I want to begin by acknowledging your involvement in the summer youth events:

• 12 Kamaks at camps with the JV theme "All Good"
  
• 14 Kamaks at Highway Camp
• 2 Kamaks at Ignite Week
• 15 Kamaks at a camp with a local church
• 6 Kamaks at a camp with another church
• 22 Kamaks at another youth event (UNITED, Kristfest, Daniel Weekend, etc.)

Please capture interesting stories and feedback from participants early on and post them on the "pribehy-stories" channel on Slack, or contact Dominik Mendrek from Communications. I believe we will have the time to share them together and in person.

Thank you also to all who are organizing a Recharge meeting at the beginning of the school year to encourage young leaders in your city or region. So far, I know of 10 meetings planned in 6 different regions of the country.

If you want to get an overview of what we as KAM have been doing this summer and what the plans are for each area of work in the fall, I encourage you to read the Fall KAM News, which comes out tomorrow, September 8th. For a reminder or explanation to new staff:

• KAMin = internal newsletter for KAM staff,
  
• KAM News = external newsletter for a broad group of church leaders, youth leaders, donors, and other collaborators and partners.

As the ExTeam (the executive and advisory team to the KAM Director: Dušan + Karel, Kevin, Kuba, Míša), we undertook an intensive 3-day work trip during the summer. We had space to reflect on what works in KAM, what needs to change, and where the challenges are.

In terms of fulfilling KAM's mission, we are optimistic that:

• We are committed to young leaders
  
• We don't just fish ourselves, but we teach others to fish more - not only through training but also by seeing outreach programs as a way to teach youth
  
• The work with denominations is thriving

A particular challenge that we face is:

• How do we pass on a greater drive for the mission, not just through programs, training, and materials, but what can we do to reach the heart better? Don't churches need to experience the WHY before we teach them the HOW? How can we seek out people who are gifted as evangelists? We want to have the missional living as a lifestyle as the overarching theme for the 2022/23 school year.

We talked about the workings and outlook of the ExTeam and considered:

• What style of leadership do we need in relation to the breadth of KAM and the spread of the team across the country (we are continually striving for KAM workers to identify with KAM, not just a region or a particular ministry)
• Whether it is time to add new members to the ExTeam, or to regularly invite some staff to ExTeam meetings (we currently see a need for regular contact with Kača for HR and Milan for outreach services and creating space for discussion with leaders)
• What is the outlook for the ExTeam as we addressed the issue of succession within KAM leadership, specifically concerning the handover of Karel H.'s responsibilities by the end of the school year

For the bulk of the meeting, we invited Kača K. from HR because we recognize that people are our most precious resource. We specifically focused on:

• The KAM team, individual staff, changes, and needs
• 2nd culture care issue: starting in September, the KAM team will be strengthened by Jim and Lina Miller, who will commit to KAM for two years with a focus on 2nd culture care and uplink training, possibly marriage coaching. Kevin will continue to represent JV NFP with all existing responsibilities concerning 2nd culture
• We have agreed that in addition to monthly HR windows responding primarily to current needs (with Kača and with the Millers for 2nd culture), we will quarterly address the whole ExTeam concerning staff from a developmental perspective

We spent time reflecting on how the programs, regions, and training are working and planning for the next school year:

• We have summarized the KAM 2022/23 Key Objectives concerning the Long Term Guiding Objectives. We will review these every two months and update them, if necessary, at the ExTeam Strategy Meeting.
• We have approved an updated plan of internal events and meetings, taking into account your feedback from the KAM Feedback Questionnaire (see KAM Events below).

New staff

• Dan Blažek, who previously worked with KAM as a freelancer, joined Fusion as a part-time coordinator on June 1st.
  
• Lukáš Macura strengthened the EXIT team and became an EXIT Tour coach from September 1st.
  
• Helča Ukropcová, who has been a Kamák Lite until now, became a Kamák tribe member on September 1st. She remains on the Training team.
  
• Lina a Jim Millers will join KAM as part of 2nd Culture Care for two years as of September 1st.
  
• You can meet the new receptionists, Kača Adamovská and Jana Stachovcová, at the hotel.
  

Departing staff

• At the end of June, Milan Michalko, and Vojta Barot concluded their collaboration with KAM.
• The ForMission team (Pattys, Llamas, Smiths, and Anička Janoušková) moved to the I-Team (JV) on July 1st.
• Radek Hlavsa finished his activity as the director of KC Malenovice at the end of August.
• The receptionist, Markétka Kubalová, is at home with Damijánek, and Kája Šimíková from Administration also went on maternity leave.

