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Help support Imagine!
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Tom's birthday party!
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Ron, bowling with Shared Adventures!
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Stephanie, enjoying an afternoon at the park!
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Rae, participating in meetings about climate change!
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Scotty, enjoying the day!
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Abra and Stephanie, celebrating the New Year!
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Ashlee and Angela at the Holiday Craft Party!
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Karen, opening presents on Christmas morning!
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Winter festivities!
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Scotty, doing some Costco shopping!
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Imagine
9065 Soquel Drive
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Dear Imagine friends and family,
We've had birthday parties, a pot-luck and some fevers. But we've stayed strong in seeking more for the young people we serve and more for those in mid-life and surrounding those near the ends of their lives with love, compassion and positivity.
For family-members of people we serve, we had a pot-luck on the 9th. It was well-attended and a good time for fellowship. There's a lot of talking still to do in groups and among us and we're always glad for the opportunity to discuss our services and how to make them better. We'll do it again this summer and, of course, we're here all the time too.
We'll be hosting our Valentine's Day party on Valentine's Day Eve, February 13 from 4:30-7 PM at Imagine. Come and be amorous, within reason.
Below in this newsletter:
Patty has returned part time and should be writing the next newsletter's
Human Resources Column. This month, it covers management's view of corrective action and remain verbose.
Our annual fundraiser went very well and we exceeded a pretty audacious goal. The generosity of our community supports a generous culture at Imagine. We appreciate you.
See below for the spiking of the football.
In our
Advocacy Corner, we have a quick summary of the Governor's budget with regard to the developmental disability system and a few notes about the Developmental Services Task Force.
"Progress" on the
Strategic Plan is updated and reported below.
This month, our
Person Centered Evolution
column this month expands on the value of concise documentation..
There are a few opportunities to be involved with or learn about the
Self-Determination Program without being enrolled. You can read about some that Imagine contributes to in this month's column.
The
Transparency column includes information about board openings, the date of our next board meeting, and to tell you more than that would give it all away.
The appreciations this month are for
John D. and
Jordan.
As ever, if you have any questions, feedback or concerns, please don't hesitate to get in touch. You can write me
here.
Gratefully yours,
Doug
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Patty is most of the way back and the Human Resources section of our newsletter will soon get more concise. In the meanwhile, I'm going to take the liberty to write to you about one of our touchiest subjects, corrective action.
One of the things that makes corrective action so challenging is that it is probably by nature the most adversarial thing we do at Imagine. It's when we least experience the feeling of all being on the same page, probably because we take corrective action right when we fear we aren't all on the same page.
My hope, by writing on this topic is to be transparent about what Imagine's management intends our corrective action process to accomplish.
The most important thing to know is that we view performance improvement or correction as a training effort, not a disciplinary one, at least when it begins. It is not easy to recruit and hire people to do the most important work Imagine produces. Our goal is always to help you succeed.
Except in case where there is credible evidence of abuse or a documented lie involved, Imagine never leads with termination, demotion or hard feelings.
Supervisors at Imagine are asked to give a lot of feedback, to avoid favoritism and personal feelings and to provide corrective action whenever someone on staff could or should change some part of their performance to make a positive difference for their team-mates, the individual they serve or the mission of the organization.
Just please know that our goal is to help you succeed, to do the best job you can and to grow. As always, if you ever feel you have been treated unfairly or that a concern you have hasn't been addressed you are always invited to contact me, Julie or Patty.
Whole separate note: Last month in this space we invited our direct care colleagues to a new mentoring program. Although this program doesn't promise a change of duties or promotion, it is meant to prepare you for different responsibilities, if you currently work as a direct care employee of Imagine and wish to participate in our mentoring program in preparation for a facilitator position, you can contact your facilitator. If you are interested in learning about our administrative work, such as Human Resources, book-keeping, payroll and billing, general administration or strategy, contact Lili, Patty or me.
