Abbeyfield Houses Society of Canada Newsletter
November 2012

President's Report

Liz Power, President

Abbeyfield Canada has responsibilities in three areas - to existing houses, to provisional housing societies working to open an Abbeyfield and to facilitate the development of  Abbeyfield in Canada.

Liaison  between the board and  individual houses has  continued  and we have strengthened the connection. Each  Abbeyfield house has a liaison person from the national board and In the continued absence of a executive director we will continue to give priority to this connection. The role of the liaison is to keep communication open and to identify problem areas.  Also four national directors including me  attended the BC chapter meeting in Vernon in May. The meeting was very successful with a real spirit of good will. Much of the negativity of the past has dissipated. 

Ontario had 2 chapter meetings in  Caledon. The meetings were successful in allowing an exchange of ideas.
This year we have had the first  Abbeyfield Canada Week. There was very heavy participation.  It was also the 25th anniversary of the opening of the first Abbeyfield in Canada in  Sydney, St Andrews.



I attended their celebration - along with another Elizabeth - the Queen. She was a very effective  impersonator who taught us the royal wave and stole the show. 

We plan to build on the success of Abbeyfield week next year. Other initiatives are the Companionship at Xmas program , and additional contact with parliamentarians. All three marketing strategies have  been borrowed from The Abbeyfield Society. Newsletters went out as planned. the last one on Abbeyfield week managed to report on 11 houses - almost half of our  total number .

A great deal of time has been spent by our board and  in consultation with others in the last 6 months developing a strategic plan. The plan has not been finalized but I would like to share with you  a broad outline of our plans for the next 3 to 5 years.
Our 2013  strategic plan includes the following elements:

• acquisition of an executive director
• development of committees in the following areas; quality standards; promotions and public relations; development; and grants and  donations.

An executive director and committees are tools to achieve our goals.

Actual goals are as follows:

• acquiring partners to strengthen existing houses and  to help new  houses get built. e.g.  habitat for humanity,  legion, churches, government.
• help existing houses acquire grants
• investigate the possibility of development in the  areas of  lower income persons, the immigrant community, and the aboriginal community
• consideration of strategic direction into some non-traditional areas in Canada - Alzheimer's day programs, units with a bedroom, sitting room and possibly a kitchen,  some additional supportive services.
• set up an Abbeyfield foundation which will  fund raise. Some possible use of money would be for societies capital projects- both large and small, for subsidizing residents in need.
• best practices guidelines to establish uniform  quality standards. Although the same is being undertaken by the Abbeyfield society this is a strategic direction that was not borrowed. it was initiated here independently. Like The Abbeyfield society we recognize the need for the establishment of uniform standards. Standards protect each House from loosing good will because of  poor practices of another House

Areas I think we need to consider so we are ready to meet the demand of the future are size of units. I think that we are generally not appealing to the under 85's because they are not willing to live in 1 room without a kitchen. the 85's plus often  come  as a last resort because they do not have an alternative. How can we fulfill our true mission of relieving loneliness and isolation if they do not come. 

This a short synopses of our year past and our future plans. I know that working together with the support of the excellent team we will achieve most of our goals and acquire new ones.

Thank you

Liz Power
President, Abbeyfield Homes Society of Canada

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Annual General Meeting

Gwen Fletcher, Judy Shaw, Rebecca Vermeer, Liz Power, Linda Dryden, and Jim Galloway at the AGM.

On the weekend of September 29- 30th Abbeyfield Canada held their AGM at  Abbeyfield Houses Society of Ottawa. Thank You to Jo-Ann and Colin Ashford, the staff and residents of the Ottawa house.

Elizabeth Power President of Abbeyfield Canada chaired our AGM. As part of her presentation Liz delivered her president’s message. Elizabeth Power was also recently elected to The Abbeyfield Societies board of directors. Elizabeth informed all those gathered at the AGM of her experience in the U.K.

Current and outgoing board members were in attendance: Elizabeth Power- President, Florence Graham- former Vice President, Judy Shaw –Treasurer, Rebecca Vermeer- Director, Bill Statten- former director, treasurer, and president, Gwen Fletcher- Director and honorary member Bob McMullan.

As part of our gathering we welcomed new members to our board,  Linda Dryden and Jim Galloway and Sylvia Gent.

Elizabeth Power and all board members paid tribute to retiring board members Florence Graham, Bill Statten and Ann Bergen for serving Abbeyfield Canada for so many years! The outgoing board members were presented with gifts for all their work with Abbeyfield Canada. Thanks Everyone!! Best Wishes!

We would also like to thank International director of The Abbeyfield Society David Coe and Paul Allen CEO of Abbeyfield for joining us in Ottawa.

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International Report

Bill Statten. former Abbeyfield Canada director and David Coe, International Director

Abbeyfield Canada became a member of The Abbeyfield Society in 2011. Previously we were a member of a separate organization  - Abbeyfield International. 

The granting of membership to  international organizations has been named a merger. I think this is a misnomer because a merger is defined as " to combine or be combined so as to lose separate identity". (Longmans Standard College Dictionary)

In the case of  Abbeyfield Canada we are a separate incorporated legal entity whose board controls and determines our policy and management. It is essential that we do so and appear to do so in order to maintain our charitable status with CRA.  This make our partnership with the Abbeyfield society more complex but still advantageous and a worthwhile exercise in development. 

