Interim Directors' Training

  • 02 Sep 2025
  • 11:00 AM
  • 04 Nov 2025
  • 4:00 PM
  • Virtual
  • 49

Registration


Register



Interim Director and Executive Director Camp, 

Conference, and Retreat Center Training 


Join the ecumenical training for Interim Directors/Executive Directors:

  • Build on your present skill set

  • Learn the nuts and bolts of an interim season according to the type of interim, as well as assessing and addressing anxious, grieving, or reactive systems

  • Engage with other experienced Directors bringing together decades of learning and leading camps, conference, and retreat seasons

  • Gain confidence in knowing when to act and when not to act based on stated and perceived urgency in an interim setting

How It Works:

  • Each week for 10 weeks join a 2-hour Zoom call

  • Read articles and (2) books before class which further inform the learning process

  • Can’t make a meeting? While it is best to be present to learn with others in the class, all sessions are recorded and available to watch afterwards.

Class times:

11:00-1:00 Pacific time

12:00-2:00 Mountain time

1:00-3:00 Central

2:00-4:00 Eastern


August 20th  Meet and Greet Information Session:

Wednesday, August 20th, 11:00-noon Pacific / 2:00-3 pm Eastern


Zoom link (all are welcome, no registration required)

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Class Session Content:


September 2nd, 2025 – What is an interim season?

  • Purpose of Interim season 

  • 3 types of interims; nuts and bolts 

  • Setting goals for interim season

  • Suggested MOU 

September 9th, 2025 – How to make decisions during a liminal time?

  • Discernment during a liminal time; how to listen for what is and is not being said

  • Seeking clarity regarding decision-making and authority – who supervises me; when do I ask for permission to make changes?

  • Procedural vs. operational decision-making

September 16th, 2025 – How to care for ourselves during an anxious time?

  • Two-way mirror of self-awareness 

  • Practical self-care in an interim season 

September 23rd, 2025 – How to help your site find their next, right person?

  • Appropriate role of interim in search for settled Executive/ Director

  • 9 areas of expertise needed in a camp, conference, retreat center Director and why this knowledge is important – how to engage Search Committee in this conversation 

September 30th, 2025 – How to help systems during transition?

  • Conflictual, anxious, grieving systems 

  • Role of pastoral care and non-anxious truth-telling during an interim season

  • Review of two-way mirror of self-awareness

  • Introduction of conflict management type assessment

October 7th, 2025 – How to productively engage conflict? 

  • Conflict Management continued – discussion of individual preferred conflict management style and when to stretch into other styles

  • Five levels of conflict and how to assess conflict level of system

October 14th, 2025 – The importance of establishing RACI 

  • RACI as a way to create more effective leadership and governance of site/s– Who is Responsible? Who has Authority? Who is held aCcountable? How is Information shared? 

October 21st, 2025 – How to use a Healthy Camp Checklist? How to create greater inclusion of others in the site’s program and in its decision-making

  • Healthy Camp Checklist – importance of best practices; how to explain best practices when there is resistance to change

  • Inclusion of new populations, programs, and paradigms into camp community 

October 28th, 2025 – What to do in a crisis, known and not known?

  • Crisis Management - how to act when crisis is known going into the interim and how to act when crisis becomes apparent during your service 

  • Malfeasance, financial crisis, criminal activity during previous leadership tenure 

November 4th, 2025 – How to create a healthier decision-making culture at your site

  • Changing Culture – working to create healthier decision-making culture; high possibility for culture change because of liminality of interim season; assessment and discerning whether to observe and report, take action and how, or actively choose not to act 

  • Character types and patterns often found in interim seasons with practical guidelines 

In-person class gathering* following the OMC Great Gathering, November 13-14th. (Great Gathering dates are November 9-13, 2025.)

  • Case studies created from real life situations 

  • In-depth discussion of books and articles 

  • Panel discussion of ecumenical leaders regarding present trends and suggestions regarding interim service 

*If participating in the in-person class days, students are responsible for booking their room at Lake Junaluska for Thursday night, Nov.13th. Call 828-454-6710 and ask for Elizabeth Burson, Conference Coordinator Specialist; to request your room from the Healthy Camp Leadership block.

    About the instructor, Melinda Trotti:

    Melinda has served as a Permanent and Interim Director/ Executive Director at UMC, UCC, and Episcopal camp, conference, and retreat centers across the country. She has taught graduate level Personnel Management for Not-for-Profits. Certified as a spiritual director and trained as a professional coach, she brings her faith-based community organizing experience and commitment to justice to all that she does. Her consulting firm, Healthy Camp Leadership, works with centers in conducting searches for Interim and settled Directors/ Executive Directors. Melinda consults with judicatories and boards to create healthier decision-making cultures, so that that their strategic plans can be successfully implemented for financial and mission-driven sustainability. She has previously served as co-instructor for the Interim Camp Directors’ Class and has written articles about interim camp ministry used in a variety of formats.


    Tuition: The cost is $950 per participant. Scholarships may be available from your camp, conference, and retreat ministry association.


    Registration Questions? Contact Jen Burch

    Class questions? Contact Melinda Trotti