I am writing to you from the Board table at Camp’s 2023 Winter Board of Trustees Meeting at the Hank Poler Leadership Center on the Dudley campus in Westport, New York.  The Board has just begun its second day of meetings. Trustees dodged winter storms in the Midwest and Northeast and made it to Camp in time to begin fully attended meetings on Friday morning. We began by onboarding an amazing and diverse group of four new trustees – Nicky Hylton-Patterson, Kari McKinley, Tom Pohlad, and Robin Wells. In the afternoon, the full Board commenced its meetings.  In 2022, we changed our calendar from four one-day meetings to three day-and-a-half meetings and actually added eight hours to the amount of time we are able to spend together in person as a Board each year.  The meeting began with an invocation by Kevin McCormick, who returned to the Board in 2022.  Board Vice Chair Erinn Harley-Lewis, Secretary Ted Smith, and Treasurer Chris Rodgers led a discussion of how the Board can be most effective and build strong relationships that allow us to function well as a team.  Matt and Marnie, and the year-round staff led a discussion of Camp’s operations during the offseason.  After a chilly walk around the Dudley campus, we returned and broke into committees to discuss Camp’s strategic priorities for 2023.

On Friday night, the Board got together with the year-round staff and many of their spouses and significant others for a lively dinner.  The festivities lasted late into the evening.  We paused to watch Carter Storey and Tommy Flanagan and the St. Lawrence Saints defeat Hobart in men’s basketball and advance in the playoffs.  Later on, guitars came out, and Ted Smith and I led a smaller group in selections from Jim Croce, Paul Simon, and Merle Haggard (among others).

After a good night’s sleep, we gathered at the Hank this morning for the second day of our Board meeting.  Matt and Marnie led presentations about Camp enrollment, finances, development efforts, and planning for 2023.  We followed that with discussion of our committee priorities for the year ahead.  Among other topics, we discussed Camp’s capital projects priorities on both campuses and how we will fund them.  We reviewed Camp’s revolutionary tiered pricing system and how it should be managed in the future so that we can continue to offer affordable pricing options perpetually.  We outlined our plans to continue to advance Camp’s DEI goals, manage risk, and evaluate our outdoors program and leadership training.  At the end of two days, we departed Camp Dudley basking in the warmth of each other’s company and having made important strides toward defining and moving forward with the Board’s ambitious agenda for 2023.  You can rest assured that it will begin and end with fellowship and fun, as we say in the mission, and that we will communicate with you about it, in this blog and elsewhere every step of the way.

Much love, JU #11904