United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries has seven foundations that lay the groundwork for all we do. These range from providing intentional places apart to encounter God, to developing Christian leaders, and inspiring guests toward love and justice. (View all Seven Foundations.) These foundations were evident as over 75 camp leaders from around the West from Southern California to Colorado and Alaska, gathered at Camp Magruder in Rockaway Beach, Oregon from March 10-13, 2014. Camp directors, board members, maintenance staff, kitchen managers, program directors, volunteers, workshop presenters and more came together for a time of retreat, learning, and fellowship.

Whether a ministry is separately incorporated or functions under the umbrella of an Annual Conference, it is a safe assumption that they fall into the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)’s exempt non-profit status 501(c)(3), exempting them from federal income tax. This status is also a ticket to accessing technology for free or at greatly discounted prices.

FREE:

Google Apps for Nonprofits

As a registered and recognized 501(c)(3) organization, you are eligible to receive for free a group of premium Google services for which a for-profit business would pay $50 per user, per year.

Collaboration is made easy through Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Drive. Google Drive is cloud-based storage that allows you to store and share files seamlessly. Your Google Drive and Gmail account share 30GB of storage. Google also allows you to provide customized URLs. In other words, you can provide your staff and volunteers with a simple domain name to access their applications, e.g., mail.umcrm.org. For MS Outlook aficionados, there is a plug-in that allows for seamless integration. Click for Outlook Sync for Google Apps 

Google Apps for Nonprofit members also receive access to:

•   YouTube - An enriched version that allows users to customize the look and feel of their channel, and place Call-to-Action overlays directly on their videos.

•   Google Earth - Free licensing for Google Earth Pro and Maps API for Business.

•   Google Ad Grants - Google Ad Grants is the nonprofit edition of AdWords, Google's online advertising tool. Google Ad Grants empowers nonprofit organizations, through $10,000 per month in in-kind AdWords advertising, to promote their missions and initiatives on Google search result pages.

Google Analytics is a product that is available for free outside of the Google for Nonprofits program. Google Analytics tracks how people find and interact with information on your website. This data can be very important when making strategic decisions regarding a web presence. Click for more information on Google Analytics.

Vertical Response

Vertical Response provides easy, fast, and measurable e-mail marketing services.

Eligible 501(c)(3) organizations receive 10,000 free email credits at the start of each month. It’s a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ system, so credits will expire at the end of that month. Additional credits can be purchased at a 15% discount.

DreamHost

DreamHost offers a free hosting plan to non-profit, charitable organizations registered in the United States. This discount applies to a single hosting plan per non-profit, hosted within only one account, for US-based 501(c)(3) organizations.

DISCOUNTS:

Tech Shop Ministries

Tech Shop Hardware Partners provides discounted computer hardware for United Methodist churches and ministries. Current partnerships include HP, Dell, CDW, and Apple. Individual camps and retreat centers are able to leverage the same discounted rates large nonprofit organizations enjoy by purchasing products as a group. For example, a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display and three years of AppleCare cost $2,118.00 purchased through the Tech Shop Ministries portal. Fair Market Price: $2,348.00. This represents a 10% discount. This may not sound like a lot, but a 10% discount from Apple is almost unheard of. In addition to the discount, Apple makes it relatively easy for non-profits to avoid paying sales tax. Believe it or not, Apple requires you to fax a copy of your state sales tax exemption certificate (if applicable) to them. Analog fax is the only way they will currently accept this document.

Techsoup

Techsoup offers generously discounted or donated software to the nonprofit community. The eligibility for discounts and donations is calculated by each donor. Eligibility will vary depending on a number of factors including program budget and whether or not the donor considers faith-based organizations to be “Charitable.” Late in 2013, Microsoft announced that faith-based 501(c)(3) organizations are now eligible for discounted pricing through Techsoup. Faith-based organizations were previously exempt from receiving discounted software.

