Annual General Meeting

June 18, 2009

Remarks from Ken Godevenos

Another exciting year and a good one too, has just finished!  The major challenge we faced near the end of calendar 08 and so far this year 09, unlike other years, has been from without - it’s been the economy.  But if we do our part right, this can be a much less threatening challenge.

Between 07 and 08, our revenue decreased about $220,000, but a lot of that could be attributed to loss of revenue at SCA Eagle Bay following the change of leadership there; and loss of revenue from divesting SCA Esperanza part way through 2007.Yet, revenue for SCA Blueberry and SCA Eagle’s Nest increased appreciatively between 07 and 08.  General Funds were down about 5% between 07 and 08, attributed mostly to the losses of donors from SCA Esperanza and SCA Eagle Bay who also supported the General Fund.

But here’s the good news as we look at what’s happening in 09 so far.  Using the April end 2009 figures, we see:

• General Funds up 14%
• General Office expenses down 21% — by the way, our staff here have all taken a minimum of a 10% deduction in hours to help achieve that
• Our outstanding Accounts Payables are reducing from month to month; as are our outstanding loans that we took on to purchase SCA Eagle’s Cove and the Head Office building.
• And progress is also being made at both SCA Eagle’s Nest and SCA Blueberry Ministry Centres where revenues have increased significantly this year again.  The teams there are doing a great job.

And here’s yet another sign of good things happening… as you know when we had the change of leadership at SCA Eagle Bay, we were told that we would basically lose all the staff that ever worked and/or volunteered there in the past with our former leadership - and for a while we did; but with both Jon Welch and Chad Bruneski’s commitment and patience that has slowly changed.   Yesterday, HO received two full-time SCA Missionary applications from an engaged couple who are getting married this July at SCA Eagle Bay and want to join the Ministry Centre full-time at the beginning of September.  They are both from Winnipeg and the young woman has served at the camp for many years.  God rewards patience.

SCA Eagle’s Cove is growing by leaps and bounds this year in what it is offering the community and First Peoples’ children, adults, and families in the Thunder Bay area.

I mentioned earlier that this economy is not as threatening a challenge if we do our job right during this period of time and beyond.  So what else does “doing our job right as a Mission in Canada” look like?   Here are more examples:

With the help of one our board-members, Michael McCormick, we have a brand new, and much more user-friendly, and exciting website addressing some important parts of our work

• There’s a kid section
• A church section - we claimed to partner with churches but never had anything there for them
• Just so many more ways to attract people to the various programs and opportunities we offer

Through the recommendations of two of our board-members, Bruce Malcolm and Sheldon Street, we started using Constant Contact which allows us to get first-quality communications out to our donors and people as often as we like and it looks great.  We’ve already received some great comments of appreciation.  Together, Devika Ramroop and Sabrina Swagerman are working hard to increase the number of our donors who want to be communicated with electronically - while we still have 1000’s without email addresses, we’ve built a list of over 400 with email addresses, and we’re using them.

Sabrina Swagerman has also found a no-charge way for us to develop, distribute and then analyze important surveys in a very professional way.  Some of you may have received a recent survey on our Praise and Prayer, Telepraying, and our Webinar.   We’ve had about 30% response which is very good for a charity.  If you received a survey and haven’t yet responded, please do so.

We’ve encouraged people to go on annual receipts in order to reduce mailing costs.  Some day we will look at a system whereby we can send electronic receipts like the big players.  We’re also sending out our monthly letters of appreciation and contact by email to those that have agreed to receive it that way, and to those that still get it by Her Majesty’s method, we are now personalizing each letter.

This past year, we made some big decisions regarding our infrastructure:

• We realized this year, that in many respects we were competing internally amongst ourselves for the donor’s gifts.  Our Interim Director at SCA Eagle’s Nest, Tom Friesen, discovered that it is next to impossible to raise money for Head Office but much easier to raise it for “direct ministries” like that of Ministry Centres.  So, he and his local volunteer committee offered to increase their administration fee to Head Office if we stopped competing for the donor’s dollars.  After great debate and discussion, and a pilot project, we adopted that approach across the country for our Ministry Centres and, on a phased-in basis, for our Field Missionaries.

• Secondly, we in essence agreed to have two “internal” divisions within SCA - the SCA Ministry Centre Division and the SCA Shantymen Division.  The first comprised of our four Ministry Centres and the second consisting of our nine Field Missionaries.  This recommendation became obvious as we needed a means whereby our two very unique types of ministry that we wanted to keep under one umbrella could still present a strong, unambiguous message as to what each is and what each does, to the public.  Further, the SCA Shantymen Division incorporates our old name in response to the belief that there continues to be great value in that name.

