- Important announcement -
This is to explain our slowness in announcing BCWC 2010 and opening registration. Fear not! Camp will happen at the announced time.
Here's what been happening:
Usually we have a contract with Evans Lake for the next year just a few months after the last camp. This year, with the Evans Lake administration in flux, we weren't able to meet with the new director, Hart, until earlier this month.
Walker met with Hart to get the contract in place. Walker found Hart to be a nice and amiable person who is really pleasant to deal with. He also found that Hart loves Evans Lake as much as we do, and takes his responsibilities quite seriously. He found the organization operating at a deficit, with no money for camp upkeep. He also found that the dining hall is going to need a new roof soon, and the camp probably needs a new well. With that on his mind, Hart is very firm about holding all private groups to the private rental rate, to raise funds for the capital expenses of the camp.
What this means for BCWC is that our daily per-person base rate went from $39 to $55, and increases the budget by over $10,000.
The OrgCell and Panther have spent the last three weeks coming to terms with this change and trying to figure out how to deal with the increase. We struggled with keeping camp both viable, and available to the greatest number of people. None of us thought that passing the increase straight through to campers this late in the year is the right thing to do. All of us had our thoughts go to our financial "rainy day" reserves.
One proposal was to use the reserves to cover the entire increase: but this felt like living in denial, and takes too much of the reserves. The change is permanent, and there is next year to think about as well.
Keeping in mind that last year's fee range was $480-650, this is what we decided: This year's fee range is $500-800. We are offsetting costs by $3500 from the "rainy day" reserves, and with this offset the average per paying camper needs to be $570 for camp to break even. Without the $3500 offset, the true cost of camp averages to $625 per paying camper.
We feel that subsidizing camp costs from the reserves is justified only because this is happening so late in the year. There will be no justification for subsidy from the reserves next year.
We expect a quite lively discussion at the Future of Camp meeting this year.
Blessed Be,
The BCWC Org Cell: Ashtare, Jeff, Molly, Lynda and Walker
P.S. Yes, we know this sucks.
* Posted on 27 Mar 2010 by Jeff
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