Art –
 
I have been reading the goings-on on the Chanco Once website with great interest.  Obviously, I am very concerned because Boomer lost his position as the Executive Director, but also because of my history with Chanco.  I am sure you are aware that I currently hold a seat on the CCAA Board, yet I am writing to you as an individual.  I am not representing the CCAA with my thoughts in this letter. 

I have been particularly interested in your responses to the questions posed on the website, Art.  I have noticed that you respond readily to questions about Chanco’s finances, yet I really don’t think that anyone is shocked that there is a financial problem.  I think that Chanco needing money was made clear last year at Fall Fest.  Everyone made a big deal then about increasing enrollment at camp so it could keep its doors open.  You and Boomer have been talking about the fact that it could be closed down in a few years since just after he took the job.  I think the real problem for most people has been the shock of hearing that the financial situation is so dire that the Executive Director’s position had to be cut RIGHT NOW!!!  It is rather hard to believe, considering the fact that you offered him the Camp Director position (at a disheartening half salary, I might add), which leaves a savings of only $30,000 a year!!  I think you may be paying the new Camp Director a bit more than what you offered Boomer, which means that you are saving even less.  I realize that there are benefits, like medical insurance, that I am not including here, but the savings really don’t seem like they will make or break Chanco.  I guess I might understand it better if that position had been one thing cut among other things…  Were there other things cut?  Maybe they add up. 

I have also noticed that nobody has ever responded to the questions asked about the Executive Board voting alone versus the entire Chanco Board voting to eliminate the Executive Director's position.  I am pretty sure I know the reason why, but I think all the questions need to be laid out on the table here.  WHY was the vote to have the Executive Director’s position eliminated taken with only four Executive Committee members present?  Boomer certainly wasn’t there and there are only four others mandated in the Bylaws (unless any others are appointed by the Chanco Board to serve on the Executive Committee.  I haven’t been able to find anyone who remembers anyone else being appointed to serve on the committee, Art, so why were you there?)  I personally think that the entire Chanco Board should have had a vote since the entire Chanco Board voted to hire Boomer for a position that they knew existed in good faith.  Because you have said that you are “standing in the sunshine,” I would like to know two important things: 1) What was the division of the votes by the Executive Committee’s four members?   2) Why couldn’t the decision to keep or eliminate the Executive Director’s position wait until the entire Chanco Board was convened on April 15 (less than a month after the Executive Committee made their decision)? 

I also read with great interest how you had really already made up your mind to close camp about a year ago, when Talley came onto the Board (you might want to let her know that it has only been that long.  She seems to think it has been a year and a half!).  I believe you said something about Talley, and maybe Sarah Scott, bringing new energy that made you rethink that decision.  WASN’T BOOMER A  PART OF ALL OF THAT???  Talley herself admits that they worked together on ideas and that she was inspired by him.  Why on earth can’t you give him any credit, Art?  Your eloquently written letters seem to be writing him out of the past year of Chanco’s history – at least the positive history.  Why?  We all know that he was a part of the resurgence of energy at Chanco.  If what you report is true, perhaps he was hired when you had already planned to shut down Chanco…  So, was he hired under false pretenses?  Do you really have the power to close Chanco’s doors without consulting the Board??  If so, what is the purpose of the Board?????  In fact, although he knew there was financial trouble, Boomer heard nothing about the potential closing of Chanco until at least a month after he started working in 2007…  Why was that not disclosed during the hiring process?  We might not be in this mess right now if we had known all this from the beginning!  We have two young children, Art.  It looks like we are going to be packing boxes pretty soon and looking for another place to live… 

On Chanco’s finances, it is really sad to me through all of this that you are capable of insinuating that Boomer ran the finances into the ground in 2007.  By design from the very beginning, he was hardly allowed to buy anything – especially big purchases - without your approval.  That camp and conference center had been neglected for 20 years, Art!   You told him that he was not going to make money - or break even his first year.  You told him he had to, "Spend money to make money."  Now, he is being raked over the coals for his outrageous spending!  I am not saying that he is perfect - nor am I, nor are you, I am sure.  Again, you say you are “standing in the sunshine,” let's just be sure we are not dancing merrily along in the sunshine kicking rocks at one another.  It just seems awfully convenient that you seemingly supported the repairs and improvements that needed to be done last year and at the beginning of 2008 (which was so shocking in its overspending!): repainting the Manor House because the paint was peeling off, replacing heating and cooling systems in the buildings because they were no longer working after 20 years!, hauling vehicles out of the woods and having them repaired so they were in working order, putting regular maintenance systems into place throughout the conference center.  The entire camp septic system had to be pumped out last summer (which should happen regularly and had never been fully pumped)!  I can’t even recall the countless other things that Boomer inherited from other people neglecting the property for countless years – and that responsibility does not fall on any one person; it falls on the Board, who has been responsible for Chanco all these years.  Again, I am not claiming perfection.  Yet, now, all the money that was spent in 2007 to repair and improve the property is being twisted to sound like we had some big spender in there who threw money around irresponsibly!  I am shocked!!  Before you jump on that one, Art, I realize you never say that directly, but you most certainly insinuate it.

