It’s February already. That means that Summer Camp is right around the corner. Actually, camp is still 5-6 months away. However, this is the time where planning and promoting camp starts to pick up. Currently, I have a meeting every week dedicated to camp planning.

Camp is one of the best parts of Children’s Ministry. Most leaders would agree. Camp is a spiritually and relationally catalytic event for both kids and leaders. Every years, we see kids grow in their faith like crazy, we see them connect with peers in a pretty powerful way and we see leaders become even more invested than ever. Camp is a good thing. But there are some challenges…

What drives us CRAZY about camp:

  • Although we open registration in March or April, most parents sign their kids up in the last few weeks/days
  • Taking kids to camp requires parents to entrust us with their kids (which entails tracking them down to sign a release for for every potential scenario
  • The budget – oh my. No one told you that you’d need a degree in accounting to manage all the payments, expenses and how to figure out what to charge

Scenarios like these make camp really difficult. These kinds of things can actually take away from the most important part of camp preparation, creating the relational/spiritual experiences.

So, I’d like to help. I’ve been executing camps for for nearly 20 years, camp experiences from kindergarten day camps to high school beach camp. I’ve taken as few as 8 kids and 3 leaders to a program camp and as many as 450+ kids and leaders to a camp where our church executed everything. There are a few important things I’ve learned that will take some of the frustration out of camp planning. This week, I’m going to share some of the things I’ve learned.

Three BIG ideas that will help make your next camp your best camp:

  1. How to get most of your families to register for camp early (like over 50% the day camp registration opens) so that you can actually close registration a month before camp even begins
  2. How to develop a registration/release form strategy so that you never have to track down forms ever again.
  3. How to finalize your budget months before camp and know exactly what you need to charge to cover your expenses so you can focus on things more important than finances.

Camp is coming for you, like it or not. See how these three things will make this summer’s camp the most successful/enjoyable experience yet.