Many in the UMCRM community are familiar with Michelle Cummings and her fun and innovative facilitation style. Whether you are a seasoned team-builder, experiential teacher/learner and game leader or someone newer to the field, time spent with "Big Wheel" Michelle Cummings will energize you with new ideas and fresh skills. 

As founder of Training Wheels and co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Personify Leadership, Michelle is a well-known expert in the Team Development industry. She is an accomplished author and sought-after speaker on leadership, team-building, and experiential learning. Michelle's wide variety of facilitation tools and activities have collectively changed the way trainers and educators work.

Cummings holds a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Kansas State University and a Master's in Experiential Education from Minnesota State University at Mankato. She lives in Littleton, Colorado with her husband, Paul, and two sons. In a non-COVID year Michelle travels extensively to deliver innovate programs for camps and nonprofits, and to train professional associations, corporations, universities, and more. 

Register today for the "Be Whole, Live Well, Come Together" event series, and be sure to attend the first one on October 21st when we will hear from Michelle Cummings.

We are in the middle of a time where some togetherness is exactly what we need.

As camp and retreat leaders, we thrive off of what we do best: cultivating

community and spaces set apart for people to grow.

UMCRM has created a virtual Bridge Event to do just that.

This is a call to all camp and retreat leaders who are craving community.

This Bridge Event is specifically designed for our fellow camp folks to be whole, live well, and ultimately come together.

A group of UMCRM volunteers has worked to put together a monthly virtual event series for any and all camp/retreat leaders who are interested in joining. These four events align with each other, offering different keynote speakers, worship leaders, and workshops for each event.

When will the monthly events take place?

The Bridge Event will include four virtual events held on Wednesdays, October 21st, November 18th, January 20th, and February 17th. Participants will be able to tune in from the comfort of home, office, or personal space. Different sessions will be available at several times throughout the day.

General Schedule: (times shown in Eastern Standard Time)

7:00am    Morning Devotion (recorded for later viewing)

12:00       Vendor Hall Open

2:00pm    Workshops (up to 1.5 hrs)

3:00          Vendor Hall Open

4:00pm     Special Guest Speaker, Breakout Sessions following

7:30          Evening Worship (later watch parties in various time zones)

 

How much will this cost?

The cost per participant is just $60 for the whole series. This includes all four virtual events and access to recordings of each event. There will also be a virtual vendor hall to connect with UMCRM-friendly businesses and services. Wait, there's more! Registrants will also receive worship boxes by mail, available while supplies last. Times are financially hard right now, so in order to ensure that everyone is able to attend, scholarships are available upon request. Even if you missed a previous event, register now to get access --it's still a great deal.

 

What is the worship box?

While supplies last, registrants will be mailed a box of materials curated by our leadership team. These hand-selected items are meant to inspire you to create your own sacred space to worship during our virtual events. Share your inspirations by posting a photo of your worship space using the hashtags #umcrm and #UMCRMtogether on social media.

Where will these events happen?

Our leadership team has created the events within PheedLoop, a virtual conference platform. This platform will allow us to offer a virtual vendor hall, keynote speakers to broadcast their presentations, worship leaders to share, and workshops to happen. Once you register, you will receive more details on accessing the events, including a "what to expect" video. 

 

What if a participant is only able to attend some of the events and not all four?

Recordings of each session will be made available to all registrants. The registration fee is the same whether you register in September or in February, because it includes all-access to the 4 events. However, we hope community members will be able to join in person as much as possible --the networking chat feature, live Zooms, and lunch table conversations really help it feel like we are together in person. Come as you are and join live as you're able!

Still have questions? Drop us a line at bridge.event@umcrm.org

Committed, adaptable, creative, faithful, hardworking, generous, compassionate. The staff and volunteers of United Methodist Camp/Retreat Ministries (UMCRM) demonstrate so many of the qualities that define effective leaders. This season, those attributes were tested in familiar ways and new ones that stretched even the most resilient among us.

Of the nearly 170 United Methodist Camp/Retreat Ministries in the United States that offer summer camps, the majority (about 90%) did not offer traditional summer camp for the 2020 season.¹ Directors, Executives, and boards of directors led painstaking decision-making processes which took into account guidance from the American Camp Association, CDC, and Association of Camp Nurses, local pandemic regulations and conditions, church and organizational values, priorities and finances, and site and staffing concerns, all filtered through prayer.