Techsoup pricing example:  Microsoft OneNote 2013

Fair Market Price: $111.00   Techsoup Price: $4.00   Discount: 96%!

Ian Hall lives with his wife Laura (whom he met at camp!) and their two children, Elliot (6) and Nolan (2), in Bloomington, Indiana. Ian serves as the Associate Director of Financial Services for the Indiana Conference and volunteers his time as the Treasurer for UMCRM. He also maintains his camp cred through backpacking, youth missions, and other camp-y pursuits.

We're coming out of the worst economic times since the Depression.  The church certainly needs to hit the reset button in a lot of areas.  Happily, we have the opportunity to fund ministries that share our Wesleyan heritage with young generations and new and changing populations, creating a bright future for the church we love. Camp and retreat ministries, supported in key areas, can leverage the gifts of focus and intention to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.

1.  Camperships: Inclusion in Action. The middle class is shrinking and the wealth gap is growing. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty more than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level.  To de-fund camping could make it a ministry that only serves those who can afford it, and it becomes an exclusive, elite experience.

2.  Outreach: Marketing Beyond the Local Church.  The Millennials are the generation least interested in the church in U.S. history.  They are the next group of parents with camper-aged kids. Our traditional camper population has come out of Sunday schools and youth programs, which in many places are shrinking and disappearing, but the kids are still out there in our communities. Many non-churched families want their kids to have some spiritual roots and foundation without the perceived baggage some see in the institutional church. A well-presented Christian camp experience can meet this felt need in an attractive way, providing exposure to God’s good news and faith formation opportunities for those outside the church. We miss a big part of our call when we only market camp to children and youth who are already in church.

3.  Spiritual Food for Hungry Adults.  Adults are still looking for spiritual nourishment, but are less and less interested in church membership.  Marketing our retreats beyond the local church into our communities is another opportunity for outreach to a generation not interested in institutions.

4.  Leadership Development for Young Adults. Many of our church leaders have come out of summer camp staff experiences: Deacons, Elders, and even Bishops. How many more of our good laity are strong leaders because of volunteering and working at church camp?  Underwriting young adult roles for the summer at your camps gives them a couple of weeks of solid leadership training and a summer of practical experience in mentored relationships.  In some Conferences, our camping ministries have more contact with young adults than any other ministry.

5.  Opportunities for Ethnic Families.  The Hispanic population is the fastest-growing population in the U.S., and we're very close to having children of color be the majority in the U.S.  Offering events like confirmation retreats where parents can accompany their kids can build relationships of trust, making it easier to send their kids to camp on their own later.  Non-white kids will be the future majority population in our country.  As we find ways to welcome them, grow them into leadership, and let go of the reins, our denomination will have a renewed future that better reflects the changing face of our country.

Jim Parkhurst, an ordained Deacon in the UMC, serves as Director of Camp and Retreat Ministries for the Detroit Annual Conference and Vice Chair of the UMCRM Association. We're amazed that Jim has spare time, but he sings in church and community choirs, travels internationally on adventures involving spiritual pilgrimage and/or skydiving, and eagerly consumes literature, Kentucky basketball, weather forecasts, and ice cream.

Are you Pinterested? If not, you might want to consider adding Pinterest to your social media strategies. Pinterest ranks second only to Facebook for driving people to your website, according to a study from Fall 2013. Pinterest is essentially a public bulletin board where you can post anything that interests you. In the case of your camp, this could include anything from current projects to wish lists and everything in between. Pinterest allows users to organize pins into “boards.” These boards are best used to group your ideas into areas of interest to potential audiences. Don’t limit your scope to just campers and potential campers. Try to think about all the different groups that interact, or you would like to interact, with your ministry. Potential donors? Prospective summer staff? Parents? Here are a few boards you might consider setting up under your camp or retreat center’s account:

• Camp Activities To Try at Home

• Local Church “Camp Night” or “Camp Sunday” Activities

• Local Points of Interest (close to camp)

• Preparing for Camp

• Retreat Ideas

• Services and Programs

• Signs and Structures around your Site

• Staff Profiles

• Wish Lists (for volunteers or donations)

Your ministry needs its own boards, separate from your personal accounts. Make sure to use account and board headings to provide detail about who you are (as a ministry) and what you do. Updating your boards at least once a month will help them show up in Pinterest’s version of the “news feed” for potential campers and friends.

