TESTIMONIALS
The Borough of Ambler, as part of its contract with its workers, agreed to have performance reviews done on all its employees. I was concerned about the quality of the work. The supervisors who were asked to do this were not accustomed to desk work. I had seen Bernie Roseman, a VEC consultant, in action when we set up our Vision Action Plan in Ambler. He had ability to deal with the negative, handle it and still communicate with the majority. We asked Bernie and Gene Presseler, to train our supervisors to do performance appraisals in three sessions. The results were short of a miracle! The best part was having VEC critique the final result and make the sessions a true learning experience. And, we have better supervisors as a result. Now when they look at their people, they see the whole picture, not just the job in front of them.
Charles T. "Bud" Wahl, Ambler Borough Mayor, 215-641-1000
Briar Bush Nature Center was mentioned in CNN Money Magazine as one of the reasons Abington Township received 21st Best Small City to live in the nation. Serving over 65,000 children, adults and families annually, Briar Bush provides environmental education activities, exhibits and live animal programs to all ages, seven days a week. “Welcoming You to a World of Wonders,” BBNC staff known for their programs with personality, are recognized on a regional and national level as providing excellence in education.
BBNC has utilized the talents of VEC staff in many capacity-building activities including: strategic planning, marketing, retail nature shop administration, and building project development. I have attended many of the half day forum workshops for Executive Directors over the past 25 years. VEC is invaluable to the whole community with enthusiastic and dedicated volunteers that can be counted on to provide expertise for the nonprofit world.
Dede Long, Executive Director, Briar Bush Nature Center, (215) 887-6603
Impact Thrift is a 501 (c) (3) whose mission is to impact the local community through our thrift store operations. Our primary goal is to financially support local charities. To date, we support 14 local charities, all having to do with families and children in crisis. Since 2003, Impact Thrift has donated over $600,000 to our supported charities. 100% of the merchandise in our stores is donated to us from individuals and businesses. We accept gently-used furniture, clothing, books, toys, tools, electronics, knick-knacks etc.
Impact Thrift started working with VEC about 1 1/2 years ago. As in most non-profits, time and money are equally hard to come by. At Impact Thrift, we were well aware of the programs and policies that our dedicated staff needed, but we could not find the time nor the staff needed to develop, teach and implement those programs. This is where VEC came to our rescue. VEC helped us to revise our current Employee Handbook, guided and trained our managers on their Employee/Manager communications, helped our store managers set agendas for store meetings, provided input and assistance to develop an incentive plan for our employees and helped analyze our employee turnover and gave suggestions to lower that turnover. Our stores have been running smoother, our employees feel more valued and our executive committee has had a weight lifted off their shoulders .....all because of the wonderful team.
Jo Greenawalt, Marketing & Charity Relations Dir., Impact Thrift Stores, Inc, 215-957-6131