Vanguard, Spring 2002

STATE OF THE ARC - SOUTH BAY

January 31, 2002

Speech delivered by President Paul Flahive

Program Highlights

Adult Development Center - Gardena: This program continues to provide services and opportunities to 70 individuals with very special needs. Most of these consumers reside in residential facilities, and our day program offers activities and field trips they cannot have elsewhere. In addition to the normal daily curriculum, they have parties to celebrate every holiday. We are pleased to have a great group of parent volunteers who assist with these parties, both with their energy and checkbooks.

Attendance at the program, or a lack thereof, has been a problem for us this past year. When consumers do not attend program, our finances are adversely affected, as we do not receive reimbursement for daily attendance from the funding agency. We have quite a few consumers who require hospitalization for illnesses even as mild as the common cold, and although it is no fault of their own, this has a negative impact on attendance. Also, unfortunately, we lost four medically fragile consumers this year due to illness.

Another factor contributing to decreased attendance is the holidays and the accompanying time off. We also can lose a consumer on any given day to health issues as well as relocation to another residential facility. Sadly, it may take up to 60 days to fill the person's spot, who through no fault of their own left us with short notice. In summation, we request that our families and careproviders do everything they can to see that their consumers attend programs as frequently as possible.

Adult Development Center - Hermosa Beach: The Hermosa program is blessed to be located in a very caring community. In addition to their center-based classes of educational (i.e., "academic") studies, they participate in cooking, personal grooming and hygiene awareness and music classes.

Part of their program focus is to develop skills for independent living. As such, community integration is a key component to their training. As a result of the program participants' exposure in the community, many volunteers and businesses regularly donate their time and money to our program. From a tennis pro who gives free lessons, to a business that donates equipment for their classes, the consumers benefit greatly from the Hermosa Beach community. Some other examples of generosity include a new member of the Arc Board who treats the entire program to lunch at a restaurant a few times per year, a local grocery store that provides food for parties, and another business that gives choice tickets to pro sporting events.

Southwest Industries: We have increased the number of consumers and customers served this past year. We are pleased with the work crew that provides janitorial services to our ADC-Gardena program and Marine avenue offices. The crew has also performed gardening and clean-up services for Arc South Bay members/friends and has a biweekly contract with the Dept. of Transportation cleaning their Long Beach Shipyard offices. If you are interested in a dedicated worker for your company, or a crew to clean your offices or cut your grass, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Not all is good news however, as the events of 9-11 have adversely impacted the types of contracts we perform in the workshop. Previously, retail contracts comprised a good portion of our sub-contract work. A comparison for the month of December 2000 to this past December showed a drop in retail contracts of 35%. We are fortunate that there has not been as great a reduction in some of our other non-retail long-term jobs.

We are also fortunate to have landed a job from a former Board Member's husband. This packaging job for computer memory has provided a new challenge and a nice wage for the consumers as well as for The Arc. We are always on the look out for sub-contract work, so please consider us if you have a business need or know of someone who could benefit from our outstanding workforce.

Southwest House: Due to families expressing an interest in respite services, the Southwest House maintained a one bed vacancy for respite care this past year. While several families have been able to take advantage of this opportunity, the use of this space has been limited. We are committed through March 2002 to continue providing respite care, but we also need the income that having a full program provides. Therefore, we will be soliciting referrals from the Regional Center for a male client to fill this place permanently. If you or someone you know has an interest in placing a consumer in our home, please contact the office.

We were very fortunate this year to receive donations earmarked for a kitchen remodel from Southwest House family members. We have expanded the dimensions of the kitchen, added a pass-through window to the dining room, installed new cabinets, flooring, countertop and repainted. The South Bay Sunrise Rotary Club has been very helpful with this entire project, providing consultations, manual labor, and donations. One of the Club members has undertaken the maintenance of the landscaping at the House. As they have "adopted" the House as an ongoing service project, we can't wait to see what they do next!

Recreation: The Arc continues to sponsor the Saturday A.M. Bowling League. Bowlers compete weekly on four-person teams, with the season running from September through May. Bowlers also participate in tournaments culminating in the MRC State Championships at the end of the bowling league season. Summertime is open bowling and a good opportunity for new individuals to come out and see what the sport has to offer. A highlight of the bowling program is the annual Family Bowling Day tournament which pairs a Saturday A.M. Bowler with a family member, friend or volunteer for a two person team. We are fortunate to have the support of a great group of parent volunteers whom, along with an Arc staff member, administers the league's activities. We are also thankful to volunteers who run a snack bar at various events. Proceeds from the snack bar along with donations from the South Bay Sunrise Rotary Club offset the costs of tournament fees and bus transportation.

