The spring meeting of the Board of Trustees was held on Saturday, May 5, 2018 at Camp Dudley, which was preceded by a Board training and educational session in Colchester regarding transgender youth and Board governance. The educational session on transgender youth was presented by Lyndon Cudlitz.

Matt Storey and Marnie McDonagh delivered the Directors’ reports. The Directors expressed their appreciation for staff getting the campuses ready for the season and discussed their attendance at various professional conferences to prepare for camp. Mollie Farnham discussed the mental health first aide training that was provided to all full-time Staff and gave a snapshot of the training to work with campers experiencing anxiety, ADHD and related mental health first aid issues. Matt reported on the “Low Camper Number Event” gathering in Florida and his visit with Marcus Chioffi at Camp Abbensen in Hanover, Germany.

Evan George and Kat Hood reported on the JL weekends for Dudley and Kiniya and delivered the enrollment reports with a focus on filling the camps, retention and diversity numbers. The Board held a discussion concerning enrollment at both Camps, with a focus on filling the Camps and racial and ethnic diversity, especially in the leadership ranks. Kat Hood discussed the addition of a new division to the Kiniya program — now Cubs, Catamounts (“Cats”) and Seniors. Kat indicated that adding a third division is a stepping stone to a four division system (to be Cubs, Cats, Juniors and Seniors). The addition of two new cabins at Kiniya should assist in moving to a system of four divisions, with each division comprised of roughly 40-50 girls.

D’Anne Hurd, on behalf of the Audit Committee, reported on the improvements in the Camps’ bookkeeping system and ability to share information with the auditors and updated the Board on the 2018 Conflict of Interest report. Jim Godfrey of Tyler, Simms & St. Sauveur presented on the recently concluded annual audit of the Camps’ financial condition and the Board voted unanimously to approve the financials and the 990 to be submitted to the IRS.

Evan George and John Ulin reported on the activities of the Keeping Camp Affordable (“KCA”) Initiative. Evan reported on the KCA committee’s communication with peer institutions about how they are addressing tuition challenges and tiered pricing.

Mike Bransford presented the report of the Finance Committee. Mike discussed strengthening the Camps’ financial architecture and record keeping. Caroline Deans reported on the work of the Financial Reporting Sub-Committee and led a discussion surrounding how best to benchmark our Camps’ financial practices against the practices of peer camps. Fred reported on the Camp’s first quarter financial statement and explained how the camps are managing employee benefits costs by moving to a high deductible health insurance plan and paying the employee co-pay portion of covered services from our Camps’ HRA. Marnie indicated that she expects Camp Kiniya’s tax payments to increase for 2018 and 2019, due to a recent reassessment. The Board will be looking at its options to see how best to address this expected increase.