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!
