The NovusWay board met via Zoom on Wednesday, December 18th, and made several key decisions to continue our path toward a future of strength and sustainability. This has been a very challenging year, but much progress has been made. Despite two hurricanes, we are still on target to finish 2024 with expenses in balance with revenues. This is a tremendous improvement over 2023, and due to the great efforts of many people, but especially the leadership of our co-CEOs, Mitzie and Mike. Given the scope and magnitude of our continuing work this year, we want to share with you some important decisions in five key areas that we made both at our November in person meeting and our December Zoom meeting.
Budget. We are pleased to share that we approved a 2025 budget with a projected modest surplus. The budget is conservative and achievable, based upon 2024 actuals and adjusted for known 2025 realities. This budget includes some refurbishment at our camps and important steps toward improving compensation for our staff. While this budget is a big accomplishment, we still have a lot more work to do to continue to better secure our financial future.
Lutheranch. We formalized our plan to designate 5% of the net proceeds from the sale of the southern portion of Lutheranch to create a Southeastern Synod Endowment to benefit faith formation and leadership development. Additionally, we established a framework to recognize named-level donors of previous Lutheranch campaigns to be honored going forward through various programs, scholarships, or capital/refurbishment projects at other NovusWay sites. Our co-CEOs and development staff will begin contacting these donors directly in the new year to learn their wishes. We also allocated sufficient proceeds from the sale of the northern section of Lutheranch for the repayment of the outstanding Lutheranch debt, with the specific mechanism to be developed by the Finance Committee. Further, proceeds from both Lutheranch sales will be used to repay endowment borrowing and some facility repairs at Lutheridge and Lutherock. Any remaining restricted funds for Lutheranch after the sale of the northern and southern portions will be used for similar projects at other NovusWay camps.
Luther Springs. For some time, we have explored the benefits of placing a portion of Luther Springs into a land conservancy, much like we did at Lutherock. This is desirable since we have large tracts of acreage that cannot be used because the cost to manage and maintain the property has been outside our reach. Several months ago, Little Orange Creek, an organization that helps to protect natural environments in Florida, approached NovusWay about purchasing some of Luther Springs to add to an existing tract of land being placed into a conservancy. As the board reviewed this request, we invited our Springs co-executive directors, Deacon Sue Mendenhall and Sarah Anderson, to be a part of the conversation to ensure any decision would not have a negative impact on the ministry. Respecting staff concerns, we worked with Little Orange Creek to sell some of Luther Springs to be put into a perpetual conservation trust. The sale of that property closed on Wednesday, December 18th, 2024. As a result, Luther Springs has now paid off its debt. With the remaining proceeds, we repaid $150,000 to our endowment fund and we designated approximately $100,000 for much needed refurbishment projects at Luther Springs. These actions will better protect and maintain the land, guarantee our perpetual use of the property in furtherance of the ministry, and provide some needed reinvestment in the camp buildings and land over which we retain ownership. This is a real win-win-win situation.
Lutheridge. At our November Board meeting, we voted to move the NovusWay corporate offices out of Mission Hall so that this building can be redeveloped into some much-needed adult housing for hosted ministry and other programs. At our December Zoom meeting, we approved a plan to redevelop Beam Cottage into the new corporate offices using previously designated board funds to cover the costs of the renovations (not 75th Birthday funds). In the December meeting, we also approved a plan for the refurbishment and reconfiguration of the Lakeside Pavilion restrooms – this is a very long overdue project that will help this area of camp in multiple ways. Finally, as a result of the hurricane, several of our Hill Cabins have been destroyed, and overall, these buildings have long outlived their usefulness. Based upon the recommendations of the Lutheridge Master Planning Team and our senior management and program team at Lutheridge, the Board in December also approved a plan to replace all the Hill Cabins with four new cabins/bunkhouses that will provide for 14 private bedrooms and baths, along with other features that will make these attractive for use by individuals, families, and groups. These buildings will also have unfinished but plumbed basements that can be developed later into potential meetings rooms or housing. Best of all, because these utilize a modular build, these four new buildings will be ready to use in the summer of 2025
Lutherock. Your board did not address any specific Lutherock projects, as we did for the other camps, but Lutherock will be a beneficiary of some specific financial benefits from some of the other projects identified for the other camps. In addition, we continue to work diligently to recover from the hurricane damage, and while roadwork will take some time, we are welcoming guests this winter and we will have a variety of summer camp and other programs at Lutherock in 2025.
Your board’s work this year, with the great efforts of Mitzie, Mike, and the entire staff, has been to better position the organization so that it can be a viable and meaningful ministry for today, tomorrow, and years to come. Even with a catastrophic hurricane, our work to build for the long term has not slowed down – in fact, with the decisions in the last few months, our pace has accelerated. Our work is not done. We are developing a new strategic plan. We continue to ask the hard questions about our operations, and to make the hard but smart decisions about finances, buildings and facilities, our properties, programming, and our staff in order to better secure this ministry’s future. Our work this year may be the most extensive ever. But every member of your Board of Trustees is engaged and dedicated to the hard work that must be done so our families, children, and grandchildren can continue to learn and grow in faith and leadership.
If you have any questions, as always, please reach out to Mike (ward@gsbfr.com) or Mitzie (mitzie@gsbfr.com).
As we look to the promise of Christmas and the Epiphany, we remain grateful for the continued and growing support you help to provide for our camps. We are grateful for your generosity, which is vital to the future of this ministry – Thank you!
With gratitude,
The NovusWay Board