Everything just seems to be “spun” so magnificently, so... well, so "Art"-fully!  Perhaps the Board should take a look at their part in Chanco's financial problems, and by that I am not indicting any of the newly appointed Board members.  They are certainly not to blame.  In fact, as the Chairman of the Finance Committee and the Treasurer of the Diocese, it seems to me, that you should be taking a lot more responsibility for the budgetary problems in 2007 than you are.  After all the problems with money prior to Boomer's arrival, would you or the Board really give Boomer carte blanche with the check book?  Really??  Are we supposed to believe this is all the crazy misdirection and overspending of the executive director... again??  We've been told that about too many directors before for it even to begin to sound reasonable.  When Boomer took the Executive Director position, he made it very clear that his skill sets were not as refined in finances, most specifically in working with a budget as large as Chanco’s.  The Board voiced concerns about this, as well, last fall.  Starting in October, it was my understanding that you were supposed to meet with Boomer on Fridays in order to mentor him on the budget.  You never made a Friday meeting.

Okay, let’s flash forward to March of this year.  You, as the Treasurer of the Diocese, realized there was a crisis.  Why didn’t the Chanco Board go to their Executive Director to ask him to help find a solution?  Where was the teamwork?  Why did the four other executive committee members (and you, Art) meet behind closed doors to vote his position out without even talking to him until the next day?  Sure, you offered him the Camp Director position – but is it realistic to consider taking a “reduction in salary” that essentially tore his salary IN HALF???  With a family of four?  And then, Art, just to make the offer less appealing, he was told that his family was not invited to join him at camp this summer.  Please…  How was that even a reasonable offer??   In the one brief panicked conversation you had with him prior to that meeting you mentioned combining the Youth Missioner position (in which we have in Interim right now) with the Camp Director position as a possible alternative…  Now, THAT might have been an option.  Talley mentioned in some blog or another that the current model, with a year-round Camp Director, is reminiscent of Dave Davenport’s years…  Well, actually, combining the Camp Director and Youth Missioner’s jobs would have been the direct model of Dave Davenport’s years (and might have paid enough to keep Boomer employed there, as long as his family could have been included).  Dave was both the Camp Director and the equivalent of the Youth Missioner back then.  Hmmmmmm.  I wonder why that wasn’t considered in the meeting.  Maybe a few more people in the meeting might have come up with it as an option.  Maybe the entire Board…

Finally, I would like to offer my opinion to you and, perhaps, to others on the website, as to why so many people seem to be pulling away in the wake of Boomer’s removal.  I do not think it is out of undying loyalty to Boomer.  I don’t think that people would (or should) arrive at the next Chanco Board meeting with torches and pitchforks, demanding that he be reinstated.  I think there is a shock running through all of us that such a small group of people (and I am anxiously awaiting the true number here!) made the decision to change the fundamental structure of something we all believed in without giving it a chance to get back on its feet.  There is no clear plan to fill in the void from what was taken away.  I know you think you have one, but it isn’t inspiring, Art.  Even when you try to tear Boomer down with insinuations, it isn’t enough. 

The reality is, people are pulling away because of your decision.  My daughter doesn’t want to come back to camp in light of what is happening to our family.  She doesn’t feel welcome at Chanco anymore.  She had 5 or 6 friends from school signed up to come to camp this summer.  Now I have to let their parents know what has happened…  So far, I haven’t had the heart to make the call.  Other people are pulling their support and not posting that decision on Chanco Once so it can be argued with (attacked?).  It has happened.  It is sad.  People have left the Chanco Board because such a monumental decision was made without them.  I am not saying that this should continue.  I am not undermining Chanco in any way.  It is too much a part of who I am.  There are choices and consequences in life, Art.  And these are the consequences of your decisions – right before camp – and right before a capital campaign.  But if the Executive Director has to go in order to save $30,000, how can you make people believe enough to give their money toward that campaign now?  I don’t know why you have the power to control decisions like these, but WHY NOW??  It just wasn’t smart.  We were all gathered together, planning to help camp – to raise money for a $5 million Capital Campaign…  I wanted to believe…  I did believe…  I think we all did. 

I have been wrestling with the decision to write or not to write this letter for a while now.  I have written and re-written letters in my head a million times.  I don’t want to sound like the disgruntled wife of the ex-Executive Director.  However, my passion for Chanco has compelled me to write.  In the spirit of all that we do in the name of God, the church, Chanco, and children, what has happened is not right.  The manner in which it has happened is not right.  Talley mentioned not understanding God’s plan in all of this…  I don’t think it is God’s plan that we have to wonder about.  I think it is your plan that should be in question. 
Sincerely –
Helen Somers Camp Chanco/EYC 1983-2007