The Newsletter of the Army Residence Community VolumeThe 33 Number 1 Eagle January 2019 Marketing the ARC in 2019 A conversation with Dolores Saenz, Director of Marketing page 10 Editor’s Notebook Inside The Eagle This month there’s a problem which most editors January 2019 pray for: Too many fine articles to fit the page constraints. You’ll notice there’s little space 1 Front Cover: Director of Marketing, between columns and paragraphs. Dolores Saenz Shortening an article by changing the font sizes is 2 Contents one thing. Compacting one paragraph into one 2 Editor’s Notebook sentence becomes the equivalent of turning a filet 2 Cat Corner mignon into a beef bouillon cube. 3 Birthdays and Passings Chuck Stout’s World War II poetry, and his profile 3 MLK Day March and Cowboy Breakfast from mysa.com by Sig Christenson (Senior 3 Living a Bonus Life Reporter, San Antonio Express-News) is moved to 4-5 A Conversation with the CEO the ARCNet pages. Joe Hipp’s description of the 6 Meet Dr. Victor Manuel Martinez-Soria, MD ranch home of Residents Julia Carlson and Helen Pohly will appear in the February issue. Thank you 7 Golden Diggers for your patience, and for giving me the privilege of 8 Library being the Editor. -- 8 Employee Gift Fund Kevin Scott 9 New Items Purchased for the ARC 9 Tech Advisor – Mark Harmon 10-11 Interview with the Director of Marketing, Dolores Saenz 12-13 The West Point Trio 14-15 The Betty Cheever Memorial Chapel 16 Wall Artist of the Month: Joseph Webb 17-18 January Activities 18 Save the Date: Seniors of Note Variety Group 18 Monte Carlo Night 19 January Movies 20 Eagle Luncheon: Jackie Van De Walle The Eagle continues on the ARCNet with: American Revolution, 240 Years Ago CAT CORNER Artist of the Month, Joseph Webb, The ARC Cat Management Program began WWII: 75 Years Ago, European Theater in mid-November. One adult cat was trapped, WWII: 75 Years Ago, Pacific Theater neutered and returned to campus. Two kittens Chuck Stout – Profile at mysa.com have been rescued and three kittens have ----------------------------------------------------------------------- been trapped. One kitten is being fostered by This front cover Jane Mashburn and another was adopted by a of The Eagle is resident. The Animal Defense League another fine accepted the other three kittens and put them creation by up for adoption. Two of those kittens have Grace Newton, since found forever homes. our Director of Communication. Five Residents have completed TNR (trap, It features the neuter and return) class sponsored by the San Director of Antonio Feral Cat Coalition and are certified Marketing, trappers. The Management Program now has Dolores Saenz, eight certified trappers. ARC cats are being reviewing the fed at two designated sites and trapping will kitchen features resume in January. of an updated Editor: Mary Gustine leads this fine program and legacy cottage. submitted this report. 2 The Eagle January 2019 Birthdays and Passings JANUARY BIRTHDAYS BEGINNING FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS 01 Cynthia Benedict 01 Trema Berry 01 Gerald Ruder 01 Erika Robeson 01 Ray Palmer 01 Charlene Smith 02 Ginger Armstrong 02 Jim Brown 02 Jean Stewart 02 Alice Rolik 02 Myrtle Whitby 02 Glenn Hall 03 Paul Benedict 05 Lilas Harvey 03 Art Kanarr PASSINGS SINCE LAST ISSUE 03 Thomas Korte 03 Robyn McCarthy Nov 28 CAPT James McIIvaine 05 George Ullmann Dec 6 Mrs. Rose Marie Riggs 06 Clair Book Dec 8 LTC Morton Bregman 06 Opal Coleman Dec 11 LTC Cleveland Pratt 07 Bill Harris Dec 12 Mrs. Dorothy Starbuck 07 Gisela Fields Dec 16 Mrs. Lucille Rutledge ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 07 Sharon Taylor Two January Events in San Antonio: The 07 Sue Speedy MLK Day March and the Cowboy Breakfast 07 Vern Handel 08 Connie Furbish If you can walk distances and enjoy crowds, and would like to celebrate what’s become January San 08 Kay Jones Antonio traditions, there’s two great opportunities. 08 Ronald Jenkins The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March on Monday, 08 Sharan McCall 21 January, beginning at 10 AM, the largest in the 09 Doreen Armogida U.S., with crowds of over 200,000. Please see 11 William Herr, Jr. https://www.sanantonio.gov/MLK. 13 Elaine Older The Cowboy Breakfast is on Friday, 25 January, 14 Jo Rice 4:30 AM to 8:30 AM, in the parking lot of the 15 Barbara Steele Cowboy Dance Hall. It’s the world’s largest free 16 Patricia L. Carroll breakfast, with over 30,000 attendees. For more 17 Aurelia (Reli) Korte information, why not attend the Eagle Luncheon on 18 Meem Baumgartner 8 January? The speaker, Jackie Van de Walle, was the 2018 Cowboy Breakfast emcee. 