Rescue to Recovery
A Re-Energized COF Bounces Back
Dennis W. Jeanes
Special to the COF
In the realm of rude awakenings, surely one of the nastiest surprises must be discovering your nest egg is gone, devoured by good intentions gone awry. That’s pretty much the situation departing COF President Dr. Hubert Labelle found himself in, when he began his term in May 2001.
“The mood on the COF board was quite upbeat in early 2000,” Labelle recalls. “We had just drafted a mission statement. We had a lot of new development projects that were just starting up. Our revenues were up. We raised $1.8 million in 1998, and even though we were down a bit in 1999, we still had $800,000 in a contingency fund. The future looked bright.”
In keeping with that millennium optimism, at the November 2000 board meeting, a budget was presented and approved that anticipated revenues of $1.9 million and expenses of $1.85 million. The only cloud on the horizon was an unexpected delay in receiving the audited statements.
Fast-forward to that fateful May board meeting in London, Ontario. The 2000 audited statements were finally tabled, and any prospects of expansion and diversification evaporated. Revenues had dropped to $1.5 million but expenses had climbed to $1.9 million, resulting in a $300,000 deficit. “In retrospect,” says Labelle, “we really didn’t do anything new or creative to gain that extra revenue. As the saying goes, ‘If you keep on doing what you’ve always done, you get the results you’ve always had.’”
More worrisome still, as a result of a souring economy, the outlook for 2001 was grim. Indeed, revenues remained flat at $1.5 million but expenses continued to rise. Audited statements for 2001 confirmed a deficit of $700,000. The COF managed to pay all its bills, depleting its contingency fund in the process. The Foundation was broke but not bankrupt. Drastic action was needed to stop the downward spiral and re-establish confidence in the COF.
“We cut our expenses to an absolute minimum and revived the executive committee, consisting of Dr. William R. J. (Bill) Rennie as secretary treasurer, Dr. Paul H. Wright as trustee and myself,” says Labelle, “to provide assistance to the new CEO. We also revived the Audit and Finance Committee, and then we had a special diagnostic audit done, which found no evidence of fraud or misconduct, simply misjudgment.” Perhaps the most important change, he says, was moving the fiscal year-end to March 31 so that budgeting could be based on money in the bank: “Without this change, we were really spending money on a hope and, in some cases, a fantasy.”
As Labelle steps down from his presidential responsibilities, financial rescue has turned into recovery: “We’re back on track. We broke even in 2002, and we continue to be debt-free. We expect to do so again in 2003 and perhaps even have a small surplus. The year-end change has helped immensely in our planning and budgeting.”
And while the Foundation may have learned a hard lesson in fiscal prudence, Labelle doesn’t consider his tenure as simply an exercise in crisis management. The flip-side of putting the books back in order was developing a vision and strategic plan that the board and volunteers could embrace with enthusiasm. “Regardless of the financial setback, we still have a responsibility to fulfill our mission,” Labelle notes. “Excellence is a worthy ambition, but it takes hard work and persistence. I’m sure we can attain our objectives in research, education and clinical care. It’ll be step by step and take years to achieve, but we have such great people involved that I have every confidence the Foundation, despite its small size, can influence the future of orthopaedics for the better.”
Directing those first steps will be much on the mind of Dr. Paul Wright, a long-time member of the board and in-coming president of the COF. “I’m not a very fancy guy,” he says. “I like to do the basics really well. That’s what we need to do for now.”
And while he concedes that he hasn’t thought through every aspect of the COF at this early stage, Wright has some very definite ideas about Hip Hip Hooray, orthopaedic research and his colleagues. Since orthopaedic patients are, he feels, the driving force behind Hip Hip Hooray, “we need as an orthopaedic community to give back to the patient. We have to reinvest in the orthopaedic patients of Canada.” Wright foresees building an education component into Hip Hip Hooray, with plain-language seminars on the day of the event delivered to attending patients by surgeons, nurses and rehab specialists. The seminars add an edge, he feels, in terms of public profile and fund-raising competitors: “People will come for the fund-raising event, and they’ll stay for the education part.” Thus, the COF can extract maximum value from Hip Hip Hooray.
Orthopaedic research is clearly the predominant Foundation programme for Wright: “One of the important, unspoken benefits of what we do at the COF is our ability to retain young orthopaedic researchers in Canada. Our research awards give them purpose, an esprit de corps and greater profile. We need to make sure that research is properly looked after.”
Greater investment in research necessarily entails allocating more funds, which tend to be in short supply after expenses and allocations to local programmes. Wright is looking to his colleagues to take justifiable pride in the research programmes and become more involved financially. “I fully recognize that we give generously of our time to COF endeavours,” he says, “but I do think it’s important to make a personal commitment with a direct donation.” If, for example, just 600 of Canada’s orthopaedic surgeons dedicated $300 each to the programmes, the sum would virtually double the Foundation’s current funding levels and would have a profound influence on orthopaedic research. The best and brightest minds would be inspired to stay in Canada.
Another area in which orthopaedic surgeons will have to be more active is recruiting new volunteers and donors as Canada’s new federal privacy legislation takes effect. Given that data shows the average orthopaedic patient remains involved with the Foundation for a little more than two years, there’s a constant need to renew the volunteer and donor base. Recruitment, says Wright, will have to be office-based, one-on-one and year round. Apart from being morally and ethically correct, it’s also the most effective approach. “Often,” says Wright, “when you run your finger down a list of Hip Hip Hooray participants, they’re the ones you contacted personally.” Accordingly, each patient in his clinic is given a hand-out, with a full-colour photo of the attending surgeon on the front, and on the back an appeal to get involved in Foundation activities, along with a permission form for future contact. Nothing has greater potential for returns, in his estimation, than this personal approach by the surgeon to his patient.
Indeed, for the present, greater surgeon involvement appears to be the crux of his personal strategy for the future. “Right now I think the COF is healthy and enjoys the trust of its stakeholders,” says Wright. “I’m very proud of the organization and the support that orthopaedic surgeons and patients have given it. In two to three years’ time, I see the COF in a better position financially for funding research. I see it more involved in the lives of orthopaedic surgeons, and I see the Foundation as an organization in which surgeons and patients can take even greater pride.”
|
Member Services 
