My Job: A Camp Registrar

I had many people ask me before I moved here what exactly I would be doing. Like most jobs, I didn’t truly know until I delved into it. Now I can – more or less – tell you.

• Put registrations into the database. This is not quite as easy as it may sound. For one, I am never registering people for only one event. Right now I have registrations in the mail for summer camps, family camps, Mother/Daughter retreat. Dads ‘n Lads retreat and senior retreat. I get between fifteen and twenty registrations a day. As the April 1 deadline for early bird summer comes up, I’ll be getting more like thirty. I guess the good news is I get more mail than anyone else in the office!
• Answer the phone. That’s a given. It’s the worst part of my job, although I am told I have excellent phone skills. (I think it’s the “yes, ma’am” and “no, sir” – no one else says that up here.) I have learned over the years to talk like you know what you’re talking about even if you’ve no clue, so I can fumble through answering most questions. My favorite people to talk to are the one’s coming to senior retreat in May. Because I was in last month’s newsletter, they address me by name and talk to me like I’m a new grandchild. They even include personal notes in their registrations!
• Answer my e-mail. Actually, this is worse than the phones. I get well over twenty e-mails a day – seems more like a hundred. Most are simple answers. They just take time. I almost dread pulling up my e-mail every day since I know it takes a good hour to get through it all…an hour when I could be imputing registrations.
• Assist in women’s ministries. This has been my biggest learning curve. I’m not a people person. I like the safety of my desk. Welcoming ladies, and making sure they’re needs are met, and gabbing about who knows what is a little out of my league. But my part of the job also includes nametags, linen labels, door signs, turn over (cleaning up in a matter of hours before the next bunch of ladies comes in), and maintaining the registrations list. None of it is quite as easy as it sounds when it comes to women….
• Making deposits. That sounds easy, I know. Gather all the checks in my desk, add them up and put them in the nigh drop-off box. While that part is true, because each retreat/camp belongs under it’s own account number, there are reports to run and spreadsheets to enjoy so Marc and Eric know how much money and where it is. I also have to do this for the credit cards we run. Working with all the money again reminds me I never wish to be an embezzler. Too much work.
• Supervise Andrea. She’s my assistant. But she’s also Lisa’s assistant. So during quilt retreats, I don’t get the services of Andrea. I can’t wait until I do. I have this pile of registrations…she’s not as quick as me, but even if she does a quarter of the pile that’s less for me!
• Attend meetings. Everyone is at the weekly staff meeting. But I also meet with Eric (my boss) once a week (for a good five minutes to tell him how things are going, although he’s quickly learned I don’t say much about that). I need to meet with Bill about senior retreat and family camp. I often have sessions with Marc about money or tech stuff. And meetings with Lisa are always twice as long as planned. To think in Texas I wanted to attend the weekly meeting ever so often. Now I’ve had enough meetings in one month to make up for those three years!
• And everything else office related: mailing labels (I produce TONS of those between everyone trying to do mailings), order supplies (I even have my own credit card!), run the postal meter, get the mail (most of the time) and find whatever it is the guys can’t find (which makes no sense – they’ve all been here years longer than I have).

While still on a slight learning curve, all in all I enjoy this job very much. As you can see, it has a lot of variety. Except for getting the deposit done on Thursdays, my days have no routine. In fact, what I want to get done only happens half the time. While much of my time is spent imputing data and creating things from that data, I also get to be creative when it comes to nametags, and door signs, and other things for retreats. I’m no graphic artist, but I like to play around with what little I do know. There is never a dull moment…but if I do ever get one of those, I’m sorting all the supply cabinets. The truth is, there’s a reason the guys can’t find anything. And that is something I can do with no training at all!