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Spread the Word

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Categories: EEFC News.

EEFC 2017 Flyer 8.5x11

Our community is one of the BEST resources for spreading the word about camp. Besides using those golden opportunities to tell someone face to face how great camp is, sharing our handy flyer is another way to help spread the word. You can also send a note to the EEFC office to request a handful of cards to post or leave around your community.

To download this JPG, double click to open it in a new window, then “right-click and save image as,” or download a PDF. JPGs are easy to post to Facebook and PDFs are usually the best for printing. THANK YOU!

EEFC 2017 Flyer 8.5x11

Macedonian Čalgija Musicians at Mendocino

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Categories: EEFC News.

Macedonian Čalgija Musicians at Mendocino

We have a special treat in store for you this summer at our West Coast workshop. Because of the generosity of an anonymous benefactor, we are bringing over two venerable musicians who played for many years with the Radio-Television Skopje Čalgija Orchestra. For the uninitiated, čalgija refers to a Macedonian urban, Ottoman-influenced style music, typically played in a heterophonic style on violin, oud, kanun (plucked zither) and other instruments. Oud (“ut” in Macedonian) master Raim Baki and kanun master Husref Said both come from long lines of Romani musicians who specialize in the čalgija genre. They will be teaching their respective instruments, and will team-teach a čalgija ensemble class at Mendocino. Professor Sonia Tamar Seeman, of University of Texas at Austin, will also be at camp to enhance the čalgija program with her expertise and scholarship. In addition, urban and village Macedonian music will be well represented this year, with Dragi Spasovski teaching singing, Mark Levy on Macedonian village (“izvorno”) ensemble and gajda, Adam Good on Macedonian tambura, Vlado Pupinoski on sax/clarinet and Romani ensemble, Jerry Kisslinger on tapan, and Polly Tapia Ferber on doumbek and frame drum.

This list represents a mere fraction of our workshop staff offerings. Read all about these and other teachers on the camp pages: Mendocino and Iroquois Springs, and while you’re at it, register for one (or two!) unforgettable summer weeks.

 

Get the Official Registration Badge

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Categories: EEFC News.

Have you registered? Grab this registration badge graphic and post to your Facebook page.

If you haven’t registered you can do it now for Mendocino or  Iroquois Springs.

Need help doing this?

To capture an image off the Internet, follow these steps:

Click and hold (Mac) or right mouse click (PC) on on of the images below until a dialog box appears.
If you are using Internet Explorer, select “Download image to disk.” If you are using Netscape, select “Save this image as.”

A box pops up asking you where you want to save the image to. Navigate to the folder in which you want to keep your images.

Usually you’ll want to rename the image, giving it a name that will make sense to you a few months down the line. In the “Save image as” box, change the name of the picture to the name you have chosen. If you intend to use the image on a web page, make sure there are no spaces in the name you choose.

If you are working on a Mac, also make sure that the name you choose ends in .jpg (if you are using a PC it will automatically insert this extension for you).

Click on the “save” button. You now have an identical copy!

Social Media 101: Youth to the Rescue or How to Promote the EEFC on Facebook

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Categories: Camp News, EEFC News.

 

Hello friends!
 

My name is Jennifer Shearer (although some of you may know me as Jenna Shear), and I’m one of those “Camp Kids” who’s been lucky enough to attend Camp more times than I can remember. I’m helping out with the EEFC’s Social Media presence and wanted to highlight some of the quickest, easiest, and 100% free ways to support our amazing community.

 

Like us on Facebook!

It sounds silly, but the more “likes” we have, the cooler we look. Especially to Millennials, one of the demographics we’re specifically targeting for the continuity of Camp. Plus, just by merit of being popular, Facebook will give the posts we write more “oomph,” and push them out to more people. You can find our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/eefc.org/

 

Share our posts.

