An interested family never becomes a camper.
Someone fills out the form. Someone probably answers. There's no consistent next step, and no easy way to track it.
THE FIX → A real inquiry-to-conversation path
For camp teams who want to start the new year ready to fill bunks...
Get More Campers in 2027
Camp21 is a 21-day enrollment challenge for camp teams.
Summer camp searches pick up the week after Christmas. For 21 days in December, you and your team make one 15 to 30 minute move to get found. who to reach, what to say, how to follow up. When the search starts, your team is ready
See the 21 days ↓
With Jack Schott & Doug NorrieStarts Tuesday, December 1
21Daily moves
15–30Minutes per day
6Live sessions
5Team seats
per package
per package
The deal
21 DAYS TO BUILD
YOUR ENROLLMENT PLAN.
What you need is a practical plan for which families to reach, how to make your case, and what your team does next.
Build my 2027 enrollment plan ↗Individual $79 · Team of up to 5 $199 · Prices pending approval
- 01 / MORNING
Get one enrollment move.
A short daily task, a practical tool, and an example from Kenwood & Evergreen. Delivered each morning.
- 02 / YOUR 15–30 MINUTES
Make something useful.
Define an owner, sharpen a message, map a conversation, or schedule the next step for a family.
- 03 / TOGETHER
Stay in motion.
Meet Jack and Doug live six times. Use the Camp21 Circle space to share your work and see how other camps approach the same challenge.
Sound familiar?
A great summer doesn’t fill itself.
You know how good camp can be. The challenge is helping more parents understand it, and actually enroll. Too many camps lose families between the first inquiry and the decision to register.
Parents visit your site. But don’t choose you.
Parents can find the packing list. But can a new family quickly understand why your camp is right for their child?
THE FIX → A clearer story for new parents
Returning families and referrals get left to chance.
Ideas for referrals, returning families, and January outreach exist. Dates, owners, and actual next steps don't.
THE FIX → One January calendar your team can run
14 problems that show up every January.
Camps run on small teams who crush the summer. What makes someone great in July doesn't automatically carry over to January. If a few of these sound familiar, you're in good company.
01January comes, families start looking, and there's no plan
02Everyone touches enrollment, and nobody owns it
03Inquiries come in and follow-up is slow
04Tours and open houses with no follow-up plan
05No idea why inquiring families never enrolled
06Not sure what actually drives enrollment
07The website doesn't answer what parents ask
08First-time parents don't really get what camp is
09Word of mouth, and nobody ever asks for referrals
10Assuming returning families will just re-enroll
11Social goes quiet the day camp ends
12The same messages as last year
13Using AI and sounding like everyone else
14A tiny budget, and no way to prove what's working
Want more campers next summer? Start with the work that helps families say yes.
Build my enrollment plan ↗Why December
December feels slow. Then December 27 hits.
Google searches for "summer camp" sit flat all December and dip on Christmas. Starting December 27, they climb, roughly tripling by the first week of January, and they stay there all month.
Camp21 ends December 21. That gives you a week to breathe before parents start looking.
When that first inquiry lands, you want to already know who answers it, what they say, and what happens next. Figuring that out in February means figuring it out while families are waiting.
Camp21 uses the quiet weeks to build the path, the story and the plan. You won't be calling families in December. You'll be ready when they come looking.
Be ready before December 27 ↗The Camp21 playbook
21 moves. One goal:
more campers.
Each day answers a practical enrollment question. By the end, your team knows who to contact, what to communicate, who owns the follow-up, and when it all happens.
Week 01 · Dec 1–7The Path
DAYS 01–07Stop losing interested families.
Make the next step obvious for every family, and every person on your team.
DAY 01Map itEvery way a family reaches you, and what happens next.
DAY 02Test itInquire at your own camp. Time the response.
DAY 03Set a speed ruleDecide who answers, and how fast.
DAY 04Set your first-response messageKnow what a family hears first, and who sends it.
DAY 05Map the welcome journeyChoose the messages and touchpoints before the first call.
DAY 06Plan the first callA conversation guide and simple notes.
DAY 07Make a one-page trackerName, source, date, next step.
Week 02 · Dec 8–14The Story
DAYS 08–14Give parents a reason to choose your camp.
Make your best qualities clear before the first tour or call.
DAY 08Find your best fiveAsk families and staff what your camp does best.
DAY 09Read it like a new parentSpot the questions your homepage doesn't answer.
DAY 10Fix the top of the homepageLead with what matters most.
DAY 11Make an FAQ that helpsAnswer the ten questions parents really ask.
