The Eliot Institute Board is celebrating the success of the new Creative Arts Eliot Camp and reviewing policy issues impacting its future: (1) Priorities for scholarship funds. (2) What types of camps to plan in the future. (3) How to best honor our Unitarian Universalist connections. (4) What goals should be set for our endowment fund. Participant comments are encouraged.
Eliot Institute plans and manages several overnight camps for friends and families of Unitarian Universalists at the Seabeck Conference Center located near Silverdale, WA. We come for a variety of reasons � to make new friends or to see old ones, for intellectual stimulation, spiritual renewal, artistic expression, to share ideas, to relax and to have fun.
Eliot had full camps (see below) for the two summer camps and Winter Eliot had 176 campers: one of the largest in its history! The two summer Eliot camps (July, August) always have a waitlist to get in and as of this date, they still do. Winter Eliot was very full and as we approach higher numbers, there is a shortage of meeting space to hold everyone. Seabeck has a new meeting space planned opening in April of this year but it only has space for 80. Currently, the Meeting House is able to accommodate a full camp (250) but with weather constraints and darkness during Winter Eliot, this poses a challenge to have the camp meet as a whole, anywhere else. It�s a good problem to have but it truly might be a case of Eliot having to limit the number of campers to fewer than 200.
A for-profit company can look at its bottom line to see if it is profitable. It can consider the percentage return on assets and its share price to evaluate how it is doing. Members of a non-profit board need to consider other factors. What should they be?
The Eliot Board supervises the business side of our Eliot camps and we have done those tasks quite well in recent years -- filling our camps, paying our bills, and getting positive evaluations from a high percentage of campers. We can credit our outstanding staff and the quality and dedication of our board members for those accomplishments. Our good relationship with Seabeck Conference Center, our primary host facility, is also an important factor.
As I write this, I realize that this will be my last correspondence as your Eliot President. These past few years have seen some noteworthy happenings, but more importantly, those hundreds of things – big and little - that happen and take place before, during, and after each camp, are some of what make our Eliot connections so special.
==> Eliot is magical. Caring people, love, music, intimacy, children and adults together. What more could anybody want?Longtime Elioteer from Oregon
