What made both our camps 100% better this year? Making them more efficient on the front end. You have to understand that I am a production guy and I love the big picture. My favorite parts of camp are thinking about the stage, the band, the service flow, the small group material, and all that kind of stuff. Honestly what makes camp (not matter if you do your own camp or partner with another organization like Bigstuf, Fuge, or Student Life) work better is becoming more efficient on the front end before your students ever hit the bus to go. Here are a few simple ways we tried to make camp more efficient this year.

• We added a registration leader to the process // this year we added an amazing volunteer to our team who helped me with registration. She was a second pairs of eyes on the number count. She developed a check in procedure. She developed a Google doc system to keep us on the same page. I will never do a camp without this person on my team again!
• We spread our purchasing // we did middle school camp on our own and we partnered with Bigstuf for high school camp. With both camps we spread out purchasing to several leaders so we thought through everything we needed before we left. No one person was stuck trying gather everything…that’s a huge help!
• We left nothing to be done “at camp” // we banned the saying, we will do that at camp. There is no time at camp. We did everything possible pre-camp so we could ficus at camp.
• We designated camp “jobs” before we left for camp // we did our best to make sure everyone on the team clearly new their role before camp kicked off. When a team has clear direction they are more productive.
• We streamlined transportation // this year we used more charter buses and less van rental. The fewer vehicles involved the less the headache!