Arrival sets the tone for the week, and it was the weakest part of year one. Students arrived over several hours, from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. Some binders and go-bags were not ready for the earliest arrivals, so students left registration and had to circle back. Leaders introduced the scenario at the noon briefing but did not reinforce it in the operational briefings that followed. The Student Activity Guide and its passport went underused because no one explained them on day one.
“We come up, there’s like 210 set up. There’s a registration thing, there’s a long line and we’re like, do we come too early?” said Brock, a Phoenix builder. “Then we find out that we have to set up the camp.”
Leadership’s recommendations for arrival day:
Brief first, check in second. Open with an operational in-brief from the incident team: the situation, what the team has already set up, the objectives, the ICS structure and who each person reports to, ground rules and safety. Then send students to registration.
Have every packet staged before the first student arrives.
Explain the Student Activity Guide and passport at the opening brief.
Keep badge colors meaningful. Badge colors marked each village, but students who switched villages or tents kept their old color, defeating the purpose.
Have students arrive together, in the early afternoon, after command and support staff have set up.
The planners wrote the check-in itself as a set of passport “missions”: report to incident check-in; obtain your ID badge and wear it at all times; pick up your Student Activity Guide; complete health check-in and turn in medications; receive your go-bag; and report to Smokey Bear for the official welcome.