A Message from the President - Brief Article

Camping Magazine, March, 2000

"If you always do what you always did -- you'll always get what you always got."

Author unknown

We are proud of our traditions that have successfully placed camping on the agenda for millions of American families. For more than a hundred years, we have added dimension and depth to the lives of campers and staff. So, should we be content with our achievements? Do we believe that those accomplishments axe enough? Most of us think not.

Our successes begin by uniting vision with organization, thereby creating well-run businesses. In the future, how we balance camping's multiple agendas will determine whether we grow or remain static. We can consider the millions of children who attend camp a testament to our success. We should consider the millions who don't as an example of the challenges ahead. Because we believe that the benefits of the camp experience should be a readily obtainable right of passage for American youth, we must do more!

As businesses, we are always presented with opportunities to enhance our camp operations. All camps function in the business sphere and have opportunities to impact the social fabric of their communities and the values of their clientele. If our mission is to grow and extend the camp experience, then we must take advantage of every opportunity to effectively present the camp experience to the public. We must draw the world to our camps. Others will not discover our value if we succeed in a vacuum.

After a hundred years of success, we know the greatest single reason a child attends camp is because a parent did! That knowledge confirms that we have failed to move meaningfully beyond our existing base.

Today, the Internet represents the greatest opportunity to include millions in the camp experience! Committed camping families, millions of potential campers and their families, policy-makers, and the media will discover camp through the personal "window" that is the Internet. In an honest and intimate way, we can bring the world into our camps. We have at our disposal tools which enable the camp experience to become understandable, desirable, and available, and we must use them for maximum effect!

In service to the vision that drives our camps, we can refine our business plans, make the right financial moves, plan and budget better, and improve accounting, record-keeping, and financial strategies. As an association, we can enhance public awareness, improve standards, and advance best practice. We can marshal our collective energies to collaborate in regulatory matters with real authority and create a movement that mobilizes the talents of our profession. But most of all, we must commit to embracing change. We cannot be satisfied only with our past successes; we must use those successes to create a better future for camping.

Rodger M. Popkin

ACA National President