ANCOR's 2010 Management Practices Conference & Trade Show - Session Descriptions

 Pre-Conference Provider Panel Presentation: Technology Decisions: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Dave Toeniskoetter, CEO, Dungarvin
Sandra Henry, Senior Manager, Dungarvin Minnesota
Bonnie Jean Brooks, CEO, OHI
Marty Lampner, Executive Vice President, Chimes

Deciding what technologies to invest to both increase operational efficiency and create more responsive supports can seem like a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be!  During the first portion of the session, the panel will discuss what issues they faced, how they leveraged technology to address those issues and what lessons they learned along the way.  Audience members will then spend the second portion of the session in small group discussions identifying their main concerns and helping to brainstorm what technological solutions might be most helpful for their agency.

 Pre-Conference Provider Panel Presentation: Strategic Partnerships, Consolidations and Mergers: Lessons from Provider Agencies

Than Johnson, CEO, Champaign Residential Services, Inc.
Anne Starr, Vice President of Operations, Mosaic

In this time of shrinking resources and increasing need, it’s getting harder and harder to go it alone. Consequently, some providers are investigating ways to combine forces. Administrative consolidation, developing partnerships and mergers are all viable options. Listen as a panel of providers discusses what options they pursued and what their fellow providers should consider. Topics to be addressed include:

• Identifying the pros and cons of some consolidation of administration and/or services or full-fledged merger.
• Implications such an action might have for the provider organization.
• Tactics for negotiation and implementation.

Are You a 19th Century Charity or a 21st Century Community Corporation?

Robert Egger, Founder & President, DC Kitchen

Robert Egger, named one of the “50 Most Powerful and Influential Nonprofit leaders,” by Non Profit Times, will deliver the keynote at ANCOR’s 2010 Management Practices Conference and Trade Show. Often cited in Forbes, Chronicle of Philanthropy and Financial Times, Robert is considered a ‘guru’ and pioneer in the human and social services arena. In 1989, Robert started the DC Central Kitchen, collecting food discarded by restaurants, caterers and hotels to feed the poor and hungry in the nation’s capital. As noted in his acclaimed book, Begging for Change, “No one was interested in a program that took people who were thrown away and food that was thrown away and made something out of them.” Thankfully times have changed. Today, the DC Central Kitchen is one of the most respected and emulated service agencies in the world. Robert will share his experiences and explain how he has utilized social entrepreneurship, new strategic frameworks and coalition building to create a service oriented organization that is recognized as being among the most forward thinking in the country. Applications that can and should be utilized among all human service organizations will be outlined. Q&A and book signing to follow keynote.

Leadership Lessons at Work: How Execs are Answering the Tough Questions

Quint Studer, Founder, The Studer Group

Today’s leaders face a myriad of challenges. Hear from Quint Studer, national thought leader and one of the Top 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare (Modern Healthcare) as he shares what CEOs can and must do to inspire new ideas in turbulent times. Drawing upon his consulting work in healthcare and recent work with ANCOR member Liberty, Quint will outline what techniques and tools are being utilized to drive. Conference attendees will receive a copy of his best selling book, Straight A Leadership.

Collaboration Is Key to the Future of the Human Services Field

Vance Yoshida, Senior Manager, La Piana Consulting

In the current economy, business as usual is no longer acceptable. Find out how some of the most entrepreneurial organizations in the human services arena are meeting the bottom line and the needs of individuals through collective action. Vance will provide an overview of the partnership options available to human service organizations including joint programming, administrative consolidation, and management service organizations, among others. Findings and model practices gleaned from The Collaboration Prize, a $250,000 award recognizing successful collaborations will be highlighted.

 Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Providers Respond to Morning Keynotes

Paula Hart, CEO, Dakota Communities
Charlie Hooker, Senior Vice President, Keystone Human Services
Chris Sparks, CEO, Exceptional Persons, Inc.

Listen to this panel of providers discuss what tough questions they are asking themselves, what collaborative opportunities they are considering and what they see as the critical elements for success  moving forward in this field.

Note: This session will serve as the backdrop for further discussion during the Monday luncheon.

ANCOR Foundation Community Builder Awards Presentation

Bill Tapp, President, ANCOR Foundation

The ANCOR Foundation will bestow the 2010 Community Builder Award, a national recognition effort, to one provider that has gone above and beyond the call of duty to make community inclusion a reality for individuals with disabilities in this plenary session.

Luncheon

This is your chance to network with your colleagues on key issues presented during the morning. Announcement of the ANCOR Foundation’s Legacy Leaders will also be made during this time.

Demand Management:  How to How to Make the Hard-Nosed Business Decisions

Greg Wellems, Innovations Director, Imagine!