Even while sacrificing the service, fun, engagement, and revenue that are part of summer camp, many camp/retreat site staff and volunteers were able to keep on in ministry, sharing God’s good news of love and actively serving as hands and feet of Christ in new ways in their communities. Some offered virtual camp experiences online and through Camp-In-A-Box activities campers could experience from home.² Some welcomed small family retreats to the holy grounds of camp to provide respite, connection, and experiences of God’s creation.³ Some utilized commercial kitchens to cook for hungry neighbors.⁴ A few sites created monastic residential communities with young adults exploring their faith and call.⁵ Others repurposed camp/retreat buildings as quarantine housing⁶ or distribution sites for food and supplies. Some were able to offer short-term day visits to help people find renewal through safely-distanced hiking, fishing, swimming, horse riding, or service projects. Many reached out to support families and children who needed to remember someone cares about them.

The few (about 12) UMCRM sites that were able to offer residential camp in the 2020 summer season did so with trepidation, thoughtfulness, and humility. In a recent UMCRM Community Conversation, several leaders from around the country shared trials, joys, and lessons learned from summer 2020. All of the UMCRM sites that operated this season took a rigorous, layered approach to COVID-19 safety protocols, including low-contact camper drop-off and pickup, increased cleaning and sanitizing of spaces and equipment, dividing campers and staff into discrete and non-mixing “cohort” small groups, daily health screening, decreased capacity and time in indoor spaces to allow for physical distancing, wearing masks, increased hand-washing, eliminating off-site activities, and adapting food service systems. This summer season demanded new inventions like creative hand-washing stations and adapted games that incorporated physical distancing. Staff created new practices, new forms, new communication and record-keeping strategies, new systems for managing the flow of people in our spaces. Counselors became experts in managing masks and hand sanitizer in addition to the usual sunscreen, appropriate footwear, and bug spray.

Some of the COVID guidance provided to camps changed as the summer progressed, so resilient leaders worked hard to stay abreast of local regulations on practices like mask-wearing and group sizes, sometimes needing to adapt operations in the middle of a session. Communication with camper families before, during, and after camp felt graver, less light-hearted than it usually would. A few Directors noted that even our youngest campers were remarkably adaptive and resilient with all the new rules and changes. Families were even more grateful than usual for their children to be able to experience camp and were supportive of all the measures our camps put in place to make it work.

One unexpected blessing that Directors reported from this strange summer was a marked decrease (and even absence) of the usual illnesses and injuries. Maybe everyone was just that much more careful this year? Maybe all of that hand-washing really does make a big difference to our health?!

Perhaps it should come as no surprise that camp, in its simplest form, still works. Even stripped of fancy off-site trips, guest speakers, specialty programs, and other bells and whistles, building community and having fun in a “sacred place apart”⁷ are truly the core of the camp experience. For young people who spent much of the spring and early summer quarantined at home with limited social interaction, time at camp this season felt like an especially welcome joy and adventure. For those who spent way too many hours inside in front of screens, a week of fresh-air activity in a slice of God’s beautiful Creation was especially sweet. When church and youth group activities had become virtual or nonexistent as a result of the pandemic, relevant Christian faith formation among a small group of peers was more needed than ever. For the thousands of campers who missed out on United Methodist summer camp in 2020, our ministry leaders missed you terribly, and they are hard at work to find ways to provide camp and retreat experiences for you just as soon as we can do that safely.

Leading summer camp in a “normal” season always involves late nights, early mornings, surprises, challenges, lots of preparation and stress. Those features were multiplied many-fold in this pandemic summer, and the relief and gratitude for a successful camp season cannot be overstated. When asked whether, if they could go back and decide again whether to hold summer camp, the majority of our Directors who ran camp said a resounding “yes.” They said “yes,” even knowing the financial strain of operating with limited capacity, “yes,” fully aware of the extra work and rigor and sleepless nights that were part of leadership in a COVID summer. Camp staff and volunteers do what they do because they believe in the power of the camp experience to live out God’s love for every child, to be places of safety, fun, learning, acceptance, challenge, and joy. Both those leaders who operated summer camps this season and those whose wisest choice was to remain closed, were guided by those commitments.