As always, feel free to contact me with any questions.
-Submitted by Doug
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Our Holiday fundraising campaign ended Friday with one last donation. You gave $26,060 worth of shelter against the weather. Those funds allow us to keep our posture forward, less worried about economic and policy developments, less prone to wage cuts or lay-offs and better able to say yes when we find an opportunity to serve our clients and community better.
As a non-profit organization, we keep our margins tight. This quantum of grace makes an important difference in our shared financial life. Thank you for your generosity.
-Submitted by Doug
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Julie Ross will be attending this year's gathering of The Learning Community. I'm a little jealous but it is her turn. Her purpose in going is to better encourage our facilitators and direct care staff in raising our game with regard to person-centered thinking.
-Submitted by Doug
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The Strategic Plan undergoes reviews and updates every other month -- and the most recent update took place this last week. A handful of items have been marked as 'complete,' and a few updates to the Strategic Plan have been made. Here is the most updated version of the document you can view.
-Submitted by Lili
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The Self-Determination Independent Facilitator Network (formerly the Self-Determination Learning Community) will meet Wednesday, February 5, from 11 AM to 12:30 PM at the State Council's Regional Office: 2580 First Street in San Jose, suite 240. I will miss this month's meeting but still encourage anyone interested in working as an Independent Facilitator or with unsatisfied curiosity about self-determination to attend.
There remains a need for person-centered planners to assist individuals with developmental disabilities, although the community has responded and this will help many in the traditional program to find facilitators for their own person-centered plans (See above).
Imagine is working with the regional office of the State Council to provide a training session for future independent facilitators on Thursday, February 13 in Salinas with Spanish translation available. The time for the meeting is being renegotiated so do get in touch with me if you would like to attend.
-Submitted by Doug
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Our next board meeting will be held on February 12, at 11 in Imagine's Village Hall. The meeting agenda will include the budget proposal for fiscal year 2020-2021.
We are still recruiting board members. We are working to diversify the board and to add a GAAP-trained treasurer. An attorney wouldn't be bad either.
Due to the lateness of our audit, we have decided to issue a 2-year annual report for 2018-2019 in January. If you have any questions about our operations, where we are headed, I will be happy to share the draft version of the 2018 annual report or answer any questions. Please write me here.
We have begun our 2018-2019 fiscal year audit and falling behind again. Have mercy.
-Submitted by Doug
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The Governor's budget for 2020-2021 came out on schedule. There were few surprises and none to the downside. It was good to see a very small fund set aside to reward regional centers that track outcome data well and produce some basic results. We were very glad to see some of the services, such as ILS, which were left out of the rate increases effective January 1 will be included this coming NewYear's Day. All of Imagine's Regional Center funded services were included in the current rate increase. The last news from the governor's budget is that the rate increases just referred to were extended to a later sunset date. That doesn't mean a lot but it's better than a jab in the eye.
The System and Fiscal Reform Workgroup of the Developmental Services Task Force met on January 15. I found a small band of revolutionaries to join for the annoyance of other service providers and so look forward to the next one. Our primary goal on this work group will be to press the state for more funding to be outcome-based and performance-related.
The Oversight, Accountability and Transparency Workgroup has not yet met and there is no scheduled meeting, although there may be shadowy conspiracies afoot including a subset of that group. We'll make public any formal meetings or conspiracies we suss out.
As other meetings are scheduled, we'll try to keep you up to date in this space and on Facebook so you can participate if you wish. For (just barely) more on the Task Force and workgroups, you can find the Department of Developments Services page here.
-Submitted by Doug
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Staff Birthdays Drew David Emily John D. Ysabella Lyss Raquel Rebecca Nneka Dora Michael P. Kalen Staff Anniversaries River -- 2 Years! Steve -- 9 Years! Agustin -- 2 Years! Marco -- 2 Years! Frank -- 1 Year! Kalen -- 1 Year! |
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