This has been a very quiet weekend – I have not had a weekend where I was doing nothing in FOREVER and I am not sure that I like that much time on my hands. I cannot give you all the details for this time of respite this week; but, I promise I will next week when I can give you the full story.

This past week has been busy – not – because it was Thanksgiving; but, because on Tuesday we supported our Annual Board of Trustees and 2013 Budget. This is the most important event that we do for the entire year and it must go flawlessly. This meeting is always held the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and is a 5 hour event. Our set up began on Monday with the entire day tables, chairs and microphones being installed, taped down and tested. The video conference was tested to the sites we would be connecting to and the streaming company made sure that we had a strong signal. Tuesday arrived and more testing was conducted, sites were connected via video conference, all microphones were tested and wires taped down. The combined conference room would hold close to 100 individuals, primarily Board of Trustees and the Executive Management of each of the hospitals. This meeting would highlight our accomplishments for the year and focus on the budgets for 2013. Other than letting you know how this meeting is conducted – why am I making it a blog this week? I am making it a blog this week because of the generosity of the organization I work for and the Trustees on our Board. As you all know we in the Northeast have suffered through Hurricane Sandy and then a nor’easter a week later. Many of us were unaffected except to be inconvenienced with no power for a few days or a couple of weeks; but, many more people lost their homes, their cars and some even their jobs.

At North Shore LIJ Management put a fund together for employees to make sure that they could live somewhere, have a mode of transportation and even borrow money at 0% interest to get their lives back together. What I did not know was that the Chairman of the Board of Trustees was asking the Trustees for donations to help the employees. A couple of them had run into employees who were at the hospital working despite having lost everything – and I do mean everything; but, the clothes they were in. The Chairman proceeded to announce how only 42% of the Trustees had donated to the Employee’s Fund and that he was prepared to make them very uncomfortable. The meeting proceeded and the budget was presented to the Trustees and approved; but, just before the meeting was adjourned one of the Trustees raised her hand – when she was called upon she told the Chairman that she and her husband had discussed and agreed to donate $500,000 to the Employees Fund and she challenged her fellow Trustees to do the same.

I was shocked as was my team to see this couple donate a half million dollars so quickly. I was also proud and honored to work for an organization where the Board of Trustees considers and supports the employees of the organization. I have only before worked for Fortune 500 companies and those Boards have only been concerned with the money they were receiving for attending the meeting and/or the value of the stock. This Board is totally selfless and truly cares for the employees and their livelihood. Every day I am honored to work for this organization.

Thanksgiving was quiet with just immediate family and the food was delicious. This year besides buying the pies, I also baked corn bread (fresh, no Jiffy mix here) and pumpkin bread – these are two things that Callum likes and I am always happy to bake or cook anything he will eat. As I said the rest of the weekend was quiet and I was pretty much limited to what I could do – but, that is next week’s blog and I will fill you in on the full story then.

For now – let’s be thankful for what we have and Stay Tuned.