Many donors who contribute to Camp/Retreat Ministries have witnessed the power of camp and are committed to making sure those experiences are still around for future generations of children, youth, and families. In places where camps remained closed in 2020, many families who could afford to donate a portion of their registration fees generously gave back to support their camp through the financial loss of the summer season. Donors have stepped up to help these vital ministries to weather this unprecedented year when camp and retreats are not able to offer our usual programming and host the groups that sustain our operations. We salute the wonderful supporters of United Methodist Camp & Retreat Ministries who give time, talent, treasure, and prayer to sustain these sacred places and their dedicated staff. If you have not had the opportunity to give to your favorite camp this season, please reach out to see what their current needs are and how you can help.

The UMCRM Association brings our nationwide community together to be a resource and advocate for those amazing staff and the generous volunteer deans, board members, and others who support their ministries. Together we are learning how to serve in the midst of a pandemic, mitigating risk and caring for God’s people and sacred grounds to the best of our abilities. If you would like to join the Association or support our mission, find us at UMCRM.org.

1  Based on estimates by the UMCRM Association.

2  Camp in the Community, TN Doorstep deliveries: 1,400 kids experience church camp at home and Camp Alta Mons, VA Montgomery County camp finds way to send camp experience home are just two examples of UMCRM camps that used this model.

3  Camp Wanake, OH Wanake Camp & Retreat Center and Buckhorn Camp, CO Summer Family Camping were among the sites that provided experiences for small family groups. 

4  Camp Magruder, OR is one example: https://www.facebook.com/104908182943341/videos/273571057177382/

5  Two examples are “YAISC” at Camp Wrightwood, CA Young Adult Intentional Spiritual Community (YAISC) and the intern program at Camp Dickenson (VA) Summer Interns ​2020

6  See Alton L. Collins Center (OR) Eagle Creek facility gives COVID-19 patients space to quarantine

7 One of the “7 Foundations of Camp & Retreat Ministry”: http://umcrm.camp/about-us/7-foundations/

Jen Burch (M.Div.) is Association Administrator for UMCRM and edits weekly S'more Mail e-news. Jen is a former Director of several United Methodist Camp/Retreat Centers and youth-serving nonprofit organizations. She's staying physically-distanced but virtually connected from her home in Colorado.

“Mecan has been an excellent youth leader in GNJ, leading a growing, successful youth retreat ministry in the local church. Mecan has the passion and energy to bring people together which she balances with the administrative gifts to bring projects from vision to completion. We are in a season of great opportunity to rebuild camping and retreat ministries and I’m thrilled that she will be taking the lead.” 

 – Eric Drew, Executive Director, Next Generation Ministries of the Greater New Jersey Conference

Mecan (pronounced Mc-Can) Payne and her husband Corbin have been serving in ministry together since the moment they met in college, and they can’t imagine their journey taking any other direction. They have one rambunctious toddler and two crazy pups that keep them on their toes 24/7. Mecan and Corbin are both often described as coming in “like a wrecking ball;” they are passionate and very energetic in their calling to ministry!

Mecan’s passion for empowering younger generations has led to the creation and growth of multiple youth and young adult programs in several local churches in the Greater New Jersey Conference. Mecan holds a degree in Youth Ministry, with concentrations in Psychology and Theology, from Eastern University. Her experience in developing programs, leaders, and powerful worship experiences has led her to a new role as Camp Program Director at The Pinelands Center in Browns Mills, NJ. Mecan is excited to reach children, youth and their families through the ministry of camping and is soaking in every moment, lesson and resource that relates to her new position.

When not serving in ministry, Mecan enjoys spending time outside with her family, drinking hand-crafted coffee, reading true crime books and teaching Christian yoga.

Ryan Clements, Youth & Camping Ministry Coordinator, writes, "We're excited to have Mecan on board and to represent GNJ camping. Together with [Camp Operations Director] Ed Figueroa, we feel that camping and retreats in GNJ are in good hands."

Welcome to UMCRM, Mecan!

Across the UMCRM community, we share a drive to grow and learn. Take your leadership to the next level by tapping into a supportive network of like-minded colleagues and friends. The 2020-2021 season of UMCRM Intentional Leadership Groups (ILGs) will focus on finding inspiration and progress through connection with others who are seeking to grow in similar areas. This year, ILGs will meet as open discussion cohorts; convened by an individual but guided by the group as a whole. Each ILG cohort will meet once a month for 9 months; September through May.

In a time of constant change, when adaptive leadership is utilized every day, this model of open discussion cohorts will allow you and your group to discuss the topics that are relevant to you. Two cohorts are currently open for you to join:

• Retreat Center Directors’ Connection

• • First Thursdays of the month at 1pm ET / 10am PT (starting September 3rd)

  • Convened by Lawrence Jay from Rolling Ridge Retreat Center, this cohort will discuss topics and issues impacting leaders at retreat centers. If you lead a year-round retreat center and/or would like to strengthen your retreat ministry, this group is what you are looking for.

