Do you need help getting the camp organized?

Camps

Start the camp, then list what it needs

The first move is small. Name the camp, then write down what it needs and who is bringing it.

01
Create the camp
You give it a name, a town, and the year it started, and save. You become its first member at the same moment, so there is no window where a camp exists with nobody able to run it. A directory listing with nobody in it cannot run a board.
Open create camp
New camp
Camp NameYear two
LocationBlack Rock City, NV
Established Year2025
After saveYou are lead
A playa address like 7:30 and Esplanade is not one of the fields. That comes with placement, months later.
02
Put dates on the roster
Every member carries an arrival date and a departure date rather than a place in a headcount. Days are counted per person with both ends included, and added up, which is why one person driving out a day late moves the water number.
Open camps
Presence
People4
Earliest arrival30 August
Latest departure7 September
Person-days32
03
Add what the trip needs
A need is demand, and it carries a quantity and a unit. A ticked box covers nothing. Two people who both think they are bringing the generator is the thing a board exists to show you.
Open camps
Need
Typepower
TitleHonda EU2200i generator
Qty1 unit
Prioritycritical
04
Claim it, or it is not coming
A claim is one person saying they will bring it, with a date they will have it by. When that date passes with nothing confirmed, the row is flagged at risk rather than quietly reopened, and only Maya can hand it back, so the lead sees a promise going bad instead of a hole appearing.
How a claim works
Claim
Claimed byMaya
RowHonda EU2200i generator
Statecommitted
Confirm by22 August
Confirm by is the day Maya expects to have it in hand.

Who is here on which days

The count takes in the day someone arrives and the day they leave. Add them up and you have 32 person-days for this camp, which is where the 182.4 L of drinking water on the board below comes from at 5.7 L per person per day.

Name	Role	Arrives	Leaves	Days
Maya	lead	30 August	7 September	9
Jules	member	30 August	7 September	9
Rio	member	31 August	6 September	7
Sam	member	1 September	7 September	7
Person-days				32

Shade, water, and power The plan the crew shares

Coverage board

What is covered and what is not

Critical and unclaimed rows are at the top, because those are the ones a camp opens this board for. Half claimed rows come next.

Two people, one generator

A need is not divisible when there is only one of it. Maya takes the row and it closes. Sam opening the same row afterwards is told it is already covered, so the camp does not arrive with two generators and no shade.

Needs, claims, and what is short

Need	Need qty	Claimed	Short	Who	State
10×20 shade structureshade · critical	1 unit	0 unit	1 unit	nobody yet	unclaimed
1350 mm roof barstransport · critical	2 bar	0 bar	2 bar	nobody yet	unclaimed
Drinking waterwater · critical	182.4 L	91.2 L	91.2 L	Jules (91.2 L)	partial
Honda EU2200i generatorpower · critical	1 unit	1 unit	0 unit	Maya (1 unit)	covered
Swamp coolershelter · important	1 unit	1 unit	0 unit	Rio (1 unit)	covered

2 of these rows are critical and unclaimed.

Demo

This is a worked example for the four people on the roster above, run through the same coverage logic a live camp board uses. Your camp shows your own rows.

Open camps

Invite

The invite, and what the second person sees

A lead makes an invite link and sends it. The second person joins as themselves and sees this board, not a screenshot somebody forwarded.

The link expires after 14 days. Making a new one kills the old link, so a year-old invite cannot quietly let somebody in.

If somebody already started the camp, the directory is where you join it. If nobody has, Find a camp lists the ones still taking people.

Join link

Path/camps/black-rock-2026-demo/join/…

Expires after14 days

One live link at a time.

Create a camp Camps you are in Find a camp

Field

The board, pinned up inside the shade

A board nobody can open does no good in the dust. Field prints the roster and the claims onto one sheet you pin up where the camp walks past it, so who is bringing what gets answered by looking up rather than by asking around.

Open Field The printable packet

Before you leave

What to settle while everyone still has a phone

Every one of these needs somebody other than you to answer, and the last week is the last time the whole camp is reachable at once.

Camp created and named.
Every need on the list, including the boring ones.
Every need claimed by a person, not by a maybe.
Arrival and departure dates in for everyone.
Invites sent and accepted, not just sent.
Water and shade owners named out loud.
Board printed or in the offline packet.
MOOP plan written before the strike, not during it.

The MOOP line is on the list because rebar and tent stakes are what Burning Man reports finding most often after a camp has gone. Getting those out of packed dirt takes a magnet sweeper and a rake, and somebody has to own that job before anyone drives out.

Community

People who have run a camp before

Most of what goes wrong in a first year has already gone wrong for somebody else, and they will tell you about it.

Community is where the crew asks. Burning Man also publishes a camp resource guide that covers dues and what to do when a camp falls out, and it runs a free mentorship program pairing a first-time organizer with someone who has done it.

Open Community

Browse

Still need the shade or the generator

A need with nobody on it is a shopping list. Browse is where the camp turns one into the other, while the lead times are still open.

Browse gear Back to the four questions