Seniors Housing Business is the magazine that helps you navigate the evolution of the seniors housing industry.
Issue link: https://seniorshousingbusiness.epubxp.com/i/717426
AS H A 70 2016 ASHA 50 2016 was ultimately vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Anticipating the reintroduction of similar legislation this year, we initiated efforts to encour- age collaboration among ASHA members and state associations with the goal of defeating the legisla- tion. ASHA also weighed in with the Assembly and Senate to oppose the bill. We will continue to try and be helpful on select issues where we think we can assist at the state level. Editor's Note: In late July, Gov. Brown signed into law Senate Bill 939 introduced by Sen. Bill Monning (D-Car- mel), which gives continuing care retirement community (CCRC) residents and their estates protections against significant delays in the repayment of entrance fees. Q: Why doesn't ASHA have state affiliates? Schless: First of all, in many states you have solid, well-run affiliate organi- zations for LeadingAge, NCAL or Argentum. Add- ing another didn't make sense to us. With respect to state policy issues, we have the resources to be helpful on a selective basis. If we were to try to fund 50 state organizations, obviously that would require an appreciably different dues structure for us. ASHA has always tried to keep our membership dues at a reasonable level. Q: What is ASHA's cur- rent dues structure? Schless: The member- ship dues are $2,500 for the Associate level, $5,000 for the Advisory com- mittee, and the Executive Board membership level is $12,500. We've tried to be very efficient and provide folks with a great value. We have a high retention rate. People appreciate that we run a very lean organization. Cultivating the Best and Brightest Q: The Rising Leaders program emanated from the ASHA strategic plan- ning initiative. What's the purpose of the program? Schless: ASHA wants to help nurture and develop the next genera- tion of leadership in the industry. As we look at our membership, there is a sense that over the next 10 to 20 years the industry will need to develop a lot of talent. Within our mem- bership, we have a number of incredibly successful professionals — develop- ers, operators, financiers, architects, etc. The underlying desire is to do a couple of things: 1) use our members' expertise and experience to help nurture a cadre of rising leaders; 2) provide online access to a wealth of materials on different topics for the next-generation leaders who are part of the Rising Leaders program. We had an incredibly successful Rising Leaders meeting this past June and believe this program will truly help cultivate the types of leaders our indus- try will need in the next decade and beyond. Q: What's the process for identifying these young leaders? Schless: We initially approached ASHA's Executive Board members. We told them about the program and invited them to designate someone from their company. In some instances, we've had a cou- ple of people designated. We didn't want to establish an age criteria, although Rising Leaders tend to be toward the younger side. We encouraged our Executive Board members to identify someone who has been in their company three to five years who they could see being in a position of leadership. We encouraged them to help us continue efforts to diversify the ranks of leadership in the industry. It's a program that has the potential to help the indus- try accelerate the develop- ment of leaders. Q: What have you accom- plished thus far in the Rising Leaders program? Schless: At this point, we've probably signed up about 85 Rising Leaders. We had our first program last fall, and we had about 50 participants. Noah Levy, managing director of PGIM Real Estate, con- ducted our very first Ris- ing Leaders presentation. He talked about his career and his astute observations about the industry today versus 20 years ago. . Closing Thought About 'Where You Live Matters' Q: The response to the "Where You Live Mat- ters" website and educa- tional initiative has been quite positive. Do you wish you had under- taken this project earlier, or was that not in the cards at earlier points? Schless: During the strategic planning process, this initiative was really front and center. This was probably the first thing that ended up on the white board, and it stayed on the white board over an entire year at the top. We've talked about the "Got Milk?" campaign for at least 20 years (a reference to the famous ad campaign encouraging the consump- tion of cow's milk). Some of the video content that really speaks to me — cap- turing residents doing the things they do in these communities every day like riding their bikes, cooking, doing other types of things in brilliant HD video — we probably wouldn't have been able to do 20 years ago because we didn't have the technology. The timing was good to launch the website now, but by the same token it clearly was the type of initiative that in the back of everyone's mind over a period of a number of years we all knew would be ben- eficial for the industry. n