Like, comment, or better yet, SHARE our posts on Facebook! Facebook decides which posts are “important” based on how many people interact with our work via “likes,” comments, and “shares.” In other words, engaging with our posts through the simple click of a button will drastically increase how many people see our posts and how many new potential campers we can contact.

A “like” tells Facebook that we’re important. A comment carries about the same weight as a “like” according to Facebook’s algorithms.

However, a “share” is weighted differently. A “share” will post our post to your profile. You’ll have the option to write some commentary about the post, or you can just share it as is. Facebook prefers “shares” to “likes” and comments, so if we’re featuring a teacher or event you love, please use the “share” option to really show us how much you care.

Super duper bonus points if you do all three! Here’s an image of the menu bar located at the bottom of each individual post for your liking and sharing pleasure:

share us on Facebook

 

​Write us a review.

If you scroll down on our Facebook page, you’ll notice a section for reviews in the lefthand column. Please write us a little testimonial! Again, this tells Facebook that we’re popular and important and is another item that potential campers take into consideration when deciding how to spend their money. Camp is wonderful, so we’re sure you’ll have plenty to talk about. High fives to those who have already written reviews!

write an eefc Facebook review
​

Tag us.

Tag us in your posts about Camp and use #balkancamp2016. Tagging and hashtags are clickable links that build a web of connections between posts. This web helps Facebook understand what is important to you and who else might be interested in it. A tag for the EEFC will link people directly to our Facebook page. A hashtag will link you to a list of posts that include the same hashtag. Last year, we had great success with our hashtag trial run at Iroquois Springs, and this year we’d like to take it even further. It’s most helpful to us if you lessen the privacy settings on the posts you’re hoping to share with the community via tags and hashtags.

Here’s a How-To for tagging pages on Facebook.

 

Type last year’s hashtag into Facebook’s search bar at the very top of your screen to enjoy memories from last year!

hashtag the eefc

 

Follow up in person.

Did one of your friends “like” a post you shared from the EEFC’s page? Send them an email to follow up on their interest, or better yet, bring up Camp the next time you see each other. Social Media has its place, but nothing beats word of mouth and that personal touch.

If you’ve made it this far, please give yourself a big pat on the back. That was a lot of information! If you need clarification on any of the above points, I’m happy to help, and if you have ideas or want to volunteer, I’ll connect you with the right people.

Thank you so much for reading, and long live the EEFC!

—Jennifer Shearer

 

Editors note: it is with immense gratitude that we thank Jenna for providing this easy to understand guide to promoting the EEFC on Facebook. Now all we need to do is get out there and do it!!!!

 

The Health Benefits Of Dancing Go Beyond Exercise And Stress Reducer

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Categories: Blogs.

Lanphier-healthful dancing at eefc.org

A report from NPR begins with th question: What are the health implications of dancing? New social science research shows that dancing in synchrony with others increases people’s threshold for dealing with pain.

Psychology researchers at the University of Oxford recently published a study in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. They brought volunteers into a lab and taught them different dance moves. They then placed the volunteers in groups of four on the dance floor and put headphones on them so they could hear music.

Some of them were taught the same dance moves, and others were taught different dance moves. Before and after the volunteers danced to music, the researchers measured their pain threshold by squeezing their arms…

Now, many of us already know that or have experienced the various benefits of group dance, particularly the kind we do at our camps, but here’s some details.  Listen to the story…

A Good Year for Giving!

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Categories: EEFC News, Message from the Board.

It’s been a busy but sunny spring for the development team. We are happy to have an active committee of fundraisers who are determined to see the EEFC move forward on a steady financial keel.

We began 2016 by setting ourselves several ambitious fundraising goals. After a detailed budget analysis in January, we decided that we needed to increase our fundraising goal from $48,000 to $75,300. This amount keeps EEFC on track to finish the year in the black. Our second goal is to increase member/donor participation to 400, up from 344 contributors in 2015.

Thanks to your generosity, we are well on our way to achieving both goals. In fact, the EEFC has already received 65% of the donations we need in 2016! With 259 contributors in the circle, we’re also two-thirds of the way to our goal of 400 active supporters.

