For the past several months, we have been working toward a new application system for COGWA Youth Camps that will integrate with our database system. We are now happy to announce that the system will open at 10 a.m. Central Daylight Time on Sunday, March 15, at which time you can start applying for our 2020 camps.

You will start at the same place you’ve always gone—the COGWA Portal. When you log into the account, you will see the CYC application notice at the bottom left of your screen. To this point, everything will look the same. However, when you click on the “Apply” button, you will notice things starting to change.

The instructions in the blue box above your list of household members will be much larger with a lot more detailed instructions. We encourage you to read everything in that blue box very carefully! You will note several important points, including the following highlights:

• There are new forms spread across several pages and very little will be “pre-populated” (automatically filled in), so you will have to enter a lot of information for each household member this year.
   
• However, once you have entered that information for an applicant, applying for a second camp will be very quick. Whatever you entered will pre-populate any subsequent 2020 camp application—for that applicant.
   
• Please note, this will apply for each household member individually.
   
• This system will require you to upload a photo with each application, so you will need to have handy a recent full-face digital photo (taken within the last three months) to upload with each application.
   

We understand this will take a little more time this year, but it will allow us to pull that data into our new system to be able to pre-populate additional applications. The system is new, and though we have tested it extensively, it is quite possible that we may need to make a minor tweak here or there. Once we have this year’s data and are comfortable with how the system is working, we will be able to address how much we can pre-populate forms for everyone next year.

We appreciate your patience in working with this new system. If you have any trouble or questions, you can contact us at [email protected], and we’ll be happy to assist you.