Like many human services organizations Imagine! (Colorado) has a much higher demand for services than it has resources available to meet that demand. To address this situation, Imagine! has begun applying the concepts of Demand Management. Demand Management is a strategic approach that helps create systems for prioritizing resources to address demand. Participate in this session as Greg outlines how Imagine! is currently utilizing these principles to reprioritize the organization’s resources, assess return on investment and leverage various technologies to meet increased demand for services without any increase in public funding.

Very Good to Excellent: Continual Improvement Is the Key

Frank Capone, CEO Liberty
Mike Decker, COO, Liberty

While Liberty’s satisfaction and retention data was already among the highest in the field that simply wasn’t good enough. That’s why Liberty developed its Very Good to Excellence Initiative. Hear from agency representatives as they discuss how they effectively leveraged supports from the Studer Group, ANCOR’s Performance Excellence Initiative, Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, and The Council on Quality and Leadership to develop a comprehensive approach to improving employee, family and consumer satisfaction and retention levels. This session will identify what is working well with this process and what opportunities for improvement were identified along the way. Learn how these different tools and techniques can be applied in any provider agency today.

Collaborations Are the Key: Assessing Your Opportunities 

Vance Yoshida, Senior Manager, LaPiana Consulting

After hearing about the various collaborative opportunities human service organizations are pursuing in these turbulent times, roll up your sleeves, flex your mental muscles and get ready to assess what options make the most sense for your organization in this interactive breakout session. Walk away with an understanding of the key questions you need to consider before embarking on a partnership or collaboration of some sort.

Changing a Workforce Through WIN

Jeff Gallagher, WIN Operations Manager, RHA Howell
Rashelle Brooks, Workforce Development Coordinator, RHA Howell

For RHA Howell (North Carolina), a shortage of qualified frontline workers existed. To address this situation, the organization began ‘connecting the dots’ through the creation of its Workforce Investment Network (WIN) program. Highlighted on PBS and having received commendations from individuals such as former NC Governor Jim Hunt, you won’t want to miss learning how RHA has created a program that is garnering national acclaim without any additional agency monies. Listen in as Jeff and Rashelle describe the partnerships they have helped create with the University of North Carolina, North Carolina Community College system, AmeriCorps, Wachovia and the NC Providers Council, among others.

After only one year, the results are impressive;

• Only 4 out of the 125 people enrolled in this program have left the agency.
• Over 400 individuals are currently enrolled in the College of Direct Support and only 9 have left RHA Howell to pursue other interests.
• All WIN participants are carrying a combined GPA of 3.0 or higher at the community college level.
• 26 individuals have received promotions to date.

You won’t want to miss this session!

Tough Times Enable Talent to Rise at RISE

Michelle Auer, COO, RISE Inc.

In tough times, employees are often asked to do more with less.  Instead of seeing this situation negatively, the leadership team at RISE saw this as an opportunity to unleash their most promising employees. Through the development of a supportive coaching model, the organization strategically divided the existing company into smaller like companies. They appointed several promising leaders as acting CEOs for each entity and gave these individuals the authority to make decisions, discuss their progress and collectively problem solve. COO Michelle Auer will share what lessons have been learned to date and what promise such an approach might hold not only for retention purposes but, more importantly, for challenging common held assumptions about delivering responsive supports and services.

Maximizing Your ANCOR Membership: Programs to Support the Entire Agency

Provider Panel Discussion

Are you and your staff getting the most out of your ANCOR membership? Listen to this panel of providers as they share how they are leveraging the ANCOR member benefit programs to connect with the broader ANCOR community and save money! A brief outline of these and other programs will be discussed:

• Shared Resources Purchasing Network
• Philadelphia Insurance Program
• AFLAC
• Higher Logic Networking portal
• College of Direct Support

Beyond Regulation: Working Smarter Not Harder in Turbulent Times

Antone Aboud, Antone Aboud Associates, Inc.

In times of financial distress, organizations often narrowly focus on compliance. In such an environment putting out fires can become the norm, not the exception. This approach has several unintended and adverse consequences affecting the ability of the organization to promote service excellence and can create severe employee morale problems. Participate in this session as Antone Aboud outlines common pitfalls confronting organizations, how they can avoid such stressors, and what processes and procedures will more likely promote excellence.

What’s Keeping You Up at Night? Issues and Resolutions

Moderated Session, with Input from Attendees

Part of the value of belonging to ANCOR lies in the ability to put issues on the table, obtain a national perspective and brainstorm solutions. Upon entering the session, attendees will be asked to list their top three business challenges and three actions they have taken to meet the bottom line and maintain quality supports in these tenuous times. Moderators will share what issues were presented and attendees will walk away with new ideas to consider.  This is a highly interactive session.

State Share

Moderated Session

This highly rated, interactive session will detail ANCOR’s environmental scan of the hot issues in the states and the impact on providers. You’ll gain valuable information from this session!

