Governance
Camp de Benneville Pines is an independent 501(c)(3) organization with a nine member Board of Directors. Members of the board are elected for staggered 3-year terms and may serve up three consecutive full terms.
Board of Directors
Officers
Pat Gordon – President
Pat, has been a member of First UU of San Diego for ten years. She has served on the Board since 2018 and is currently the Board President. The people who attend and who work at Camp have captured her heart and keep her returning each year.
Pat is gentle in her manners yet powerful in her determination. She foresees Camp as a place where campers’ physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs continue to be met. Pat trusts this will transpire through an expansion of leadership personnel. Consequently, she is focused on maintaining the legacy of a thriving camp by encouraging capital campaigns that support quality employee housing to retain excellent Camp staff.
Knowing that not all superheroes wear capes, Pat recognizes the hard work and dedication of the Executive Director, Janet James, who’s always jumping in and exerting elbow grease whenever the need arises, her administrative team, the Kitchen Manager, and the staff who live on campus, who rise early and work late on kitchen and housekeeping duties.
Pat hopes to grow up to be just like our Teddi Boston. When she asked Teddi what her secret is, she said just keep moving, don’t ever stop. She is so very grateful for the board of directors who give up so much of their free time. This board works with volunteers and staff to keep our campus afloat. She wants us all to remember a quote from Christine Caine, “Sometimes, when you’re in a dark place, you think you have been buried, but actually you’ve been planted.”
Come join us where our heart is in the mountains, the mountains of Camp de Benneville Pines
Chris Faller – Board Vice President
Chris lived in the mid and southern regions of Eastern U.S. and Northern California before landing in coastal Southern California. He enjoys the small-town feel of his adopted home of Solana Beach. Chris has been an active member of UU Fellowship of San Dieguito since arriving to the area in 1997. Chris maintains an appreciation for his neighborhood by taking walks in the lagoons, parks, and beaches that are a part of his community.
First introduced to de Benneville Pines through summer camps for his kids and UUFSD family camps, Chris has made Camp a part of his life for twenty years. He is drawn by the call of the mountains, peaceful setting, and kinship found at Camp. Reflecting on the value Camp holds for him and his family, Chris is committed to his role as vice-president of the de Benneville Pines Board of Directors. He works to ensure that Camp continues to thrive for future generations of families. To this end, he is mainly focused on Marketing and Stewardship.
Chris has a passion for providing youth the opportunity to develop, experience nature, appreciate our natural resources, and live their most full life. He is thus compelled to create opportunities for people to be successful. He demonstrates this by his volunteer commitments to Casa de Luz and Boys to Men Mentoring Network. These organizations encourage and support young people and communities to reach their maximum potentials.
True to his devotion to helping others, Chris finds heroes in everyday folk who make a difference. He admires people who offer their time and energy in small or significant ways.
With his drive to help others, Chris finds solace and balance in this prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr:
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.
That, along with woodworking, hiking, backpacking, surfing.
Dale Botts – Treasurer
Dale’s passion is to educate, find consensus, plan, make changes, and maintain operations that run smoothly. He has experience in running volunteer organizations including the Industrial Environmental Coalition of Orange County, American Institute of Chemical Engineers local chapter, California Resource Management Association, Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Fullerton (UUCF), Toastmasters, and now Camp de Benneville Pines.
At UUCF, Dale taught children (including his son) in the religious education program. He was the UUCF Board President for two years, served as the Worship Committee Chair for ten years, and served on the Budget Committee. As UUCF President, Dale was involved with the budget, stewardship, the development of a right relations covenant, conflict resolution, strategic planning, and staff supervision. Since 2013, he has been the de Benneville Camp Champ and Dean for the UUCF congregational weekend. For Camp de Benneville Pines, Dale is the chairperson of the Personnel Committee and serves on the Facilities Committee, the Stewardship Committee, Reopening Committee, and the Finance Committee. Going forward in 2025, Dale will serve as CdBP Treasurer.
Martha Kazlo – Recording Secretary
Moving cross country from Maryland to California for her first job after graduate school proved to be a worthwhile decision for Martha. As it turns out, she enjoyed working at Cal State San Bernardino so much, she remained there for thirty years. Ever curious and concerned about people, Martha was drawn to be a psychologist. At Cal State, she became Director of Student Health and Counseling Centers. She continues to take pleasure in interesting, diverse, socially active friends, colleagues, and strangers.
