For decades, I’ve had the privilege of leading transformational change across Canada’s youth development sector—from national youth organizations to year-round outdoor education programs and seasonal camps that serve tens of thousands of families each summer. One truth has remained consistent across all of it: summer is not just your busiest time—it’s also your best time to begin strategic planning.
While the warm months bring the energy and excitement of full program delivery, they also offer unparalleled access to real-time data, authentic interactions, and unfiltered feedback from your most critical stakeholders: families, staff, and the youth you serve. Strategic planning is not just a boardroom exercise—it’s a living, breathing process that must be rooted in lived experience, observable impact, and emerging trends. And there’s no better time than when your camp is in full swing to gather the insights you need to chart your course forward.
1. Engage Families While the Experience is Fresh
Parents and caregivers are most engaged while their children are actively participating in your programs. Whether it’s drop-off conversations, mid-session updates, or post-camp surveys, summer provides a golden opportunity to assess satisfaction, understand expectations, and explore how your camp’s offerings align with evolving family priorities. This is when parents are most willing to share meaningful feedback—and when you’re best positioned to listen.
2. Staff Feedback Loops: Your Internal Compass
Your seasonal and year-round staff are on the frontlines of delivery, and their observations offer essential insight into both the strengths and friction points within your camp system. Use the summer to create structured feedback loops—short pulse surveys, reflective huddles, anonymous comment forms, or facilitated appreciative inquiry sessions. When staff know they are being heard during the experience (not just after), they’re more likely to offer honest input and creative solutions.
3. Leadership and Capacity Review in Real Time
Your leadership team is tested daily during the summer. This is the time to observe how your organizational structure holds up under operational strain. Are decision-making pathways clear? Is your staffing model sustainable? Are you over-reliant on a few key people? Use this window to assess your current leadership capacity, succession potential, and areas for training or investment. These insights are vital when making decisions about future growth, role clarity, and infrastructure investments.
4. Program and Service Portfolio: Look with a Clear Eye
Summer lets you see your programs in action. What’s thriving? What’s dated? What’s in demand that you’re not currently offering? Take time to objectively assess your portfolio using a balanced scorecard that looks at participation rates, outcomes, resource intensity, alignment with mission, and appeal to emerging markets. Gather feedback directly from campers, parents, and staff—complemented by usage data, session trends, and social media interactions.
Keith Publicover has guided camps across North America through this type of analysis, resulting in more strategic offerings, stronger mission alignment, and improved year-round engagement.
5. Mining Data and Market Intelligence
The smartest decisions are informed by more than instinct—they’re supported by data and insight. Summer is the time to collect and review:
- Registration and waitlist patterns
- Camper retention and return rates
- Staff recruitment and attrition data
- Net Promoter Scores (NPS) from families
- Social media sentiment and reach
Pair this with market reviews—look at how your peer camps are evolving, what’s trending with today’s youth, and how consumer expectations around safety, inclusion, outcomes, and value are shifting. This is also the moment to ask: What do we know, and what do we still need to learn?
6. Strategic Planning Rooted in Appreciative Inquiry
Keith Publicover specializes in helping organizations use appreciative inquiry and asset-based frameworks to build strategy from a place of strength. Instead of only asking what’s broken, we begin by exploring what’s working exceptionally well—then look at how to scale, replicate, and adapt those successes. Summer provides a rich landscape for these conversations, because you can see your values, impact, and culture in action.
Final Thought
The best camps don’t wait for the off-season to think strategically. They use the summer not only to deliver magic—but to observe it, interrogate it, and learn from it.
At KDP Outdoors and KDP Consulting Inc., we’ve supported numerous youth-serving organizations in building thoughtful, grounded, and actionable strategic plans—rooted in real-world operations and bold about the future. If you’re ready to use this summer as a springboard for your next phase of growth and impact, we’d love to help.
Let’s start planning—while the campfires are still burning.
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