  • Sign up for the Retreat Center Directors’ Connection cohort

• 
  

• Camp & Retreat Fundraisers

• • Second Thursdays of the month at 1pm eastern / 10am pacific (starting September 10th)

  • Convened by Jennie Dickerson from Lakeshore Camp, this cohort will spend time sharing ideas and resources aimed at ensuring our ministries remain as fiscally solvent as possible. We will be stronger and more creative together for our own ministries while also identifying ways to help our neighbors who do not have existing fundraising programs.

  • Sign up for the Camp & Retreat Fundraisers cohort

Suggest a cohort theme and/or mark your interest through this form.

1. Look online at your conference or camp welcome statement (or lack thereof). Is it very clear that you welcome staff, campers, and guests with disabilities?

2. Look at your employment materials. Does the non-discrimination clause include disability?

3. Look at your job descriptions and application forms. Do they describe each position in terms of the core skills that are needed? For example, a lifeguard needs to be able to get quickly to the water, swim well, and have the strength to pull someone to safety, and to be able to communicate clearly to remind, warn and to organize a rescue, but someone at the camp office needs a different set of skills, as does someone working in housekeeping. It makes the most sense to mention potential barriers (e.g., rough terrain) and let the applicant explain how their needs could be accommodated.

4. Look at your staff training. Is disability considered a part of diversity training, not something that you do for others with "special needs"? Consider ways to be inclusive of those who may have invisible disabilities.

5. If you address disability, do you have a person with a disability (better yet a youth and an adult with a disability) do the training?  (Would you rely on a Caucasian to do anti-racism training?) Note that disability simulations have not been considered a good thing for many years and should be avoided. 

6. Look at your facilities and physical accessibility. Is it evident that each time you undertake a project you plan for and incorporate accessibility whenever at all feasible, especially with structures? Do your long-range plans include accessibility?  

Special thanks to Lynn Swedberg for these suggestions! Lynn is an occupational therapist and UMC Deaconess. She serves as liaison for and consultant to the DisAbility Ministries Committee of the United Methodist Church. Lynn has consulted with many UMCRM sites and is an amazing resource for us all. 

I can’t blame my board member for jinxing it, but in early March, with fears of COVID-19 growing and rumblings of group cancellations, she predicted that the situation would worsen quickly, and within a week, our onsite operations at Rolling Ridge Retreat and Conference Center were closed by order of Governor Baker of Massachusetts.

For our facility, and probably for yours also, the past three months have been a rollercoaster with the ups and downs of the PPP loan adding to the adventure.  Because of the fluidity of information and delays from our bank, we missed funding from the first round. When our loan was finally approved in the second round, I still wasn’t sure how we would be able to spend 75% of the money on payroll in an 8-week period with our facilities closed and the majority of our staff on furlough and transitioned to unemployment.

While I listened to countless webinars on PPP, none addressed the concerns I had as a retreat center director. I reached out to Horizons Stewardship and began to raise the issues that I was hearing from others in camping ministry who were also questioning how to maximize the PPP loan with summer camps looking to be cancelled. After an online meeting, they agreed to offer a webinar on PPP loan specifically addressing the needs of those in camping and retreat ministry.  

Between the time of our initial conversation in mid-May and the date of the webinar on June 3, 2020, restrictions on PPP loan forgiveness were changing as the House had just passed amendments which were going to the Senate.  Thankfully, the proposals would benefit camping and retreat ministries.

The full presentation with Ted Batson and Stan Reiff of CapinCrouse, and Joe Parks and Rhodes Logan from Horizons Stewardship, can be found here.

The primary changes in the new law H.R. 7010, The Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 simplify the PPP loan forgiveness process and greatly increase the parameters of the forgiveness: 

1. Extension from eight weeks to 24 weeks for capturing forgivable PPP loan expenses. 

2. Relaxation of staff headcount because of restrictions or reduction in business so unable to bring staffing back to pre-pandemic levels. 

