What is the Agency for Dwight Mission?
When the Dwight Mission school was closed in 1948, it was the general feeling that the property should be preserved because of its historical importance and its many years of service as a center for education and religious training.
During the fall of 1950, a number of laymen became interested in securing the site as a Synod property to be used for Presbyterian Church camps, conferences, and retreats programs. Dwight Mission, Inc. was formed and the property was purchased on May 6, 1951 for $35,000 Thirty days after its purchase camping programs were continued on the site. For the first thirty years of this new Dwight Mission, the daily operations and programs at Dwight were managed primarily by Dwight Mission, Inc. and the Synod of Oklahoma
With the reunification of the Presbyterian Church in the early 1980s, the governing structure of Dwight Mission also changed. The Synod of Oklahoma was divided into Cimarron, Eastern Oklahoma, and Indian Nations Presbyteries. Dwight Mission, Inc. became an agency of the Synod of the Sun and the Agency for Dwight Mission was formed as a separate entity to handle the daily operations and programs. The board members of Dwight Mission, Inc. are now elected by the Oklahoma Presbyteries and, as a board, are charged to hold title to the property, to maintain an insurance reserve, and to manage the endowment funds.
Over the next few years the ministry at Dwight grew to the point where the Agency decided it could no longer effectively manage the day-to-day operations and, in 1986, the first Executive Director was hired. Previously, a custodian lived and worked year-round at Dwight. The Agency, however, still retained much of the responsibility for daily operational decisions.
In 1991 the Agency completed a long range planning process that set some new directions for Dwight Mission. The summer program emphasis was changed from a conference-style model to a modified small-group model, which shifted more program responsibility to individual counselors or small group leaders as the focus shifted from large group activities to more small-group activities. In order to implement this program shift, the Agency also decided to move away from a volunteer-based program to one with a well-trained paid program staff. As a result, Dwight Mission hired its first full-time program director and paid summer staff.
As part of this change the Agency shifted its attention from daily operations toward an emphasis on governance ”focusing on policy-making, planning and monitoring a professional staff hired to run the day-to-day operations and programs. Dwight Mission currently has five full-time employees and hires as many as twenty-five seasonal employees to run the Presbyterian programs sponsored by the Agency. These programs currently include summer residence camps, summer leadership camps, summer adventure programs, confirmation retreats, and a Spring break youth program.
| Agency Members and Classes |
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| 2013 |
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2014 |
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2015 |
| Jenna Campbell |
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Kathy McDowell |
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Thad Leffingwell |
| Dustin Fravel |
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Annette Haskins |
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Wes Smith |
| Amanda Fuller |
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Andrew Engelbrecht |
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Christy Fisher |
| Naomi Ames |
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Mark Ames |
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Josh Rogers |
Agency Board Members
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