Armand Ball, a native of Louisiana, has spent most of his adult life in organized camping as director of faith-based and YMCA camps in Florida, Tennessee, Texas, and Minnesota, and then as chief executive of the American Camp Association. Currently, a resident of Sanibel Island, Florida, he has been active in the local conservation foundation, the city's below-market-rate housing foundation board, the city's park and recreation committee, and the board of the Center for Environmental and Sustainability Education of Florida Gulf Coast University. Listed in Who's Who in America since 1980, Armand was one of the founders of the International Camping Fellowship, and he served on its steering… committee and as editor of their newsletter for a decade. He is now an emeritus member of the steering committee.
Beverly Ball, a native of Mississippi, has served in various positions in faithbased and YMCA camps in Tennessee and Minnesota, as well as a trainer for Gild Scouts of the USA at the local and national level. Her professional career has included work as a high school, teacher, church youth director, director of college faith-related student activities, and publications director for the American Camp Association. She has been active as a volunteer in conservation and wildlife organizations, including the J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. From 1988 to 2009, Armand and Beverly have worked as Alpha Beta consultants with camps and organizations, as well as teaching… training courses for camp directors across the United States and in Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, and Venezuela. Their text, Basic Camp Management is available in English, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian, with an edition pending in Georgian and Spanish.