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Never use this phrase again: “If
they only knew we were here . . .”
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Know everything you can about the
congregations you visit - children attending camp, local church
statistics, congregational history.
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Know what you want to accomplish
with every congregational contact; have a means of assessing the
effectiveness of that contact.
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Call campers from a congregation
before a visit and ask them to see you there.
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Have a camp praise band that can
play for congregational events.
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Provide a counselor and camper
‘Camp Cheerleader Team’ to bring camp to church.
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Gather a “Sunday School” staff
from your summer staff; teach all of the classes in Sunday school one
week. Have a special class for all of the adults who normally teach SS.
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Make visits to churches based upon
highest potential for new campers.
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Offer a traveling Camp Rally to
local churches or youth groups.
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Provide a Youth Bible with the
camp name, logo, mission summary phrase on the front.
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Easy online or at church
registration and credit card payment.
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Have a fall campfire for all
campers in a congregation.
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Make a camp
cd: songs, stories, sounds
suitable as a gift to a camper.
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Produce a camp yearbook Video
cd for free to go out to last
summer’s campers at holiday time.
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Have campers send a letter to
their (or another) congregation while at camp.
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Bulletin insert with discount
coupon for store or registration.
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Highlight camp during Advent, RTC
bulletin inserts, quick messages for newsletters.
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Ask local churches to link to your
web site; give them the whole paragraph or graphic; send new text
regularly.
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Have weekend events for potential
new camper families.
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Have a professional photographer
take an art photo of a classic camp scene; have it matted, framed and sold
through the camp store as a ‘gift’ picture. Charge enough to give a copy
to each church in the AC.
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Offer a quality, adult,
camp-overnight or weekend experience for parents who bring their children
to camp.
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Have a camper or camper parent
address the congregation along with you. Persons may also be willing to
visit a different congregation with you.
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Sell logo items in the camp store
that have the potential for daily usage (clock, key fob, ruler,
calculator, etc.).
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Send useful gifts to church
offices.
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Send photos of every camper at
camp to their local church; save a cd of photos to re-send to them in January.
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Offer Older Adult Nature Study
Retreats: wild flowers (Consider the lilies of the field), birds (Look at
the birds of the air), animal habitat (Foxes have holes and birds of the
air have nests), constellations (When I look at the Heavens).
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Bite size s’mores and video /
dvd slides for coffee hour.
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Have unique but inexpensive Camp
Logo give aways for local church visits.
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Traveling Christmas store; include
the “gift of camp” and camperships.
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Approach local churches with an
invitation to serve: “We Need You” camp as mission for church (work
weekend, a mission experience addressing a neighborhood while housed at
camp).
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Target large church or large youth
group, work with the staff, and do whatever is required to get in front of
them.
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Camp coloring book sheets for
church / nursery .pdf on
line.
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Partner with a local church to
leverage the start of a children’s or youth ministry at the church.
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Offer, with camp registration, a
first night parent sleep-away at camp – especially for parents of first
time campers.
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Web camp games: treasure hunt on
camp map.
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Favorite camp recipes online for
church public dinners or covered dish meals.
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Offer Adult Camp during week or on
weekend.
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Holiday or seasonal Family Event
at camp (Advent, Harvest, Maple, Lent).
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Youth retreat offering with leader
registration at no fee.
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“You’re Special”: recruit persons
with special skills for work weekends.
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Hold a Youth Praise Music Campout
at camp.
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Provide a week of camp for a large
local church with 10% free just for financially challenged families.
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Youth at-church camp store with
church bazaar.
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Provide camp inspirational stories
that can be downloaded and printed in newsletters or bulletin inserts.
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Greeters / ushers in camp garb in
target congregations.
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Collect (live or video) and share
the testimonies of clergy who were called to ministry at camp.
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In everything, put the mission out
front (in a phrase, like “Touching Hearts, Changing Lives and Sharing the
Light of Jesus Christ” Camp Tekoa, Hendersonville, NC).
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Provide ways to make it easy for
campers without church experience to participate. Model this for the
churches.
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Hold an Earth Day event, with a
strong Scriptural base, showing the natural features of the site and the
conservation measures that have been instituted.
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Camp is a sanctuary: build upon
the spirituality with features like a Disciples Trail, a Labyrinth, a
Meditation Bench, etc.
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With the Bishop/C.C.D./Cabinet
involved as much as desired, offer Confirmation Camp.
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Upgrade the camp sign periodically
and offer a camp sign refrigerator magnet.
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Partner with ethnic minority
programs, independent congregations, special medical needs, organizations
and social service agencies to help expand on the diversity of the camper
population.
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Enlist a pastor of the week to
provide chaplaincy services during the summer camp season. Give them lots
of publicity. Quote their testimonies.
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Identify or invent the camp’s
favorite cookie. Give them away when visiting churches.
-
Give a free prayer retreat for
pastors at the seven-year marks. Invite the church they serve to make a
contribution in honor of the pastor.
-
Offer to serve breakfast in bed:
cinnamon buns and coffee/tea for adults on extra special occasions.
They’ll be talking about your camp forever!
-
Don’t put in an
RV site, but install the
water/electricity hookups on the side of the parking area especially for
volunteers, parents and Nomads.