3. Reduction of  the SBA’s 75% payroll cost requirement with a new statutory 60% payroll cost requirement.

4. Extension of the time to rehire workers from June 30, 2020 to December 31, 2020.

With the reduction of payroll costs from 75% to 60%, forgiveness is now "all-or- nothing," but the extension to 24 weeks makes forgiveness more realistic for camp ministry sites. For seasonal camps with no summer staff in 2020, the suggestion is to first calculate forgivable payroll costs, and if 60% is not reached, consider bringing on staff in new temporary roles (i.e., donor development). The key principle in whether a site should bring back staff is to balance the needs of the camp with the needs of employee.

While the 60% for payroll is non-negotiable, the remaining 40% of the loan provides camps and retreats the opportunity to invest in the future through proper cash management in either full forgiveness, pending expenses for utilities, mortgage, et al, or as a low-interest loan.  

Because the rules of engagement for PPP have changed with reduced payroll over an extended period, more options emerge from a stewardship perspective for the 40%. For many of our sites, recovery will take more than a year. It is important for us as ministry leaders to keep our eyes on the big picture as we make wise decisions, while remembering, as Stan Reiff says in the video, “Our dependency is not on the PPP loan, but on God, who gives us enough for what we need.”  

With the PPP situation still fluid, it is important to stay dialed in with the latest updates. Keep in touch with your bank, as they are the ones who will determine whether your expenses are forgiven. Most importantly, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and our constant companion on this rollercoaster ride.

Rev. Dr. Lawrence Jay is the Executive Director of Rolling Ridge Retreat and Conference Center, one of four CRM sites of the New England Annual Conference. An ordained American Baptist pastor, he has been involved with camping and retreat ministries in both California and Massachusetts since 2006.

Sadness, excitement, fear, relief, anticipation, anxiety, hope … these are all emotions that camp and retreat leaders have expressed when I’ve asked them, “How are you feeling about making the hard decision to not hold traditional summer camp this year?” Many expressed the surrealness of feeling all these emotions at the same time. As I’ve interacted with United Methodist camp/retreat ministry staff over the past three months, the feeling that I have had most often is the feeling of inspiration. I am inspired by the tireless efforts camp leaders put into the decision-making process. I am inspired by the outpouring of support from our camper families, volunteers, and donors toward our ministries that have needed to cancel or modify summer camp. I am inspired by the way our community of United Methodist camp and retreat leaders have come together to support one another. And most of all, I am inspired by the way all of our summer camps have gotten creative in providing ministry experiences this year. 

UMCRM member ministries are learning new ways to provide clean/safe spaces. They are spending weeks preparing and shipping “Camp in a Box” materials. They are figuring out how to implement cohort camping and recording videos for virtual camp experiences. They are reaching out to serve their communities with meals, masks, and other symbols of Christ’s love. The creativity and adaptive leadership on display inspire wonder at the quality leaders that God has called into camp and retreat ministry. 

During these past several months, every Director, Board member, and staff member worked hard to gather, synthesize, and interpret information for their context. We leaned into our mission and calling, weighed risk, agonized over contingencies and outcomes, and prayed for guidance. No matter where we landed in our decision-making about Summer 2020, none of us are alone in those decisions.

Of the 170 UMCRM ministries that were anticipating a 2020 summer camp season, we have learned  that: 

• 139 have canceled traditional summer camp programming

• 19 have modified or shortened traditional summer camp programming 

• 6 are planning to hold a full traditional summer camp program, 

• 2 sites have decided to suspend their operations indefinitely 

Each and every decision made during these months required courage. God called us into unfamiliar territory, and our UMCRM community members stepped up to the challenge. As the journey continues, the call for courageous leadership remains. The road ahead will bring with it additional challenges and hard decisions. We will continue to feel sadness, excitement, fear, relief, anticipation, anxiety, and hope; perhaps all at the same time. Whatever lies ahead of us, I feel confident that our community will continue to inspire and lift up each other as we journey together. The UMCRM Association will be here to help share resources, show up for one another, and pool our collective courage and creative energy for the benefit of all.

Leadership can be challenging and sometimes lonely, even during the easiest of times. That is why the National Gathering of United Methodist Camp & Retreat Leaders is so vital to so many of us. In January of this year, the Design Team met at the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, Colorado to begin putting together a gathering that would help all of us elevate the ministries we steward. The team began lining up some amazing speakers, workshops, worship experiences, and a vendor party to top all vendor parties. Then Covid-19 hit.

As the weeks turned into months, we still held onto a glimmer of hope that we might be able to find a path to host our planned January 2021 event. Over the past several weeks, a task force was formed to explore the various options available to us. Ultimately, the UMCRM Association Board unanimously accepted the recommendation to postpone our National Gathering until 2022. The postponement also brings with it the need to relocate where we gather. We will share more details of the 2022 Gathering with you as they develop.

