e-newsletter 12: Reviewing Governance

Information Corner —

Reviewing Governance: When and Why?

How do you know if the governance of your Centre is good enough? If you haven’t reviewed it in the last few years, you possibly do not know. More and more organizations conduct governance reviews and find them worthwhile even if they do not find a need for major change. The discussion about why you lead as you do will still be worthwhile and it is certain to find some change, however small, that really makes a difference.

Some warning signs that it may be time to review governance…

• Timely decisions are so difficult for the Board, that a smaller group makes most of the Board decisions
• Candidates for a Board vacancy inquire about the governance style and are clearly unhappy with what they hear
• Board members resign or refuse second terms, citing issues such as poor use of their time or skills
• Board recruitment is difficult, or Board attendance is poor; meetings are cancelled for lack of quorum
• Committees and senior staff either exceed their authority or clog the Board meetings with administration and operational matters
• Executive Director evaluation is problematic since committees reporting to the Board have responsibilities that overlap the Executive Director’s responsibilities
• Feedback from community and staff indicates a growing dissatisfaction with the Board’s decisions and/or composition
• Your auditor or lawyer expresses concern about the lack of an independent audit committee
• The bylaws no longer reflect how the organization operates, but there is no consensus on whether to fix the bylaws, bring operations into line with the bylaws, or some combination of the two
• Board members have ongoing conflict’s of interest
• You see checklists of good non-profit governance practices but can say yes to fewer than half of the items

This list should give you a good idea of what improvements you might expect to achieve from enhancing your governance… now, when should a governance review occur?

When Not to Start…

A governance review requires considerable time on the part of the Board and the Executive Director (if the Centre has one). If there are other senior staff members, they will likely get involved too, including whoever supports the board Secretary (if that is a staff position). It is important to remember that even all-volunteer organizations should review their governance.

Over several months, you will need to make Board and committee time available for research, discussions and decisions. It is not appropriate to start a governance review during a financial crisis or major project that is already pre-occupying the Board and staff members… wait!

Also, if there are new Board members starting soon, or a new Executive Director has just been hired, wait until they have at least a couple of months experience with you to receive their orientation, settle in and see what ‘normal’ is at your Centre. Governance choices that seem odd to an outsider may have a sound basis in the special needs of your organization, and should not lightly be tossed aside in favour of some generically good practice.

The biggest reason for delaying a governance review: no Strategic Plan! If you do not have an up-to-date vision, mission and values statements, what criteria will drive your primary governance choices? Or any other important choice in your Centre, for that matter? The discussions about the kind of community you want to create, your role in creating it, and your priorities might significantly affect governance decisions such as Board composition.

So why do a governance review?

The answer to this is easy! The governance review will help ensure your leaders are working together to effectively govern the Centre so that it can create a better community and a better world. It may identify barriers you can remove and small changes that can make a big difference. It should help attract the best leaders you want and need for the future, and retain them through using their time, passion, knowledge and skills well. It should help you assure funders, stakeholders and partners that you have the right governance structure.

Best of all, it may be able to do all of that without major change, depending on how well your current structure fits your needs. If you decide to retain the existing governance structure, the governance review discussions will help you explain why your existing governance structure works well for you. Being able to articulate the reasons can be invaluable when seeking supporters and recruiting leaders!

“With Our Best Future in Mind, Implementing Early Learning in Ontario”

A Message from Dr. Pascal:

In partnership with parents, full-day learning will provide Ontario children with high quality programs that help lay the foundation for a healthy and productive life. I have submitted my report, With Our Best Future in Mind to the Premier on how to implement full day learning for 4- and 5-year-olds …

Read full report: http://www.ontario.ca/en/communities/education/STEL01_139326

Sharing, Learning and Growing with PCPC at the Annual General Meeting!

Make sure to save the date October 8, 2009 on your calendars for the PCPC Annual General Meeting… watch for more information in the upcoming months!

Location: Mitchell Field Community Centre (89 Church Avenue — at Yonge and Finch)
Registration: 7:15pm
AGM: 7:30pm

As a non-profit, co-operative charity, we need you, our members, to approve the audit and elect the Officers for 2009/2010.

Family Life and Work: An Uneasy Balance!

(A report by Roger Sauve, People Patterns Consulting for The Vanier Institute of the Family)

Families are changing and so are the organizations for which they work. Families need and want the work that employers provide, and employers need the workers to produce the goods and services that keep their organization in operation — it is a two-way street! The following statistics from this report highlights the dynamic relationship between these two entities and examines whether or not Canadians are achieving an acceptable balance between family life and work life — the result seems to be an uneasy balance!

