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Values and Goals of Outdoor Ministries

An update from the Division of Outdoor Ministries Chair, Shirley Weyrauch

The Division of Outdoor Ministries recently held an overnight retreat to evaluate the 2015 summer camping events, discuss values and goals for 2016 and gather input from volunteer camp directors.

On Friday evening Division members, Board Members and conference staff renewed our relationships and focused on articulating our values and goals for Outdoor Ministries in the Ohio Conference.  We asked ourselves “What happens to change the lives of people who come to camp? Why do we value that?” We would be curious how you would answer those questions, too!

Saturday morning we spent a generous amount of time with the camp directors as the Ohio Conference treasurer Rev. Sam Buehrer brought us all up to speed on our current financial situation.  You’ll be pleased to know that the last two years of painful changes and “austerity measures” (my words, not his) have created a significant turn-around in our financial picture.  We cannot go back to the former way of doing things. We will move forward with a more volunteer-oriented way of planning and providing our programs. We will continue to host all summer camp events at one site.  We do have room to breathe and dream as we live into new models and better stewardship of our sites and resources. 

Following that update, camp directors met to look at scheduling for the summer camp season 2016. We may have a published schedule earlier than in past years. The Division continued with the evaluation and planning process.

After a shared lunch and more discussion, the Division created the working groups that we will better manage and coordinate next summer’s program. If you are interested in serving on one of the Working Groups — marketing and communication, program or administration — please email me at ce.cucc@zoominternet.net.  We especially need people with expertise in social media as well as administration of camp registration processes.

We are planning more  frequent communication with you.  Watch for regular updates in the Ohio Conference’s monthly Connections eNewsletter (first Tuesday of the month), which are also published in the “Keeping You Connected” section of the conference’s new website, check the Outdoor Ministries Facebook page and website.

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Heartland Conference UCC 2020