When I first started running camps, I was overwhelmed with everything that I had to remember. The organisation and planning took ages. Because we started camping a lot, I decided to streamline the planning process, and came up with a series of planning tools to make the process easier and faster. Here are some of them.

Camp Planning Form

This is a one page checklist to make sure you haven't forgotten anything. If you would like me to make up a personalised checklist, I'm happy to do so. Email me if you want me to make one for you.

Camp Program Planner

This is designed to help plan one day at camp. Simply print out as many pages as you have at camp, and fill in the blanks. My Patrol Leaders found this extremely useful when they were planning their camps.

Sample camp programs

Here are some programs of camps I have run. They give you ideas on timings and programs.

Sample camp duty rosters

Here are some sample duty rosters I have used for both indoor and outdoor camps.

Menu Planner

I've made up some forms that have been tested by my Patrol Leaders for their Patrol Camps. Basically, it's a list of all meals and snacks, with boxes to fill in for each meal.

Shopping List and Quantities

Here's a form of a process I learned about at a catering training. Basically you write down (or it can be done in a spreadsheet) each ingredient for every meal, and how many serves will be needed over the entire camp, and voila, you have your shopping list! My Patrol Leaders used this for their recent camps. They got a bit bogged down with completing the form, but by then they had been planning the camps for three months, and were quite sick of the planning stage — they just wanted to get to camp!

Camping Food Planner

This is a piece of shareware software available for download that will also give you quantities. I haven't checked it out yet. Let me know if you use it, and I'll post a review here. The software is available at http://www.deepnettech.com/FoodPlanner.shtml.