Posting this Friday night after the graduation ceremony for our New Life Program, Family LIfe Program and Culinary Program.  It was an amazing night and the graduates were so inspirational.  They are living proof that it is possible to start again.  The entertainment for the evening was the Youth Department.  Wow, that was amazing.  The sang , read original poems, did a step routine and led us all in prayer.  It was so great.  Special thanks goes to Marlene Hamilton for arranging the evening and making it such a wonderful night.  Thanks to Joan Bunnell, Elis Taylor, James Leet and Katy Lafferty for being great directors and pouring love and encouragement into all the people we serve.  I really encourage staff and volunteers to attend the 3 graduations that we have each year, they will help you to know that you are making a difference.dc 

For as long as I have been associated with the Mission (10 years) we have discussed a reorganization that many felt was necessary due to the growth of the Mission ministry over the past 20 years.  This conversation has mainly centered on a reordering of the executive branch of the staff  by adding a Chief Operating Officer (COO).  While I served on the board there was very serious conversation about this happening and nothing much came of it, but I made it a part of our short term plans as soon as I became Executive Director 3 years ago.  Since then we have been doing internal adjustments to make room for this position both financially, structurally and emotionally.  Our first step was to give more authority to the Operations Directors (Kathy and Holly) so that the Executive Director would not be the center of the operational wheel.  My experience is that many people would just rather skip all the hard work of communicating through proper channels and just ask for permission from the boss, but this slows things down and stunts growth of the organization.  Organizationally I feel that we are ready for taking the next step and so we are hiring a COO to help give over-site of the day to day functions of the Mission.  For this important job I have asked Rev. Alvin Helms, formerly president of our board,  to come join our staff team.  Alvin has been the senior pastor of Oberlin Community Church in Steilacoom for 10 years and has great leadership experience and a warm and personable demeanor.  My desire was that we find someone who was familiar with the organization, had senior leadership experience and would be compatible with our team and values.  Alvin fits this description to the T.  Some will ask: how does this change Kathy and Holly’s job?  The answer is that it doesn’t change their jobs at all, they continue to manage the same people and have the same authority for operating the ministry.  The details of their jobs are so expansive that we need a COO to give attention to the big-picture operational questions.  It does change my job by allowing me to spend more time on strategic projects like our Adams Square Family Center and on board and donor relationships.  To put it simply, as CEO my job is to make sure that TRM is healthy now and into the future, both strategically and financially, and the COO position is the one who is responsible for the day to day decisions that need attention, much as Sue Horgen is responsible for the day to day financial functions of the Mission and her staff.  I’ll be expanding on this more in the future but I wanted to let you know about this development as you may begin to hear more about it.  Please welcome Alvin Helms as he begins to come around and introduce himself to the staff.  I might add that Alvin will be finishing his service to his church for the next couple months and will officially join us July 1st, but he will be participating in budget discussions and other meetings prior to that.  Any questions please feel free to post….dc

I had the opportunity to be on KVI 570 this morning to talk for a bit about the New Life Program graduation this evening.  It was good fun and I couldn’t be prouder of those graduating tonight.  KVI has been good to the Mission lately.  First Kirby Wilbur, the most popular morning personality on talk radio in western Washington, spoke at our 1st annual Give Thanks Luncheon in November.  And now they are giving us free airtime to talk about all the great things that are happening at TRM.  This opportunity came via Floyd Brown, another friend of the Mission who was guest hosting for Kirby.  Hope some of you supporters heard the segment.  If so feel free to comment.dc 

We received great and much anticipated news today: Holly Roso delivered her baby this morning.  We are sending over flowers and our best wishes to Holly and her husband Daniel.  The baby  was born at 8:44am and weighs 8 lbs. 19 inches.  We will let you know when she is accepting visitors.  No word on the name yet.  Congratulations Holly. dc  Update:  Kathy Austin, Marlene Hamiltion and I went to the hospital Thursday before the family headed home and saw the new little guy, he looks great and is healthy.  So is mom.  The big news is that Holly and Daniel have named him Jullian Ante Roso.  dc 