Martha’s life-long love of camping began with Girl Scouts. Her first experience at de Benneville Pines two decades ago was also her introduction to Unitarian Universalism. She is now a member of UU of Riverside. Martha considers Camp holy ground that feeds her soul. She wants to ensure that de Benneville Pines and the experiences it offers are available to future generations of young people. As a board member, her focus is expanding and maintaining the camp and programs while supporting staff through quality housing and living wages.
Martha gives credit to the persistence and resilience of women on whose shoulders she has stood and to young environmentalists who are standing up. In turn, she celebrates the philosophy of “Say YES.”
Among people is not the only place Martha finds joy. Being devoted to the environment and the importance of reducing waste, Martha is an avid dumpster diver. She delights in recycling the cast-off treasures she finds.
Louise Klatt – Corresponding Secretary
Louise is a member of the Unitarian Universalists of Santa Clarita Valley. At her congregation she is the chair of the Worship Team and is co-chair of the Social & Environmental Justice team.
Louise is an administrator for the Camp de Benneville Pines Facebook page. She has a knack for knowing when anniversary dates occur for Camp employees. Her husband also is a former Camp Board member. Their daughter grew up attending Camp. Louise & her husband attend the annual Thanksgiving Camp weekend and she also attends the Women’s Retreat. She has been actively involved as a volunteer for camp for many years.
Board Members at Large
Donna Herman
After growing up in Chicago, Illinois, Donna ventured to California for college, met her future husband, and has called the state home ever since.
Living in Long Beach, Donna loves the big small-town feel, the distinct neighborhoods, and how residents identify themselves by the community in which they live. Donna is an active member of UU Church of Long Beach, for which she has volunteered more than forty years. Thanks to that boyfriend so many years ago, Donna has been involved with Camp de Benneville Pines since the late 1970s.
Having a lifelong attraction to nature, the outdoors, and beauty in general, Donna is especially drawn to de Benneville Pines. She extends this love by creating art, visiting museums, and pursuing her stewardship and historic preservation interests.
Donna admires Oprah Winfrey for her ability to create so much out of her life. Indeed, at a time in life when many others look forward to becoming empty-nesters Donna, pluckily became an adoptive mom of a newborn child. It is through her son that Donna is inspired to strive to become a better person every day as she lives this quote from James Cameron: “If you set a goal ridiculously high and it’s a failure, you will fail above everyone else’s successes.”
Ross Quinn
Ross Quinn, MD, grew up in the UU Church of Ventura. As a youth
he participated in youth camps and in the physical work to develop
Camp de Benneville Pines (Camp). His father was a PSWD
president and helped Rev. Ray Manker at the time Camp was
purchased.
Ross has deep knowledge of the Camp staff, bringing a
unique sociological perspective of staff engagement. Ross diligently
participates in work camps and the post covid re- opening
committee.
Ross understands the importance of a Camp Board who is active in stewardship. He is
sensitive to the problem of rising costs making it more difficult financially for families.
This is especially true for families with children and youth to pay fees much higher than they are now.
Ross provides guest Unitarian Universalist sermons wrapping up the intersection of social
justice, economic, and climate with the benefits of a natural wilderness experience that can be
attained at Camp de Benneville Pines. His vision is that Camp can manage the many
challenges, continuing to fulfill its promise as a place of renewal, respite, and growth. Camp
must remain a place that feels precious, inclusive, and welcoming when we visit.
Jeff Severinghaus
Jeff Severinghaus grew up in the UU Fellowship of Marin County, California and is a lifelong Unitarian with a deep love of the outdoors. Jeff grew up camping and hiking in the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range with his family, including walking the John Muir Trail at age 16. In 1998 he joined the Scripps Institution of Oceanography as Professor of Geosciences. His specialty is Climate Science and studies of glacial ice that led him to 13 seasons of drilling ice cores in Antarctica to predict our future in a warming world.
Jeff and his wife Lynne have been members of UU Fellowship of San Dieguito for 30 years.
They were deeply influenced by Rev. Tom Owen-Towle in retreats at Camp deBenneville, and deBenneville became a sort of second home in Jeff and Lynne’s kids’ growing-up years.
As a new member of the Board, Jeff is focused on the recent changes in fire regimes and fire behavior that are caused by fossil fuel burning. A new approach to fire is needed if deBenneville is to survive the next 50 years.
Bylaws
Camp de Benneville’s bylaws are available as a PDF file. To download the bylaws, click the button below: