A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Camp - 9C - Organization

When the Calvin Crest Board decided to hire a full time Executive Director, some people would ask questions like, “What is there to do year round just for a few weeks of summer camping?”   The Board’s mission for the camp was for the Executive Director to oversee the maintenance and development as well as the rental use of the facility.  Their vision was to hire a Program Director to develop a year round program for all ages on weekends and during the summer. 

The camp Administration was responsible for overall operation of the camp facility--food service (restaurant), cabin usage (hotel), repair, maintenance. housekeeping, construction (remodel and building) publicity and recruitment.  All of these needed financial over site, management and fund raising.

We sponsored programs for all age groups from 1^st to 3^rd graders, Juniors, Junior Highers, Senior Highers, College Age, and Families with their small children. We were responsible for Christian Education materials that were applicable to the camp setting. We also wrote training materials primarily for young adults who served as staff and volunteer counselors.  The summer program staff spent Orientation Week studying the materials and planning special activities for the campers.

I was responsible to develop the materials for the campers as well as for the counselors and staff training.   Don MacInnes, the Mission Area Christian Education Consultant, was our consultant and edited our materials.  Slowly but surely we developed a three year rotation of the Bible study and theme paper for the camps. 

The area of Human Resources was a huge part of the operation.  It included supervision of the year round staff of 20 plus people which was expanded to 80 plus during the three months of the summer. There were all kinds of personnel issues that needed to be developed, monitored and implemented. As the years progressed and the camp participation grew, personnel became a major part of the budget and took a lot of Administration time. There are labor laws, discrimination and harassment laws, potential abuse issues among counselors and campers, morale and moral issues, salaries, and personnel growth opportunities. 

Safety was a high priority not only for the campers but for the volunteers and staff as they worked on the grounds.  This took intentional training.  We were in a high risk business with the potential for accidents and injuries.   We were surely blessed.  In the 30 years of our ministry we did not experience but a couple of potentially serious accidents--bruises and some broken bones, but no long lasting injuries.  Praise God!