We received great news this week from Pierce County, they are supporting our Adams Square Family Center with an initial gift of $240,000!  This is great news and we are excited to have them on board.  This gift puts us up over $3 million committed to the $8.9 million dollar project.  Some of you may wonder how we hope to find all that money to make this happen.  At the risk of oversimplifying it, think of it in thirds, the first third comes from local and state governments, the second third will come from private foundations and the third from private donors and businesses.  Sounds easy right?  Well truth is that just like all the things we do here we rely upon our faith in God to make it all come together.  This is the biggest, most ambitious project we have ever attempted and we are doing it because we are the only ones who can. I encourage you to see other blog posts on Adams Square, including the video of the building posted on youtube.   I hope that all team members and partners will keep this at the top of your prayer list.  

I received an email from our friend Joe Ellis today.  Joe was Executive Director of the Mission for many years and was the catalyst for many of the programs and facilities the Mission currently enjoys.  He reported to us that he was diagnosed with cancer in his bladder a few weeks ago and now reports that his surgery was successful, but we still need to keep him in our prayers.  Here is a clip of his email. “This past Tuesday I received a pathology report. My doctor said the bad news was that the lab confirmed the tumors were cancerous; but with that being what it is, my prognosis could not be more favorable.  Here’s why. The tumors were low-grade (not aggressive) and surface-type (had not penetrated the cellular wall). So, absolutely great news!  He said, “We could pretend that everything will be fine forever, but that’s not the case. With these types of tumors, there is a 100% chance that they will come back. The good news is that should they recur, they would most likely been the same type of tumors that can be treated.”So, now our task is keeping a close watch on the situation and acting accordingly as necessary. That’s a pretty small price to pay when dealing with cancer. I’ll remain in faithful expectation that they will not return; but if they do, I’ll deal with it in hopeful expectation again. I am so grateful to God for His kindness and faithfulness to me during this challenging time. And, I want to thank you – my many family members and friends who have shown such an interest in my welfare, have been praying for me and asking others to join you as well. Your notes, letters, emails, phone calls, flowers, cards, etc., have been such an encouragement to me and helped me stay focused on powerful, positive and hopeful thoughts. ”  Joe Ellis

The Golf Committee of the TRM board approved a switch from our annual golfathon to a golf tournament today at our monthly golf committee breakfast.  This won’t be your regular, run of the mill tournament, but will be held at the new Chambers Bay golf course this July.  While the date is still in the works, the committee settled on this arrangement after a lot of discussion.  TRM has had a golfathon for 15 years and deciding to make the switch wasn’t easy.  The factors considered were the following:  More golfers could be involved in a tournment since the golfathon format limits many people who are not enthusiastic about fundraising.  The Chambers Bay course allows us the opportunity to have a one of a kind charity tournament in this area.   And lastly we hope we will be able to raise tens thousands of dollars to benefit Adams Square, our new project designed to serve homeless children.  As I get more information I will pass it on.  let me know what you think.   DC 

We received notice that the Tacoma Rescue Mission is one of the finalist in the best places to work in Pierce County competition held by the Business Examiner.  That is always nice to hear and a real tribute to everyone who comes to work each day ready to love others, which is most everyone here.  Some staff will remember that we also participated in a Best Christian Workplace survey several months ago.  This survey was pretty comprehensive and while it was anonymous, it gave us great feedback on what things people love about working at the Mission and what things they totally hate.  (and everything in between)  I have looked over the results and have found them helpful in knowing where we need to keep working.  At our next Quarterly Staff meeting I will be presenting the findings, good and bad, so that we can all digest how we are a part of a winning team and how we can make it better.  I won’t be holding anything back so come prepared to hear the truth.  Afterwards, we will celebrate all the good stuff!  I have a detailed file with the raw data of the survey for those interested in details.David 

Monday morning I had a chance to go visit Lloyd Chase, our ESC night manager at Tacoma General.  Lloyd is quite miserable right now (not sure what his condition is)  and could use our prayers.  He said he would probably be out of work for a couple of weeks so please make a point to pray for him until he is back on his feet.  I let him know how much we all appreciate and love him.  He does a great job.David