Several community members have been particularly generous. Twice this season, the EEFC has received an anonymous gift of $5,000 through the Goldman Sachs Philanthropy Fund. Please join us in extending thanks for these kind donations! Kudos are also due to Zlatne Uste for supporting the EEFC with a portion of the profits made at the previous year’s Golden Fest. Bravo for paying it forward!

Most importantly, a great big THANK YOU to all of you who have already demonstrated your support for your East European Folklife Center.

With smiles on our faces from this happy news, we’re energized to keep making a difference. Won’t you join us? You can support Balkan music, dance and culture today!

Love and thanks,
Your Development Committee
Craig Kurumada, Linnea Mandell, Amy Mills, Elizabeth Ryan and Barbara Uhlemann

Just What Does the EEFC Board Do?

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Categories: EEFC News, Message from the Board.

Carol Friedman sums it up beautifully in her recent blog post: Just Showing Up Isn’t Enough: Defining Your Board’s Job, and has been kind enough to share it with us here.

Your Board of Directors is the heart and soul of your nonprofit organization – carrying the responsibility for prudent fiscal management, overseeing programs that fulfill your mission, and defining organizational focus. But board members cannot do their job if they don’t know their roles and responsibilities.

So here are some basics of the job:

Mission: The board is responsible for defining the organization’s mission and what it strives to accomplish. This mission serves as a guide to organizational and program planning, board and staff decision-making, volunteer initiatives, fundraising and outreach, and setting priorities for the future.

Community representation: Your board should represent your community and your clients as you make decisions, and ensure that the membership of the board and its committees is appropriately balanced.

Public outreach: Board members serve as the organization’s ambassadors and advocates, along with overseeing an effective public relations program.

Program Management: The board’s fundamental role is to assure that current and proposed programs are consistent with the mission and of high quality. This also includes developing and approving governance policies in regard to program.

Fundraising: An organization can only be effective if it has funds to meet its purposes. Board members should set fundraising goals, help develop effective fundraising plans, make annual gifts, provide connections to potential donors and other financial resources, and participate actively in annual fundraising events and campaigns.

Planning: The board works in partnership with staff to evaluate strategies and plan for the future. The planning process enables the board and staff to translate the mission of the organization into feasible, measureable goals and objectives.

Legal Compliance: This includes monitoring and updating personnel policies, your policy and procedures manual, and health and safety plan; adherence to local, state, and federal laws (including tax reporting, personnel, health, safety, labor); and adherence to provisions of your bylaws and articles of incorporation.

Financial Management: This encompasses monitoring and understanding the budget, ensuring cash-management controls are in place, overseeing investments and insurance, ensuring that revenues are stable, and encouraging cultivation of resources that are sustainable for the long term.

Executive Director Supervision: Every board should do an annual performance review in order to support the Executive Director, strengthen the relationship between board and staff, and plan for the future. The board also makes final decisions when hiring or firing the chief executive.

Board Recruitment: All boards have a responsibility to identify needs in terms of member experience, skills, influence, diversity, and demographics, as well as taking an active role in recruiting new members. Your board is also responsible for properly orienting new board members and periodically assessing board effectiveness.

One of the biggest mistakes nonprofits make is luring people onto a Board by saying all they have to do is show up for a meeting once a month. Problem is, if that’s what you tell them, that’s usually all you’re going to get. If you want more, you need to ask for more. You need to be upfront, honest, and clear about what the job really entails.

Carol Friedman is not just an accomplished consultant to not for profits, she is also an avid folk dancer (and fan of Mendocino Balkan Camp) and teaches ongoing international folk dance classes in Marin and Sonoma. She graciously allowed us to repost her recent blog post that defines the job of a not for profit Board.

Supporting the Čoček Nation Youth Scholarship

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Categories: EEFC News, Message from the Board.

