BOARD SYNOPSIS

JANUARY 2017

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A part of SPAN’s ongoing improvement is our goal to communicate to our stakeholders.  I am happy to present a brief synopsis of the SPAN Board meeting held January 12, 2017.

• The agenda was adopted with an amendment to consider structural changes in the Habitat Laundry program. Management recommends the Board adopt a new name for this unregistered project; “Western Industrial Laundry” better reflects the outcomes we wish to achieve.
• Western Industrial Laundry is working on developing bids for new contracts in Wainwright and for oil field camps.  Business is slow right now with many camps shut down.
• There are some concerns that SPAN is stuck with a large repair bill for one of our vehicles because of unnecessary damage caused by poor driving. No cost was levied against the staff but a letter of reprimand was recommended by the Board.
• The Hospital Foundation is on March 4, 2017. Two tables were purchased for people to attend.
• Management received a letter in response to concerns we raised with respect to the minimum wage increase. Specifically we welcome better wages for Alberta workers, however, these legislated changes did not come with top-ups to our funding.  This means that we are contracted to deliver a certain number of hours of service, but our funding for those hours falls short by just over $31,000.
• The Board received many thank you messages for the Christmas bonuses. Over $63,000 was distributed to 156 SPAN employees.
• The Board attended a Christmas Light tour. The winners were:  Res 10 – first place; Res 12 – second place; Res 5 – third place.  Well done to all the houses that participated this year!
• We received a very positive report on the Christmas Day dinner our houses put on, and the Christmas Party in December.
• Next to New Store was able to purchase a large stock of case-good furniture. These are mostly tables, chairs, hutches, mirrors and other materials.  The store will be blowing the furniture out at discount prices, mostly through web sales, very shortly.
• We were pleased to see an excellent article in the December 27 newspaper about the Hampton Inn project. It helped clarify that there is no grant or government funding going into the project.  This is the next generation of Social Enterprise that will help SPAN move away from our dependence on government funding and be more self-sufficient.  While the Hotel will not be charitable, all its revenues will help support our charitable agency.
• We bid farewell to our long time Director of Residential Support Services. Diana Foerster, with 25 years at SPAN, has retired in December.
• The Board has applied to be able to use casino and bingo money to support individual people when they need medical aids, communication devices, physical or mobility aids and/or affordable housing capital supports. No response yet from Gaming.

 

 

 

Board Synopsis

April 2017 Synopsis

 

• The employment department prepared a video and shared with the Board. It was great to have several of the team leaders along with Betty Magdiak join our Board meeting.
• The Board had applied to use Alberta Gaming funds to support people with special needs. While the AGLC agreed that we could donate our gaming funds to other organizations, we are not allowed to use it to purchase medical, communication aids for individuals. This is a big disappointment to us.
• The Board is preparing to welcome 3 new folks to the agency.
• There has been 5 requests from agencies across our province to mentor senior management to develop both complex needs supports and social enterprise.
• SPAN has had significant success with both endeavors, and we have become the standard setters for what can be achieved in the delivery of ultra-complex services; and also how the agency benefits as we move toward greater fiscal independence.
• SPAN received and approved the budget for the 2017/2018 fiscal year. There are a number of initiatives underway, from some intensive staff training to significant repairs and maintenance of our existing buildings. The Board also approved the purchase of a replacement wheelchair accessible van for Res #12.
• Charity Developments LTD gave a report on the hotel. This development is currently on time and on budget. Opening continues to be December 2017. We have a small crew purchasing our furnishings and equipment’s right now in China; we expect to save about $160,000 or more by purchasing direct from the manufacturer.
• SPAN has signed up with Grant Advance, a company that can assist with developing non-government funding leads. The MyHome project is gaining members. This affordable and attainable housing is for seniors, people with lower income and folks with housing challenges. A committee has been struck with a number of community members, plans for the project are completed, and we have worked out the initial cost. We are working to develop a partnership with the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, to assist first time home buyers to finance their homes.
• The Board also studies the issue around minimum wage changes and the impact to the agency. Our funding from the Government of Alberta is still at 2013 grant levels. This means the agency is subsiding the increased cost of benefits, and the increase in minimum wage that happened last October. There are only 12 sleep at night positions that are affected by the minimum, however the upcoming increase from $12.20 to $13.60 in October will cost over $90,000 annually.
• The Board has sent a letter to the ministry indicating our concern for the lack of increases to wages, and funding for the minimum wage adjustment.
• The Board moved that we donate the proceeds from two bingo’s to the Family Benefit Committee. The ninth year that we have done so.

