Here is a list of helpful advice and tips for organizing an Above Rubies ladies retreat or family camp. I will add more as I think of more. Also here is a ink to a very helpful site that I used to learn all about planning and organizing a retreat. It is very good!
http://www.bondedtogether.org/tips-for-organizing-an-above-rubies-conference.html
~PLAN EARLY:
To plan one for 2017 you will really need to start very soon looking for a camp or retreat center. Many places book several months to a year in advance. So the quicker you get planning the easier it will be to find a place. Contact Nancy and let her know of your plans, and then go form there.
~ REQUIRED MINIMUN ATTENDEES:
For a ladies retreat Nancy needs a minimum of 50 ladies attending. For family camp they require a minimum of 20 families. She is always excited when someone is planning an event so she is very helpful in giving what advice and suggestions you need. She will tell you how much to charge per a person or per family that will go to cover their air fair. Then the rest of the registration fee that you will need to charge the attendees will come from what ever the camp charges per person or per family.
~ CHOOSE DATES:
You will need to contact Nancy to see what dates are available. If you plan several months to a year in advance then you will be able to have your chose pick at dates. So that is a huge advantage of planning early. Her calendar really fills up quickly for the next year. After you have a couple different dates or more that will work with her, then you can see if that will match with what dates will be available for the camp or retreat center. The Bible camps will most likely not be available during end of June till end of August due to the kids camps they put on. Most camps are not winterized either, so they are only open for use from about end of April to end of Sept. So that gives you only a couple months to choose from. Retreat Centers though are most likely open year round. So you could have early spring or late fall.
~ THINGS TO CONSIDER IN LOOKING FOR A PLACE:
Depending on if it is a family camp or a ladies retreat, will make a huge difference in what kind of camp will meet your needs. For a ladies retreat since you will be placing several ladies to a cabin, a smaller camp may do. Though when we had our ladies retreat in 2015 we had over a 100 ladies and teen daughters. So that takes a lot of cabins, and plenty of meeting space, and big dinning hall. We sadly had to turn ladies away too.
For a Family Camp you will need to be sure there will be a cabin per a family. So the more cabins, the more families that will be able to attend your event. It does seem that you will end up with a larger turn out with a ladies retreat than a family camp, but it is not nice to have lots of families interested in attending and then not to have enough space for them and have to turn families away.
We did have a hard time getting our 20 families for our family camp, but I do believe that had a lot to do with the fact that it was several hours drive from a community where most of our ladies had came from that attended out ladies retreat. I had looked for a camp with many cabins thinking that for sure we would have many, many families but then the camp was at a too great of distance for them.
So depending on location you could get way over 20 families easily. Keep in mind about how many people in total that would come too, so that you can make sure the camp has enough meeting space( you need 2 meeting buildings for Family Camp, with one being large enough for the whole group), seating in dinning hall, bathrooms, ect...
For our family camp we had 36 parents and 70 children. So that was 106. We had full dining hall. It took awhile for families to work through the dinner line.
~ IS IT AFFORDABLE FOR FAMILIES?:
Many camps are pretty reasonable for families or have great family rates, but not all. I have looked at many across the Northern Alberta and seen several that would have been way to expensive for families. So when looking for a camp check to see what they have for family rates, and make sure it will be affordable for families to attend. Because there will be other expenses for the family too, besides the registration fee ( which includes the camps fee, and fee to cover the Campbell's air fair). They will have the cost of gas to and from the event, buying the Campbell's books, and money for love offering, so that all adds up for there expense for the weekend. You want to keep that cost down as much as you can.
~ MEALS:
Does the camp provide meals or can you rent the kitchen facility and prepare the meals your self? If you provided your own meals, it can bring down the cost considerably for the families, but that will be hard job for you, unless you can wrestle up some help. If the center is providing meals, how many? Most places do 5 meals from Saturday Breakfast to Sunday lunch. So everyone has to get their own supper before arriving for Friday evening.
~GETTING STARTED AND MAKING A WEB-SITE:
To get started organizing. If you are making a web-site, which I have found to be very handy in getting the word out and for registering, feel free to copy and paste anything from my site that would be helpful to you on yours. I have done that my self many times for the info I needed. I just went to other web-sites of Above Rubies retreats and copied and pasted info, and the basic schedule and so on. I don't think anyone minds, and it sure makes your work quicker. So yes take any thing from my site here that you could use. My only condition is that you make sure you let me know about this event your planning, I want to come too!!! :)
Any other help I can be, just let me know. I will be more than happy to answer any questions at all that you have. I love the Above Rubies Ministry and what the Campbell's are doing!! It is great to have a ministry so focused on supporting, and encouraging families, and keeping them strong!!
~ Love Mae