Are you considering planning a camporee for your service unit? Our incredible leaders have a wealth of wisdom to share! One of our troop leaders, Cadijah, shared some of her tips and tricks with us.
“I loved planning our camporee with help from other troop leaders in our service unit. For us, it started with a theme. Once you have that, it is easy to build around. Pinterest is my number one go-to. If your camporee is as simple as ours was, other troops may have done it before and you can see what worked and what didn’t. If it is a more unique theme, then you just have to be a little more creative with it. When looking for a theme, ask your girls what their interests are. What movies are they excited to see? What games do they like to play? What do they like to learn?
Same for activities- make a spreadsheet! Have the Girl Scouts choose what your budget allows. We did their top three activities from the list we provided.
When it comes to cost, set a budget. If it is for the service unit, have a goal that you would like to set. See what everyone’s strengths and weaknesses are. If you have someone that is an event planner and someone that likes to decorate, have them on a committee together. If you have someone that enjoys cooking or someone that is great with arts and crafts, assign them the specific tasks they enjoy!
If you don’t have a specific volunteer that enjoys those tasks, it’s not the end of the world. You just need leaders and parents that are open minded to trying different things. If you’re thinking about using a facilitator, see if any of your parents know how to do the various camp activities. Then you can compare if it is more cost effective to have a leader supervise the activity and purchase the materials needed, or if it would be best to book a facilitator that brings their own materials.
For planning a camporee, you need a clear leader: someone that will help organize and delegate, someone who double checks ratios and ensures that all permission and health forms are accounted for, who’s staying where, how long your scouts will be there, etc. Another piece of advice I would offer is to not overthink or stress on any of it. As long as your girls are safe and enjoying themselves, then they do not know what has been messed up or what a certain decoration was supposed to look like. What does not go right the first time can improve the next time! I have a joke that I have a bingo card of all the things that I think will happen during a Girl Scout event, and sometimes there are surprises that you would have never expected. Overall, we are all sisters under this great big umbrella of Girl Scouts, and we are all in this together.”