Wow, thanks for everybody who came to the party at the Challenge Learning Center to celebrate our Best Workplace award. There are so many great people here at the Mission who make it fun and exciting to come to work, it’s amazing. Thanks for the Birthday wishes too, gang. I’m bitter and angry about people accusing me of looking 20 years older than I actually am, but I’m coping. :)
Each month our board of Directors meets to discuss the big picture strategy and policy of the Mission and tonight is the night. We’ll be discussing issues like the Golf Tournament, Board involvement in fundraising, Insurance policies, and (drumroll please) financial policy. May not sound too exciting but it’s actually all important.We are looking at crafting a strategy and policies to develop a Foundation which would support the work of the Mission and ensure that future generations have the resources they need to keep the operations of the Mission running smoothly. In the end it boils down to having good boundaries so that people don’t invest money on the hopes of “getting rich quick” and end up losing Mission resources.Now, right now we don’t have enough money sitting around to worry too much about it, but by faith we will one day and that’s why we are preparing. Just thought you might like to know what’s cooking behind the scenes. DC
This morning I got this great note from Mar Corpuz about the Milgard Family giving to support our breakfast meal at the Mission. How big is this? It’s huge. With all the extra meals we are serving we have been concerned that we would be exceeding our budget for food…even with the extra effort to collect free food. Here is the statement.
The Gary E. Milgard Family Foundation feeds the hungry with a grant to the Good Neighbor Café, New Life Square making it possible to continue a program to serve daily breakfast meals (6:20AM-7:30AM) to unsheltered homeless clients and low-income people in the community. In the past year more than 18,900 breakfast meals served were funded through the foundation’s generosity.
The Business Examiner of Pierce County had their annual awards banquet Wednesday night to honor the best workplaces in Pierce County. The Tacoma Rescue Mission won for Best Non-Profit Workplace. The workplaces are graded on the follow criteria:
Congratuations to all the Mission staff. You are making this a great place to be. Our party to celebrate will be Monday afternoon at 3pm in the Challenge Learning Center. DC
With the wiring and installation of the screens in the day-room of the Emergency Services Center and Good Neighbor Cafe at New Life Sq. almost complete we will soon be able to scroll positive affirmations, scriptures, announcements, and more for the people who come to have a meal every day at the Mission.
How important is this? Pretty important. Think of it this way, every night we have 300 people or more lining up for dinner in the day room- what are they looking at? What are they thinking about? What are we doing to give them a positive message? How can we possibly give a positive message to all those people at once? The answer is that we can have scrolling messages on the screens so that every person in the day room and cafe will be able to see the video messages.
Things like: YOU ARE VALUABLE, GOD LOVES YOU, WE LOVE YOU, DON’T GIVE UP, YOU CAN BE CLEAN AND SOBER, FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD…, FOR THE WAGES OF SIN…, SIGN UP FOR THE NEW LIFE PROGRAM, GRADUATE FROM THE CHALLENGE LEARNING CENTER, and so on.
Remember that one of the goals we continually talk about is to create an inspiring place for our clients, this messaging will be an important part of that, but I need your help. Please post your favorite inspirational scriptures, messages, quotes, etc. here on the blog and we will post them on the message boards. Thanks David
Managers and Directors at the Mission are planning or will soon be planning their department budgets for the fiscal year 2009/2010 which starts July 1. We have been blessed thus far to have managed through the 17 months of recession without having to cut any jobs or benefits and hope to be able to maintain this posture through good management and the provision of the Lord and our ministry partners. In fact, we have worked hard to raise salaries and increase benefits over the last four years because we believe that our most important asset is our team.
Here are some factors we are considering in this years budget process:
In the four years that I’ve been here we have always made raising pay an important issue. I’ve tried to tackle the low-pay issue with a mixture of across-the-board pay raises, a merit bonus system and by targeting groups that are most in need of an adjustment based upon salary surveys. Because of this, we have made a concerted effort to make sure that there is equity among “like” jobs and to create pay-bands that would ensure that we could reward good performance and still raise the level of all the people within a grouping. We will do so again this year, as we are planning to work on raising the pay of our front line workers, the shift managers.
Another important issue is creation of new jobs. There is not a program within the Mission that doesn’t need more staff and isn’t pushed to the max. While we are staff of nearly 70, we really could use about 140 people. Typically however, I will not add staff until I am convinced that adding a staff would significantly improve services and outcomes. This is partly because of the high cost of adding an employee, partly because i want to see an effort by the Director to work with volunteer staff first, and partly because I feel a responsibility for each staff member we hire. I cannot in good conscience bring on another staff person until I am convinced we will be able to pay that person for at least 1 year. This year we are budgeting to add very few new jobs. The jobs we are budgeting to add will likely not be filled until we are into the second or third quarter of the budget year so that we can be assured that our budget is meeting projections. Our new Volunteer Dept. is here to assist each Director with helping to get the volunteer staff and support you may need. Contact Kathya@trm.org.
Health care expenses are another huge issue. This year they are projected to go up 12%, despite our moves last year to go to a larger deductible. Yet, despite this, We feel like this has always been a great benefit to the Mission staff and we are budgeting no change in our health care benefit.
