Houston Ground Angels
Management Review
November 2018
Tony Castiglie, Vice President & Treasurer
October brought in the much-anticipated cooler weather with sufficient rain to keep things green & now November greets us with the return to Standard Time on the way to the Holiday Season. In Houston, it is always a nice time of the year, even when considering that the Astros came up short & the Rockets are off to a bad start. Maybe the Texans can remain on the upward swing & give us all something to cheer about.
Business? Good news & bad news. The good news – the Volunteers ran 280 missions, the best October in our history. With 2 months remaining, 75 Volunteers have run 2,198 Missions & at this rate, we should easily pass our 2018 target of 2,500. The bad news – we had 85 unfulfilled missions bringing our annual total to 478, a number out in the stratosphere.
The reasons for the good news:
Top 10 Volunteers – 2018
Sandra Begalke 329
Charles Whitworth 308
Dick Stabell 247
D
avid LaFargue 132
Tony LaRosa 122
Charles Gibson 93
Laurie Galland 75
Bo Hunter 69
Derek King 67
Maria Aranovich 60
October did bring us one new volunteer: John Barrett, who lives in Danbury.
Great having you aboard John & choosing to be part of our great organization.
The increase in the number of Unfulfilled Missions has been a point of concern for quite some time. An overall decrease in the number of volunteers over the years, the general awareness by health care organizations & patients about our organization & the service we offer
plus the increase demand placed on us with the demise of Angel Flight’s Ground Crew are all contributing factors. What to do about it? In previous Newsletters, I have written about the Board addressing this issue.
What holds the most promise is a relationship with Uber; they do have agreements with non-profit organizations. Several issues remain however, i.e. how do we pay for it & what will be the impact on the Mission Coordinators. At this point, we remain optimistic but we are not there yet. As Yogi Berra once famously said: “It ain’t over ‘till it’s over”.
As a final note, we have been anticipating the Annual Christmas/Holiday Party for quite some time. Last year’s event was a huge success & we look forward to this year being even better. The date is December 8
th
at Cullen Oaks in the University of Houston complex. It is a great facility, centrally located with easy access & plenty of free parking. It is the one time of the year
when the volunteers get to rub shoulders with each other & a nice way
to enter the holiday season. Please try to make it & bring a friend or neighbor if you choose. There will be additional information in other
parts of this newsletter & please try to be prompt with your RSVP so
we can have an accurate head count. I look forward to seeing
many of you.
As always, to every volunteer who steps up, thanks for your contribution. 2018 is another good year.
