Inspire your guests, staff and donors with a detailed camp master plan that fully realizes your mission!
Running a summer camp or retreat center means having a lot of irons in the fire at once. There is a dynamic energy at camp and that’s the fun of it, but it can also be the very reason that long term planning gets put to the side.
You know your mission and you work to provide an excellent experience for your guests, but you also want to have a plan that allows for improvements and growth.
Ideally your camp or retreat center has a solid vision for the future. One that is laid out in a camp master plan with the steps and the funding to make it happen.
If you are a camp owner or administrator, you want it to be different, but you feel your financial demands limit your ability to properly invest in the maintenance of your existing facilities. You may also find that your challenges directly impact your ability to meet your mission!
Learning Landscapes Design helps camps and retreat centers like yours to develop and realize a master plan vision for your site and facilities. The camp maser plan vision is the physical realization of your mission!
Check out a few of our past master plan projects.
After many years of operation, most camps face the following challenges:
Cluttered and declining or insufficient facilities.- Disorganized layout and poor navigation for visitors.
- Lack of a clear vision.
- Limited development and maintenance budget.
Often camps and retreat centers add facilities over the years like basketball courts, cabins, or ropes courses to keep up with camper expectations but without first investing an overall vision for the camp. The result is an scattered layout, degraded natural resources and confused guests who are unable to find their way around. This is not what you want but it is often hard to avoid.
Turn your challenges into opportunities with a camp master plan
Clutter and declining or insufficient facilities
Many issues are directly related to insufficient facilities, which are a result of a lack of a maintenance and development budget. Often there are so many places to spend money that nothing ends up getting done or done very well. A master plan, designed with your mission in mind, becomes an excellent tool to help you prioritize, outlining where your organizations time and money are spent.
Disorganized facilities layout and poor navigation for visitors
Facilities and natural resources are critical elements in creating a high-quality camper experience that meets your mission. Both natural areas and buildings must be cared for. This is most easily accomplished when you have a plan for long-term improvements that considers how each element relates to the whole.
When coupled with a plan for the care and nurturing of your camp’s natural assets you have a road map for maintenance.
Lack of a clear vision
Without a clear vision it is easy to solve problems as they occur. It is far more cost effective to make immediate site improvements with a long-term vision in mind. A master plan will help you organize and coalesce around a common vision and set of goals. Have a plan, see it through and watch your guests thrive.
Limited development and maintenance budget
A master plan is an investment with returns. Not only does a well planned camp or retreat center create devoted returning guests but you can also leverage your master plan for fund-raising with both individual donors and grant programs! Investors, even ones that don’t expect to get repaid, do expect their money to be spent wisely and to result in fruitful returns. A camp master plan shows how investments in development will serve your mission and it acts as a map of where and how money will be spent. A great master plan gives you, your staff, and your donors something to proudly invest in!
With a master plan you get to tell the story of where your organization has been, where it is now, and where it is headed. Learning Landscapes Design can help you do this with narratives, site plan drawings, illustrative images, photographs, charts, experience descriptions and diagrams.
If you are interested in nature playgrounds at camp we will also be presenting at the 2019 Provider Gathering for Oregon Outdoor Schools at Camp Tadmor this January about inclusive design for camps and connecting to nature.