19 Mary Gossage ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Shelia Hickman 23 Martha Thorpe 24 Mary Lee Stuck 25 Armon G. Grantham 25 George McCall 26 Francelle Lambertson 26 Misa Cole 28 Janet-Anne Boykin 28 Patti Jackson 29 Dave Oliver 29 Kevin West 29 Sylvia Trzaskoma 29 Jack Wold 29 Wanda Shrum Residents Glenn and Mary Nordin (left), and visitors Bob and Marilyn Riddick (right), of University Place, WA, celebrated a 31 Stainton Smith st special event this past December 10th. It was the 51 Please contact Resident Services to add or anniversary of Glenn and Bob’s rescue after their F4 Phantom Remove your name from the month’s Birthdays. was shot down in Vietnam. Since that day, Glenn and Bob have been living a “bonus life.” See story in the November 2018 Eagle. January 2019 The Eagle 3 A Conversation with the CEO KS: The Town Hall briefing in November was well Another measure of financial stability is “days received, especially with the level of detail given of cash on hand.” Our records show it takes each topic. $76,588 per day to operate. That’s one day of SF: I’m glad Residents closely follow how our cash. On 30 September our Days of Cash on community operates. Not every chart is quite Hand was 394. That favorably compares to as positive as I would like but we’re headed in the industry benchmark of having ideally between 258 to 332 Days of Cash on Hand. the right direction and doing a good job. KS: Does this mean the community is ahead KS: The Town Hall began with Finance. financially, and can relax because the goals have SF: Our fiscal year began in July and we have been met? had a good start. From controlling expenses, SF: In a word, no. We’re a non-profit with our current income exceeds expenditures by sound financials, but we’re also a business that $480,000. Our performance compared to needs revenue and wise stewardship to projection with entrance fee income is catching provide the services of what’s to be the premier up, and this is a positive trend. There were five continuing care – retirement community in the new “move-in’s” during October, five more in country. Every 90 days is another bond November, and one scheduled in December. payment, which takes about 44 Days of Cash We’ll begin 2019 with a sense of momentum. on Hand. Every day is another day we’re Marketing is doing a good job and we formed maintaining and improving our facility, our an internal committee dedicated to expanding standards and our services. ways to achieve greater success. KS: Could you put a number on that? The story here is our finances are “on course,” so to speak, and that’s the same conclusion SF: The Capital Expenses part of our annual the Finance Committee of the Resident Council budget is $4.2 million. The largest piece of that would also share, after their monthly reviews is almost $2.5 million for unit turnover. Every with Gordon Shoger. Frankly, anyone familiar time we make a unit ready for a new Resident, with the economics of the Continuing Care - we update it with current fixtures. All units Retirement Community industry would also need to be updated for maintainability and agree, by comparing our finances with the safety, as well as to install current designs. industry standards. We’re also replacing the fire sprinkler system in the High-Rise and making necessary repairs KS: Industry Standards such as . ? throughout the campus which may have been SF: Take a common financial measurement deferred. This is just the part of the budget like the operating ratio (OR), a comparison of dealing with our physical infrastructure. expenditures against the income. The current Let’s move to another topic. Your choice. Operating Ratio is 96.6. That means for every dollar of income, there’s 96 point 6 cents KS: Personnel. Reducing employee turnover. ($0.966) spent. The industry standard for this benchmark is between 98.05 to 102.24. SF: One of the goals we’ve set for our team is Gordon (Shoger) and I are working hard to to reduce employee turnover. The ARC keep the OR at or below 100 this year. The currently employees 372 people, that’s in the recent restructuring and leaving a few staff full-time, part-time, and on-call categories. The vacancies unfilled which are not tied to giving average employee tenure is 5 years. If you direct service to Residents is a factor. don’t consider first year employees, the Philanthropy is now an important factor in our average employee tenure is 8 years. And our revenue stream, so income from unrestricted average employee age is 48. donations is compared to what we spend and A couple of amazing statistics showed at the is part of the OR calculation.