Sometimes keeping up with social media can be daunting, but it pays dividends for your camp. Keep it fun and fresh!

Heather Withrow serves as the Director of Camping and Outdoor Ministries for the West Virginia Annual Conference. When she's not working, um...she's a Camp Director, so never mind. She sometimes spends time on Pinterest, but we promise it’s for Camp, so she’s still working.

Some ideas from around Pinterest:

Program Directors may want to check out: 

10 Pinterest Pins I Tried This Summer at Camp

A general summer camp board anyone can contribute to: 

BEST OF: Summer Camp Ideas

Camp Wightman (CT) has a great collection of boards: 

Camp Wightman - A Christian Summer Camp

Check out Camp Deerhorn, (WI)’s What People Are Saying About Our Camp board, or another one showcasing their camp’s Activities

Usually with A/V equipment, you get what you pay for. That’s true with microphones, and especially wireless systems. So we were skeptical when we read the reviews of this inexpensive GTD system. However, after a weekend of heavy use, both with the wireless headsets and handheld mics, I would recommend this system to most camp and retreat centers.

The system is not professional grade. It’s not a replacement for $600 wireless microphones. However, for average camp use, it’s a good, inexpensive option. The headsets are also surprisingly comfortable and stay on even when you're leading active songs and games.

Amazon also offers a very inexpensive 2-year drops and spills warranty, which is a must for the camp world! And you can purchase additional headset packs or wireless handheld units for a small fraction of the cost of most mics.

They aren’t perfect – we had to do some tweaking on our sound board, especially when we passed the mics among different people. We still have more tweaking to do; but we are definitely not sending them back!

Grab a piece of steel wool. Rub it on the top of your hand every day for a week. That’s how camp feels to some kids. Their brains are scraped raw and on fire.  Camp’s not supposed to feel like that! But how can we ease the pain if we don’t know campers are hurting?

Kids are good at keeping secrets. And parents are good at helping them. In 30 years of being a camp counselor, director and volunteer, I’ve probably heard more about bedwetting issues than I have about learning or processing disorders. After all, you can’t hide a wet bed, but you can hide, at least for a short time at camp, other disabilities. When your child begs you to PLEEEEEZE not tell the counselor she doesn’t read well (in fact freaks out if asked to read aloud), it’s hard not to go along. Maybe no one will ever notice.

Then there are the issues parents don’t themselves know, but that can make life at camp difficult. Steve Grcevich’s “Barriers to Inclusion” article discusses hidden disabilities and church life, which inspired me to reflect about camp. Surely with all that outdoor space and low adult-to-camper ratios, we’ve got it covered? Nope. And we’re not totally to blame. Again, secrets. And shame. Often the only clue is the camper doesn’t come back.

We must start the inclusion process before anyone even gets to camp. Address the issue of hidden disabilities openly in your promotional materials and in welcome letters. Parents of these kids are often terrified when they send their child to camp. They are on edge all week wondering how it’s going. Demonstrating right up front that your camp cares and inviting additional data may reassure parents and yield more information. Ask parents specific questions on health forms or forms for counselors. Noise and lights bother your child? Likes to read? Needs an hour of quiet every day to function well? Gets upset when plans change? Anything your child would be embarrassed if other campers knew?

Address the issue with campers and ask the same questions. I had one staff person born with a very small thumb. She used that every week to show how some things are obvious, like her thumb, and some are hidden, but that we’re really all the same. “We want you to tell us what you need to make this week great.” Campers were fascinated. And they were completely open with her, even in large groups, about what made them uncomfortable or what they were afraid people might discover about them.

