Jim's CEO Blog: Memorial Day & Board Week

So how did you spend your Memorial day weekend? I spent Saturday doing yard and garden work until enjoying the latter part of the day and evening at a neighborhood party. Sunday I went golfing with my brother-in-law and picked up right where I left off last year by not breaking 100. I guess I will break down and use the golf instruction gift certificate my wife bought me last Christmas. Monday we hosted a small family graduation celebration for our nephew who graduated from Potsdam SUNY college and is now off to earn his masters. What a beautiful 3-day weekend. I hope you all got a chance to enjoy and relax in your own special way!

Back at work on Tuesday saw a lot of productive time squeezed into a short week. I was able to finish off a comprehensive "White Paper" that summarizes the critical financial issues and options pertaining to our Kirkhaven Replacement Project. This paper is the culmination of a lot of strategic analysis and review that provides clarification and a road map around the major financial related hurdles we will need to navigate. The Kirkhaven Replacement Project currently has 3 distinct major elements that we are actively working on:

* Facility vision & design
* Site location
* Financial considerations

The Financial Considerations White Paper is being presented and discussed at next week's Building & Ground's committee meeting and then will be distributed for information to the Board. If you would like an advance copy, please send me an e-mail request and I will send you the document file.

At the Kirkhaven Board meeting, the board was introduced to our ace nursing administration team. Nadine, Etta and Michelle presented an educational sound-byte to orient the board to the structure and goals of the nursing department. Jim III was introduced to the board and shared some of his background and immediate department goals. The balance of the meeting was dedicated to reports and discussion pertaining to Amanda's facility operations update report and the progress reports from the Resident Life and Building & Grounds Committee. We have a very supportive and active board that cares about our residents and our mission.

At the Valley Manor Board meeting, we dedicated all our time to a progress report by the Greystone team. They are only about 60% into the project so the emphasis of their presentation was more on an orientation of their organization, personnel, experience and project approach. They outlined the project deliverables and timeline and gave the board some initial impressions from their earlier site visit and review to date. They are aiming for the August 6 Seniorsfirst Board meeting to present their final report and recommendations. We are blessed to have some key board member participation and support with this critical and challenging project of major significance.

Other activity and development from the week include a final management decision and recommendation to take to the board concerning our 401(k) pension plan. After much analysis and dialog, we will recommend a plan administered through the team of Fidelity Investments and Morgan Stanley Advisors. On a related subject, another management decision was reached concerning our contract pension actuary for the defined benefit pension plan. After interviewing and reviewing competitive proposals we will hire the local firm of Gallagher & Associates to replace our long time actuary of Longacre & Associates. We also had a bisque fund-raiser planning meeting and our Chair, Jean Boyle, led us to some key decisions concerning setting the date of September 19 for our next 1-day sale event, aiming to add at least 1 additional site on the South or North side of town, and establishing some marketing/public relations ideas.

In other news, I continue to lead a RAHSA initiative to restructure our local membership association including the Criminal Background Check joint-venture program. This has turned into a major project and challenge that I am now committed more than ever to fix. I see a light at the end of the tunnel and hope to finish this off in a few more weeks.

On a sad note, I have received formal notice from Dr. Jurik that he is retiring form the medical field at the end of this September. He came to see me and ensured me that it is not the result of anything more than he is tired and ready to hang up his stethoscope. Unfortunately, his practice doesn't have adequate physician coverage to continue providing service to Kirkhaven, so we will be recruiting a new physician group. I am sharing this with you in advance of any official announcement just to give my Blog a sense of "you heard it here first" importance:)

Hey, be sure to keep Jean Boyle in your thoughts as she has a hip replacement surgery on Monday, followed by a 6 week recoupment and rehabilitation leave-of-absence. Folks are starting to send in their summer vacation requests, which is helpful for me to plan accordingly. I plan to be gone from July 3-13 for my time at the cottage on Indian Lake.

Have a great week and in closing, here is my practice attempt to drop in some pictures so in the future I can share some work related pictures to help capture the essence of the week.