2010 and 2011 Directors Reports (click to link)

Directors Report to the Board (April 2011)

Summer Programs

Registrations began arriving in November as campers sought to assure a space in the session of their choice and

as a result we have filled up even more quickly than this year. As of today we have 46 campers for Barton, 55

for Channing 1, 59 for Channing 2, 67 for Parker 1, 65 for Parker 2, 66 for Ballou 1, 64 for Ballou 2, and 52 for

Family Camp. There are waiting lists for both genders for Parker 1, Parker 2, and Ballou 1, for girls for

Channing 1 and Ballou 2, and for boys for Channing 2. We anticipate that all sessions will be full and are

beginning to weigh whether or not to go above the 65 camper limit we had favored going into this year for all of

the older sessions.

We have several special guests coming this summer to offer programs. For Barton Renee Panetta from the

Albany congregation will be offering a program on Going Green with lots of hands-on activities connecting

campers to their environment. In Channing 1 our own Rebecca Cutter will be coming all the way from

Guatemala to offer a program connecting our campers to what is happening internationally. Luke Eisemann,

one of our counselors and theater leaders the past few summers will be returning for a week to offer a theater

program for Parker 2. For Family Camp we have arranged for Pam Collins, a UU and professor of English and

Communications at SUNY Cobleskill, to offer a writing workshop called Words to the Heart, connecting

writing and nature. And also in Family camp we will again have the renowned New England caller David

Kaynor and the brilliant musician Alan Thomson teaming with our house band to offer contra dancing each

evening. We are still looking for other special folks. One possibility might be a guest to lead a circus skills

program.

Spring Programs and Work Weekends

The winter camper reunion in Albany sadly had to be cancelled this year due to weather.

We have again partnered with GLSEN and Planned Parenthood to offer a weekend retreat for high school

students where they will learn advocacy skills and ways to address homophobia in their schools. This is the

second year for this program and we are planning increased staffing to enrich the camper’s experience.

We have received registrations for 10 people so far for our Memorial Day retreat. We have received some

interest from the All-Souls congregation in NYC to lease that weekend and are encouraging them to send a

bunch of attendees. We have a special guest coming, our own Alan Naseman, to offer a program on the web of

life that will include lots of hands-on exploring and music. The rest of the schedule will consist of informal

activities, hikes, campfires and a chance to relax. We again hope some board members will bring their families

to this weekend.

We will soon be sending a reminder email to all RE leaders and Ministers in both the SLUUD and Metro

Districts promoting the free weekend for them and their families. A few registrations have already come in and

we are hoping for 20-30 people in all. We will again be offering a number of optional team build programs and

facilitated discussion groups along with guided hikes and boating trips. Staff members will be on hand to offer

age appropriate programming for the participant’s children.

The Men’s Gathering registration has already begun and Mark Butt, the leader of the program, says there is a

good level of interest. There was one complaint about the increase in cost from $75 to $100 for the weekend

which Mark has addressed with our help.

We are planning to do some outreach for the work weekends in the next few weeks. Leasing weekends are full.

Staff Hiring and Camper Recruitment

We again plan to have a few returning staff members at camp in the spring and fall to act as camp managers for

leasing groups and program weekends. They will also do maintenance work during the week.

Staff hiring for the summer is almost complete. We have hired six female and six male counselors and there is

intense competition for the remaining 4- 5 positions. We have two more openings for dishwashers, and one

more maintenance crew opening. We recently interviewed an excellent candidate for driver, which will likely

leave us with only our Nurse/EMT position left unfilled. We are planning to advertise on the internet for that

position over the next few weeks.

In our continuing efforts to build leadership staff we shared the responsibility for staff interviewing and hiring

this year. We hired our program director, Kris Fiore, to assist us. Kris did initial screening interviews for the

numerous applicants we had for counseling positions and we did follow-up interviews for the strongest

candidates. Our two cooks, Jonathan Gottfried and Aria Moraine, and our maintenance crew chief, Lauren

Hunt, have also been conducting screening interviews for some prospective staff members. As in-person

interviews are often difficult to arrange, we have been doing most of the interviews using video-conferencing.

The staff once again represents an excellent balance between returning and new staff and older and younger

staff, as well as range of interests. We are especially pleased that this year’s staff reflects our ongoing

commitment to diversity, particularly as it relates to the LGBTQ community.

The volunteer position of camp grandma remains unfilled.

Financial

The books are up to date and balanced and we are operating within budget. We are well ahead of projected

income thanks to summer camper registration and barring any major surprises should be able to dedicate some

funds to capital improvements.

Please refer to the budget report and balance summary for more detailed information on our present finances.

Administrative (including governmental reporting)

All tax reporting and payments have been timely.

Donalee Berard, the accountant who completes our 990EZ for the federal government and Char 500 for NYS

has indicated that because of our fundraising we will be required to do an audit. This year she filed a request for

a waiver but she suggests that we plan to have it done next year. If her firm completes it she estimated the cost

at $4000.

We are debating whether to do a spring newsletter or to move to a blog for communicating with our many

friends and supporters. A blog would have the advantage of being updated regularly. For example, we would

update it during the summer so that parents could go online and see what is happening each day at camp.

