Executive Meeting

A few years ago, we took out a loan to make up for the money we were losing and the loan is due at the end of October. We don’t have $150,000 to pay it back and that was the main catalyst for thinking about closing camp. But ultimately, closing an almost 70 year old camp over $150,000 seems crazy. That’s not THAT much money. I don’t happen to have that much spare cash laying around, it’s obviously a LOT of money. But some nonprofits raise that in one event, so it just seems like a tragedy to close down over that much money.

So I talked to ‘B’ and asked him if he would help me burn down a building. ‘B’ is a camp alumni and has been volunteering with us for the past two summers. Besides me, he is possibly the most dedicated, passionate, committed and in love with camp person I’ve met.

He’s also the calmest, most reasonable person on the planet, and he nicely explained that he didn’t think that was a very good idea to commit a felony, but that he would help me meet with the bank to take out a mortgage on our property (Which is worth millions). He also agreed to take over as board president if I could figure out a way to get ‘J’ to step down.

‘B’ and I came up with a plan, well, more like the outline of a plan, but a plan. Step 1- get some money to pay off the loan and buy us some time to get this organization running well (ie- raise enough money to not be in debt each year). Step 2- rebuild the board with people who would help us fundraise and be active with the organization. Step 3- Develop a long-term strategic plan for the organization. Step 4- fundraise a bunch of money.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve reached out to a few board members and all of them agreed that they didn’t want to see camp close. I set up a meeting with the executive committee and prepared for battle. I wasn’t sure how the three of them would react to this new plan, but I had a speech ready, handouts and, in the worst case scenario, I knew I had numbers on my side and if it came down to it, I could fight them and win. They can’t close the organization without a vote from the board and I had the rest of the board on my side.

I went into the meeting totally unsure of what they would say. But when I said, “what if, instead of closing camp, you guys step down and let me try to save it” ‘J’s reaction was, “I’m on the edge of my seat”. I think I’ve sort of amused/confused/bewildered all of them ever since I arrived at this camp so many years ago and passionately and confidently argued for them to give me the chance to run camp. Once again, I asked them to give me a chance. I showed them the “plan”.

Wisely, they asked, “so how are you actually going to do all of this?” How am I going to rebuild the entire board, come up with a strategic plan, raise a bunch of money??? I said, “well, to be honest, I don’t know. But I want the opportunity to try. And if it doesn’t work, there will be less equity to start a foundation with, but since we don’t have a plan for the foundation anyway, it’s not like this would hurt or take away anything from anyone.”

Seven years after they shrugged their shoulders and handed the title of Executive Director to a 26 year old, once again, they shrugged their shoulders and said, “if you want to do it, we’ll let you try.”

I walked out of the meeting light on my feet, nearly floating. And then shortly after that, got mad. Really mad. WHY does the fate of this stupid camp always rest on whether or not I am involved? If I want to quit, they say it will close.

‘J’ agreed to meet with the bank and help me refinance our loan. As it turns out, the money was easier to solve than I’d thought. Thank goodness I didn’t burn down a building!

The entire board is going to step down at the end of December. So, I just need to find a bunch of really committed, hard working people to take over in the next 2 months.

But in the meantime, ‘A’ still has a job, camp is saved and we need to start planning summer 2015!