• While many families are satisfied with their family life and work life arrangements, a growing number are clearly not; this dissatisfaction often negatively impacts families and their employers — a looming labour shortage will likely worsen the situation
• Persons who live in family households comprise 84% of the total supply of the Canadian labour; the last decade has seen rising labour participation by all family members, with the largest increase among female lone-parent families and wives with young children
• Family members are spending more time on work and work-related activities; commuting times are increasing and modern technology has blurred the lines between work and family
• It is undeniable, more work time clearly means less family time — the average time spent with family on a typical work day has shrunk by about ¾ of an hour, from 250 minutes per day in 1986 to 206 minutes in 2005 — a drop of 18%!
• Women still do most of the juggling in bringing about a balance between family time and work time; women are much more likely to work part-time, simply drop out of the paid workforce, or work two part-time jobs to accommodate family needs
• The job market is slowly shifting towards more temporary employment and increasing overtime, both with or without pay; organizations are continually re-engineering, rotating workers, integrating functional groups, downsizing and re-organizing the workplace
• The ongoing stress and change is leading to more dissatisfaction, more time off for illness and family reasons, more workers who are thinking of leaving their current employers, and lower ratings for their employers

There is more that can be done to improve the uneasy balance!

Families and employers are encouraged to continue working together to strengthen their partnerships with a view of building and/or maintaining healthy work life and family life relationships. Governments at all levels are similarly encouraged to take a leadership role in establishing the context and opportunities for continuing dialogue, discussion and policy development in this critically important area.

Updated!

PCPC Personnel Handbook has received some updates… check them out!

As always, PCPC is working towards providing the most current and correct information available! This means that we are constantly changing and updating our website content to reflect these updates, and we will do our best to share these changes with you!

Some additional information has been made available to us regarding the Vulnerable Sector Screening Program — Police Reference Check procedure in the Province of Ontario, so we have updated our Police Reference Check section found in the Personnel Handbook available on the PCPC website (www.pcpcontario.org/01-personnel-handbook#Heading77). (Please note that the Personnel Handbook is only available to current PCPC members)

Please review this section of the Personnel Handbook to verify that your Centre understands exactly what the Police Reference Check involves and what their part in the process is.

Get People Talking About You!

Marketing and advertising your childcare Centre should be on-going and often requires the assistance of many volunteers within Centre.

What is the Job Description of the Marketing Committee?

• Ensures open communication between the Centre and the public
• Publicizes to the community all of the Centre’s activities and events by means of the local newspaper, television and radio station, posters, etc. (i.e. an open house)
• Implements literature which advertises the Centre to the local community (i.e. brochures, posters, business cards, etc.)
• Gathers information to enable a historical view of the Centre and its beginnings (this is especially important for orientation and registration packages)
• Maintains open communication among the members, the ECE and the Board of Directors
• Gathers, prepares and distributes the monthly newsletter (if applicable)
• Works closely with the other members to correlate information (i.e. field trips, parent education and the Registrar, etc.)

How to Promote a Childcare Centre?

• It is important each year (once per year at the minimum) to examine your marketing techniques and choose the ones that work well for your Centre and look at some new approaches to ‘selling’ your program
• Even though your entire committee may be comprised of volunteers, you must remember that you are also operating a business and therefore, public relations and marketing are very important to the survival of the Centre
• In order to promote the benefits of a non-profit/co-operative childcare Centre, you must let the public know why they should choose your Centre over anywhere else
• First impressions for parents are critical when they make contact with your Centre; give careful consideration to how your telephone is answered, since the majority of families will use the telephone to make the initial contact
• Keep a notebook of the promotions that you use and the contacts that you have made; plan your promotional activities in advance and designate who is responsible for each; evaluate your successes and failures so that subsequent Boards or committees are aware of what has been tried, what was successful and what was not; always keep in mind that the demographics in the community change constantly.

Remember:

Marketing and advertising your Centre may not always receive immediate results — it must be seen as an investment in the future!

It must be an ongoing project in years of both high and low enrolment. Consistent promotion catches the constantly changing market of parents of young children.

It strengthens the identity of the Centre within the community and increases morale within the Centre by reasserting why we are here. Promotion is essential to the survival and growth of the Centre!

Stay tuned to the next newsletter for Promotional Ideas and tips on Advertising Your Centre!

Visit the PCPC website and follow the link (www.pcpcontario.org/marketing-committee ) to view the Marketing Committee presentation.

(Please note that the Marketing Committee presentation is only available to current PCPC members)

PCPC staff benefits with Morneau Sobeco

Now more than ever, child care centres are recognizing the value of well-managed employee benefits programs as part of an attractive total compensation package. Faced with increasing costs and economic uncertainty, it is imperative for centres to invest in an integrated benefits program that is both economical and flexible.

Since 1993, Toronto and District Parent Co-operative Preschool Corporation (PCPC) has entrusted Morneau Sobeco with the management of our member group insurance program. Morneau Sobeco is one of the largest professional services firms of its kind in Canada with offices nation-wide. With over 40 years of experience, Morneau Sobeco excels in the design and management of association group insurance volume-purchasing arrangements.

