|
 Dear Friends:
As usual the New Year brings
the opportunity to consider fresh resolutions
to shape a different future for ourselves,
our organizations, and our communities.
Looking ahead is exciting, but we stand
on the firm foundation of experience. We
are all engaged in experiential education
as we help campers, staff, and parents
contribute to healthy communities.
ACA
is in an exciting position in this New
Year. Building on the almost one hundred
years of organizational experience and
being strengthened by the great contributions
of leaders over the last ten years, we
are shifting focus from business as usual
to an exciting vision with a targeted completion
in the year 2020. Learning from our experience
we have perceived that doing more of the
same will not strengthen us as we desire
to make a larger contribution to our communities.
The National Board is seriously considering
new resolutions and new styles to move
toward that vision. Watch for more information
and be ready to consider new ways of being
ACA with fresh resolve.
Doubling the number
of campers by the year 2020 challenges
ACA and members to make fresh resolutions.
If your camp is at capacity or close, don’t
leave the job to others. Consider how you
can provide resources (your knowledge)
to those designing new programs. Maybe
it is a school teacher looking for help
designing a short-term camp program, maybe
it is an existing community program looking
for ways to engage learners in new ways
using camp, maybe camp alumni are hoping
to start a new camp experience based on
their learning and development in your
program. Maybe it is a community service
program like yours with a struggling camp
program. Doubling the number of campers
by 2020 will take creative thinking. I
hope you will resolve to look outside for
opportunities to strengthen the camp experience
even as you strengthen your own camp and
the experiences there. Ron Heifetz in the
book, Leadership without
Easy Answers,
challenges us to take a position on the
balcony to see patterns beyond our own
experience of dancing (daily life and camp).
Take a walk up to the balcony, and see
how you can contribute to the myriad of
dancers involved in camp in 2009.
We build
on the leadership contributions of national
officers and board members to make these
new steps into 2009 toward 2020,even as
economic and world events provide us with
new challenges. Happy
New Year! I hope
you find resources in ACA that help you
contribute to new thinking as we move ahead.
Onward Ever,
Peter Surgenor |
