A farewell message to fellow residents

FROM THE GRF PRESIDENT

by Susan Hopewell

GRF president

As I leave my role as GRF president, I go with equal parts of sadness and joy. I will miss my daily contact with GRF staff. The joy wi ll come from being able to activate my original retirement plans of traveling more and attending meetings less.

The challenge we all faced this year was the resignation of our executive director in early November 2021. This was certainly unexpected and could have been disastrous, but it was not. And the reason: the entire GRF team did not miss a beat in its duty and commitment to this community, to co-workers and in support of other departments when needed. The saying I hear so often from GRF staff is “there is no I in team.” And please believe me, it is more than just a saying; it is an integral part of their work ethic, their commitment to each other and to this community. I witnessed it many times during the last seven months.

These past seven months, I had the good fortune to work with Mark Weaver, Carolyn Miller, Jodi Hopkins and LeAnn Dillman on the interim Management Team leading our community while we searched for a new executive director. I thank them for showing up, stepping up and embrac- ing this challenge.

I am grateful for the encouragement they gave each other and to me. I am indebted to them for the grace and patience they showed me. It has been a privilege to have partnered with this “dream team.”

The GRF Board has been committed to improving the benefits and wages for all GRF employees. We have succeeded in making significant changes in support of this objective. The Board’s goal is to retain our valued employees and improve our recruitment opportunities to attract new employees.

GRF has, with the collaboration of Mutual Directors, finalized a list of services provided to Mutuals by GRF. The current Management Agreement was written 60 years ago. A long overdue new Management Agreement was recently approved by the GRF Board and a majority of Mutuals. The goal is to have the agreement on all Mutual agendas in June or July for approval and to have a community signing and photo op event in August to memorialize this historic event.

We begin the new term with a new GRF president. Jessica Sedgwick, our new executive director, will be on campus June 22. Jessica has the leadership, vision and experience to keep LWSB the best place to live and lead us into the future.

The future offers exciting opportunities for this community to continue to thrive.

Thank you all for support and words of encouragement. It has been an honor to serve as your GRF president.