-
Become a favorite site for Nomads
because of outrageous hospitality, fun projects and excellent
preparedness.
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Bring your best ceremony
(campfire) to churches.
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Offer a pet blessing on St.
Francis Day (October 4).
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Increase camp budget by 4% and
spend 5% of your budget on marketing.
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If you can’t get an invitation to
a church you want to invite into participation, attend as a group from
camp dressed in camp wear and talk with everyone about camp, giving away
free cds that have live links
to your website.
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Have a Teddy Bear Picnic at camp
for little campers to be and their families.
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Give every new pastor a classy
jacket or fleece shirt (they can’t help but wear) with a camp logo on it.
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Do the same for every new Bishop
or D.S.
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Get your biggest fans (campers,
counselors, parents, etc.) together for a special day at camp. Treat them
like royalty. Set up a bank of phones and have them blitz the churches
for camp registrations.
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Set and publicize goals for
registration numbers. Invite pastors, alumni, campers to help meet the
goals. Give them all the support they need.
-
Solicit an invitation to have a
group from camp come to a church for a no-impact campout on the church
property. Invite families to come for a taste of camp with s’mores,
games, singing, campfire service, etc.
-
Have a parent and child St Peter’s
Catch and Release Fishing Day at camp with a prize for catching a tagged
fish (donation from vendors).
-
Send a camp calendar to all
campers at Christmas with pictures from the previous summer. Include
significant registration dates, web address, etc.
-
Buy the cover of the Conference
Journal, put your best b&w camp picture on it.
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Plan for every decade or quarter
century anniversary, sell pictures, plates, mugs, histories,
cds, etc. and celebrate.
-
Advertise open local church
council retreat dates in AC paper.
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Ask the dean of the cabinet what
the cabinet would require to have a day meeting or overnight (retreat or
work) at your site. Do whatever it takes to get them there, treat them
really well, address them briefly, play a video/a camp
cd, at a meal, write a
conference article on their presence, quote them, etc.
-
Hold a competition in the churches
to develop a kid-designed camp book bag.
-
Offer to have a camp team greet
and usher at a church. Trade-offs: insert from camp, greeting during
announcements, address coffee hour group, visit a C.S. gathering or class.
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Pastor or Council Chair comes free
to local church Council retreat at site.
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President of UMW comes free for
local church UMW retreat at site.
-
Sponsor a pizza party phone
promotion, held at a local church, for camp registrations in the
community. If you do online registration (or pre-registration), have
a/some computer(s) set up to process registrations. Set a goal and
celebrate the accomplishment.
-
Build the site staff team into a
healthy ‘family’ all versed in the mission of the site, having a
responsibility for the spirit of hospitality, and knowing how to make
guests from local churches feel welcome in appropriate ways.
-
Treat all clergy, conference
officers, volunteer leadership and guests from local churches as extended
family with the same intentionality and skill.
-
Identify twelve churches that need
to be cultivated for campers and guest groups. Approach one a month with
a shower of contact and attention.
-
Be sure that all publications that
go to local churches have a common and recognizable style.
-
Budget for marketing incentives
and give-aways to use when approaching local churches.
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Give Bibles to all campers who
need one. Invite a church to partner to make this possible.
-
Offer incentives to campers who
“Bring a Friend” from their church, such as, the coolest t-shirt of the
summer.
-
Have a team prepared to bring a
fun experience to a local church event, such as, a ‘Treasure Hidden in a
Field’ pirate day with maps, clues and treasures (donated by local
businesses).
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Identify your camp mascot. Offer
plush versions. (A teddy bear with your camp name will stay close to a
child’s heart.) Bring one to each church you visit as a ‘pew buddy’ -
quiet toy that waits for the child that finds it difficult to be quiet in
church.
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Give your site a new “under new
management” look with relatively inexpensive upgrades to finishes, etc.
Don’t ignore the portal, and entry landscaping. In the churches,
advertise the new quality offered.
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Send a note to the major local
church officers inviting them to use the camp for day use or a retreat.
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Be sure that your office person
knows each church secretary by name.
-
Be on a first name basis with the
AC and district chairs of the Boards of Ministry. Talk with these persons
(mostly local church clergy) about campers/staff who responded to a call
to ministry at camp.
-
Partner with leaders of local
pastor’s licensing school to host the event to get new local pastors on
site as early as possible.
-
If you have a camp dog that is
really good with children, feature it on your website and offer to bring
your camp dog on local church visits to greet the children.
-
Invite a top-notch local church
historian to update the camp history. Publish with high quality
appearance and make it broadly available, sending one to each church.
-
Send a really nice oversized
picture postcard to each church with a greeting at a few crucial times
during the year, inviting the staff to put it on the bulletin board.
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Use a database to keep track of
previous local church group registrations so you can follow up on them by
post card, phone call, email, etc. to invite another group retreat.
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Provide an interesting guest map,
with graphics and ‘camp culture’ features. Invite each church to post
one.
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Pick a CS class, of your youngest
camper age group, and arrange to visit them with an invitation to come to
camp in a group.
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Hold a local church favorite
recipes competition to come up with new menu/baked goods items for the
camp. Staff decides which ones to try. The campers decide the winners.