Somerset Home for Temporarily Displaced Children
Jeffrey Fetzko, ACSW, LSW, CFRE
Vol. 4, No. 19, September 21, 2006
The Executive Director's News is published every two weeks, specifically for the employees of the Somerset Home. This issue and past issues are available on our web site at http://www.somersethome.org/main/pages/employee_newsletter.htm.
Farewell George!
After 14 years, our much beloved maintenance man, George Quinn has retired from Somerset Home. This marks George's second retirement; his first was from Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) where he had a long career before joining Somerset Home. George looks forward to spending time with his grandchildren and finally getting to the bottom of his wife, Natalie's "to do" list.
George Quinn (r) formally hands the baton to Gary Kreutzer (l).
Board President Dr. Tom Divilio and Trustee Lisa Warren, along with 30 board and staff members, came out to honor George at his retirement dinner last week.
Welcome New Somerset Home Staff!
September is a month of transitions and this September is no exception. I welcome all newly hired staff and enjoyed meeting you at the Executive Director Training class over the past two weeks.
Brian West, My Place Case Manager - Brian replaces Scott Ruth who has returned to graduate school full time. Scott has stayed on as a Resident Advisor and we look forward to a smooth transition.
Nicole Roberson, Therapist (TLP) - Nicole commutes from both Washington, DC and New York City and can be found at Whitney House, My Place or Passages on weekday evenings.
Tichina Smith, Pathways Independent Living Skills Educator - Tichina has stepped into Jen Lometti's job at Pathways. Tichina has been promoted from Passages resident advisor to her new job.
Gabrielle Gault, Administrative Associate - Gabrielle is a second year Masters of Social Work student at Rutgers School of Social Work and will be working on administrative activities at the corporate offices.
Fred Von Horn, Maintenance Worker - Fred first worked for us helping us open Whitney House. There were many long weekends and evenings spent in preparation for our opening day! We welcome Fred, who will join Gary in tackling our never ending list of maintenance jobs.
Free Flu Shots for Somerset Home Employees
On Monday, October 23rd, between 4:30 and 6:00 PM at Passages we will once again be offering free flu shots for all Somerset Home employees. Family members may also get flu shots for our cost of $25 (make checks payable to Somerset Home). Please let your supervisor know so we can get a rough count of how many to expect. Please try to come as close to 4:00 PM as possible.
Pension Plan Changes
Somerset Home is switching the record keeper (plan administrator) and bank for it's 401(k) retirement program. Beginning in 2007 (or sooner) we will be switching from Paychex/Merrill Lynch to TR Paul/Condor Capital. We expect that our investments will perform much better by merging our 401(k) plan into the PSP plan that we currently hold with Condor Capital Management.
The details of this switch will be communicated to you in a formal letter that will go out today. I will arrange for the investment representative from Condor Capital to come to a joint staff meeting at Passages, on October 23rd to explain the benefits of the program and answer questions.
We are excited to be making this change and look forward to seeing your 401(k) plan grow. One benefit of this change is that you will get one consolidated (PSP and 401k) statement every six months. As always, if you have any questions about the pension program, please direct them to Barbara Kreutzer or directly to me.
8th Annual Run for Runaways
The 8th annual Run for Runaways will be here before we know it! We still need major sponsors, ad sponsors, and volunteers to help with our big event on November 4, 2006. Please contact Sharon Hall if you would like to serve on the committee or help with one of the many tasks involved in this exciting event. Check out the web site at http://www.runforrunaways.com for more details. Funds raised go to directly benefit our residents. I look forward to seeing you there!
If you haven't done so, please set up your personal fundraising page today. Click on the box or paste the url below into your browser to set up your page:
http://www.active.com/donations/campaign_public.cfm?key=8th_run_for_runaways
Setting up a fundraising page is an easy way to raise funds for Somerset Home programs.
As always, thank you all for your continued hard work on behalf of our youth.
