And, Best Secretary Award Goes to ...

Mornin, mornin ... We’re up late today. Today is Dr. M. Day. Not sure if there is anything to tell him about, except we’ve been working.

Yesterday, we had the Thinking Group in the morning. CARF wants you to be giving the information you are collecting to the individuals served and the other stakeholders. We decided to get the individuals involved with things that are going on during the Administration meeting.

There are about 13 different issues that we talk about at the meeting, but we only got through about 5 with the individuals. I didn’t see it coming, but they had a lot to say (35 minutes worth) about the first issue, transportation. Most of them get to the program by a special program called ADA Para-transit, and some of them are now linked to a cab service that works with ADA. The rides only cost $1.75 each way.  Before ADA the individuals were picked up in a couple of big noisy vans.

At the beginning of the meeting we had handed out a picture diagram of a decision making process. Part of that was that you don’t just talk about the problems, you work it around so that change occurs and people take on responsibilities. This part was hard on them, it took awhile to convince them not just to be adding more problems. But, I think they will get it ...

The rest of the day was spent working through one of the books on community. We’re into the cycle where we’re Sr. wants us to just update and go as quickly as possible. I have a half dozen quick things to pull with the secretary this morning, but basically, we went through the whole book yesterday. It’s about 3" of paperwork. Sr. gave us permission to be sitting at our old desk in her office where we used to sit before the office was built last year. That was very handy.

This morning I want to note a special appreciation to the secretary at our work. She has made a tremendous amount of difference in this last couple of months of work. Sr.’s office is next to hers. I was working very fast and kept calling out her name. It was like I need this and this ... help!  And, all during this time she set her pace to be working alongside ours while smiling and staying in a good mood! Yep, yep ... in my next life, I’m going to grow up and just work with Sr.'s secretary :) Like a gift from heaven she is!  Thank you special love!

Picture - http://www.oscars.org/index.html