For SCA’s future, we have been in discussions regarding:

• Following in the line of our two divisions, we’re thinking of adding a third one that we would call something like SCA Contract Services Division and offer smaller Christian organizations and missions some of our expertise that our accountants and auditors think we have.  This would not only allow us to help others in the Lord’s work, but also allow us to utilize some of the capacity that we have in our staff and facilities, as well as increase our revenue.

• But what I am really excited about is a new program - “Blanket-a-Nation” which once kicked off will have two components:

• A Fall/Winter component whereby we provide a Bible, a Blanket, and a Big Reduction on the cost of attending one of our camps or an associated camp.  We want to literally blanket as many First Nations communities as we can with this program.  Think of it as the Canadian version of the famous Shoebox Ministry that the Samaritan’s Purse is known for.

• The Spring/Summer component that we’re working on is the “Blanket-a-Nation” with reading skills - using the Bible, other good books for the appropriate age groups, and sponsored vans (like the old bookmobiles) where volunteers drive to reserves and help kids to read the Bible and select books for the children to keep.

In both these components we want to offer something to help people with life skills or something tangible they need, an opportunity to improve their social skills, friendships, and relationships at camp, and something to address their spiritual need - the word of God.

Finally, a few members of the Board and I will be working to identify specific goals this year and we’ll share those with you once the Board approves them.  Watch your Constant Contact communications.

In October, we’re looking forward to our next bi-annual National Conference to be held this year at SCA Blueberry Ministry Centre in Fort St. John, B.C. and we would welcome all of you to join us.

There’s some new equipment arriving at our Ministry Centres - SCA Blueberry is building an Adventure Tower that has a built-in zipline.  Take a trip out there to try it!

God has provided staff everywhere but we can still use more.  Numbers of campers planning to come to camp are up at most of our Ministry Centres, especially at SCA Eagle’s Cove in Thunder Bay.   One Ministry Centre has a very successful and growing Street People Ministry and we’re excited about that.

In closing, I want to mention some people who word so hard for the ministry:

• The missionaries, churches, church groups that go on STM trips, the many volunteers here at HO and at the camps, businesses and all individual partners in this ministry are of course the central point of what SCA is about - they are the ones that provide the ministry directly to those we want to minister to or who make it possible for us to do so.  We thank each one of them for their commitment and passion for this work.

• Floyd Coggins, a long-time SCA worker and supporter now supporting us through being our Senior Accountant - He keeps David Stouffer, our Treasurer, very happy and I know he challenges me, but we usually come to agreement on everything.  Thank you Floyd.

• Our HO team - Kimberly Eagleson who takes care of the requests related to promotions, public relations, communications, insurance, and everything else for all the MCs and missionaries as well as the content of our Praise and Prayer; Joanna Jackson who arranges to pay our bills for all but one of the MC’s as well as HO - with her help, we’re managing to keep the bill collectors away; Devika Ramroop who diligently manages our donors; and Sabrina Swagerman who deals primarily with all my requests. These people have worked sacrificially, cut their hours, and work for pretty low wages.  We really could not do this without them.

There’s another group whose purpose is to govern SCA - the Board of Directors.  This has been one of the best relational years we’ve had between Board and Management at SCA for a long time.  And a lot of the credit for that goes to our chairman, Rev. Rick Hayden, who tonight chaired his last meeting.  Rick has been a great mentor to me, a great manager of the Board, and a strong believer in what SCA has been doing for the last 103 years and by God’s grace will continue to do.  On behalf of the Board, the Corporation, the staff, the missionaries, and myself, I want to thank Rick for his service these past few years and I hope a time will come again when we’ll be able to work together.  We also need to recognize Les Alton, who will be stepping down this year.  He has served us well and he introduced us to his son-in-law Jon Welch who became our Ministry Centre Director at SCA Eagle Bay who is doing a great job there.

Finally, I thank God for what He has enabled us to do:

• Several hundred children reached with the Gospel
• Over 70 professions of faith last year that we know about
• 2 baptisms in 2008 (that number has doubled in 4 months for 2009)
• Follow-up now continues more and more all year round

Thank you for entrusting me with this opportunity to serve Him in this way.  May God continue to bless us all in the year ahead.

Respectfully delivered at our 2009 AGM

Ken Godevenos

SCA President