COCEK-NATION-DROM-2015-radding

EEFC and DROM present the 6th Annual
GOLDEN FESTIVAL AFTERPARTY

January 17, 2016 at 5:00 pm

Come dance to great bands and support the youth of the Balkan Music and Dance community in the US! This is the event’s second year as a benefit for the Čoček Nation Youth Scholarship to the annual Iroquois Springs Balkan Music and Dance Workshop. Last year we made enough for 2 half-scholarships—this year, let’s make sure we have at least enough to provide that again!

FEATURING:
* Čoček Nation
* Friends of Dragi Spasovski (AKA Odglasi)
* Eva Salina & Peter Stan
* Special Guests from Austria (this is a wonderful ensemble of Balkan Ex-Pat musicians who are here on a tourist visa so we can’t publicize their name–but they are AMAZING!)

This event runs till 9, after which the incredible trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf plays and then the infamous NY Gypsy All-Stars, so make it a fantastic evening at DROM!

$10 dollars at the door ($5 with goldenfest wristband) BUT this is a benefit for a scholarship funds so please consider making additional donations. Can’t make it or prefer this method: DONATE HERE.

DROM
85 Avenue A
New York, New York
USA

Check it out on Facebook!

Fall 2015 Board Meeting Summary Letter

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Categories: EEFC News, Message from the Board.

by Corinna Snyder, EEFC Board President

It was a productive and fun fall meeting that brought together three new board members, four continuing members, and one long-standing team member in a new role. Our new board members are: Noel Kropf, our new Secretary, and Ad Hoc Tech Task Force Chair; Helen Marx, our new Vice President; and Barbara Uhlemann, our new Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair. Our continuing members are Amy Mills, who will continue as Fundraising Committee Chair; Demetri Tashie, continuing as Program Committee Chair; Corinna Snyder, continuing as President; and Elena Erber, who will continue as Marketing Committee Chair. We welcomed General Manager Rachel MacFarlane as a full participant in our two-day meeting.

The board met in New York City, and thanks to the generosity of PwC’s (PricewaterhouseCoopers’) Corporate Responsibility program, we were able to use conference space in midtown Manhattan for the meeting, at no cost. We also had a team dinner on Friday night at the nearby Balkanika restaurant, with great food (and beer) from all across the Balkans.

Our agenda followed the cadence that we’ve established over the past few years. On day 1 the committee and task force chairs shared updates on their efforts over the 6 months, discussed their short- and long-term goals and needs, and the board collectively developed 6- and 12-month goals for each committee and task force. On day 2 we discussed the broader horizon for the organization. This time we brought in two outside consultants who work with organizations like ours on strategic planning efforts, to ask them: What do we need to be doing to prepare for our longer-term sustainability?

We all serve on the board because we are passionate about the EEFC. We want to bring the joy of Balkan music and dance to as many people as possible, and we want to make sure the EEFC has the resources and supports it needs to endure for years to come. As a board we always struggle with tension between our lofty and exciting goals, and the reality of our very limited resources. I am proud of the team for being able to commit to individual and committee goals for the next 6 to 12 months that were both meaningful and achievable, given the resources we have as an organization—both financially and in terms of time by staff, board members and other volunteers. This was a great accomplishment.

We have a beloved and important program (our two camps) and as a board and a community our core goal is to assure its sustainability. As a result of our conversations on Saturday, we agreed that we do not currently have the capacity (resources/staff/infrastructure) nor an immediate need to implement a significant strategic plan, and that what we need to do is develop a more immediate plan (18-36 months) to make the EEFC sustainable. We agreed on the need for three things:

  1. A fund development plan that delivers a secure income stream and a solid base of funds well invested to provide returns over the long term
  2. A clear understanding of who current members/camp participants are, and a clear understanding of who our future members/camp participants might be, and a plan for turning them into campers
  3. The right amount of staff, infrastructure and resources for us to be sustainable, with the goal of having the capacity to grow in the future in response to board and community goals.