Loraine Machlin is again assisting with registration and we have been in discussions with her about hiring her

for the task instead of having her help on a volunteer basis. She will serve as our summer office manager for the

7 th time this summer we are considering having her train an assistant. All registrations have been entered into

the database and in our accounting program. Donations have been acknowledged, with cards being sent to thank

donors. And Loraine has again donated her professional graphic design skills to our efforts, including the design

of our grant proposal to Shelter Rock.

We have submitted a proposal to the UU congregation at Shelter Rock for a $100,000 grant to rebuild our

showerhouse. The proposal was well-received and we expect it to be among the final proposals that the

congregation will vote on in May. Several campers and a parent of a former camper in the congregation are

planning to speak in support of our proposal. We hope that at the very least this will set the stage for success in

the future, although of course we hope to be chosen this year.

As most of you know, the NYS Convention of Universalists turned down Unirondack’s request for a grant to

begin completing their commitment to renovating the woods cabins. They did offer to loan us the funds, which

we turned down. Many thanks are due to Russ for his efforts and to Devin for his support.

We will need to know the agenda for the annual meeting following this board meeting, including any

nominations or changes to the bi-laws that need to be voted on at the annual meeting. We will be sending

announcements about the meeting and dues notices in the next month. We are suggesting that the annual

meeting be moved to the October members weekend in the future, which will require a vote of the membership

as the present time is written into the bylaws.

The proposed additional bylaw changes clarifying membership and voting that the board requested Marty

Rothfelder to put together will be presented at this meeting so that we can include any approved proposals in the

announcement of the meeting.

Church Mutual called to let us know that they were changing our coverage slightly. The Performing Arts Center

has been added to our coverage. Presently all our buildings are covered at replacement cost. In addition, we

have a special coverage that allows us to spend up to the total coverage for all the buildings in the event of

damage to a single building. Initially, they proposed that the boathouse/artshop be removed completely from

this coverage because it is in such bad shape. Dan was able to negotiate continuing to cover it at replacement

cost (which is still only $38,000), rather than at present value, which was far less. However, it will no longer be

included as one of the buildings we can apply our total coverage to in the event that replacement cost is not

sufficient. The pumphouse and lean-to are also not covered in that fashion.

We have 40 Family members, 11 youth members, 6 individual and 3 church members to date and plan to send

dues notices and another membership please this month.

We have received $6000 in campership donations, which includes what was donated by Beryl Haas’s estate. We

have $1475 in undirected donations, which will be needed to cover the cost of campership requests this year.

Generally, we receive a few thousand dollars in additional donations during the summer so the campership

program should be fully funded this year.

Donations to the Foundation have been minimal but we expect the drive will pick up after we complete the

work on the written materials we need to distribute in our meeting this Sunday. The Foundation Committee met

at Dan’s house on December 11 th and had a productive meeting, settling on ideas for how to recognize donors,

the details on the publicity to go out, and next steps. Becky is doing an outstanding job organizing the effort.

We are planning to attend the next meeting of UU Camp and Conference Center Directors (SUURCE) to be

held at Cedar Hill in Massachusetts on the weekend of September 23-25. As this corresponds to one of our work

weekends we would welcome board member attendance at that work weekend to lend support to our staff.

One of the most exciting winter tasks we have undertaken is the complete re-design of the camp website. In

preparation we looked at numerous camp websites, consulted with a number of knowledgeable people, and

integrated a ton of recommendations from web design books we reviewed. The new site will be more colorful

and modern, integrate links to social networking and perhaps a camp blog, and integrate many of the

suggestions campers and parents have made over the years for better organization and ease of use. We plan to

have a couple of sample pages for your review at the meeting.

Buildings and Grounds

We have four priorities for this year: renovating Chadwick, repairing the roof of Overlook, completing the

renovation of the Gilman Dining Hall, and completing the electric in Stevens.

Devin will be presenting some proposals for Chadwick at this meeting. We are recommending that $10,000 of

the $24,000 withdrawn from the endowment for this year’s capital improvements be devoted to the renovation

of Chadwick, with any additional costs up to $5000 to come from anticipated additional income from this

summer. We would like work to begin in May and be completed by mid-June.

We are hopeful that the work on Overlook can be completed for $5000, although we cannot know for certain

until we see what kind of shape the beams under the roof are in. As with Chadwick, we are suggesting asking

for a bid from Ed Lyndacker, the builder who completed Stevens and the work on Gilman.

The work on Gilman is nearly complete and should be completed in May, perhaps even before our opening

work weekend. This will be use the remaining $9000 withdrawn from the endowment.

We plan on seeking volunteers to work with our maintenance crew to complete the electric. We may have to

pay for some of this work out of our maintenance budget for this year. We still need lights and electric in the

rear of Stevens and stage lighting.

There are many other plans for improvements under way as well, all of which we anticipate being able to pay

for out of the operating budget with volunteer labor and work from our summer staff. These include:

 Finishing the renovation of the bathroom in Sophia Fahs

 Replacing the showerheads in the showerhouse to improve water pressure

 Rebuilding stairs down to lower camp

 Installing stage lighting and a curtain in Stevens

 Building a low ropes course for use this summer

 Building or purchasing seating for Stevens

Of course there will be more accomplished, but we are especially excited about the work we have highlighted.