On behalf of the LCA Board of Directors, I thank all of our members and vacationing guests and the full RKD staff for supporting another great season of family togetherness, fun, and faith-building at Camp Arcadia.
Your LCA Board of Directors will be spending a considerable amount of time in 2015 discussing the potential improvements to Camp Arcadia for the immediate future and for the years and decades to follow. At its most recent meeting on October 31, 2014, the board discussed plans to begin a feasibility study for a capital campaign to help determine how the board should proceed with developing these plans to expand and/or renovate some of the camp’s buildings. The input of you, our faithful LCA members, will be very valuable in helping to guide these efforts.
The annual meeting of the LCA was conducted on November 1, 2014 in St. Joseph, Michigan. In total, there were 405 members present by proxy or in person, which established a quorum.
Thanks to all who attended the annual meeting in person and to those who submitted their proxies and voted electronically. The electronic voting process worked well for this first time and we will continue to make improvements to it. We encourage all LCA members to continue to participate in the annual meeting either in person or via proxy and electronic voting. It would be wonderful to have a larger group of LCA members attend the meeting in person to participate in the discussion and to connect with other LCA members.
At the annual meeting, the membership voted to accept the motion to remove Section 4/Article VII from the LCA by-laws. This vote removed the following text from the by-laws:
“Additional nominations may be made at the Annual Meeting, provided the consent of the person nominated has been previously obtained and time provided the nominee to review the Board Member responsibilities as defined in the policy manual.”
Facility improvement highlights of the year include the completion of the new bathroom and storage building at the ball field and the renovations to the craft shop (new windows, exterior siding, and heat). Since all parts of our camp facility are involved in some way for the ministry of our guests, it is certainly beneficial to the camp’s mission and this ministry that we undertake these kinds of improvements to our facilities.
The Arcadia Foundation continues its efforts to expand the Legacy Builders program for those members who have now included Camp Arcadia in their estate plans. As of today, there are 74 Legacy Builders who are supporting the future of Camp Arcadia in their estate and gifting plans. We encourage you to consider becoming a Legacy Builder for Camp Arcadia.
The LCA Board will be continuing its work on a Vision and Strategic Plan which includes goals of: financial stability, development of a master facility plan including setting milestones for the next 100 years, improvements to operational structure and leadership growth (for both staff and board) to maximize efficiency and effectiveness in fulfilling the camp’s mission, development of long-range fundraising, and planning for the camp’s 100th anniversary in 2022.
We offer our gratitude and thanks to those LCA Board members who completed their terms of service: Bill Beck, Steve Roskam, and George Wojtan. In addition, we thank Carol Weber, an ACCA Board representative who completed her term on the LCA board. We welcome incoming LCA Board members: Kate Dankovich, Carla Grebing, and Ryan Kotenko.
As we all have experienced the ‘hellos’ and ‘goodbyes’ from our time at Camp Arcadia, the camp said ‘goodbye’ to Program Director Kyle DeWees in September as he left this position at RKD to accept a new position in Saginaw, MI. We now say ‘hello’ and give a hearty welcome to Jason Bauer as he begins his new position this month as the program director at Camp Arcadia.
Most importantly, we give thanks to God for his continued blessing of the ministry and work being done at Camp Arcadia as well as continued blessings for the great RKD staff that we have.
In Christ,
Stan Scheumann
LCA Board President
