Reconsider Sale of Historic CRS Campgrounds, Curb Spending and Preserve Core Mission First October, 2014 Preamble to the Petition.

The Board of Directors of the Louis August Jonas Foundation recently announced its intention to sell the two properties in Dutchess County, New York, where Camp Rising Sun has been run for 85 years, and to move the operation of its program to another state, such as Pennsylvania.

We, the undersigned, are Rising Sun campers and supporters from a wide range of seasons and nationalities. Some of us object to the sale of these historic properties, some merely object to the process by which the sale was decided, but all of us strongly urge the Board to reapproach the issue more deliberately and inclusively.

Our intention is to get signatures on this petition, via the Internet, and to make the following critical points:

1. Most alumni were not warned that such a drastic course of action was even on the table.
   
   
2. Alumni were not given a real opportunity to influence the decision.
   
   
3. However well-intentioned, a growing number of alumni believe this move by the Board runs the risk of alienating the alumni body, which has always been a central part of the CRS program.

PETITION.

This is a petition to show the LAJF Board of Directors that many in the Rising Sun community have serious reservations about the announced plan to sell off the properties in Dutchess County.

A large number of Rising Sun supporters around the world have expressed their concern that the decision to sell the properties has been taken in undue haste, that the expected price in today’s market is too low and will in any case yield little year-to-year financial benefit, and that other avenues exist to solve the financial challenges LAJF faces in the wake of the 2008 market crisis and escalating costs (e.g., fundraising, cost reduction). We applaud the cost reduction efforts already initiated. We want to do more.

In a good-faith effort to expand the organization’s impact, the Board has in recent years authorized an unsustainably large percentage of spending from the Endowment. Much of this has gone to support an ever-larger percentage of overhead, which now stands at nearly 50% of annual expenditures. We believe such practice, however well-intended, lacks the good governance characteristics of fiduciary prudence and expense management needed by a charity that seeks our support. While not every signatory to this petition is flatly opposed to the sale of the original camp grounds under all circumstances, we do not believe that selling and moving right now is the right solution, especially given the loss of history and continuity it would entail. And we believe the Board should focus on preservation of the camp’s mission and organizational survival at this time.

We, the undersigned, URGE the Board to reconsider these issues and refrain from putting the Dutchess County assets on the market. We request a slowing down and a full reevaluation with alumni participation in which all options are on the table, including cost reduction.

We applaud the recent LAJF announcement to halt the sale, albeit for only six months. We call on the Board to affirm their intention to refrain from selling any CRS property until such time as a consensus is built among all the stakeholders.

As concerned alumni and friends of Camp Rising Sun, we declare our interest and intention to be even more engaged in the next six months and afterwards in a process that develops a more enduring solution to the crisis – one that will be mutually acceptable to the alumni body and to LAJF.

As concerned alumni and friends, we hereby pledge to actively participate in a dialogue on the future of Camp Rising Sun over the next six months. This dialogue will take place by email, telephone and through in-person forums at Camp and elsewhere. We call on the BOD to affirm their agreement that the ultimate decision on the future of CRS will emerge from this open community dialogue -- and not from closed-door sessions or preconceived notions of what should be done. We believe an atmosphere of trust and inclusion can and must be restored.

#savecrs

This petition is presented for consideration to the Board of Directors of the Louis August Jonas Foundation:

Signed,