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Executive Director’s Board ReportJanuary MeetingMission MomentOur agency closes every year from December 24 until January 2, and the week before Christmas is always especially busy for our staff. Just hours before we were scheduled to close on December 23rd, a woman in crisis walked into our waiting room with two small children. They had just been evicted from their apartment and had nowhere to go. Expecting to be closed the last week of December, we had already exhausted all of our rental assistance funds for the month. Even though it was two days before Christmas, we didn’t have any funds to help this family in crisis. But our Housing Case Manager, Julia Davis, wouldn’t turn this family away without trying to find another agency who could help them. She spent two hours calling our agency partners, but they had also exhausted their emergency financial assistance for the month. Julia decided to call the clergy members of our city’s Interfaith Counsel on Homelessness, and a pastor offered the funds to place this family in a hotel for two weeks. Julia provided the mother with the hotel voucher and an appointment on January 2. The client returned for her appointment in January, and we have placed her in transitional housing. We have also helped her apply for subsidized housing and enter a GED program. DashboardOur agency dashboard is included in the meeting packet. I am happy to answer any questions about the dashboard. Greatest Success (since the last meeting)For the first time in the history of our organization, all staff reviews were completed in December. This is a significant milestone for our organization as it continues to evolve from a smaller, grass-roots organization into an established nonprofit with professional staff. Earlier this year, the Management Team discussed the issues we have traditionally experienced with completing annual reviews for all staff. Most Management Team members felt that operationalizing annual reviews would be easier if all staff were evaluated in December (instead of each staff member’s anniversary). We also took this opportunity to review and revise the annual review document. Our CFO, Ellen, obtained several review templates from our EAP, our national association, and her network of other CFOs. Program Director, Jessica, collaborated with Ellen to revise the template so that it would work for us and the entire Management Team provided feedback on the drafts. Greatest Challenge (since the last meeting)Over the past two months, five of our staff have needed to quarantine because a family member was diagnosed with COVID. This represents 25% of our staff, who have each been unable to work onsite for a two-week period. This has strained our ability to serve clients and also delayed our completion of a grant report. To mitigate the future impact of this:Each staff member has created a brief “playbook” that provides instructions for completing the tasks they do on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.All direct-service staff are cross training with at least one other position.We have surveyed all staff on the WFH technology they have. Whenever feasible, we have transitioned paper documents to digital ones. As an example, we now use for manger review of invoices.Our efforts to mitigate this issue will also help us when onboarding new staff members. Topic of the MonthAs we begin working on our FYE 6/30/2022 budget, I’d like to start a conversation about pay equity. As an organization, what should our commitment be to paying a livable wage to all staff?The fair market rent for a 2-bedroom apartment in our region is $3,437 per month. To afford that rent, a person must earn about $41,000 per year. Of our 20 staff members, four of our staff members make less than $41,000 per year. Additionally, three of our current staff qualify for food stamps. While we likely won’t make decisions as part of this meeting, a successful conversation at the meeting would result in this issue being referred to a committee for further deliberation and recommendation. Opportunities for Board EngagementSignup for our virtual gala at Shadows are longest in January, and we wanted to give board members the opportunity to shadow our front desk for an hour this month. It’s a great way to get a first-hand understanding of the work we do. I will have a signup form for this opportunity. ................
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