Information Session

May 24, 2019

In February this year the management group, along with several frontline supervisors attended a retreat at which we worked to develop a strategic plan. These plans came from our Board Visioning retreat last October. We settled on 15 goals under 4 larger strategies to improve the organization.

The 4 strategies include:

1. Becoming an employer of choice.
2. Enhancing and sustaining our Social Enterprises.
3. Create a center for education.
4. Continuously adapt and improve our programs and services.

 

1. To become an employer of choice we need to do several activities better:

• We have to find out what our employees need.
• We need to encourage and support people.
• We need to pay attention to not just a safe work environment, but to those things that make a better quality of life. Like housing, day care, benefits and wages.

SPAN has spent a fair amount of time on this strategy already. We constantly .lobby our government for better wages, we have struck a committee to review the possibility of a day care for staff kids, and are well on the way to improve available housing for all income groups in St. Paul.

1. The second strategy to enhance and sustain Social Enterprise includes things like improving revenue, increase our market share, and explore aggregate purchasing. If you look at what’s new in the agency, you’ll be able to see how we have applied this strategy. DAC Catering in the exclusive caterer for the hotel. This has increased catering sales by almost twice.

 

We have Gabe who is doing some off shore importing for us. He is connected to the Next To New store, and you’ll see a host of new products in the store, supporting retail sales.

 

We have yet to move towards aggregate purchasing; that would be like warehousing the things we purchase in case lots and distributing them in some fashion. It is a big undertaking as we would require an inventory system, but this could potentially save us a lot in groceries, at least dry goods, and other purchases like office supplies, fuel, etc.

 

• The third strategy to create a center of education has several goals. We know we have ‘experts’ and expertise in the agency. We plan to find a way to enhance and share that expertise among staff. We planned to present more, and thanks to Allison Yopyk and Trina Cox who delivered a session on Rural Services Delivery at the recent ACDS Spring Conference last week, we have begun. I am not sure if SPAN employees know that SPAN is considered one of the better agencies in the province; we are trend setters and are often the first to try a new treatment or strategy.

 

Management meets this strategy by seeking out staff who have interest in becoming a trainer for common subject matters. Many of the courses delivered to our staff in and out of the agency are given by employees who have taken train the trainer course in a subject. We then hire them to deliver to their co-workers, Building expertise is very important in this field so if you have an interest talk to your department Director about a subject you can develop some expertise in.

 

1. Finally, the strategy to continuously adapt and improve programs and services. We have spent a great deal of time talking and preparing for the next generation of community supports. We have an idea of what they will look like, and where our focus may take us. Let’s talk about what innovations might be coming to services here in St. Paul.

• There is room for additional transitional Mental Health support here. With the new rules around Mental Health patients taking hospital and emergency beds away from other acute care patients there is an appetite to explore faster ways to transition stable patients out of our designated Mental Health ward into community based supports.
• Specialized respite is potentially growing as a service need. We will continue to monitor the needs of the community going forward.
• Support homes are for people with minimal needs living with a family in the family home. We have a need for at least one support home in the future. If you think your family could take an adult person with disabilities into your home, let me know.
• Complex Needs people are always a challenge, but a growing segment of our service population. We have become fairly good at supporting this special population and I expect that we’ll see some investment in the area in the next couple of years.
• Right now we are looking at how technology can improve services. We’ve talked about a quick response service for people living independently; on a two way communication process for clients and on better data management for outcomes monitoring. Shortly you’ll see a move toward better outcomes management. I’ll speak more about this after we finish developing the framework for monitoring.
• Shared independence in the newest and most likely the next big shift in services. We are looking at supporting people who express an interest in becoming more independent but still need supports. Share independence relies on their network of family and friends, and a housing option that we build safety measures into. It also includes a different kind of staffing model more akin to skilled house parents and outreach support than direct workers.
• Employment for people with challenges is a key metric in community integration and difficult economy but I am proud of our employment staff for keeping a lot of people in the workforce. I am especially proud of the impact the Journal delivery contract is having both for people who would rarely have a chance at gainful employment, and the joy our workers have as they go out to work.
• Finally, Harm Reduction for people with addictions is going to be a key area of interest with us. Our traditional client group is very vulnerable to the emerging drug culture. Members of our Board and management see first-hand the challenges that addiction present for clients, and we are exploring ways to address this growing problem. Every funder we work with struggles with similar problems, meth; fentanyl; pain killers like Tramadol; morphine; an oxycodone are having a huge impact on growing number of people we serve. We’ll be looking for solutions and treatments. Over the next year expect to see some training opportunities come your way.

