Houston Ground Angels
Management Review
January 2020
T
ony Castiglie, Vice President and Treasurer
The Christmas and Holiday season is now behind us. I do hope the Holidays were joyous and fruitful. We can now reflect on what 2019 meant to our organization.
HGA experienced some ups and downs but isn’t that just life. The upside is we ran far more missions during 2019 than ever before, yet we did that with fewer volunteers. That, in a way, is also the downside. We need more volunteers. How were we able to do that? Look at the Archangels! We never before had a volunteer who ran over 400 missions in a year and only one before who ran over 300. Now we have one who ran over 400 missions and two who ran over 300 missions. We also found a way to provide ground transportation for difficult missions by using Uber. But we were forced to modify the Uber program when we realized we could not afford to continue it as implemented.
The Stats
· Missions Run, December 2019 – 241; previous December 2018 high, 242.
· Missions Run, 2019 – 3,822; previous high – 2,905 in 2015.
· Daily Average – 10, the best ever.
· Monthly Average – 319; the best ever; previous high – 242 in 2015.
· Unfulfilled Missions – 152 (3.82%).
· Uber Missions – 1,436; 38% of total for 2019.
The Archangels
Of the 3,822 missions ran in 2019, 49% were run by the Archangels. Our top 10 volunteers:
Top 10 Volunteers – 2019
Dick Stabell - 488
Charles Whitworth - 357
Sandra Begalke - 249
Gerry Rein - 214
David LaFargue - 133
Tony LaRosa - 115
Edie Cantu - 93
Derek King - 87
Charles Gibson - 69
Bo Hunter - 63
We are deeply appreciate the dedication of all our volunteers, but there are always a few who stand out. Dick Stabell was absolutely amazing. There are 365 days in the year and Dick ran 488 missions, more than one mission a day for the whole year. Gerry Rein was also amazing. His first mission was August 5, yet ran 214 missions. That is more than two per day! Really special!
The real success of this organization has always been those select few who run lots of missions, some who have been with us for many years and have accumulated big numbers.
All Time and Still Active
Charles Whitworth - 1,820
Sandra Begalke - 1,148
Dick Stabell - 859
Charles Gibson - 852
Mary Hutton - 636
Board of Directors
This year brings us three new Directors. Derek King, who has been with HGA since 2008, has run 268 missions and was Number 8 in 2019 with 87 missions. Derek has jumped in with both feet. He has taken the lead in trying to update the Mission Management System. He has also initiated “Coffee & Bun” meetings at various Panera Bread restaurants around the Houston area, picking up the tab also. He is in the process of doing a detailed analysis on our missions.
Bob Joyce, who has been with us since 2011, has run 358 missions over the years. He is now preparing a Power Point presentation to be given to the Humble Rotary Club, helping us in our continuing effort to recruit new volunteers.
David LaFarge has been a volunteer since 2006. He has run 418 missions and keeps going strong. He was our number five volunteer in 2019 with 133 missions. He also located a meeting place for our bi-monthly directors’ meetings and picked up the tab.
Leaving the Board was John Jacobi, Linda Higgins and Aryn Knight. John has been with us since 2007 and has decided to pursue other interests. Linda and Aryn’s terms expired December 31, 2019. We thank them for being on our Board and all they contributed. We hope they will continue to be involved with our organization as volunteers.
Testaments Recently Received
December 18, 2019
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thank you for all the good work you do for all the cancer patients.
Catharina
New Orleans, Louisiana
*********************
December 23, 2019
Houston Ground Angels,
Thank you for making our Cancer journey a little easier.
Russell & Penelope
Clare, Michigan
We have been working on the Mission Management System for some time and are beginning to make some progress. Our short-term objective is to stabilize the system by bringing it up to current software standards. From there, we expect to make improvements to both the system and website. This transition has been somewhat difficult and has caused the website to go down occasionally, which we are striving to eliminate this challenge. The volunteers will be kept abreast of the project’s status.
New Volunteers
December brought us Britney Gardner. Britney resides on Houston’s west side, just inside Sam Houston Tollway. Welcome aboard Britney and thank you for joining. You will find this a very rewarding experience.
Finale
As always, to every volunteer who steps-up, thank you for your contribution. 2019 was a good and interesting year for Houston Ground Angels. Wishing everyone a healthy, prosperous and joyful 202o. Peace and love to all.
Sincerely,
Tony