Administrative Services

Fund Development: During the year 2001, we again had a 4th of July fireworks booth in partnership with the Gardena Kiwanis Club. Net proceeds for the Arc were approx. $9,600. In the Fall, the City of Gardena threatened to ban the sale of fireworks; however, they came to an agreement with the fireworks vendors and it appears that the booths will be allowed this year.

Another major fund development project is our annual pledge campaign. Pledges for the year 2001 totaled approx. $7,000. Despite the downturn in the economy, our friends have responded positively to our 2002 pledge campaign, having promised upwards of $10,000 so far. We are very thankful for their loyalty and generosity.

Another annual fundraising event is our See's candies campaign. We had two in 2001: Easter and Winter. The two campaigns yielded a net profit of approximately $2,000.

Technology: All of our program offices are now computerized (SWI, the ADCs and Administration). Most of the computers in the administration office are on an intranet, or local area network for file sharing and email access. We are looking into networking options for our SWI Rehabilitation department.

The agency continues to have a website that includes a calendar of upcoming events, current and archived newsletters, a roster of board members, and detailed program information. Special projects are featured from time to time. In addition, an exclusive internet group has been created for the Arc Board of Directors for posting of files, messages, calendars and chat functions. One benefit of this system is the elimination of large pre-Board meeting packets, as the information is posted online. It is not too impossible to foresee a day when our meetings will occur online.

Financial Information

In 1999 The Arc South Bay received a bequest of an office building located on Marine Avenue in Gardena. As there is not a current or future program need for this office building, the Board of Directors voted to put the building up for sale. There have been a few offers on the property but these have fallen through due to restrictions imposed by the City of Gardena on the types of allowable businesses as well as the building's parking limitations. We are fortunate to have a long time volunteer/donor as a realtor representing The Arc in this sale and we are hopeful that with the improving economy, a suitable offer will be forthcoming in the near future.

And speaking of the economy, The Arc South Bay showed a small profit of $1,200 for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2001. While this seems like a minute amount compared to a $2.3M budget, we were still able to complete some necessary repair items to properties we own, purchase needed program equipment, provide staff with a salary adjustment and pay anticipated increases in our leases, insurance and Southwest Industries job costs.

However, along with Governor Davis, we did not anticipate the energy crisis. Like other businesses we had to make adjustments to be more efficient and conserve as much as possible. But, unlike other businesses, we could not pass the increases on to our customers, who are our consumers and the State of California.

There are neighboring Arcs and other like agencies that have had to reduce expenses by cutting programs and staff. With the State in a recession we can’t expect much needed and deserved rate increase for our programs. In fact we can only hope that the Governor does not impose a rate reduction. In his January proposal the Governor did not make any adverse changes to the Department of Developmental Disabilities of Department of Rehabilitation budgets. We are keeping our hopes high for the May Revise of the current state budget.

Bylaws Revision

In other news, the Board of Directors has formed a committee to review our bylaws. As the bulk of this document is as old as the organization itself, some updating will likely be necessary. The membership will be kept apprised of our progress. The Board will be forming other committees to address internal needs of the organization. Committee membership is open to active members, so we hope that everyone who is interested in participating will let us know. Please check out our Vanguard and Update newsletters for information on these committees, as it becomes available. You may also read archived editions of the newsletters on our agency's website: www.lafn.org/community/arcsobay.

Affiliation Issue

We are concerned about the direction Arc California and The Arc United States are headed. Several of the policy positions adopted by the Arc US have resulted in some local members units discontinuing their affiliation. These position statements (concerning residential and work options) are detailed on their website, www.thearc.org. Our Board will soon form a committee to research the issues, and poll our membership for their opinions. Simply put, an October 2002 affiliation deadline is approaching, and the Arc South Bay must decide whether to stay as an affiliated local member unit, or to move on. We will be in touch with the membership on this matter over the next few months and appreciate your input on this very important issue.

(At this point, President Flahive turned the meeting over to questions and answers.)