Online Web Tools! To Make Your Life Easier and Better

One thing I found to be true when working at a camp: so many camps work manually when they can get the internet to do the hard, tedious work for them.

The camp industry is awesome because it (generally) takes a step back from the fast-paced world of technology. But whether camps see the Internet as an exciting world to explore or a nuisance, being ~online~ can greatly help your team year-round. Here are some tools to tame the Meme Machine:

Make your website better

Hire pros to get your website working // Lorem -- Lorem has a list of developers available to make changes, update your site, perform maintenance, or repair bugs for hourly rates. If you don’t have a working knowledge of back-end code (*raises hand*), this is a lifesaver to keep your site running smoothly.
Make really fun surveys and quizzes // Typeform -- GSuite is great for a number of things, but the forms can feel a bit stale after your thirtieth time trying to make it look customizable and intuitive. Typeform’s user interface is beautiful and super easy, lending your organization more credibility than sending out yet another Google form.

Work smarter with your tech

Automate absolutely everything // If This Then That -- You can automate pretty much anything. For example: anytime you post on Instagram, it will post on Twitter, or every time you get an email with the subject "New Camper," it can add basic information to a Google Sheet.

Tools for your full-time team

Get your projects in order // Trello -- Trello is essentially a giant to-do list for professional orgs to figure out their pipeline. You could use it individually, or your camp could use it as a whole to manage projects. This can help teams feel less siloed!
Quickly share your screen // Join.Me -- In a room with someone and need to share your screen quickly? On a conference call and trying to get some visuals in there? Zoom/Google Hangouts farting out on you? This is so easy, fast, and reliable.
Get your team talking // Slack -- Get rid of those dumb short emails in your inbox and integrate all your fun internet apps to work together in one place. Great for collaboration and information sharing.
Inspect your team’s effectiveness // Team Playbook -- What if, after every initiative, you ran a mini project retrospective? Looking at your full-time team from a project management perspective can help figure out pain points in collaboration.

Recruitment, marketing, and content tools

Track your emails // Mailtrack.io -- Tracks emails sent from Gmail (free) so you know if they've been opened. Really helpful for lead follow-up if you do it outside of CampMinder.
Compare email copy // Just Good Copy -- Writing a good email takes loads of skill and inspiration. Take a gander at some of the best emails in all sorts of industries to gain inspiration for tone, wording, and more.
Templatize your marketing // PressKite -- Use marketing and content calendars that you can customize for your own camp without building one from scratch.
Get some nifty stock photos // Unsplash + Pexels -- Sometimes, you just need a solid photo of nature that you can’t find in your thousands of photos from the summer. A quick search in one of these creative commons sites will save you from copyright issues while also saving your sanity.
Free music for your videos // Icons8 Music -- No more Apple iMovie stock music for your 30-second summer videos. Time to switch it up.

There’s a great big world of really amazing tools out there. Looking for something that solves a tech or business problem? There’s a good chance something exists you haven’t even heard about yet. For everything that’s not on this list, Product Hunt is a great resource; just search your problem (collaboration, time-tracking, etc.) and PH will give you approximately 40 options with reviews from users. It’s also a great way to kill time for fellow tech nerds.

Hannah Weiner
TSCS MEMEBER
Formerly: Assistant Director at Fleur de Lis Camp 
Currently: Marketing Director at Sprout Studios