Share Medical Center Foundation
Board of Trustees
Important Historical Events through 2006
March 2006: In March of 2006, on the verge of a multi-million dollar expansion and renovation project at Share Medical Center, and with apparent ongoing and future needs of the medical center coming to the forefront, the Foundation, that had remained dormant for the most part, was called upon to increase its activity and increase its support of the medical center.
With new energy and cause, the trustees met for the first of many meetings that would follow and began to reorganize the Foundation.
April 2006: In April, QHR Consultant and Foundation expert, Betty Joyce Hand came onsite to speak to the trustees about the basic functions of foundations and in particular, hospital foundations.
In addition, April 2006 saw the hiring of Kelly Parker to be the Marketing Director of Share Medical Center and the eventual first Executive Director of the Foundation.
The consultant advised the trustees of many opportunities and sparked even more interest in making the Foundation a vital player in enhancing the medical center and the healthcare options for the people of the Alva area.
May 2006: In May, Foundation Trustees were faced with some obstacles that needed resolution before any substantive activities could occur.
One being that bylaw changes were necessary in order to appoint or hire an Executive Director and/or other employees to carryout the day-to-day operations of the Foundation.
The other stemmed from a need to make the Foundation more independent of the Alva Hospital Authority (AHA) and Share Medical Center. This would require an amendment to the Articles of Incorporation as well as changes to the Foundation’s bylaws.
Under the original Articles of Incorporation, the AHA would have a quorum at most meetings of the Foundation and the CEO reserved a voting seat as a trustee. Legal Counsel advised this could be a conflict of interest in that there would exist the possibility of inappropriate advancement of AHA/Share Medical Center initiatives via the Foundation.
In addition, open meeting laws, due to the make-up of the board of trustees were applicable to Foundation meetings. While no violations occurred, this compromised the Foundation’s ability to continue accepting anonymous gifts and additionally compromised the status of those gifts as charitable contributions according to federal and state laws.
June 2006: By June, the medical center had approved employee payroll deductions in order to support the Foundation and within a couple weeks, a dozen or more employees began making voluntary contributions out of their paychecks. Employee payroll deductions would prove to be very significant as monthly contributions from employees quickly grew to over $1,200 per month. The amount of employee support would continue to increase over time.
November 21, 2006: After months of consideration, a special committee of the Foundation, with the advice of Legal Counsel, had drafted the changes that would be necessary in order for the Foundation to engage in future activities.
On November 21, the Foundation Trustees, including Dr. Troy Smith, Jason Gaisford, Barbara Oestmann, Scott Ware, Steve Knox, Dr. Kirt Bierig, Monty Pfleider, Darlene Sanderson, Helen Thiesing and Liz Smith voted to make the necessary amendments to the Articles of Incorporation as well as the Foundation Bylaws.
In doing so, they approved a seven-member board of trustees that would be comprised of two AHA members, one hospital employee and four at-large members of the community. In addition, the Foundation now had the ability to appoint and or hire staff, and ex-officio positions were approved for the Share Medical Center CEO as well as for the Foundation Executive Director position.
In addition to that business, Trustee and then current Mayor of Alva, Arden Chaffee submitted his resignation from the Foundation.
A meeting of the new Foundation convened at the adjournment of the above-mentioned meeting. The new or remaining trustees were Dr. Troy Smith, Jason Gaisford, Pat Nida, Helen Thiesing, Liz Smith and Evelyn Brizzolara. One vacancy existed with the departure of Mayor Chaffee and Barbara Oestmann held the non-voting position of the SMC CEO.
Officers were appointed and the Trustees further voted to officially appoint Sally Bush as the Recording Secretary and Kelly Parker as the Executive Director.
February 23, 2007: A handful of presentations had been given in the community and general awareness of the Foundation was getting out to the public when Barbara Oestmann accepted a gift of $10,000 from an individual who chose to remain anonymous.
This gift was the first of its size and it was given with a pledge of another $10,000 to be gifted in the following month. The gift was restricted to the recruitment of physicians and ultimately was utilized to offset Share Medical Center expenses associated with the hiring of James Colvert, M.D.
February 28, 2007: By this time, Jane McDermott had joined the Foundation Board.
With a full board, the trustees welcomed back QHR Consultant and foundation expert, Betty Joyce Hand to facilitate the first strategic planning session of the Foundation.
The Foundation board worked through the daylight hours on into the night and set the stage for future activities of the Foundation. Priorities would include medical center building enhancements, equipment upgrades, training and education of a healthcare workforce, and physician recruitment.
April-May 2007: The Foundation Board once again experienced some changes in April and May of 2007. Due to family obligations, Evelyn Brizzolara resigned her position with deep regret.
Taking her place was Audry Rader and at this time, the board was not only fully functioning again, but it gained some much needed stability to forge ahead with growing the young foundation.
June-July 2007: By this time, the Foundation had compiled a mailing list of over 1,000 names to send out invitations to join as members of the Foundation. At $100 a piece, the Foundation welcomed its very first members.
January 2008: With the medical center nearing completion of the hospital expansion project, the Foundation invited all of its members to an exclusive steak dinner fundraising event.
The 2008 Building Project Banquet was a great success. Over $4,000 was raised at the event, but more importantly, attendees caught a glimpse of all that has been and can be accomplished with their support. State Representative, Jeff Hickman addressed the group and tours of the building project were provided.
February 2008: The following month, Sally Bush retired from her position at the medical center and as the Recording Secretary of the Foundation to help out more on the family farm. Taking her place was Teresa Ray of Freedom, also a medical center employee.
Also in February, the Foundation filed its first return with the IRS, having completed its first fiscal year (FY 2007) with over $25,000 in contributions.
March 2008: Thanks to a donation from Willowbrook Construction Company the Foundation was able to support the medical center in the purchase of a new floor cleaning machine valued at over $5,000.
Additionally, the Foundation Board also approved the purchase of fundraising database software to improve the efficiencies and outcomes of the Foundation office. Now, the Foundation was poised to move forward with the resources needed to support its donor relations services and future fundraising efforts.
May 2008: A $10,000 gift was received by the Foundation; and in addition to matching the largest single gift received to date, this gift marked the achievement of $100,000 in total gifts to the Foundation since it was established in 2001.
This gift was received at the same time the Board was considering supporting the Medical Center in purchasing a portable x-ray machine for the radiology department.
With the large donation in hand, the Foundation Board members unanimously approved $15,000 toward the purchase of the $30,000 piece of equipment. |  |
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