CONVENTION

[Debbie Pitts]

Morning Nanc,
When you's write up your nominations then you submit them to NAHCA, they have a Board read and do the judging of them to select the winners. You really need to start submitting minutes to them for your meetings and what all you are doing. This is how facility of the year is selected too. There are many ways to acheive this award but definately need the minutes submitted ok. I think once you start with a leadership team things will start to fall into place for yous. People will notice what yous are doing. WE have alot of negativity in my facility too, but after several years now of membership, i do see a little less. Generallly speaking most are supportive for us. We also do alot of things for the community as well which also helps. And alot for our residents too. Once you get started things will follow for you. Take one day at a time, continue with your fundraisers and try to send differant people to each convention, this will help alot too as they learn more and more about what NAHCA is really about. Glad you got the rada book, awesome isn't it ? The products especially the knifes are top of the line and last forever. Just remember to take the pricing sheet out of it so it isn't viewed by others. We really do extremely well with that as a fundraiser, people actually wait for me to do it or they start asking when again so good luck with it, give it a try. Keep me posted ok, any questions, just ask. Let me know how your meeting goes, if you need help to start with minutes for submission just give me a yell, i will walk you thru it ok. It really is easy to do . Thanks for staying on board , your'e a good egg and a determined one too !! Good for you, i know you can do this !! Deb

[nancyl]

well i talked to the nurse that helps with NAHCA about starting up a leadership team and she said that we had one a long time ago and it didn't work out and i told her that im here now and thats why we need to try again. she said that we can discuss it at the next meeting. so hopefully we can get something started!! i am soooo excited that we seem to be getting somewhere now and i even talked to my DON to see if she wanted to participate in the stepping up for quality, and she asked me how it worked so i told her and she didn't really say anything. at least it was a start and she knows that im trying to get more people involved including administration. my only questions are, the sponsors that we find, are they sponsoring by the step, by the mile or just a set amount in general. and when do we need to have the sponsor sheets in by, one paper that i have says by Feb 28th and the other says start sending them in after march 1st? i need to know for our meeting on monday. thanks again for all u do i appreciate you and ur help. YOU ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Debbie Pitts]

Good Job there kiddo !!
You have a good start just stay with it and be persistant about it. The pledge cards don't go in till March so you are correct on that. Now they can do them right online also. People can pledge either by the step , mile or make a flat rate donation which is what i think most folks will do since the walk is for a whole month. I know in my facility, that's what most will do. All the info will be included in their registration packets when they get them. Something else is that we really need to try and get as many people to convention possible so hopefully we can all send more than b/4. We would like to try and break our record from last year. This years is going to be just awesome, especially with the tour they have arranged for us, that will be so neat to go to. i need to bump up my fundraisers too here. Have you checked the web site to see that the nomination packets are ready so you's can start your nominations now ? If not, you may want to print one out and also get your facility starting on those too. I think the deadline for those is Mar 20th. Check it out, just go to convention 2010 click on it and you will see it. I usually print 1 out and make copies to have all over the facility then start encouraging staff to write them up. Just follow the instructions ok if your not used to doing this. Good luck and keep going, sounds l;ike you are on your way !! Keep me posted

[nancyl]

hey deb:

well we had our meeting yesterday and there weren't very many that showed up but im getting the ball rolling anyway. i thought about getting a campaign running so that the staff can vote on who they want to be on the leadership team. everyone thought that was a good idea. we already have a seretary and treasurer we just need to have a president and vice president. i thought that when it came time to decide who was goung to the convention, we would have the staff, patients, and family nominate people to go and the final decision would be up to the leadership team. watcha think? we start our 50/50 raffel on monday , we have a bake sale on the day that the raffel ends and then the week after that we start out RADA fundraiser and then we will have our valentines basket raffel and silent auction. we have a lot on our plate and everyone is getting involved. wish us luck!!!!