During the past year several  visits have marked our relationship with  the international community. A year ago David Coe, International Director of the Abbeyfield Society, came to Canada  visited  houses in Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. 

David attended the Abbeyfield Canada AGM in Saskatoon. During visits David spoke of the wide variety of models of Abbeyfield throughout the world. 

In March JB Munro, chair of the  International Council arrived. The international council is made up of International Societies and is a committee of the board of directors of the Abbeyfield Society. He and I visited Houses in Ontario and BC. JB has been involved in Abbeyfield in New Zealand for many years and it was very informative to speak at length to him - to compare experiences and problems that are  often so similar. Also it was  good to hear of different solutions. 

In May,  John Robinson  the chair of the board of directors of The Abbeyfield Society came to Toronto to meet with the Abbeyfield board. Board members Rebecca  Vermeer from BC, Florence Graham from Saskatchewan travelled to Toronto to join Bill Statten and Judy Shaw and Elizabeth Power for the meeting. Paul and David were to be at the meeting but were stranded  by bad weather in the New York airport.. They have joined us today at our AGM instead. 

The meeting with John resulted in some excellent dialogue with ideas presented from both the TAS and Abbeyfield Canada prospective. Apprehensions felt on both sides were lessened. 

1. John almost immediately stated that Abbeyfield Canada was autonomous in terms of running their Canadian operation. His recognition of our autonomy was of considerable importance. Loss of sovereignty was a large concern not only at the Abbeyfield board level but among many of our member societies.
2. At the end of the meeting after we had presented the nucleus of our plans going forward for the next 3 to 5 years, John  also stated that these plans agreed with his idea of the Abbeyfield  philosophy and I believe he was relieved to know that we had a strategic direction
3. I stated at the meeting and John concurred that the relationship between  the structure and operation of the  international council was in the development stage and that problems existed and needed to be addressed.

The visit this weekend will I hope continue to develop our understanding of each other not only from the Canadian / TAS viewpoint but from the International /TAS prospective. My discussion with other International members suggested that our concerns are not unique. 

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The principle concerns have to do with:

1. What is the nature of our relationship?  The problem for us is not that we don't know what we think the relationship is but rather do we have a TAS/Abbeyfield Canada consensus. When I have spoken to John we seem in agreement. I hope that this agreement encompasses Paul and David.
2.  The purpose  of the role of the international council needs to be defined and clarified. This needs to be done with the consensus of the council who are being represented at the board level through the council. Too much seems to be communication going only one way. 
3. We need to be clear on our responsibilities as a member of The Abbeyfield Society.
4. Communication is at times a problem.

On September 12, I was elected as a director ( one of 2 international directors) to the The Abbeyfield Society  board. I now have responsibility  to Abbeyfield Canada, to the international members through my place on the Council and as an international director. As  board member  of the Abbeyfield Society I have responsibilities to the whole organization. 

These responsibilities might seem to pull in many directions, but  this cannot be. The actions that are taken are to build a compatible whole which serves the individual parts. This is the responsibility of the council and the The Abbeyfield  board of directors. It is a responsibility that I take very seriously. We will all be stronger in the future by building carefully and thoughtfully now. We must not ignore issues at this stage because they will weaken and undermine us in the future. 

I am optimistic that we can move forward in a positive way because although in each country there is a different political, social, economic and cultural milieu, there is in all countries a strong belief in the basic principles  of wanting to provide quality housing to lonely  seniors in an atmosphere which provides not only physical  but  emotional support.

During my visit to Britain I visited 5 Abbeyfields houses. These differed from each other and from Canadian houses. Visiting  these houses was very useful to me. 
In the 16 months since Milan, I increasingly  can see value from our relationship with The Abbeyfield Society - which includes the international members. We have access to information - such as the Abbeyfield week package which we adapted- and even more important we have access to ideas. The conversations sharing experience s and problems  with international members, with British Abbeyfielders at the conference and with David,  John and now Paul. All this exposure has been invaluable in developing our ideas about future growth. Awareness of the need to consider many  models and levels of care has been developed by contact with our exposure to different models. 

I must emphasis that Abbeyfield  in Canada  do not need to feel threatened by the direction the Abbeyfield society has taken in Britain. Several factors make the direction they are going in different from ours. Some of the differences are depth of capital , governments support and private development. But, we would be foolish to ignore the initiatives. Initiatives including a larger number of homes ,1 and  2 bed room units and Alzheimer homes. We must remember that when we build a new home it will last for at least  50 years. It is built for the future.  Are we building what will be wanted and needed in the future? These considerations will need to be part of our strategic planning considerations. I think that we are going to have to diversify  our model.

I have spoken about what we can get from our membership in the Abbeyfield society. But membership brings not only privileges but responsibilities. I have pondered what our responsibilities are beyond paying our membership dues. It is amazing how much easier it is to ask "what do we get for our dues" rather than what must we give back to the international organization  to which we belong.

The answer is in fact quite straightforward. What we owe in return for membership is our best efforts in building  an ever stronger  Abbeyfield organization in Canada. We must support our houses so they maximize  the results of  their efforts in achieving the highest standards.

We must support as much as possible the groups already working on a new Abbeyfield and finally we must  reach out to the groups in our society who can most benefit from our housing model .  

We have plans for the future - it is imperative that we  work hard, work smart, follow through and achieve our goals.