Board Service—Three Perspectives over 50 Years

Gene Shelly

Board Member 1969–1984

Founding Board Member

I served on the Camp Deerpark board for many years. This board was a hands-on board, very active in physically taking care of the camp. For the first 10 years, I would frequently help with work projects on Fridays and Saturdays.

Some of the early work projects I remember are:

digging out under the chapel so we could create the basement and laying cement block in the basement

mowing the grass on the old tractor

dishwashing after meals

cleaning out the old swimming pool in the spring

getting a CDL license and driving the bus

bus motor repairs

roof repairs, sewer repairs and carpenter work

clean-up days

Mennonite Action Program (MAP) was the name chosen to carry the corporate legal entity of owning Camp Deerpark. When I look at my schedule of MAP board meetings, it appears that we met every month for many years. I counted 101 board meetings until 1984 when I left the board. The board was an active and involved group of people who cared deeply about camp, giving of their time, energy and money to help it succeed.

Jesus Cruz

Board Member 1997–2004

Led the transition

Although I had been involved with Camp Deerpark since it opened in1969, my board service did not begin until 1997. When I joined the board, it was a hands-on board, and was meeting 10 times per year. This was a tall task for board members, some of whom were traveling from Pennsylvania. Camp was at a stage where it needed to move to another level to better serve its supporting churches and constituents. There were also other parts needing development; the board had to move away from being a hands-on board to a policy board, and the director would also need to move from being an operational leader to a bigger picture leader who could represent camp with constituents. It’s important to note at this point that camp had a group of very committed board members and staff who were eager to serve camp well, and willing to learn how they could do it better.

As part of the process, we scheduled a two-day board retreat away from camp to do board training, borrowing from Doing Good Better: How to bean Effective Board, by Edgar Stoesz, and other tools to help board members understand their roles as a policy board, and to learn how to present ideas for consideration in new ways.

During ensuing meetings, we began practicing the things we spoke about and learned together and made our way to becoming a policy board. The change was instrumental in the ability to make some needed changes in camp operations and helped prepare the board for the future fund-raising work needed to bring a separate children’s camp to fruition.

I’m thankful for the wonderful board and staff members I had the privilege to work with during my seven years of board service.

Krista LaRuffa

Board Member 2011–present

Current board chair

Serving as the board chair of Camp Deerpark has proven to be both challenging and rewarding. During my time serving on the board (both as a board member and now as board chair) we have undergone a variety of changes, which I believe have helped us to grow and better serve camp. We meet four times per year for three to four hours and while there are numerous board actions that have been important, below are three that have had the most impact.

Implementation of Board Member Term Limits—At the start of my time on the board, we approved term limits. With term limits, each board member serves for a three year term and is allowed to serve for up to three consecutive terms, for a maximum of nine years. When I initially started ,there were several board members who had served for more than 10 years. I appreciated the value in the legacy knowledge of these members and the experiences they were able to share. Therefore, initially I couldn’t see how the term limits were a good idea as it would cause a constant rotation inboard membership. Additionally, there would be a constant need for finding new board members resulting in continuous stress on the chair and executive director. Now having experienced it, I can say that my feelings toward term limits are the exact opposite. The term limits have enabled the board to have a balance between legacy board members who have served for several years, while also having a constant flow of new members. With new members come new ideas, new perspectives, and the tendency to challenge us from simply doing things “the way we’ve always done it.” It has allowed our meetings to maintain a freshness throughout, while still having wisdom of the past, which has proven to be extremely valuable.

Overall Meeting Structure—Another major change was suggested by our reading of Doing Good Better by Edgar Stoesz. The board has now read through the book three times. Historically, our meetings always started with the “business side” of things (i.e. financials, policy approvals, etc.) and then the second half would be used for items that involved more vision casting, brainstorming, etc. It was discovered that in doing this, we often got bogged down in the details and then were a bit fried by the time it came to the vision casting portion. One simple change of flipping the order of our agenda, having meetings begin with the vision casting and brainstorming items has made such a difference! Our discussions are more thought-provoking and inspired as everyone is fresh, and then that inspiration trails into the second half for the more nitty-gritty details.

Prayer—In many ways, the Camp Deerpark board operates similar to any policy-based, nonprofit board–except when it comes to prayer. It always gives me great encouragement to know that each board member commits to prayer for camp overall as well as specific decisions. Our conscious efforts in prayer have increased in the past few years. There have been several times that the board was faced with a difficult decision. We determined it was best to wait and spend some time dedicated in prayer before finalizing a motion at the next meeting. It is encouraging to see how the Lord has truly led our decisions in those times.

I consider myself unbelievably blessed and fortunate to have had the pleasure to work with such a wonderful group of board members (both past and present) as well as the camp staff. It is through the combination of these people and each of their unique gifts and talents that camp is the place that it is today; it is truly an honor to be a part of it.

—Written by Krista LaRuffa, Jesus Cruz, and Donna Stoltzfus.

Related Entries

• 50 Years of Camp Deerpark Buildings
• 50 Years of Camp Deerpark Directors
• A Beautiful Scene
• A Conscious Decision
• A Place on the Hill