We all left our meeting feeling energized by our shared clarity on what we are  going to be doing, collectively, and individually, for the next 6 to 12 months to strengthen the EEFC now and into the future.

Read the full Fall 2015 Board Meeting Report.

EEFC 2015 Fall Board Meeting Report

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Categories: Board Reports, EEFC News.

The Board of Directors met in New York City on October 16 & 17, 2015.

Election of Officers, Committee Chairs, and Task Force Leaders

By consensus:
President – Corinna Snyder
Vice President – Helen Marx (this year, VP will create board agendas and take board meeting notes)
Secretary – Noel Kropf
Treasurer – Barbara Uhlemann

Committee Chairs
Marketing – Elena Erber
Finance – Barbara Uhlemann
Development – Amy Mills
Program – Demetri Tashie
Scholarship (co-chair) – Barbara Uhlemann
Administration – Corinna Snyder

Ad Hoc Task Forces
Technology – Noel Kropf
Planning Committee for Strategic Planning – Helen Marx, Corinna Snyder, Elena Erber
College Credit/Relationships – Helen Marx, Elena Erber
Kafana Succession – Helen Marx
Instrument Library – Corinna Snyder

Marketing Committee Update

(Elena Erber, Chair)

Accomplishments since last meeting

  • Regular newsletter consistently published with better range of communications (Facebook, EEFC listserv, email)
  • “Ripple Effect” is a good concept. Look for more ways to use it

Goals for coming 6 months

  • Ensure a secure workshop registration page and forms
  • Document and follow an advertising/marketing calendar
  • Work more closely with Programming and Fundraising Committees

Goals for next 12 months

  • Shopping: complete an online store
  • Add a page that lists all teachers that we have in the database
  • Add class descriptions to 2016 workshop information
  • Complete migration of content from the old to the new website

2015 Camp Recap

(Rachel MacFarlane, General Manager)

General notes

  • Lower enrollment this last year
  • Consistent high-quality teaching and general camp experience

Improvements for the coming year

  • Increased teacher honorarium
  • Posting of Iroquois Springs B&B info (how it works, cost) at the same time as general registration

Goals for coming 6 months

  • Put in place a new evaluation system (something better than Survey Monkey) so workshop data can be pulled and aggregated in more useful ways

Program Committee Update

(Demetri Tashie, Chair)

Accomplishments since last meeting

  • Added interns who may later join the committee as full members
  • Teachers listed publicly sooner than in the past

Goals for coming 6 months

  • Interns – design a system for evaluating our interns
  • Work with Marketing to post class descriptions on the website
  • Work more closely with Marketing so that information about upcoming workshops can be published earlier and to a wider audience

Goals for coming 12 months

  • Evaluate interns
  • Complete a succession plan for committee personnel
  • Begin planning for the following year prior to camp
  • Work with the board on planning the future of children’s and young adults’ programming, with the goal of improving our sustainability with future generations of campers

Finance Committee

(Barbara Uhlemann, Treasurer and Chair)

Accomplishments since last meeting

  • Significant amount of cleanup of current and past fiscal years’ data in QuickBooks Online
  • Balance Sheet accounts created for Scholarship and Nest Egg funds

Decisions at meeting

  • Created new board cost budget line item to cover total cost of board activities including board meeting travel, food, space and supplies
  • To better track and document the operational costs of Board meetings and other Board expenses, board members agreed that they will submit requests for reimbursement for board meeting expenses. Board members will then, within their ability, donate the reimbursed amount back to the EEFC
  • Agreed to reflect board member tuition waiver in the books
  • Agreed to increase teacher travel expense budget by 4% (cost-of-living)
  • Agreed to raise workshop tuition rates 3% (cost-of-living)
  • Agreed to raise teacher compensation by $50 per class
  • Agreed that committees can come to the board to request increase or trading of budget amounts
  • Draft budget approved by consensus