DAY 12Set a communication rhythmChoose what to share, where, and when, January to May.
DAY 13Choose a story worth tellingUse a real moment from last summer that parents will understand.
DAY 14Plan your January 1 messageWrite the opening outreach in your voice, ready for your chosen channel.
Week 03 · Dec 15–21The People
DAYS 15–21Turn your relationships into enrollments.
Turn good intentions into an actual January plan, with names and dates.
DAY 15List every familyReturning, lapsed, inquired, and siblings aging in.
DAY 16Plan for re-enrollmentChoose personal touchpoints for returning families.
DAY 17Write the “what happened?” callPrepare to learn from families who didn't enroll.
DAY 18Make the referral askDecide when and how you'll ask.
DAY 19Plan visits and meetupsMap opportunities from January to March.
DAY 20Build your January calendarEvery move gets a date and an owner.
DAY 21GraduationShare your plan and pick a number to watch.
The calendar
December 2026.
Live session, 3 PM ET
Daily move
Light day
No Friday sessions. Hanukkah runs Dec 4 to 12, and we've kept those evenings and every Shabbat free of anything live.
Open the field guide / day 01
Day 01: Map the inquiry path.
Every camper starts as a family considering your camp. Day 1 is about finding where those first conversations get lost.
You’ll identify every path a family can take to reach you, who follows up, and whether they have a clear next step toward enrollment.
CAMP21 / DAILY FIELDWORKDEC 01 • DAY 01
MAP THE INQUIRY PATH
Set a timer for 20 minutes. Trace what happens after a family raises its hand.
YOUR INPUTS / CHECK EACH CHANNEL
- □ Website inquiry form
- □ Email / phone
- □ Referral / event lead
- □ Social / ad inquiry
WHAT YOU MAKE
FAMILY INQUIRES
→OWNER REPLIES
→NEXT STEP SET
Illustrative worksheet preview. Actual Camp21 templates are provided with the program.
The real payoff
21 DAYS LATER, YOUR TEAM KNOWS WHAT TO DO NEXT.
DECEMBER 1 / THE GUESS
DECEMBER 21 / THE PLAN
"We try to reply pretty quickly."
An inquiry response rule with a named owner.
"We have a lot to say about camp."
A clear parent message that explains why your camp is worth choosing.
"We'll do outreach in January."
A dated January calendar for returning, lapsed, and new families.
Camp21 builds the tools and habits. Your team runs them in January. And if it doesn't get you a single new camper, you get your money back.Get ready to enroll more families ↗
The real payoff
WHAT WILL YOU HAVE IN HAND?
By December 21, you’ll have your camp’s message, a clearer parent journey, real follow-up responsibilities, and a January-to-spring action plan. The pieces your team needs to help more families enroll.
Not 21 emails. A plan to help more families choose your camp.
Your 2027 enrollment planCHECKLIST / 2026
A map of every inquiry path
A first-response message and owner
A welcome journey with next steps
A simple inquiry and follow-up tracker
A clear explanation of why your camp
Answers to the questions parents really ask
A January 1 outreach message
A referral ask and outreach plan
A January action calendar with owners
A returning-family outreach plan
A homepage that leads with your best five
A writing rhythm through May
What you get
Everything included in Camp21.
INCLUDED 01
6 live sessions
30 minutes each with Jack and Doug at 3 PM ET. Replays included.
INCLUDED 02
21 daily moves
15 to 30 minutes each, delivered by email every morning.
INCLUDED 03
Templates for every move
Fill in the blanks, then make it yours.
INCLUDED 04
Real K&E examples
The welcome sequence, the first-call guide, the referral ask. The real ones.
INCLUDED 05
Camp21 on Circle
Post your work, see what other camps are building.
INCLUDED 06
Built for teams
Up to 5 people from your camp on one team price.
BONUS · WRITE FROM CAMP
Free Substack membership
[3 months] of Write From Camp, our paid Substack on the business of running camp, three times a week. Normally $39.99/month.
INCLUDED 08
Credit toward Make Camp Friends
Your Camp21 fee comes off the January community price.
Everything here serves one goal: more campers.The right message, a better journey, and an actual calendar for getting families to yes.
Join the 21-day enrollment challenge ↗Not theory from the sidelines
We want more campers at our camp, too.
Jack owns Camps Kenwood & Evergreen. Camp21 turns the practical enrollment work we’re doing there (some already working, some still improving) into moves your team can use to bring more families to camp.
