Tracking activities over the summer?

David McVicker
David McVicker
Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Student Information System™

Our school is new to Blackbaud this year. We operate multiple summer camps in June and July, and we are trying to determine if we can set them up as activity groups in BB for attendance and communication purposes. Our school year is configured to end June 30 and the new year starts July 1, so some camps would span multiple years. Is anyone using BB for this purpose? If so, how have you configured those activities to function best?

Best Answer

  • Sara Watts
    Sara Watts Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 1 First Reply Name Dropper
    Answer ✓

    Hi @David McVicker

    While it is technically possible, most schools choose not to take this approach because it introduces several challenges.

    One key consideration is reporting and list management. For example, if a school has a large number of summer camp attendees who are not enrolled students, there’s no easy way to separate those individuals from regular students when running lists or reports for the academic year.

    Another important factor—especially in your case—is camps that span multiple academic years. To accommodate that, schools would need to split a single camp into multiple records, which can create confusion for both families and students and add unnecessary administrative complexity.

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