Governance

Creating and sustaining vibrant camp leadership

Why Governance
Your camp deserves great board leadership and an opportunity to focus on what matters most to your organization’s mission and impact.

We define “Governance” as your camp’s board of directors, or camp committee if your camp is a program under a parent organization. 
 
Your camp’s governing body is responsible for defining the camp’s mission and vision, long-range planning, assessment, and evaluation. In addition, your board or camp committee should ensure that there are enough resources to ensure camper scholarships, investments in improved programs and facilities upgrades, and future endowment. To do so will require the members of the board to be active with fundraising and fiscal oversight. Lastly, your governing body must perpetuate itself with new board members and outstanding camp staff leadership.

JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s governance. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Governance Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.
Leadership
Thoughtful leadership and management of your board/camp committee includes the following areas:
 
1. Finding Great People: Nominating, orienting, and supporting great lay leadership so you have smart, connected, engaged individuals working hard on your board/camp committee.
 
2.  Filling Leadership Roles: Preparing for leadership turnover of key people, such as your president, treasurer, and committee chairs, with succession planning.
 
3. Running Great Meetings: Supporting productive board/camp committee meetings with clear agendas, tools for decision making, keeping minutes, and approving required policies.
 
4. Getting Better Every Year: Conducting an annual board/camp committee performance evaluation to identify strengths and areas for improvements.
 
5. Difficult People: Handling proplem people. Sometimes a difficult person can drag down your board or camp committee and impede progress. You will find tips here.

JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s governance. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Governance Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.
Committees
Your camp’s board or camp committee is expected to accomplish great things, such as:
  • Defining the camp’s mission and vision
  • Assessment and evaluation
  • Long-range planning
  • Financial oversight
  • Active fundraising
  • Finding great new board members
 
In addition, all boards of directors (and some camp committees) are also responsible for hiring, evaluating, and sometimes firing your camp’s top executive. 
 
We believe creating sub-committees and tasks forces is the best way to get these important tasks accomplished. Below you will find sample committee structures, job descriptions, and resources that might help you get started. 
 
Some task groups or sub committees that might be useful are:
  • Executive Committee
  • Finance Committee
  • Program Evaluation Committee
  • Marketing and Enrollment Committee
  • Site and Facilities Committee
  • Fundraising Committee
  • Personnel Committee
  • Alumni Committee
JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s governance. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Governance Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.
 
Samples
You can learn a lot from other Jewish camps, and we encourage camps to freely share samples, tips, and tools with one another through our Knowledge Center. If you don’t see what you are looking for here, please try using the search function on the main Knowledge Center page where many more resources are housed. 
 
These governance samples from other camps have been some of the most requested items in recent years.

JCamp 180 is committed to helping your organization apply best practices to your camp’s governance. We’ve hand-picked the resources below to get you started. For our full set of resources on this topic, click the “More Governance Resources” button at the bottom of the page to go to the main Knowledge Center page. You can either further refine your search using keywords or scroll through all the resources.