How to run a sports camp: the Saturday-morning checklist

Why the first morning is the whole job

Most of the work of running a camp happens before anyone arrives. By the time the first car pulls up, you need to know who is coming, who is paid, who has an allergy, who is allowed to collect whom and which coach is responsible for which group. If any of that is still in an email thread at 8:45, the morning gets loud.

This checklist is written for the organiser standing at a trestle table with a phone and a clipboard. It works backwards from that moment. Do the week-before section properly and the morning itself is mostly saying hello.

The week before

Close the gap between what you think you know and what the bookings actually say. Every item here is a question you do not want to be answering on the day.

• Confirm the numbers. Count confirmed bookings per day, not just per camp, if families can book individual days. A full Wednesday and a half-empty Monday need different staffing.
• Chase the unpaid. Anyone still reserved but not paid should get a reminder now, with their reference and the deadline. If the deadline passes, release the place so the waitlist can have it.
• Read every medical note. Not skim — read. Decide what each one means in practice: where the inhaler lives, who carries the adrenaline pen, which child needs a quiet space at lunch.
• Build the collection list. For each child, who may pick them up, and is there anyone who may not? If a booking names only one adult, ask now whether anyone else might come.
• Check staff paperwork. DBS certificates, first-aid and safeguarding training should be in date for everyone working with children. If anything lapses mid-camp, you need to know this week.
• Send the arrival email. Where to park, where to meet, what to bring, what time doors open, what time collection closes. Families forward this to grandparents; write it so it survives forwarding.
• Print one copy of everything. Phones die. A paper register with medical flags and the collection list is your backup, kept somewhere a passing parent cannot read it.

The night before

Short and boring, on purpose. Lay out the desk: register, pens, wristbands or name labels, a lanyard for each coach, the first-aid kit, the printed medical summary in a closed folder. Charge the phone or tablet you will scan passes with. Put the venue's emergency number on the front of the folder.

Then look at the register one more time. New bookings may have arrived that afternoon; if you confirm late places, those families need the arrival email tonight, not at the door.

8:00 to 8:45: the desk

Arrive before the coaches. Walk the space: fire exits clear, pitch or hall safe, toilets open, a quiet corner identified for anyone who needs one. Brief the coaches in five minutes: group lists, the medical notes that affect their group, the collection rule (no child leaves without being signed out), and who is first-aid lead today.

Set up check-in so it takes ten seconds per child. A QR pass scanned from a parent's phone does this well: the scan records the time and which staff member checked the child in, and surfaces the medical flag as they arrive rather than leaving it in a spreadsheet tab. Paper works too, as long as every child gets a tick, a time and the initials of whoever did it.

• Check in, don't wave in. Every child is recorded before they join a group.
• Flag as you go. If a note says 'severe nut allergy', the coach for that group hears it at the desk, not at lunch.
• Take late payments properly. If a parent pays cash at the desk, record it against the booking there and then. Money in a pocket is money you will be reconciling at midnight.
• Walk-ups are bookings. Someone arriving without a booking still needs the medical form, the emergency contact and consent before they play. Have a way to take that on the spot, or say no kindly.

During the day

The register is live, not archived. Head counts after every break, a named adult with each group during transitions, and a single person who holds the folder and the phone. If a child goes home early, sign them out and record who collected them, exactly as you would at the end of the day.

Keep a running list of things families asked at the desk. 'Can you do a second week?' and 'Do you do birthdays?' are your next camp's marketing, written down for free.

Collection

This is the moment a safeguarding policy becomes a real thing. No child leaves without a named adult signing them out, and that adult should be on the collection list. If someone unexpected turns up — an uncle, a neighbour, a family friend — ring the booker before handing over, every time, however plausible the story.

Record who collected whom and when. If a parent ever asks 'who did you hand my child to on Tuesday?', the answer should come from a record, not a memory.

After the last car leaves

Reconcile the day while it is fresh: cash taken against bookings, any incidents written up, any medical or collection notes that need changing for tomorrow. Then ask families how it went. A short review request the evening the camp ends gets honest, useful answers, and the good ones become next season's camp page.

Finally, file the paper. The printed register with medical flags is personal data about children; it goes in a locked drawer or a shredder, not the recycling.

Do it with FormSide

FormSide was built around this morning. Bookings hold places in a real transaction, per day where you sell by the day; reminders go out before a hold expires; the register is live on every phone at the desk and prints cleanly for the clipboard. You can set up a camp in about twenty minutes and it is free while we are in beta.