Bird River Bible Camp Vision 2007

My vision for the camp has continued to develop over the last few years. God has allowed me to see more of what I believe is His goal for the camp. The vision I can see contains three parts and these are The Camp, Eikona, and The Organization. All of these aspects offer exciting opportunities and continued development of the camp and facilities.

The Camp

As we continue to press forward on camp development, we are noticing a need to develop the church based, non inner-city camper numbers in an effort to shift the ratio to a majority of these type of campers and lower the percentage of inner city campers to around 20-30% while not necessarily lowering the physical numbers of inner-city campers. This will be an ongoing process over the next several years.

We are growing at a healthy rate as we are consistently over 75 registered campers per week for 9 weeks. 2008 should see us surpass the 85 camper per week mark and 95 campers per week in 2009. We currently have space for 96 campers per week at our present cabin configuration.

Continued growth is expected until we reach 136 campers per week in the next 5-7 years.

“Bear Lodge” possibly in 2009 which would accommodate 48 campers plus staff as well as 10 hotel style rooms for support staff and winter rental consideration. As well a new chapel facility would be housed in this building with a seating capacity of 180.
Phase 1 of Dining Hall Expansion in 2010 or sooner adding 4500 sq feet in two floors to the west of the existing Dining Hall including 1800 sq/ft of additional dining space, and 2700 sq/ft of walkout basement space for year round offices, Health Center, and 10 hotel style rooms for summer staff accommodation and Winter rental consideration. The first part of this phase would be the basement portion under the existing old lounge area in 2008 or 2009.
As well as facility upgrades, some program areas would need to be upgraded to accommodate greater numbers including a completed BMX track, skateboarding area development, and canoeing/kayaking expansion.

Eikona

We are gearing up to start the program in the fall of 2008 with a minimum of 4 students and a maximum of 12. This 9 month Gap Year Program will be focused on spiritual development of the students Christian Walk through effective teaching, outdoor pursuits, and healthy community living at camp. This program may also have the opportunity of partnering with a cross cultural mission camp, Shalom Campsite in Zimbabwe for a short term mission experience.

We are excited about the opportunity of this program contributing to the year round programming aspect of the camp as well as the potential benefits to the summer program as well.

Continued Development of this program is ongoing. Initial costs of program will be minimal with student tuition covering basic room and board costs and mission trip costs. Students will be expected to engage in daily cleaning and maintenance at camp and on weekends as well as participate actively in a local outreach or church based program.

The total program would be 30 weeks in length with time off in December for Christmas.

Estimated Total Cost for 30 weeks:

Room and Board $3500
Books and Materials $500

The Organization

I continue to believe that in order for the camp to grow and be successful, the Organization that operates it must be efficient, well managed, and pro-active. To do this their needs to be energy spent investing in the future of the organization and there are three main areas that can be looked at:

The Board

Members should be following a same vision with a common goal that will allow the Board to operate smoothly and without hold ups. The slowest part of camp operation usually happens in the decision process and with a common accepted vision this process can be greatly sped up and made more efficient. With an accepted plan, the decisions no longer are from a ÔscratchÕ point of view but rather a decision to go ahead with what is already decided.
New members should be sought that have a passion for the accepted vision and have a personal goal to see the camp move forward.
Emphasis should be put on growing the Board Members together as a unified body. Just as it is important for the staff during the summer to be unified, it should be equally if not more important for the Board. This may be a good reason to start Board retreats that would focus in on unity as well as a time to pray about the vision and how it is progressing.
Continued development of the By-laws of the camp to move them to a constantly changing living document to accurately reflect the way we want to operate the camp.

Constituency

Great effort should be placed in bringing the passion for the camp back into the churches. All of the constituent churches have a great deal of expertise in certain areas and if tapped into will be a valuable asset to the camp. Continuing to visit the churches and seek their support will solidify their involvement in the future.
New churches should be continually sought after to bring new passion to the camp. There are many churches that do not have a camp or are not active in the one they have.

Fundraising

There should be a committee involved with the camp whose responsibility it is to make these fundraising efforts a reality. Ideally there should be about five people on this committee who are gifted in areas related to fundraising. A calendar of events should be made with goals set for each event and this should be a continual colander which has the events happening on an annual basis so that alumni could look forward to these events.
A database of alumni could be made so that continual contact could be made a set times of the year. As well this will be a great asset in notifying alumni of events, happenings, and new plans and projects at camp.

We have a great opportunity to take the Bird River Camping Inc. to the next level and expand the Lord’s ministry. Let’s begin this faith journey and change the face of camp for the better in the next five years.

Written by Chuck Kroeker

Camp Director

Revised 2005