Goals for coming 6 months

  • Finalize the 2016 budget (1 month)
  • Finish cleanup in QuickBooks and decide if we should continue using QuickBooks Online (2 months)
  • Clarify budget items and return to the board for review (2 months)
  • Calculate a “total cost” average (3 months)
  • Calculate true cost of a scholarship
  • Establish an investment vehicle for the Agin Scholarship gift, future gifts (3 months)
  • Decide about a potential vehicle for cash on hand

Goals for coming 12 months

  • Integrate Salesforce shared database with QuickBooks Online

Fundraising

(Amy Mills, Chair)

Accomplishments since last meeting

  • Added new members to the committee
  • Worked on streamlining and improving fundraising activities at camp
  • Collaborated with Marketing on fundraising messaging

Discussion

  • We need to plan for what our development goals are, to build a fund of money that makes us more sustainable. We cannot just bridge gaps on a year-to-year basis.
  • Need better access to data to do effective fundraising
  • We are not looking for grants. We aren’t in the right position and there aren’t many available
  • Clarification of the board’s role at camp in fundraising
  • Does the board add any value to the auction process?
  • Can the board have a brighter presence at camp, acting more as leaders in the charge to raise funds?
  • Membership: is it working to have the levels that we have?
  • How can we best get the message out that the best and main way to grow our community is for the community to bring new campers to camp? The board’s role is to drive the fundraising that supplements the funds we take in via tuition, and which do not cover the total cost of running the organization.

Improvements for the coming year

  • Work with the auction team to share our goal for the amount of money we need to raise at auction every year
  • Keep the scholarship amount raised at camp separate from the auction cash total
  • Initiate large gift asks at camp

Goals for coming 6 months

  • Year-end appeal (6 week)
  • Define Membership (6 month)
  • Initiate Direct Ask program by Board (6 month)
  • Identify and assess potential donors from our current lists
  • Clarify the pitch
  • Support for operations because that is what we really need now
  • Donations do not need to be for any particular use unless donors specifies
  • We are (for now) covering a $30,000 deficit, which can be broken down in a variety of ways
  • Face-to-face asks are best. Askers: Barbara, Helen, Noel, Corinna, and Demetri. Amy to ask Craig Kurumada for ideas for West Coast volunteers
  • Elena to help with the message, Rachel with identifying possible givers
  • Identify how to work more closely with Marketing

Goals for coming 12 months

  • Institutionalize the process of regular appeals (12 month)

Scholarship Committee Discussion

Discussion
One year ago it was decided that the Scholarship Committee would not require a board member as chair. Over the past year, it has become clear that scholarships are a significant part of our fundraising efforts, and can and should be thought about more strategically, in terms of helping us establish new community connections and supports.

Decision
It was agreed that going forward the committee chair should be shared: one person from the Board, and one committee member. Corinna will discuss these changes in the committee organization with current chair, Ann Norton. The board member’s responsibility is to define the strategic direction of the committee and align it with the strategic efforts of the Board and the organization as a whole. The board agreed that Barbara will serve as the Board co-chair. Her next steps are to learn the criteria for each of the scholarships, and communicate the amount of money to be given this year in scholarship funds.

Decision
The board agreed to make $10K available for scholarships this year.

Goals for future discussion by Scholarship Committee:

  • Address drop in child attendance at camp and potential ways to support longtime child campers who are now young adults and aging out of the “kids” category
  • Identify a variety of Scholarship categories

Ad Hoc Tech Task Force

(Noel Kropf, Chair)

Salesforce Presentation

  • Martie Ripson gave a presentation showing some of the things SF can do
  • Can it help with rotating memberships? Yes
  • Comes with 10 users, with customized permissions
  • Researching if SF can send automatic letters (ex: donation confirmation)
  • Wide range of filtering for creating reports
  • Timeline: by 2016 move over to Salesforce
  • Integrate with MailChimp
  • Map forms from website to SF
  • Map from SF to website
  • Eventually map SF to Quickbooks