While we have pushed pause on gathering together as a full UMCRM community for nineteen months, it is “pause” and not “stop.” Even as you read this, a team of volunteers is being formed to explore new and innovative ways to meet your needs for education and networking over the coming year. We can’t wait to see where the Spirit will lead us!

Kim Bell & Matt Williams, National Gathering Co-chairs

With great excitement, I anticipated the virtual meeting with Vice President Pence scheduled for May 28, 2020. I was invited to join the call by Tom Rosenberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Camp Association (ACA,) and Henry DeHart, Chief Operating Officer of ACA. They were convening a “leaders’ call” during which camping professionals would discuss with members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force the challenges that “threaten the ability of camp professionals to provide essential summertime learning experiences… in this unprecedented economic crisis.” The Vice President and his team wanted to learn about how they could help us “preserve the continuity of our camps and respond to the educational needs of children, youth and young adults in this pandemic.”

So I got ready. Dressed better than usual from the waist up (in the new normal of working from home,) and to appear more professional, I followed the instructions to log onto the call early to get in the queue for the meeting. Much to my surprise and amusement I found the instructions to a conference call rather than a Zoom call! I giggled at myself for the vanity of getting dressed up and proceeded to log into the number, punch in the meeting code and record an announcement of my name.

After a roll call of those present, Tom Rosenberg spoke about the camp industry and identified perspectives represented on the call, including faith-based camps, non-for-profit, for-profit, those serving special needs campers, day camps, and overnight camps. He also spoke of the impact of the camp experience and the fact that each summer, camps in America serve over 20 million children and youth.  

Vice President Pence then introduced those who were on the call with him, including Dr. Deborah Birx, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, and Assistant Secretary for Economic Policy of the Treasury Department Dr. Michael Faulkender. Pence extended his gratitude for our efforts in what we provide for families across the United States. He shared that he was a counselor at a summer camp in Louisville, Kentucky, and that even today, as a father, he appreciates us for what we do.  

Vice President Pence appeared well informed about the difference camps make on lives in the “great outdoors” and our plight over the last few months during the coronavirus pandemic. He spoke about the efforts toward opening up America and referenced the CDC Guidelines and the ACA Field Guide as supplements to state and local laws.

Dr. Deborah Birx spoke and acknowledged camps’ abilities to respond to this pandemic and support children coming to camp. She talked about being a camper back in the day and the impact she experienced. Dr. Birx is supportive of camps and confident that we already have health and wellness protocols in place to deal with communicable diseases. She noted that most have medical staff supporting our summer camp operations. She also spoke about referring many of her patients over the years to summer camps, as she knew first hand our ability to serve even campers with serious medical needs. Dr. Birx recognized camps for the “extraordinary work [we] do.”  

Dr. Michael Faulkender talked to us about the economic impact the pandemic was having nationwide, the camping industry being no exception to the economic damage. He also told us that on May 24^th, the Treasury Department “fixed a disparity in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)” in that they added the 12-week period of May 1-September 15 as another look-back period to determine maximum loan amounts. This added period took into consideration the “high season” of the camping industry. Faulkender also anticipated that there would be another round of legislation for families and small businesses.

After about an hour and several questions posed to the Vice President and his team, Vice President Pence closed the time together by saying, “The best thing to do is get our camps back open….”  To that, we all agreed, and Tom Rosenberg thanked the team for their time, insight, and input. 

I can’t help but believe that this conversation with Vice President Pence, Dr. Deborah Birx, and Dr. Michael Faulkender was time well spent. On at least two occasions, VP Pence made note to include items of interest in a meeting agenda he and this very team were attending after our call. At the very least, I believe that the camp industry was put squarely on their radar and that the numbers affected each year by the camp experience are enough to get their attention for further conversations down the road.  

I want to thank Tom Rosenberg and Henry DeHart for organizing the call and including me in the invitation. I, along with many of my colleagues, am deeply appreciative of ACA’s advocacy in Washington and their efforts to include the voices of camping from across the United States in conversations like this.  

Dail Ballard is the Executive Director of the North Carolina United Methodist Camp and Retreat Ministries, Inc.  She oversees Camps Chestnut Ridge, Don Lee, and Rockfish.

View the White House's "Readout from the Vice President's call with Summer Camp Owners and Operators"