Creating Positive, Resilient Organizations

Bruce Anderson, Principal, Community Activators

“The struggle between the rules of social service systems and the heart of the work is real, and it takes prisoners every day. There are ways to get the needs of both sides met, and we shouldn’t be satisfied with anything less.”  Bruce knows this first-hand. He’s worked with providers, states and DD councils. In his plenary session Bruce will prompt the audience to consider how resilient their current organizations are and what they need to do to weather any storm. Drawing upon examples from his consulting practice, Bruce will walk you through a series of activities which:

• Identify the difference between individual and group resilience.
• Identify the 4 most critical areas for creating organizational resilience.
• Assess your organization’s activities in each of the 4 areas.
• Assess your organization’s developmental needs.

ANCOR’S Performance Excellence Initiative: Comparative Data and What It All Means

Wendy Sokol, CEO, Soreo In-Home Supports, Inc.
Rebecca Childs, Senior Research Analyst, Deyta

In 2008. ANCOR embarked on its Performance Excellence Benchmarking Project, a provider led initiative designed to define key drivers of provider performance in the disabilities field. Armed with the second year of data, listen to the progress made in Year 2 of this initiative and how ANCOR is gaining the eyes and ears of industry experts and politicians alike in this brief presentation.

National Advocacy Campaign Update: Celebrating the Past; Shaping the Future

Jeff Britt, Vice President, Grassroots Issue Management, McGuireWoods Consulting

Along with a legislative report and update on NAC initiatives, ANCOR will honor the 2010 DSP of the Year and recognize state award winners during this session. The DSP of the Year Award recognizes the stars of the direct support workforce, while affording ANCOR and its members an opportunity to showcase the direct support workforce, its good works and the ongoing challenges its faces. Applicants for this esteemed award were judged on such criteria as how well they help the people they support build social capital, foster independence, establish ties with the person served and their families, as well as the level of creativity the nominee exhibited in performing their duties. We will also recognize the winner of the DSP Capital Challenge and present the 2010 ANCOR Advocacy Award. This award is given in recognition of demonstrated leadership by an ANCOR agency to advocate for the direct support workforce.

Disaster Creates Opportunity: New Avenues for Exploration in Service Delivery

Cliff Doescher, Executive Director, The Arc of Greater New Orleans
Donna Francis, Director, Metropolitan Human Services District

While Hurricane Katrina caused much devastation to individuals with disabilities, it also created an opportunity to reconceptualize supports and services. Listen to one provider and one representative from the local funding agency discuss how they effectively turned this disaster into an opportunity to design new, more responsive, individualized supports.

ANCOR Foundation Walk for Disaster Relief

Participate in this leisurely walk along the New Orleans waterfront to help support the ANCOR Foundation CARES Fund, a special fund designed to assist providers and individuals supported in times of natural or man-made disaster.

Note: boxed lunch and tee-shirt provided to participants. Pre-registration required.

Positioning Your Organization for the Future: Lessons Learned from One Provider (extended session)

Paul S. Boynton, President/CEO, Moore Center Services, Inc.
Scott Trudo, Director of Workforce Development, Moore Center Services, Inc.

Cross disability. Workforce Development Center. Employer of choice. Key community player. This was the vision for Moore Center Services (New Hampshire) more than a decade ago. Participate in this session as Paul Boynton outlines the specific steps they took to accomplish these objectives and increase their impact and influence in the state.

Paul will also outline the 3rd party relationships Moore Center Services has created. Such partnerships and collaborations have created both indirect and direct benefits for the agency.  Scott Trudo will follow with concrete examples of how the organization has helped develop its employees through a combination of formal and informal programs. Chronicled in national publications as an innovative agency, you won’t want to miss this session!

Assessing Your Organization’s Resilience: Time to Roll Up Your Sleeves and Take Action! (extended session)

Bruce Anderson, Principal, Community Activators

Drawing upon the morning plenary, providers will get to work assessing how agile and nimble their organization is in meeting the new normal. Identification of strengths and areas for improvement will be noted. Walk away with a concrete action plan to take home and discuss with staff!

How Measuring Programmatic Outcomes for People with Disabilities Facilitates Program Innovation and Secures Much Needed Funding

Lee Kingham, Executive Director, Abilities Network

ANCOR member Abilities Network (Maryland) initiated a bold move by partnering with Social Solutions to create a robust data tracking system in 2009. Determined to highlight the organization’s strengths and identify opportunities for additional funding, executive Lee Kingham will share how Abilities Network has leveraged the data on consumer outcomes to secure funding from a variety of public and private sources in this interactive session.  

PE Benchmarking Results: How Providers Are Using the Data to Drive Decision Making in Tough Times

ANCOR’s Performance Excellence Benchmarking Project has a long term goal; to help define key quality indicators for the purposes of Medicaid funding. A long-term goal, for certain but what does this mean in the short-term? How can agencies use this data to drive internal changes? Take part in this interactive session as participating PE benchmarking participants share how the data gleaned from the benchmarking project is driving key internal changes in how they do business. Practical. Hard hitting. Applicable to all providers committed to using every dollar as wisely as possible.