventures caters to teens ages 12-16 for outdoor based summer sessions.
In addition to an easy-to-use backend interface, the communication tools Regpack offers is a favorite for Jud and his office staff. Especially when COVID hit this past summer, the ability to communicate effectively with families up until and through camp was essential.
We chatted with Jud to learn more about Stone Mountain and how they are using Regpack to run successful summers year after year!
Tell me more about Stone Mountain Adventures
Stone Mountain Adventures is an overnight summer camp for teenagers. We’re located in Central Pennsylvania. We serve kids ages 12 to 16. We do all sorts of awesome outdoor adventure activities: Rock Climbing, Rafting, Mountain Biking, Horseback Riding, Camping Overnight, and whatever we can think of to get kids outside, unplugged, and having some fun in the summertime.
Our mission is to provide growth experiences for teenagers through our adventure activities, as well as the cooperative group process of living together in camp.
My parents started Stone Mountain Adventures in 1983 when I was ten years old, so I grew up in camp. I was gone for 10 or 15 years in college and I was an Outward Bound Instructor, a High School teacher, and a Wilderness Guide, and then a Mountaineering Guide.
All of those experiences led me back to Pennsylvania, and back to Stone Mountain Adventures. My wife and I now own and run the business. My parents still live on the property. My mom is the horseback riding instructor in the summertime, so Stone Mountain is definitely a family affair.
With COVID this past summer, were you able to run camp as normal?
We were, yes. We ran for six weeks this Summer. We’re a relatively small camp with 60 kids and 14 staff, so that that number was more manageable than some of the larger programs out there, I think.
We were able to run for six weeks and we sort of created a Stone Mountain Covid-free bubble. Everyone came in with a negative test and we continued to monitor for symptoms throughout camp. So, we were really lucky, we were one of the few that were able to run this past Summer.
How did you land on Regpack to provide online registration?
We were using another software for 3 or 4 years and they just really weren’t meeting our needs. In the end, there were just too many problems and issues that weren’t resolved, and after having long conversations about those issues, we decided to look for another solution.
The software we were using was expensive and while switching software is a big commitment, it was worth it. Yes, your families just can’t log back into the old system and update their information, but we decided to make a move to a new solution. At that time, we did some extensive research on the different options that are out there and ultimately decided to go with Regpack.
What features stood out that sealed the deal?
It was a combination of the features that you guys offered.
A few other camp directors recommended you as well, which help. Plus the price was right. Regpack was very competitive on price and that was a big thing for us. At that time were using our old software for just registration, and so the other systems we looked at offered a lot of other features that we weren’t necessarily interested in.
We certainly do a lot of communication through Regpack now, with regard to enrollment and confirmation emails and that sort of stuff, so that was an important feature.
What is your favorite Regpack feature?
I think being able to communicate with families and you filter and quickly sort campers by session or cabin is my favorite. We’ve been able to communicate with them relatively easy; is probably the nicest feature we use the most.
How is managing payments for camp with Regpack?
I can say that we’ve been really happy with our payment processing.
Overall, we were very pleased with the different options and the options for the monthly payment plans that we can offer our families.
I usually send out an email the day before to let families know there will be a charge on their payment plan, so that feature has been very helpful.
I think some families are happy to pay the whole thing right up front, but some families spread it out. So it’s great to have that option in the system.
Would you recommend Regpack to other camp directors?
Yeah, I think the software is relatively intuitive especially creating forms and new products. It doesn’t take too long to get up to speed.
We love the customer service. We hear back from the Regpack Support team within a couple of hours, which is really helpful as are the personalized videos you send of our system.
How did COVID impact how you ran summer camp this year?
I think our whole community was proud to be able to run this past summer with COVID.
The amount of stress and the amount of communication that each family needed, it seemed like twice as much communication as usual. All of which was reasonable, but it was hard and challenging to find time to do while trying to follow new protocol.
Regpack played a big role in us being able to communicate with families. Obviously, there were lots of other communications, individual emails and phone calls and Zooms and stuff. But as far as getting a lot of the information out to a certain segregated group of people, that was really helpful.
So, we were lucky to be able to run and I don’t take that for granted by any means. It was the most stressful time in my life for sure.