If you are considering a gift to the endowment, either right now or as part of a giving plan or bequest, we have information available here. And thank you.

June also marked some changes to the admin team both with Brenda Lopez as our newest Facilitator and Heather Miller replacing Peggy Carter as bookkeeper. We have seen a number of changes throughout the last year to the leadership team and it feels like Imagine has arrived at new phase as a company with new energy and renewed expectations. The final milestone of point is the role out of all the new pay rates for our staff which goes into effect July 1^st. Though it doesn’t feel like enough for the sometimes very challenging work our staff do I am glad we can be more competitive as an agency when hiring and I know we are looking at adding to these increases in the near future. 

We have made it to Summer and with that comes a few new milestones for myself and Imagine. Firstly, the end of June marked me completing the first year in the Director of Services position. With learning the role, the pandemic, and the national staffing crisis it is safe to say it has been the hardest year in my career thus far. However, I have had incredible support from Imagine staff and families and feel truly grateful being part of this community. A benefit to a company like Imagine being tested so heavily is it has really helped Doug and myself identify where Imagine is strong and where our focus needs to be to facilitate improvement. 

June also marked some changes to the admin team both with Brenda Lopez as our newest Facilitator and Heather Miller replacing Peggy Carter as bookkeeper. We have seen a number of changes throughout the last year to the leadership team and it feels like Imagine has arrived at new phase as a company with new energy and renewed expectations. The final milestone of point is the role out of all the new pay rates for our staff which goes into effect July 1^st. Though it doesn’t feel like enough for the sometimes very challenging work our staff do I am glad we can be more competitive as an agency when hiring and I know we are looking at adding to these increases in the near future. 

The second half of the year will have a heavy focus on adding the remaining open SLS slots to get each facilitator up to 6 teams. We will also be focusing, as always, on growing our Family Home Agency(FHA) program and increasing our community events (COVID depending.) 

Thanks again to everyone who supported Imagine and myself over the last year. I’m exited to see where we are a year from now and look forward to working with you all to get there!

PARENT ZOOM MEETING THURSDAY JULY 7^TH 4PM

Doug will join us for a presentation of the Strategic Plan, what has been accomplished, gained and learned. This discussion will be based on the report of the Strategic Plan Committee to the board (see attachment). Look for the Zoom invite coming out soon. 

SATURDAY JULY 16^TH AT NOON

susancruzan50@gmail.com     831-818-2501

Imagine's employees deserve two things: much higher wages and transparency about how the wages are set. Right now, with wages for most direct care staff rising, I'd like to explain how today's new rates were possible, why they aren't higher, where we expect them to go from here and when. In this column, I expect to refer a lot to the Compensation Committee recommendations. When I do, I mean this.

The Compensation Committee was established by the board of Directors to work through a process for insuring that we identify any funding available to improve employee compensation and to prioritize how best to allocate those funds. At the time the board created the committee there was no particular prospect of rate increases. We expected it would take a very long time to build the recommended wage structure. The committee invited and had participation from the board, Imagine Executive team, administrators, Facilitators and Direct Care staff.

To quickly summarize what you'd find in the document, the main principles were that any surplus expected would be progressively allocated to increasing direct care staff wages and that those increases would reward commitment and function. Asleep shifts would be paid at a baseline (currently the minimum wage.). Awake shifts would be paid 10% more than asleep. Staff with 2 years at Imagine or 4 years of caregiving experience anywhere would get a 10% raise above the awake shifts and those with 8 years at Imagine or 10 years in all would get another 10% raise. Some functions, like Lead Staff or overnight awake would receive an additional $2/hour. The speed at which we can add these raises would depend on how long it takes to strengthen our finances, but that was the final state planned.

The state then authorized rate increases to go into effect in three phases with the first scheduled for April of 2022, a second identical increase in July of '23 and a third with outcome incentives for 2025. The size of the rate increases depended on how underfunded an agency appears compared to research that estimated fair rates. At Imagine, we were considered very underfunded and so got a large rate increase. Unfortunately, the pandemic had been very expensive and Imagine has been running growing deficits since soon after lockdown. More than half of the April increase went to balance our budget and the rest will pay for the $1.50 increase for awake staff and lead staff. We understand this is less than deserved and are aware of how high inflation is running. This was the best we could do.

But prospects for January are better because 1) we have corrected the original deficit. Any deficit run in the second half of this year will be due to the wage increases. 2) The largest way the pandemic affected our finances is that not replacing new clients and expected clients not moving into care means that we have smaller Facilitator caseloads. Over the next year, we expect to bring our SLS caseloads into the financially efficient ratio. 3) now that our awake staff are making the planned 10% more than sleep, additional raises will affect fewer people. Those with 2 years experience are the vast majority but not everyone. Those with 8 years are a substantial number but less than half. Together, those three things mean the next rate increase, approved yesterday by the Governor, will go much further than the last one.

If we add SLS cases and receive the expected rate increase in January, we may be in position to complete the recommendations early next year. That would mean our longest-term awake direct care staff will be making $20/hour or more and have received 40% raises in 366 days. That's what we're working towards and hoping for. What follows it is increasing everyone's wages including housemates. You may want interim reports on how we're doing and whether we seem likely to meet this goal. Please know that I don't mind you asking and you can reach me a lot ways including here by email.

Our next board meeting will be held in August. Write to Norma if you'd like to attend. We will take up next year's budget, If you will be attending, and I hope you will be. The most watchful of you will note that this board meeting was shifted by a day. If you plan to attend, please note the date. The main topic this meeting will be the 2022-2023 agency budget.

We have finished our 2020 IRS Form 990. Now that might sound boring and, honestly, the Form 990 is not organized for suspense and narrative impact. But this is an important transparency tool in which Imagine, under penalty of perjury, reports to the public about what we do with our funding, potential conflicts, etc. If I've inspired your fascination, you can review it here. You can also find it on our website.

The budget passed with a final revision yesterday. The final budget accelerates the next round of rate increases from July 2023 to January. The rate increases expected January 1 should be equal to those from April 1 of this year, which

As always, thanks to Marty Omoto of CDCAN for amplifying the transparency and circularity of information between the community and policy-makers. If you would like to receive CDCAN's extensive reporting, write to Marty. CDCAN's work is entirely funded by the donations of those of us who benefit. Write to me or to Marty if you'd like to kick in.