the 1st International Camping Congress in Toronto, Canada
Victoian Department of Sport and Recreation invite Armand and Beverly Ball to Australia to address and take part in a conference of people in Victoria interested in camping. Armand was, at the time, Chief Executive of the American Camping Association. From this gathering the Camping Association of Victoria was formed.                                                                                             

The 2nd International Camping Congress in Washington, DC with more than 1800 people from 15 different countries
the First Lady Mrs. Reagan addresses the Congress
Chuck Ackenbom is one of the chairs of the Conference; International Camping Fellowship is formed; its basic operating standards  were announced; Tom Slater of Australia deliveres ICF declaration
the ICF Butterfly logo was born-it grew out of the theme of "Our Fragile World" -the theme of the 1987 Congress, click here to learn more about the logo;

ICF meeting at Camp Tawingo, Huntsville, Canada with Armand Ball and Dick Chamberlain of the USA, Bill Bowker and Don MacDowall of Australia, Bob Metcalf of Great Britain, Sako Tanaka of Japan, Jack Pearse of Canada, Teresa Lucas of Latin America. Dick Chamberlain (in the picture) was selected to be the 1st ICF Chair

 

 

 

A group of camp directors assembles in Caracas, Venezuela to form the Venezuelan Camping Association or Asociacion Venezuelana de Campamento

a delegation travels to the 1990 ACA Conference in Boston to introduce themselves to the North American camping community.
Every spring, on May 1st, in Caracas, there is camp association training event of over 800 camp staff 
 

Valery Kostin (in the picture) is selected to be the first Camp Director from the Soviet Union to attend a major camping conference in North America, the audience is surprised to hear from Valery  that the Soviet Union had, at that time, more then 100,000 camps -camping world is certainly bigger than anyone thought possible for any one camping association

 

 

The earliest camps in Greece were established by the state ( 90 years ago.) Now there are camps run by municipalities, churches, public/private corporations and private enterprises. All are members of the GCA and are contributing to the evolution of camping

 

1994

The CCA, ACA and OCA agree to come together to host KUMBAYAH 1994 in Toronto, Canada. "Kumbayah" means "Come by Here", for the first time the ICF was identified as an official sponsoring body of a major training event

the 3d International Camping Congress is held with five official languages: English, French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese

"Peter, Paul and Mary" were to give a concert but Mary was not able to attend and so Peter, Paul and Jack Pearse led over 2000 people in the singing of an international version of a favourite camp song: Kumbayah 

1997

The 4th International Camping Congress, Nevsky Forum in St.Petersburg, Russia
The support provided by ICF leaders around the world was a very important step for camping in Russia, emerging from the Soviet Bloc.

Also, through the efforts of Dick Chamberlain and Armand Ball ICF began to educate camping community in North America to the things that were going on globally. The numbers of international attendees at ACA Conferences have increased each year. There is now an official international liaison headed by Linda Pulliam to the ACA Conference to ensure that delegates from other countries are welcomed and oriented properly.

In Canada, organized children's camping has been long established. There are over 730 camps in Canada and of that approximately 300 are from Ontario. In February 2000 at the Ontario Camping Association, the ICF leaders were able to conduct an international evening to celebrate the diversity of camping in Japan. John Jorgenson (in the picture) has been a member of the ICF Committee for a number of years

 

 

The 5th International Camping Congress, Creating a New Camping Culture takes place in Tokyo, Japan
The Prince and Princess of Japan are in attendance; the Congress site is the Athlete's Village of the 1964 Olympic Games; Post-Congress tours extend throughout Japan and are hosted by various regional camp leaders.

 

 

"Beneath the Southern Cross" is the theme of the 6th International Camping Congress held in Melbourne, Australia

On March 6 the Greek Camping Association meets in Athens for the 2nd Panhellenic Congress for camps and youth activities with the theme, "The Camping Institution into the 21st Century", the ICF Vice Chair Mantha Christou invites the participants to endorse the formation of the European Camping Association

In September another meeting was held in Burgas, Bulgaria, with representatives of eight countries: Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Russia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Ukraine, the creation of the European Camping Association is announced 

the 7th International Camping Congress is held in Mexico City, Mexico with 250 participants from around the world. The Congress is a wonderful combination of educational sessions and organized cultural and touring events, the 1st International Camp Director Course run by Armand Ball, Dick Chamberlain, Jack Murdock and Connie Cotillier is filled to capacity with 40 participants