The group benefits program that Morneau Sobeco developed and continues to manage for PCPC allows members the opportunity to leverage the volume-purchasing power of the PCPC membership. Morneau Sobeco and PCPC continue to review and analyze the group insurance program and develop unique and viable options for members in these trying economic times. With this in mind we are looking at implementing a new and exciting group benefits product in the near future. The new product was developed with the current economic state in mind as well as our membership’s own unique demographics. This new benefit product is targeted for the more transient individual that wants some flexibility in their group insurance program. The launch of the product is scheduled for this July. Stay tuned for more information regarding this exciting new product.

Morneau Sobeco specializes in employee health and productivity services and is one of the industry leaders at developing and managing employee benefits programs. For more information regarding group insurance programs for members please contact Morneau Sobeco at 1-888-667-6328.

What’s happening in… your Centre? your Community? your Province? your Country? your World?

June 27th is Canadian Multiculturalism Day! Canadian Multiculturalism Day is an opportunity to celebrate our diversity and commitment to democracy, equality and mutual respect and to appreciate the contributions of the various multicultural groups and communities to Canadian society. Contact your local community for events taking place to mark this day of celebration!

Fundraising Ideas — Remember that all of these fundraising ideas, and many more can be found in the Governance Series Workshops (Members’ Only Section) of the PCPC website www.pcpcontario.org

Walk-A-Block or Bowl-A-Thon: This is another popular event that can involve children, parents, grandparents and staff. By planning it annually on a similar date each year, people will begin to look forward to it.

Sponsor sheets go out in advance of the event — for example, the sponsor pays for each block that the child walks.

This type of event can be adapted to many themes — bowling, cycling, jumping, swimming, dancing — the ideas are endless!

Get to know potential funders!

The Borden and Elliot Foundation
Address: 40 King Street West, Suite 4400 (JDB), Toronto, Ontario, M5H 3Y4
Contact: Craig J. Webster, Secretary-Treasurer
Telephone/Fax: (416) 367-6000 (telephone); (416) 367-2716 (fax)
Email: eyao@borden.com
Funding Interest: Children
Granting Region: Toronto Area

The Camp Tanamakoon Charitable Foundation Inc.
Address: 297 Lakeshore Road East, Suite 2, Oakville, Ontario, L6J 1J3
Contact: Mr. Kim Smith
Telephone/Fax: (905) 338-9464 (telephone); (905) 338-3039 (fax)
Email: admin@tanamakoon.com
Funding Interest: Children
Granting Region: Toronto Area

The Caring Foundation
Address: 200 Bay Street North Tower, Suite 2000, P.O. Box 66, Toronto, Ontario, M5J 2J2
Contact: Peter Blaiklock, Secretary
Telephone/Fax: (416) 597-1200 (telephone); (416) 597-1202 (fax)
Funding Interest: Children; Disabled Children
Granting Region: Toronto Area
Grant Information: Submit a letter including details of project, charitable registration number, purpose of project, target population and how it will be served, monitoring and evaluation of project, project budget, expected/committed sources of funds, total organizational budget and annual report

The Catherine and Maxwell Meighen Foundation
Address: 110 Yonge Street, Suite 1601, Toronto, Ontario, M5C 1T4
Contact: Charlene Storozuk, Secretary
Telephone/Fax: (416) 366-2931 (telephone); (416) 366-2729 (fax)
Email: foundation@mmaininvestments.com
Funding Interest: Early Childhood Education and Development; Autism; Child Development; Children
Granting Region: Ontario
Grant Information: Brief proposal including most recent audited financial statements, a list of Board of Directors and Charitable Tax Number

Did you know? (fun facts and quotes)

Infants blink only once or twice a minute, while adults average around 10!

Going Green!

Congratulations! Every little change you make in your lifestyle helps the planet, and future generations — keep up the great work!

• Repair when possible, don’t replace appliances. Each fix means you won’t buy a new one!
• Dry your clothes on a rack, or use your dishwasher’s air-dry cycle!
• Buy second-hand at tag sales for household items and save the carbon cost of new production!
• Recycle paper, plastic and metals!

Recycling Newspapers… Did You Know?

Recycled newspapers end up as everything from toilet paper to roofing shingles… using one tonne of recycled newsprint means that 19 trees are left standing!

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e-newsletter 25: Bill 168, preventing violence in the workplace · June 17
Free seminars on Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) · May 18
e-newsletter 24: Full Day Learning · May 18
Full-Day Learning Act passed: update and links · April 29
PCPC centre featured in Star article · February 8

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Going Green 19: A Brief Overview of “Green IT for Dummies” · October 27

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