Our Collective Impact: ACA Illinois Annual Meeting & Awards

Kim Steiner, Membership & Program Services Director

On March 12, 2021, ACA Illinois hosted our Annual Meeting. After having to cancel our Annual Meeting around this time in 2020, we were excited to be able to get our Membership together to share the service ACA Illinois was able to provide over the last year, highlight some incredible people in the community, and celebrate what is ahead for our Association.


To start the meeting we acknowledged our wish to celebrate the life of Marcy Brower by dedicating this annual meeting to her memory. Marcy was pivotal in creating change within ACA related to desegregation and LGBTQ inclusion; she was also the powerhouse behind the Mid States Camp Conference. Marcy made the world a better place in all that she did and we hope to continue her legacy by continuing to create change through our work in camp. 


Thank you to all who were able to attend; we appreciate your presence! And if you weren’t able to make it, check out the main highlights below:

• In 2020, ACA Illinois served 7,475 camp professionals throughout our various professional development, accreditation and membership programs, resulting in over 14,500 learning hours collectively. We hosted pros from more than 35 states, as well as internationally, including: Belgium, China, Nigeria, Turkey, Spain and more.
• The Standards Committee shared updates on visits for the upcoming year (2021) and shared a thanks to all the volunteers who make the accreditation program possible. The Standards Program has been directly impacted by COVID and the flexibility and resilience of the Accreditation community has been incredible!
• The Membership Committee was excited to share the launch of the Young Professionals Board, which has begun engaging new members and in the beginning stages of leadership structure and development.
• The Government Relations Committee, which was activated in 2020, were able to secure informative meetings with both state leadership and legislators. They distributed an Economic Impact Survey to Illinois camps to capture the impact of the pandemic on camps. The information gathered in the survey formed the basis for our Camp is Essential Campaign that helped share the message of how critical camp is to the economy, Illinois parents and families, and to the larger Illinois community overall.

We were also able to recognize some incredible people with organizational awards who have served ACA Illinois with a generous heart, including: 

• Special Recognition Award, Margy Moore, former Conference Director for the former Pheasant Run Resort.
• Distinguished Service Award, Michael Brandwein, Speaker/Author/Educator/Volunteer.
• Emerging Professional Awards, Shauna Guglielmo, Lincoln Park Zoo Camp; and Stacy Harper, American Camp Association, Illinois.
• Honor Award, Hanna O’Toole, YMCA Barry County Camp Algonquin.

We were also fortunate to be joined by Speaker/Author/Educator/Volunteer extraordinaire, Michael Brandwein, who shared some incredibly thoughtful encouragement during our meeting closing to send us into another year.



As always, check out our upcoming events on our Upcoming Events & Trainings Calendar, or other Event Recaps at our blog In the Loop. Interested in joining the Young Professionals Board? Contact Kim Steiner or Gwyn Emigh for more information.