Assigning
Campers to Cabins
TACO provides several ways to assign campers to cabin.
THE CAMPER INFORMATION SCREEN
In the Camper Information Screen, a drop-down box
provides the cabins with appropriate information to allow cabin assignment. You
can change a camper’s cabin in this screen, but it is not the best place to
assign cabins en mass.
The Assign w/Info screen, however, is probably the
place to start. This screen presents ALL the individuals in your camp database
– both those current and those non-current. (If popular opinion is that only
the current campers should be displayed let me know and I will change it.).
However, this is how TACO works now. The Assign w/Info screen was developed to
allow campers to be assigned to cabins with requested buddies. The first two
lines of the Comments field (from the Camper Information screen) is displayed
for every individual. You can then assign cabins based on who wants to be with
whom.
FILTERING
Access provides a wonderful capability for doing
this: Filter by Selection. If you right-click on a field, you will get a pop-up
menu. By left-clicking on Filter by Selection, you will only see those records
who have the parameter you clicked on.
As an example, to see only current campers, right
click on a checked “Current” check box. Then left-click on “Filter by
Selection.” You will see only current campers – all the non-current clubbers
are removed from the list. To see all the records, left click again and
right-click on remove filter on the pop-up menu.
A cabin assignment procedure for CAMPERS
REQUESTING ROOM MATES
I suggest the following procedure for campers
requesting room mates:
- Make sure you are working with only current campers
- Filter on a gender, camp group and age group (i.e. girls,
J-Varsity, 8th grade
- Filter on a particular church
- Assign campers to cabins based on their requested room mates as
shown in the field on the right of the screen. I would guess that the
majority of the camper requests are for room mates from their own church.
Next, select a different group for assignment (i.e.
girls, Varsity, 10th grade). Go through each group until all have
been placed according to their requests. Be sure to click on the “Refresh”
button to regenerate a cabin list appropriate for the group to be assigned.
A cabin assignment procedure for CAMPERS
NOT REQUESTING ROOM MATES
Use the individual cabin assignment screens. That is,
the Varsity, JV and 6th grade buttons for both Girls and Boys. This
screen is the most convenient and fastest assignment screen for campers not
requesting room mates.
After assigning several campers to cabins, click on
the “Update List” button to remove campers already assigned and to update
the cabin list. In the drop-down list of cabins, the cabin counts will increment
and full cabins will drop off the list. You will always be working with only
those campers who are not assigned to a cabin and only those cabins that have
available space.
AFTER ASSIGNING CABINS
TACO does not prevent you from mixing genders, grades
or ages in a cabin. However, it is generally not a good idea to put boys in
girls cabins or vice-versa. Polite, Christian society tends to frown on this
sort of arrangement.
But TACO does provide a quick and easy check to make
sure your camp is morally straight and that you will not receive a nasty gram
from your regional director.
In the Current Campers screen (from the Main Menu),
the field on the right, “Match”, will warn you of gender mismatch or a camp
mismatch between camper and cabin. That is, if you put a boy in a girls’
cabin, the word “Gender” will appear in red in the Match field. If you put a
varsity camper in a junior varsity cabin, the word camp will appear in red.
I strongly recommend checking this screen
periodically to ensure that your camp is going together the way you think it is.
Go to
Checking your camp for errors
for more information on what TACO can do for you.
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