FIELD NOTES / CAMPS KENWOOD & EVERGREEN"We read the emails every week. Don't stop doing those."
A K&E dad, on a call he booked from the link at the bottom of a camp newsletter. He'd been referred three years earlier, his kid didn't come, and he never unsubscribed. His kid is coming this summer.
01
Help more interested families enroll.
Clear first-contact messages, a real first call, and follow-up that doesn't depend on someone remembering.
02
Show families why camp is worth choosing.
Useful stories and honest answers, consistently, even when summer is months away.
03
Turn good relationships into new campers.
Relationships are a camp superpower. Make them an intentional part of enrollment.
140%
Where Camps Kenwood & Evergreen sits year to date. Camp21 is built on the same moves, and the K&E team is doing all 21 days alongside you.
"Doug makes every first conversation I have with a family feel like the second. Cheesy, but really families feel like they get me before they meet me and it gives them an excuse to tell their friends."
From Write For Camp and the camps we work with
What camp pros say after working with us.
Camp21 is new this December. These are from our Write For Camp cohorts and our work with camps.
How and what to communicate to families in the off season to get more kids to camp!
In a few sessions, I got explicit enough guidance to feel able to write to our Camp families. I used to stare at a blank page and just avoid it and I've already written four fairly short focused emails this week to go out later this season.
This course made the abstract "send camp emails" concrete by providing three different "kinds" of emails, steps for each kind, use cases, and examples. Invaluable for upping your email game.
Extremely helpful. The tips and tricks you actually need to get yourself writing and sending. It gave me the push to get it out there. If you are talking about camp, you will hit someone in the heart.
The cohort was incredible. It genuinely surpassed my expectations. I totally see the value in newsletters, and this made it attainable.
A great reminder of the power of your words and expertise in sharing about Camp. And a great blueprint on how to get folks to read emails and engage.
I have always thought that I should write and publish more, but never found the time or activation energy. Working with Doug has completely unlocked that for me... Without Doug I struggled to even get started, but now I am publishing a newsletter twice per month that our camp parents love.
A practical guide to getting started with a newsletter. You will write, you will get feedback, and you will leave with techniques that make content easier to build.
He helped us see our brand in a new light, uncovering strengths we didn't even realize we could leverage.
Over the years I've worked on marketing and sales, Doug Norrie has been one of the best I've worked with. Doug is not only a great listener but also captures my voice with his writing, which helps me gain customers.
This work, this transparent, organic communication, has been a game changer for our community.
Write for camp made learning about marketing and writing for camp fun! It was a cool group of people learning together and bouncing ideas off each other.
Join these camp pros in December. Starts Tuesday, December 1.
Save my seat ↗Why it gets done
MORE CAMPERS IS A TEAM EFFORT.
Enrollment rarely belongs to one person. The faster your whole team can respond, communicate and follow up, the better your chance of filling more bunks.
Bring the team that fills camp ↗21 small daily assignments
One job at a time instead of another giant off-season to-do list.
6 live sessions
Thirty minutes with Jack and Doug to work through the sticking points, with replays.
A room full of camp operators
Bring the messy first draft to Circle, compare approaches, and keep moving.
Team participation
Give enrollment a shared language. Up to five colleagues can take the same challenge under one team purchase.
Join us live
A little face time goes a long way.
Six focused 30-minute sessions with Jack and Doug, timed to help you put the daily work into practice. You can always watch the replay.
TUE / DEC 01
Kickoff · The Path
THU / DEC 03
The inquiry journey: reply, call, next step
TUE / DEC 08
The Story · Your best five & your homepage
THU / DEC 10
Your parent message and communication plan
TUE / DEC 15
The People · Re-enrollment & referrals
MON / DEC 21
Graduation · Share your January plan
Can't make a live session?All six have replays. The daily moves arrive by email.
Reserve my place ↗Your guides
Two camp people. One practical challenge.
Hosted by Jack Schott and Doug Norrie of The Summer Camp Society.
Jack Schott
Chief Camp Officer · The Summer Camp Society
Owner of Camps Kenwood & Evergreen. Has trained more than 10,000 summer staff. Talks to every K&E family himself.
Doug Norrie
Chief Executive Officer · The Summer Camp Society
Worked camp summers from 16 to 22, then spent years running online businesses and writing email, newsletters and sales sequences for camps, creators and B2B companies. In Jack's words: "He's not bringing camp the same ideas that already went around camp. He's bringing camp what works everywhere else."
We'll be doing these moves at K&E, too.Come work through December with Jack and Doug.
Work alongside us ↗A note from us
A note from Jack and Doug.