Teach staff and counselors to be observant and to notice when a camper is uncomfortable. Linguistically-oriented Bible studies are a dreaded part of the day for a child with a reading disability or anxiety disorder. A child with a social communication disorder may find get-acquainted games, especially name games, terrifying. That 13-year-old who always forgets to pack his towel in his shower bag? A child with ADHD or specific learning disorder may truly not remember, even if you reminded the group what to pack. A light hand on his shoulder (if he tolerates touch)may help, or a suggestion that everyone imagine his bag and then each item as you list it. Worship or group singing may overload a child with a sensory processing disorder. Consider providing a designated quiet place at cabins or campsites or in your worship space, where no one can talk to the person in it. That could be a piece of heaven to some campers.

Use training materials that allow counselors to experience life from the perspective of campers. We tend to assume people experience the world like we do, and if someone behaves differently, it’s because of a character flaw - psychologists call this “fundamental attribution error.” We attribute people’s behavior to their character instead of to their situation, in this case how their brain or the rest of the body works. We need training on those hidden disabilities if we’re going to avoid making assumptions. We don’t think someone in a wheelchair is lazy for not running to the dining hall, but just assume a camper is bossy and irritating with her demands that we stick to the schedule, rather than seeing the signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder. Seek expert help and training from school professionals and mental health professionals who specifically work with children with hidden disabilities. Pull in parents of children with hidden disabilities and let them tell counselors what it’s like from their perspective. Finally, consider adding a copy of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) to your camp library. The new version is well organized and easy to read, and can be a great source when a parent shares a diagnosis and staff would benefit from knowing more.

Recently, the 2013 National Camp Executives Gathering discussed ministering to “those in society who many times just get passed by” and the necessity of changing whom we’re reaching as camp and retreat ministries of the United Methodist Church. If we want to move forward in that direction, we need to expand our understanding to actively include campers with hidden disabilities. Dream big.

Jackie Cordon was certified in Camp and Retreat Ministries in the United Methodist Church in 2004 and was a camp and retreat center director in Iowa and New York for 14 years. She is also the parent of four children who did their best to give her experience with hidden disabilities. Currently finishing a master’s degree in clinical counseling, Jackie owns an editing business and serves camp and retreat ministries as a volunteer in the Iowa Conference.

As most of you know, United Methodist Camp & Retreat Ministries (UMCRM) formed a member Association in 2013. This year we’ll experience our first Board elections under the new system, so we want to be certain that all of our Members, un-renewed Charter Members, and potential Members are aware of the process. One significant difference from our former system is that the elected UMCRM Board is responsible for the governance of the Association. The Board does not plan the bi-annual National Gathering. That event is organized by a separate, illustrious Design Team of volunteers coordinated by the Event Chair, an officer elected by the Board.

The most important piece we want to emphasize is that **Only UMCRM Members are eligible to vote in elections or run for Board of Directors**.  

The South Central Jurisdiction (SCJ) has one Board position to be filled immediately, so we are planning to hold an election this Spring. Several other jurisdictions will need to hold elections in the Fall to fill seats vacated by Directors completing their terms in January 2015. All elections will be held electronically to allow for inclusive participation.

During the transition from the National Camp & Retreat Committee to UMCRM, it became clear that a consistent election process across all jurisdictions was a top priority. Our new bylaws reflect this. Accordingly, we will use the following timeline:

• Members must be notified of an election 90 days before the date voting will close. At that time, interested persons have 30 days to submit the one-page candidate form.

• No less than 30 days prior to the close of voting, an email will be sent to eligible Members in the candidate’s jurisdiction with the slate of candidate profiles and the link to cast a vote.

• Notification of election results will be mailed out promptly after the close of the 30-day voting period.

Interested in serving on the UMCRM Governance Board?

1. The first step is to confirm your membership.  Click to access member website.

2. Next, review the Board Member Job Description.

3. Fill out the Candidate Application Questions, and submit by email to info@umcrm.org at least 60 days prior to the election date for your jurisdiction.