Lastly, is operational expenses. We are asking that dept. leaders make a budget for the coming year that accurately projects what you are hoping to accomplish in the new year. Think first of how you can make your program more affective at reaching the hurting people that we are here to serve, and then of what you will need to accomplish that task. Please be conservative in your estimate of training that requires an overnight stay and capital costs. In the end, we will all work together to set a budget number.
If you have any questions about your department or about how to prepare your budget, please call me or Sue. 253-383-4462.
One of the things I’ve tried hard to do is to get out and meet our donors and supporters in the community. In the summer we hold Coffee Events all over Pierce County, last summer we had 9 events, and I often give tours and meet personally with donors. Last night was the first time we’ve held a social dinner for donors to attend and it was great. The purpose of the dinner was to get to know each other and talk about our common interest in the Mission. I got a chance to talk a little about some of the challenges and victories we face every day at the Mission and then I took questions for about 15 minutes.
There were 25 of us in attendance and it was a great time. I’m sure we’ll have another one soon. As always, any donor can schedule a time to get together and talk with me or just drop me an email. Another great way to keep in touch is to follow me on twitter, @davidgcurry, or on Facebook. Thanks again to everyone who was part of this great event. David
How do I stay motivated and connected to our work helping the homeless? Well, consider this: every day, and I do mean every day, a homeless woman comes by and rummages through the garbage just outside my office window. Some days she finds something to drink or eat, other times she just keeps going. I’ve tried talking with her to get her help but she’s clearly mentally ill and won’t speak with me. It’s definately frustrating and yet it motivates me to keep trying to reach out. There are a lot of people who need our help, even if they don’t want it just yet. Here is a clip of her rummaging through the garbageSend an email to julietl@trm.org if you are interested in serving food at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.
Yesterday was Dana Schwartz’s birthday and I checked in on her Facebook page to wish her the a happy day. When I did I saw the following post:
I know I haven’t done my daily writing for a minute now…but, I was reading this one today that I wrote a year ago and was overwhelmed in praise and thankfulness to God! It got my focus off of my silly dilemma of turning almost 40 and having no husband, kids, career, degree, etc….. To what I do have, which is a relationship with Jesus and a wonderful life of love. Some days those are just words that bring a very small amount of thankfulness. I say it just as I would say I have a computer, sometimes even with more emotion spilling out of me about my computer. So sad.
Today though, I look at my 39 years of life with a thankful heart! God has healed me in ways I never thought were even possible. I am no longer a crackhead nor am I homeless and broke, and I don’t wind up in places and situations beyond my control without knowing how I got there. I am a woman of integrity who would NEVER again stoop to the places I have been because Jesus has shown me who I really am and where I want to be. I’m so thankful that God pursued me all these years, that He has forgiven for my past, that He has a plan for my future, and that His love and grace are more than enough for today. I’m thankful I still have a mind and the sense to live responsibly, and that I have the Holy Spirt to guide me and teach me to look at Jesus and to run to Him and to love Him and others! I’m thankful that He has given me each of you who love me and befriend me and accept me as family. I am richly blessed! I’m going to try to get writing more and more….Don’t forget to read the attachment!
There are at least two different perspectives of any organization: The way it looks from the inside, and the way it looks from the outside looking in. This is never more true than when you are talking about connecting with volunteers and donors. From the inside it sounds somethings like this: ”Just pick up the phone and give us a call, we need all the help we can get.” But from the outside it sounds like this: ”Frankly, we’re too busy to let you help us”. Is this true of our Mission? It must be, since unless there is widespread focus on the volunteer’s viewpoint the most natural thing to do is to put the responsibility on the volunteer. Most staff would never dream of telling a volunteer that they are “too busy”, yet their actions and the priority they place on helping a volunteer get acclimated to our work says it all. The question is not “do we do this?”, but rather, “how can I put myself in the volunteers shoes?”
A few years ago I was a part of a large outdoor meeting. There were tens of thousands of people gathered to hear a speech, everyone huddled together to stay warm and dry, as it was a very cold and wet day. As I tried to make my way into the crowd, it was a sea of bodies. It was very difficult to find a spot to move into the group and make my way to a decent spot to view the speech. The job was made all the more difficult by the fact that many had umbrellas up to guard from the rain. This made for a nearly impenetrable shield. Many people just walked around the large group looking for an opening in the crowd. Most just latched onto the outside and made another barrier for others to try and break through.Clearly, this is what happens in most organizations that need and work with volunteers.
If you put yourself in the volunteers shoes, you’ll see that it looks like a large, hard to penetrate organization that is hard to get plugged into. It’s true of churches, non-profits, and even true here at the Tacoma Rescue Mission. Interestingly, when I was at the outdoor speach I actually pushed through the crowd and found that there were pockets of space on the inside where I could get a great view. Unfortunately, most people don’t push through, they circle the outside of the organization and then just go away quietly.Let’s make a point to put ourselves in the shoes of those who want to serve along side of us.
Our goal must be to make it easy for them to get in and be part of our great work.Please contact Kathya@trm.org or JulietL@trm.org if you need help in seeing how your department can become more volunteer friendly, or if you are interested in volunteering. DC