The Steering Committee has drafted the following 5 questions for a facilitated discussion activity at the Group meeting on March 12th.
1) What is our (Group) biggest benefit to the community?
2) What are the resource benefits to partnering?
3) What are obstacles we all share?
4) What are obstacles to collaborations and partnerships?
5) What is a big idea for us (Group) to do together?
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Posted on behalf of Beth Irons, Utica Zoo
1) What is our biggest benefit to the community?
There are several ways to look at this question; from our perspective as executive directors, and from that of our constituents, those that actually utilize our products and services. I still consider myself a freshman director. Personally, it is valuable for me to have a network of colleagues that I can utilize locally. While the day to day needs of my position as a zoo director are unique, the issues I face as the director of a nonprofit in the Oneida Herkimer counties area are not. Having people I can call or meet with locally allows me to bounce ideas and problems off those with more experience. And, to put it plainly, I feel less intimidated and less apt to feel embarrassed about asking for help from someone who is familiar with the area with respect to politics, economics, and my organization.
From our constituents’ perspective, I think there is a perceived value in knowing there is networking among like professionals, that there is sort of a joining of forces and knowledge. We are perceived as stronger individual directors because we proactively work with other directors to hone skills, address common issues and problem solve.
2) What are the resource benefits to partnering?
I have been investigating shared services more aggressively recently. Partnering can be beneficial in situations where there is safety (or savings) in numbers. Bulk ordering of office supplies, combining some services (healthcare plans, payrolls services, advertising) can significantly bring down costs to the individual organizations when all operate under a common umbrella. I concentrate on trying to create win-win situations. So many (in both for-profit and nonprofit sectors) operate on a “What’s in it for me” approach. While it is just good business practice to insure that any relationship benefits your organization, so many times the result can be that the total of the end product is so much stronger than the sum of the individual partners if the partnership is created with a proactive attitude rather than a defensive one. Communication is key to the success of any partnership. Any one of us may have an event or project that could be better or stronger with the participation of one or more area organization. Consistent communication and awareness is vital to the creation of beneficial partnerships.
3) What are obstacles we share?
There is stiff competition for every dollar, and in many cases, we are competing for the same dollar. The rising costs related to having employees (workman’s comp, healthcare benefits, insurances, etc.) and energy are huge expenses (they comprise almost 70% of my operating budget.) And for many, simply reducing the number of employees on the payroll significantly impacts our ability to deliver our services and fulfill our mission. By the same token, turning down the heat only works to a certain point. And the reduction we are able to tolerate usually does not negate the increase in costs from National Grid.
We each individually suffer from the same issues that have been addressed in other forums; increasing lack of qualified candidates due to the migration out of the area, and the state, of younger workers; fighting the reputation that upstate NY is an “economically depressed” area making it even more difficult to attract qualified workers, and at times to retain the qualified employees we already have. And while we are lucky to have a culturally diverse population in the Mohawk Valley, that too, adds its own set of unique issues related to additional training needed to overcome language and cultural barriers.
4) What are obstacles to collaboration and partnership?
In my opinion, one of the biggest obstacles (and I don’t know if obstacle is the right word to use) is that the diversity of our respective missions do not necessarily lend themselves to productive collaborations in many instances. However, there are other times when they compliment beautifully. With the major shift of funders and grantors to project-driven funding in the past 7-8 years, we are often times forced to concentrate more on creating a shorter term project to satisfy the need of the grant application rather than the longer term goal of achieving the mission, or covering operating expenses so we can continue delivering services with adequate staff and supplies. With fewer and fewer funding opportunities available that even offer coverage of operating expenses, we are faced with taking on more projects to increase working capital to meet expenses. And that in itself can drive up those expenses (is anyone seeing a pattern here?)
I do not think anyone is against collaboration and partnership. I just think that our time is already so jammed with necessary daily, weekly and monthly tasks that many opportunities are simply not recognized and therefore are missed.
5) What is a big idea for us to do together?
Here are a few ideas sort of off the cuff:
• Start a listserv for fast and easy accessibility to each other. Would provide quick feedback on a question or need from the whole group.
• Identify common needs and organize speakers or workshops to address them
• Have an information trade where we can each provide others with promotional materials for our organization and we each agree to display these materials at our own place. Materials can include brochures, newsletters, flyers or posters for upcoming events. I would be willing to put up a “What’s happening in Oneida and Herkimer County” bulletin board to post or display info for our organizations for staff and visitors to see.
Posted on behalf of Virginia Barney, The Neighborhood Center
Some feedback – 1)Groups biggest benefit to the community – a diversified but rich collection of service and thus resource ORGANIZED capacity to respond to the community in planning, and delivering services as well as identifying unmet needs (gaps); 2)volume =’s savings, increase knowledge and sometimes an awareness of resources that one would not know separately; 3) many non-profits seeking funding from same sources and donors, limited new talent coming to area, Baby Boomer Top Management turnover and or/senior skill turnover; 4) Lack of trust, concern for take-over versus collaboration, harder to partner than play by oneself, the many diversities and thus uncommon missions of the non-profits are not maximized, 5) I don’t have a concrete idea – but to give us credibility – something that clearly shows strength, benefit and interest for the greater “WE” - a “Regionalization” approach.
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