Shaping the Future

Executive directors from all 12 Lifespace Communities joined key leaders from the home office for the biannual executive directors meeting in mid-November. The three-day event aimed at planning for a successful 2019 was hosted by Harbour’s Edge retirement community in Delray Beach, Florida.

“Being a unified enterprise is a cornerstone of our organization, so this meeting is a top priority,” said Ann Walsh, Lifespace senior vice president of operations. “While we’re constantly communicating with each other, our communities are spread out across several states, which can be challenging when it comes to in-person interaction. This meeting offers a great opportunity to get all our executive directors together under one roof to discuss how we can improve our organization and individual communities.”

Areas of focus at the meeting included resident and team member engagement, sales, occupancy, compliance, leadership development, and more. As has been tradition, the topics were chosen by the executive directors themselves.

“Getting to drive the agenda at such an important event is pivotal,” noted Bryan Welty, executive director at Friendship Village of South Hills in Upper St. Clair, Pennsylvania. “It ensures that we address the most relevant subjects, and I always walk away feeling empowered to elevate our operations and services to better cater to residents and team members.”

Neal Miller, associate managing director of operations at Masterpiece Living^®, and Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging, were special guest speakers. Miller, whose organization partners with Lifespace on successful aging initiatives, discussed the application process for receiving a Centers for Successful Aging (CSA) designation. Masterpiece Living awards the CSA recognition annually to communities that foster a culture of growth and empowerment for residents, team members and others. Milner’s session, on the other hand, focused on senior living industry standards and forecasts for the future.

“It’s been beneficial to have this forum on how we can make our communities the best places to live and work,” said Rachel Blumberg, executive director at Abbey Delray South in Delray Beach, Florida. “It was nice to meet face-to-face with my peers to ask questions and share experiences, best practices and ideas.”

Walsh felt equally positive about the experience. “We’ve had great success with this event in the past, and this time was just as productive,” she said.

[Photo: Dr. John Pirris (left), resident at Friendship Village of South Hills, with executive director Bryan Welty.]

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