4. Watch your email for notice of the election, and be sure to vote by the deadline.

If you’re a Bundle Administrator for your Center or Conference, please check your member list. If you’ve not yet filled all of your eligible spots (4 individuals for Camps, 7 for Conferences), you’re encouraged to do so, as each of your designated members can run for office, vote, and receive member discounts. Make the most of your membership!  Additional Members are $75, beyond those included with your base membership. If you need assistance editing your member bundle, I am glad to help.

Please contact me (Jen Burch, your friendly Registrar) with any questions on this process.Thanks for your support of the UMCRM Association!

This Is Your Brain…at Camp

A couple of weeks ago over a thousand people gathered in Orlando to hear about neurons, synapses, and pre-frontal cortexes. There were discussions of how the brain works, how it changes, and how to influence its growth. It wasn’t, however, a meeting of neuroscientists. Instead it was the annual American Camp Association National Conference. Camp professionals, including more than 20 United Methodist camp colleagues, spent four days exploring a wide range of topics related to camp leadership. A central theme heard frequently at the conference was the growing importance of brain research.

Over the past decade research on how the brain functions has exploded, driven primarily by advances in technology.  Researchers have been able to map the brain and gain valuable insight into how it works. This new knowledge is having a profound impact in a number of fields including child development, education, and training. New strategies are rapidly emerging to take advantage of this new knowledge.

At this year’s ACA conference, camp professionals were challenged to begin integrating the new insights on the brain into their work. Dr. Tina Payne Bryson, co-author of The Whole-Brain Child, shared the importance of moving beyond the traditional either/or approach to left- and right-brain thinking to adopting strategies for integrating these two different, but complementary areas of the brain. She also provided strategies for promoting the development of the critically important pre-frontal cortex in campers.

This summer we’ll be looking at integrating Bryson’s work on left brain/right brain thinking into how we do Bible study. We’ll be working to ensure that we engage both the logical left brain and the emotional right brain in how we present and how we discuss the stories from the Bible that we use to support our theme. We want to create a more holistic approach that fully utilizes the entire brain.

Bryson also highlighted new research showing the direct link between the development of resilience in youth and two important aspects of camp, strong relationships and reflecting on experience. Several camps are now highlighting this research in their promotional materials targeted at parents. Parents looking for opportunities to help their kids grow need to hear the message that the relationships that camp fosters and the reflection-based, experiential model we use build resilience and grit. Measures of resilience and grit correlate strongly with success. “Look, parents, at the ways camp can help your kids succeed!”

Other conference sessions applied brain research to working with staff. New strategies integrating brain research are being implemented at all levels of the education system and are finding their way into how organizations are training their employees. These new brain-based strategies offer opportunities for camp leaders to significantly improve their training. Using the growing body of knowledge of how the brain learns, camps can accelerate learning, improve the retention of content, and increase the likelihood staff will use what they’ve learned. Knowing that the operation of the brain is all about connections, researchers now believe that linking new ideas to previous knowledge is critical to learning. As we prepare for staff training we’re planning to be very intentional in helping staff make these connections. Each time we present a new concept, our goal will be to link it either to something we’ve already covered or to knowledge that staff members obtained through life experiences outside of camp. We want to help staff members understand and retain new material by creating connections between the new and what they already know.

Brain based research is also suggesting new approaches to leading summer camp staff. As the understanding of how the brain works evolves, new insights into how to communicate with and motivate staff are emerging. Strategies for coaching and mentoring staff are being adapted to the new understanding of how staff process feedback and change their behavior.

Over the next several years, camp professionals will likely see an increasing number of opportunities to learn more about brain-based approaches to working with both campers and staff. In addition, a number of resources are under development to provide hands-on strategies for using the new insights into the brain at camp. Camp staff can find some great resources on how brain research is changing approaches to teaching (both campers and staff) on-line at web sites such as Edutopia. 