Changes

• Ben Robertson is now the head of the Bohemia Region and the uplink for Anezka and Josh Dietz since April 1st.
  
• Milan Szturc became the uplink of the following service leaders from May 1st - Tomas Toušek, Geoff Hammond, Miriam Paszová, and remains the leader of Jéňa Pospíšil.
• Marťa Lachová became the manager of Malenovice KC.
  
• Josh Dietz has moved from Fusion to regional ministry under Ben.
  
• Karel Hennhofer will gradually reduce his involvement in KAM starting on September 1st.
  
• Boža Lach has moved to work at the hotel, where he will be responsible for a new volunteer project and manage the restaurant.
  
• Petr Hrubo from Slovakia is Dusan's uplink as of September 1st.
  

For more information about the team, please refer to the updated Organizational Structure 2022/09.

We are looking for these positions

We are also currently looking for several new staff members. You can always find an overview on the KAM website in the Join us section. Send any tips to Kača K. at hr@kam.cz.

Our missionaries in the USA

The Kaspars were on Home Assignment during the summer.

New HR rules and documents

We are now making Paternity Leave available to dads of newborn babies to help moms with their newborns. It is possible to choose five working days in a row up to 6 weeks after the baby is born. This option is not claimable but can be approved by the uplink on your request. This rule applies also to 2nd culture (over and above the leave enrolled in Orange HR).

Matching grant and increase in FR targets (for 1st culture and their uplinks only)
Just a reminder: a matching grant is currently active! If you have not used the first three-month period July-September, be sure to use it in October-December. Kača K. has sent individual, informative emails about the increase of your fundraising (FR) targets from July 1st and, at the same time, about the temporary increase of your rewards thanks to the gap fund. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with Kača at hr@kam.cz.

We want to offer you the opportunity to spend one work day as a "Day with God" at the beginning of the school year. Take time to get in God's presence and seek God's guidance for the year ahead for you, your ministry, and KAM. Although this is an individual time, we would like to be united by holding this day together on September 16th. If you need to take a different day in September, please discuss this with your uplink.

Please help us decide whether to hold a KAM Christmas Party (family members are invited!) on December 9th and 10th in Malenovice. Let us know by September 15th if you would be interested in participating in this type of event via this minute-long Interest Survey. (See the survey header for more info on this event.)

We are planning the following events, which will help build the KAM team and unite us across our various projects and regions, for the 2022/23 school year:

• 3-4x all-KAM events in Malenovice:
  
  • KAM Obývák (in October) - staff meeting at the beginning of the school year
  • If interested, a Christmas party (in December) - social gathering for the whole family
  • KAM Conference (in March) - a multi-day work meeting linked to the Annual Conference
  • Garden Party (in June) - a social gathering for the whole family
• 5 x Dobré ráno Family - smaller community gatherings grouped by location, focused on relationships and sharing this school year. The theme for these meetings is "Missional Living as a Lifestyle."
  
• 5 x Dobré ráno Info (for everyone) and their follow-up Leadership Info (for leaders) - short information sessions via Zoom promoting awareness across KAM
  
• 3 x Staff development day (formerly "Training Day") - staff development sessions + optional KAM Masterclasses (see the email from Lucka that went out on August 23rd for more info)
  
• 2 x Management development - meeting for developing leaders with space for discussion between leaders and the ExTeam.
  

These events are compulsory for KAM staff, except for the Christmas Party and the Garden Party, where attendance is optional. Part-time staff will agree on the level of attendance at KAM events with their uplink. KAM lite and mothers on maternity leave (lanes 1 and 2) may attend all events as they are able. Non-KAM partners are more than welcome at events if they want to attend.

Based on your repeated suggestion from the Feedback Questionnaire, we have tried to cumulate several events together to use your travel to Malenovice efficiently. And we also want to create more space during the events to be together, build relationships, and share and discuss naturally.

The main JV events are:

• JV Fall Conference (September) - an inspirational conference for invited 1st and 2nd culture and young leaders from churches
  
• JV National Orientation (October) - an online gathering for new workers across JV
  
• JV Thanksgiving (November) - a social gathering for 2nd culture families from the JV to celebrate Thanksgiving
  
• JV Winter Academy (January) - by-invitation training event for new staff
  
• JV Intensives (January) - educational selection seminars
  
• JV Spring konference (May) - social gathering for 2nd Culture JV families