How to Run a Camporee and not Lose Money
“A camporee is many things—camping fun for youth, the thumping of hundreds of feet on the way to an evening campfire, and the blue smoke from fires cooking stew or ham and eggs. It’s catching the idea of teamwork in a patrol. It’s learning to carry out an order to help the team succeed.” This is the main point to me – that it is an event for the youth. So, you have been elected to run a Camporee – Congratulations!
As a survivor of many Camporees, I have come to the understanding that losing money on the event does not make for a good Camporee experience for the Camporee Chairman. I hope that some of these ideas will help you in planning and executing a fun, exciting, and profitable Camporee.
1. Start Early
I needed 6 months to pull my first Camporee together and would have liked even more time. It helps to see if the last Camporee director saved his notes or other information but if not, good information is easy to find on the internet.
2. Get lots of help
By day 2 you should be recruiting helpers for your Camporee. Scouts BSA has a great resource that has this personnel list: General chairman and coordinator; staff adviser; camporee chief; and project chairpersons for participation, physical arrangements, publicity, awards, finance, and health and safety. The sooner you recruit these 8 people, the better. In addition, I had a team to develop the theme and events and recruit and train the people who ran the stations.
3.Develop a Basic Plan
The sooner you have your theme, program, and physical arrangements (including the dates) done, the sooner you can get into the fun parts of running a Camporee. You don’t need all the details, just enough to get the ball rolling. My Camporee was Called “Men in Khaki” (M.I.K.) and consisted of a training school to prepare the Scouts to battle unfriendly aliens. We planned for 8 stations with a big “End Game” to keep all the patrols in the event after Lunch. What you are looking for right off the bat is something that you can quickly promote to the Scouts and start getting feedback.
4. Promote the plan to see how many people are interested
A common issue that comes up (a lot) is that the planning assumed that every Scout and Troop in the District would come to the Camporee. That is most likely not reasonable and will cause lots of problems when it’s time to pay for the Camporee. I promoted M.I.K. 5 months before the Camporee date at Roundtable and visits to the local Troops. I did not, however, reveal anything about the actual program. We sprung that on the attendees at the opening Campfire with the appearance of several agents, weird lights in the trees, smoke, and other references to the Men in Black movie franchise.
We promoted the event ahead of time as having lots of fun activities, some prizes, and a new approach to a Camporee that would be fun for all ages of Scouts. Set a deadline for all the Troops (and Webelos) to get back to you with an approximate count. I promised a special reduced price for any unit that got back to me by the due date. Also make it clear that only those who sign up early will be guaranteed patches, T-shirts, and any other item you use.
5. Plan your Budget
You should be at least 4 months out at this point. You have a gauge of the general interest, a wild guess at how many people will attend, and a rough plan as to what is happening. It’s budget time! Start with the key items like insurance, site rental, if any, and the like. After each line item is calculated, divide the new total by 75% of the wild guess of attendance and see what the cost per camper will be. Add awards and all other items at the end. I came in a $2.50 per camper over the last camporee and was satisfied with that. If there are still things you would like to get, plan to sell them with pre-sales. When pricing things that have different costs for different quantities – be VERY conservative and use the higher prices.
6. Start Early Sign-up
7. Order everything needed for promotion
This is when you order your patches and other promotional items. Be sure to have your supplier lined up and ready to process your order. I used Class B for all my patches, shirts, awards, and even name tags. DO NOT order “extras” just in case. I recommend only ordering up to the next price break if you have enough sold to cover the increase in total cost. For Example, if you have an order for 37 T-shirts and the quantity for the next price break is 40 then I would get the extras. Otherwise, only get what you need as cost creep will do you in every time. You can sell any leftover items in the Camporee Trading Post and I would suggest a higher price.
8. Look for Sponsors
If you have some expensive stations, look for a corporate sponsor for that event. I was fortunate to have several volunteers who brought their company in to sponsor an event and make the overall expenses get lower. I also contacted my workplace and mined all the local companies who had helped out in the past. We also had some funny sponsorships. For example at the mini-marshmallow blowgun range, the fifty calibers, full-sugar jacketed ammo was sponsored by Jet-Puffed! Running a Camporee is rewarding, challenging, frustrating, and wonderful! Hopefully, it can also be profitable as well. Enjoy yourself and have fun!
References:
Camporee Guide
How To Run A Boy Scout Camporee