The Farm & Wilderness and Farm & Wilderness Conservation Boards (which are the same group of 13 people) met over the weekend of February 4-5 for our quarterly meeting. We are very much looking forward to this being our last Zoom meeting until next winter!
We had three major agenda items.
- Frances shared with us her goals for both organizations for 2023. They were in four categories: revenue and financial performance; readiness for summer 2023 with fully-enrolled camps and all staff prepared to get to work on Day 1; answering the question, "What is the difference F&W/FWC makes?"; and answering the question, "Where do we go from here?" We approved these goals and their associated measures for success. We were also delighted to receive news of new initiatives in seasonal staff hiring for both returners and newcomers and in marketing. We can see that our Affordable for All program is a big success, as we are nearly full in some of the camps already and are receiving feedback from families that A4A is a welcome relief to them as they plan their children’s summer experiences: 50% of our returners who are applying for campership are doing so for the first time.
- We approved the budget for both organizations for 2023. We had lively discussions about the difference between temporarily restricted funds and endowment funds. We look forward to working with new auditors this year, whom we expect to help us figure out our many small endowments so that we have greater clarity on what endowment money we can draw on for operating expenses. We are so very proud of, and grateful to, our staff, who managed our expenses so well for 2022 despite still being in a pandemic! And we are very proud to have had contributed revenue of $1.1 million!
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The third agenda item was to approve, in principle, "Growing for Good," which lays out three strategic priorities for 2023-26. We have been working on a strategic plan since early 2022. Our Strategy Working Group is composed of staff and Trustees; they brought us their results so far, and we broke into small groups to thresh the three priorities, associated goals, and proposed measures for success. Trustees were enthusiastically in unity with the three priorities: Run a Good Organization, Develop Good Humans, and Do Good for our Community.
There is still work to be done - for example, Trustees asked for a greater emphasis on the conservation work that FWC leads - and we expect to give our final approval of our 2023-26 strategic plan at our May meeting.
In the Light,
Kristi Webb
Recording Clerk