We'll be upfront: we're running this with our own camp, and our own path still has holes in it. (Tracking who called back and when? We're working on it.)
But we've watched what happens when a camp answers every inquiry fast, tells a clear story, and actually talks to its families. It works. It's also mostly free.
December is the one stretch of the year where camp teams have a little room to breathe. We'd like to spend 21 days of it building with you, so when parents start looking right after Christmas, you're the camp that's ready.
Hope to see you in there.
Jack Schott and Doug Norrie
Save your seat ↗Save your spot
GET YOUR CAMP READY TO ENROLL MORE KIDS.
Spend 21 days building an enrollment plan your whole team understands: your message, your family follow-up, your referrals, and your January calendar. Daily moves, templates, K&E examples, live sessions and community included.
01 / Individual
Just me
$79one person
- All 21 enrollment assignments and tools
- Templates and real worked examples
- Six 30-minute live sessions and replays
- Camp21 community access
- Bonus: [3 months] of Write From Camp on Substack
- Credit toward Make Camp Friends
- Get-a-camper money-back guarantee
02 / Team
Bring your camp team
$199up to 5 people
- Everything in the individual option
- Seats for up to five people at one camp
- One shared challenge, not five separate plans
- Bring whoever works on enrollment
- Bonus: Write From Camp on Substack for every seat
- Credit toward Make Camp Friends
- Get-a-camper money-back guarantee
Your Camp21 fee counts toward Make Camp Friends. If you join The Summer Camp Society's year-round community when it opens in January 2027, what you paid for Camp21 comes off the price.
GET A
CAMPEROR YOUR MONEY BACK
CAMPEROR YOUR MONEY BACK
Get a camper, or get your money back.
Do all 21 moves and run the January plan you build. If it doesn't bring at least one new camper to your camp by [March 31, 2027], email us your plan and we'll refund every dollar. Individual or team.
We can promise this because we're running the same plan at K&E. The moves work. Whether they get done is the part only you control.
Who this isn't for.
Camp21 is a challenge, and the participation is on you. If you want someone to build your website or write your emails for you, this probably isn't it. If you can find 15 to 30 minutes a day in December, it is.
PROTOTYPE NOTE: prices pending approval · checkout links not yet connected · bracketed items need a decision
Good questions
Before you pack your bag…
How much time does Camp21 take?
15–30 minutes each day for the daily move, plus 30-minute live sessions twice most weeks. Weekends are light days for catching up.
I'm not the camp director. Is this for me?
Absolutely. If you answer inquiries, lead tours, talk to parents, handle referrals, or shape your camp’s enrollment plan, you have a role to play here.
Is this another email-writing workshop?
No. Write For Camp was about writing. Camp21 is about the larger enrollment job: identifying the right families, figuring out what they need to hear, designing the inquiry and follow-up process, asking for referrals, and putting your January plan on a calendar. We'll work on some messages, but the outcome is a plan your team can run.
Do I need a marketing budget or new software?
No. You'll work on family messages, tracking, follow-up, calls, referrals, and a concrete action calendar using tools you already have.
What if I can't make a live session?
All six live sessions have replays. The daily moves arrive by email, and the templates and community live in Circle.
Will I need to contact families in December?
Most of December is about getting organized: mapping the parent journey, deciding what to communicate, assigning follow-up, and setting your January outreach calendar. The calls you plan can start in January.
What about Hanukkah and Shabbat?
There are no Friday live sessions. Weekends are lighter, and the live sessions are scheduled at 3 PM ET rather than in the evening.
How does the money-back guarantee work?
Do all 21 moves, run the January plan you build, and if it doesn't bring in at least one new camper by [March 31, 2027], email us your plan and we'll refund you in full. That goes for individual seats and team packages.
What's the Write From Camp bonus?
Write From Camp is our paid Substack on the business of running camp, published three times a week. Camp21 includes [3 months] free for every seat, normally $39.99/month.
What happens after December 21?
You put your January plan into action. If you'd like to keep building alongside other camp people, Make Camp Friends opens in January, and your Camp21 fee counts toward joining it.
Ready to get more campers?Start December with us. Individual $79 · Team of up to 5 $199.
Join Camp21 ↗Still wondering about something? Write to doug@thesummercampsociety.com.
The best time to prepare is before you're busy
MORE CAMPERS IN 2027. START HERE.
Use December to sharpen your message, organize your parent conversations, and put a real enrollment plan in motion for next summer.
December 1–21 · Enrollment closes November 30 · Prices subject to approval