Goals for coming 6-12 months

  • Move operations from FileMaker Pro to Salesforce (6 month)
  • Integrate workshop registration into Salesforce (6 month)
  • Create and have operational an online document archiving and creation platform (6 month)
  • Integrate with MailChimp (12 month)
  • Create plan to integrate with QuickBooks Online (12 month)
  • Collaborate with Finance relating to decisions about QuickBooks Online (12 month)

Administration Committee

(Corinna Snyder, President and Chair)

Accomplishments since last meeting

  • Redefined General Manager role and compensation; hired Rachel MacFarlane to fill the position

Goals for coming 6 months

  • Complete the Administrative Assistant job description/search/hire (3 months)
  • Create a working organizational bylaw proposal. Noel Kropf to co-chair effort (6 month)
  • Have a 6-month check-in performance review conversation

Goals for coming 12 months

  • Up-to-date, reviewed and ratified organizational bylaws

Strategic Planning Conversation

Summary
Two consultants joined the board to talk with us about strategic planning. They:

  • Summarized the goals and outcomes of a strategic planning exercise
  • Clarified what is needed to successfully engage in the process. The following were discussed as part of the process: significant information gathering (documents and interviews/surveys/focus groups) and data analysis, setting of clear roles and responsibilities, providing realistic assessment of what can, in reality, be accomplished by the organization we have now, how to define goals with objectives and progress points that can be measured
  • Identified the pitfalls that organizations face when they decide to create a strategic plan
  • Explained the difference between a strategic plan and “planning to be strategic”
  • Emphasized that such planning needs to begin with a delineation of the questions that need to be answered toward goals
  • Explained the different roles board members, outside consultants, community members and staff can and should play in the process
  • Illuminated the value of a plan “champion,” the person who promises to make the plan happen, and implements it.

Over the course of the discussion the following realities became clear to the group:

  • We have a beloved and important program (our two camps) and as a board and a community our core goal is to assure its sustainability
  • We do not currently have the capacity (resources/staff/infrastructure) nor an immediate need to implement a significant strategic plan
  • Our current need is to develop a more immediate plan (18-36 months) to make the EEFC sustainable–financially solid with a strategic fund development plan in place.

We agreed that our goals are to have:

  • A fund development plan, a secure income stream and a solid base of funds well invested to provide returns over the long term
  • A clear understanding of who current members/camp participants are, and a clear understanding of who our future members/camp participants might be, and a plan for turning them into campers
  • The right amount of staff, infrastructure and resources for us to be sustainable, with the goal of having the capacity to grow in the future in response to board and community goals.

We agreed we need to spend the next 36 months focusing on:

  • Raising money, including investing in an outside resource to help us figure out how we can best accomplish it
  • Looking systematically at the current programs and making adjustments to keep attendance at a sustainable level
  • Understanding changing demographics in the community and larger forces that impact our membership and camp attendance, both now and in the near future
  • Exploring potential future categories and sources of members and camp participants, and strategic marketing strategies for populations that are currently underrepresented at camp (e.g. immigrant communities, music students, dance students, college students, elders, etc.

We agreed that we need help knowing what questions to ask, how to find answers and what data will help illuminate the questions. We identified two skill sets that we need to bring to the effort:

  • Funding development. An outside consultant who has experience helping organizations like ours (small, arts-based, community-focused, committed to its current state of programming, no current capacity to grow) develop plans for fundraising
  • Program assessment and refinement. A consultant who will help us understand the changing demographics within our community and identify strategies for increasing members and camp participants, including an assessment of how our current approach to programming might be impacted by such changes.

Decisions:
We established an Ad Hoc Strategic Planning Committee: Corinna Snyder, Helen Marx and Elena Erber volunteered, with support from Rachel MacFarlane, to create a plan for spearheading this process.

6 month goal:
Deliver a timeline-based project plan with major tasks and milestones, roles and responsibilities, and resource needs (people, money, technology) for creating a sustainability strategy and plan for the EEFC.