[Debbie Pitts]

Hi There,
And yes good luck and full speed ahead. Sounds like you are on a roll !! Are you's submitting nominations for National Awards ?? If we have winners those are the people that get to go first then if we can we usually review our nominations and select from there. Did you get the nomination packets yet?? WE didn't either but we downloaded one from the website and made copies so we could get them out for prople to start doing. Deadline for those is Mar20th so you may want to consider that too. Keep working on gwetting walkers . Have you gone online to register your facility for the walk a thon yet ?? If not you need to do that asap ok. Even if you only have a couple doping it, remember you can get anyone to walk even outside your facility ok. So far i have signed up 151, just got 6 kids from our key club at our school here. Maybe if you tell your DON that you think it might make a differance for your staff if they know she will be walking too it might encourage them to sign up too, same thing with your administrator and any management people. Nearly all of mine are signed up. Did you get any of the packets yet ?? Well guess that would be if you registered already as they are sending them out now. You can also have residents and families sign up too. Well good luck and keep me posted ok.

[nancyl]

the people that we want to nominate have not been at our facility for a year yet. they truely represent who we r. im trying to get through everything that i have already started befor i try to start anything new. i asked the DON about doing the walk a thon and she might as well laughed. she doesn't think that she should because she doesn't want to "out walk anyone" and they get upset because they didn't walk as far as she did.
so tell me how i go about getting set up to have a leadership team!! i heard that there was more to do than just nominate people within the facility. i appreciate all ur help and advice you have truly given me the initive(sp) to go all the way.

[Debbie Pitts]

Good Morning,
WEll yes there can be alot to it but i know you will succeed. You said you have choosen officers so thst's your start. Now start having meetings and con't with your fundraisers. You should keep minutes of your meetings, at the end of each month review all your meeting minutes from that month and shorten them up to more like a report, i would then submit them to Deb Paniak at the NAHCA office. Her email addy is dpaniak@nahcacares.org By starting this process it will put your facility in the running for Leadershp Team of the Year 'award at convention, ok. Do this every month. Something you may want to accomplish is do things with or for your residents as well and make sure this goes in your minutes too, they love stuff like that too. Ask all the questions about this process you want, i will walk thru it with you ok. Don't worry about being a small group at this point, half the time i do all this stuff myself so i know what you mean. You are on a roll so just keep going. Your'e Adminstrative team will probably realize eventuall that you are really serious about this and then start showing more support for you but i wouldn't back down now as you already have a great start. I print out a copy of my minutes each month and file them in notebook so i have easy access to them to review if i want. You might want to consider that too. Keep a record of everything you do. How many walkers have you been able to sign up so far? Just remember, every little bit helps ok. Hope this helps you so far to get started, keep the questions coming. I have invited another member of our Steering Commission to join us, i'm sure she may have some good ideas to help with ok. Her name is Donna so you may see her on here too responding too. Keep me posted and you hang in there and just keep going, You are doing an awesome job !!

[nancyl]

hey thanks for the advice, we have signed up about 13 people and still working on more. there are a lot of people that dont want to participate because it is not money that is raised for the facility. but thats okay because we have plenty more that signed up. i was thinking of doing like an election/vote thing to decide the leadership team. watcha think? find out who wants to run for election and have the staff vote on it. well? i have really got a lot of helpful suggestions and information i want to thank you for all you do!!!

[Debbie Pitts]

Hi There,
An election for officers would be fine if you want to do that. Don't worry about how many you have as little by little they will fall into place for you. As far as money issues, we do purchase doifferant things that our residents can use with some of our fundraising monies. This is where i told you that it might help for your /Administrator and DON to see which will probabaly help to get them more involved as well. It doesn't always have to big things either. Sponsor some special bingos for them by kicking in a few bucks to make their pot bigger, stuff like that helps. We will do special games and have cash prizes for them too. Show involvement with them for things if yous can, this also will look great in your minutes , the association loves to see resident involvement. Just keep it going, your'e well on your way here. I will keep checking back here too

[Debbie Pitts]

WOW !!

Can you believe it is nealy the end of Feb ?? March is just around the corner so hopeflly everyone takes advantage of the early bird registration for the 2010 convention. Lets make this one our biggest and best yet everybody !!!!!!!!

So -- start registering now !!!!!!!!!!!!