Adopting brain-based strategies at camp offers the opportunity to strengthen the positive impact of the camp experience on both campers and staff. These strategies don’t require us to fundamentally change who we are or what we do. They just help us understand campers and staff (and ourselves) in a way that allows us to tweak what we do to be more effective. It’s an exciting time as we take this new cutting edge knowledge and find ways to use it to help us be more effective in our ministries.

John Erdman is the Director of Camp Wesley Woods, a ministry of the Holston Annual Conference, located in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. John has also served as the director of faith based camps in New Hampshire and Ohio. Prior to moving into full time camp ministry, John worked in training and leadership development positions in corporate, higher education, and government settings.

The title claimed it was "More Than Just a Cattle Drive." And it did turn out to be an adventure. Just a small group gathered at Bridgeport Camp & Conference Center in Texas for the mid-January event.

Each December, the Camping Executive leadership from Annual Conferences across the country gathers for three days to share in a time of fellowship, collaboration, and visioning. As I reflect back on our time together this past December I have realized that we as a national camping and retreat ministry are at the beginning of a new era.

Our time at this gathering together started with an inspiring vision shared by Bishop Peggy Johnson of the Philadelphia Episcopal Area. Bishop Johnson is a forerunner in advocating for those whom the rest of the world tends to forget. She has a strong passion for deaf and blind ministries and inspires everyone she interacts with to strengthen their service with “the outcasts.” During her time with us, the Bishop presented a fact that many of us who have been in the camping field for a while try to ignore; that prioritizing our promotional efforts toward the camping demographic of middle and upper-middle class suburban kids can no longer be our primary strategy. For many years, this was the main demographic attracted to and attending summer church camp programs. Today, this demographic is being pulled in so many different directions, church camp is no longer a priority for them or their parents. While it is still important for these young people to have a camping experience, we as a ministry have to begin looking beyond this demographic in order to survive. And more importantly to live out a ministry that models the life of Jesus Christ. The challenge that was put forward by the Bishop was to shift our efforts from the easy way of doing camp (which is really no longer “easy”), to faithfully ministering to the “outcasts,” the “untouchables,” those in society who many times just get passed by. United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries are at the beginning of a new era in ministering to the blind, deaf, poor, those with HIV/AIDS, those who speak a different language, and those who have addictions.

Our time then shifted into many discussions about what Camp and Retreat Ministry structure looks like in various Annual Conferences across the country. This is always an eye-opening conversation. Year after year, we are finding that more Conferences are losing their conference level camping executive for one reason or another. Some Conferences are choosing to combine this leadership position with other responsibilities: youth ministries, or outreach, for example. This loss of full time leadership is sometimes done strategically, but unfortunately most of the time this loss happens strictly for financial reasons. The reality is that less than half of our Annual Conferences have a full-time camping Executive. This results in Camp Directors taking on extra responsibilities, requiring more resources for guiding them through Conference structure and details of running a camp that they previously did not have to handle. Along with less Conference level leadership there is also the reality that many of our Camp Directors are soon going to be reaching retirement age. Over the next few years there will be a large number of new Camp Directors who will need additional training as well. United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries are at the beginning of a new era in leadership, both at individual sites and structurally as a whole.

This is an exciting time to be a part of this vital ministry. With the new era that is before us in mind, our time together ended with a number of discussions about how this group of Camping Executives and the newly formed UMCRM Association might successfully lead and resource United Methodist Camp and Retreat Centers. What will it look like for UMCRM to prepare all levels of leadership for a new era of reaching new people, preparing new and young Directors, and filling the newly formed gaps in Conference level leadership? What will it look like for United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries to find its place in this changing world?

Jessica Gamaché currently serves the church through her position as Camping Coordinator in the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference. She understands the importance of giving young people a chance to step away from the struggles of everyday life and to be immersed in an intentional Christian community with faith-strong mentors, while surrounded by the beauty of God’s Creation.