Now for changes in the organization recently. You likely all know that we have had a number of senior staff members retire. Diana Forester a couple of years ago, Eugene McCafferty just last year along with our Accountant Dave Lashuk. In July we’ll wish Betty Magdiak all the best as she retires as the Director of Employment Supports. Welcome to Allison Yopyk who has been promoted to take on the Director-ship. So that means we’ll be looking for a new Senior Programmer for the Vocational Department.

 

Also we said farewell to Craig Cherritt, our Human Resource manager. Craig was only with us for 5 months before he was headhunted by the Federal Government and now heads up Civilian Services in Edmonton. Welcome to Kerra Trimble, a recent Human Resource Graduate and employee of the Hampton Inn who has taken on the role.

I am pleased to share that we have recently renegotiated our benefits package. After a very vigorous tendering process, we awarded the package back to AMSC and Sunlife so you will still have the same great benefits you had. The big change is the price, as we have savings of over 20% compared to 2018 premiums. While we explored the possibility of a health spending account, we opted not to purchase this benefit, but to enjoy the savings. Management felt that money in your pocket was more important.

I want to remind you that every employee has the ability to set up a savings account with the payroll department. There actually are quite a few staff now that have a small amount deducted from each pay cheque. The upside is that if you don’t see the money you won’t miss it, and in a year or so when you need glasses, or want to go on vacation or your car needs repairs, you can withdraw your savings and use them for whatever you want. Talk to Violeta in payroll to set this up.

We are also tendering our banking activity. Tender closes on May 30^th and we expect to award by the end of June. If we move institutions it will likely mean our automatic deposit system for payroll will shift as that is part of our banking agreement, I don’t expect any disruptions though there will be a lot of work in the office to transition smoothly.

As another note; we did award the audit services to a different company this year. Our new auditors, Gallo & Company, will be in for the annual audit. We are very pleased to have the new firm come in.

The Accreditation Survey Team will be arriving on May 28^th and will be with us we expect until Friday May 31^st. We anticipate an intensive 4 day review of our services and processes. I am impressed with the work our committees have undertaken. I want to thank Trina and Allison for taking the lead preparing for this 3 year process. I know they along with their various teams have been rewriting policy, training staff, managing schedules and reviewing our processes for the better part of a year. Thank you to everyone who has participated and contributed.

In June we’ll have a review of our computer and software systems. You know that Eugene was our unofficial IT guy for years, and since he has retired we certainly are appreciating what he did to monitor our systems. I have created an IT position and we’ll be interviewing shortly for an IT specialist. As we move forward as an agency it is important that we stay current with technology and these days having information technology as an integral part of our business will be mandatory.

Our Contingency committee from the Board has supported about 6-7 requests in the past year. Many of you know that SPAN has the ability to provide loans or grants to employees who are in emergency situations. Often these are because unexpected stuff happens and a family is in crisis. We can’t help everyone with everything, and I remind you we are not a bank, but sometimes our staff just needs extra help in a trying moment and we can be there for you. See me personally if you want to be considered for help.

Sadly we have 3 retirements for our Board at this coming Annual General Meeting. Tim Melnyk has served his maximum 9 years, Dennis Robinson had to leave due to a very serious health related issue and Arnold Marira is finishing out his term. We have one person who has accepted the role, but if you know of a dedicated thoughtful person, one who is not in a conflict of interest preferably, then please share their contact information with me.

Emails will be moving to a different host shortly. As part of our review, we’ll be looking at hosts. MCSnet is getting out of commercial hosting so SPAN will keep our domain spanet.ab.ca, but the host will change. I am hoping we’ll not have any disruptions in service.

I am pleased to bring you this information. If you have any questions on what to ensure we talk about what’s going on in your program area, let me know.