Throw Out the Lifeline

banshee11 said :

If you read the Canberra Times article/s, apparently the new ventures are ‘going along nicely’, while the Bookfairs are making Lifeline Canberra $1M a year, and the cause of the financial problem is donation and sponsorship revenue being down.

What I don’t understand then, is why you would make the bookfair and commercial enterprises mangers – the areas which appear to be doing well – redundant, and keep on the Marketing manager who is presumably responsible for sponsorships and donations, the apparent cause of the problems, while also burdening them with a massively increased workload and responsibility. It defies logic.

Er, their CEO was trained by the ACT Government, remember?
The two top people in the ACT Government don’t even read the annual reports of our largest public utility that they are the sole shareholders of.

If you read the Canberra Times article/s, apparently the new ventures are ‘going along nicely’, while the Bookfairs are making Lifeline Canberra $1M a year, and the cause of the financial problem is donation and sponsorship revenue being down.

What I don’t understand then, is why you would make the bookfair and commercial enterprises mangers – the areas which appear to be doing well – redundant, and keep on the Marketing manager who is presumably responsible for sponsorships and donations, the apparent cause of the problems, while also burdening them with a massively increased workload and responsibility. It defies logic.

Yes well, Mike Zissler was the CEO of Urban Services/TAMS for a period, and then a spectacularly short stint as the “commander” of the Northen Territory Intervention after the orginal Commander (Maj Gen Dave Chalmers) moved on. Having worked with him in both of these roles, I have to admit that I am unsurprised that things are not going well at Lifeline. Presumably his work history encouraged the Board to award him the highest pay ever for a Lifeline CEO (“hey look fellas, this guy used to be CEO of an ACT government department – looks like a great catch”), but you know, is he really qualified to be leading a NGO?

Lifeline canberra is supported by the canberra community through it volunteers, donations,sponsors and government funding. It is a community asset. Mike Zissler is Lifeline Canberra highest paid CEO ever but has presided over the loss of programs and funding since he arrived. The canberra community should be looking for answers from the Lifeline Canberra Board.

The Lifeline CEO appears to have only a limited understanding of ‘volunteering’ if he holds the view that all aspects of operating a commercial activity can be undertaken by a committee of volunteers. To swallow the line that the business management responsibilities can be allocated to in-office staff is stretching credibility.
If I were to consider sponsoring Lifeline I would have serious doubts about the organization’s capacity to efficiently and effectively use the sponsorship.

Is it “hard-nosed profit-maximising optimal streetwise commercial management” to eliminate a paid job position which is key to the successful operation of the bookfairs and the warehouse? Or is it, what often happens, a focus on the costs without an appreciation of the benefits?

heatwave said :

It would seem that Lifeline has three enterprises and no business manager with the relevant acumen to operate:
1. a warehouse and conduct the bookfairs;
2. the Bean Talkin’ coffee cart;
3. the Hipsley Lane vintage clothing business.
The Lifeline bookfairs generate the income. Are the bookfairs monies being used to subsidize the coffee cart and the clothing business? If so, on what basis?

I’ve been involved with Bean Talkin’ as a volunteer since it started. It’s a good business, especially since it’s operated almost entirely by volunteers (staffing being a if not the major cost in a cafe business), and the lady who ran it until this week has been extremely dedicated and a good businesswoman. I don’t know what’s happening with the restructuring but I think it’s sad that they’ve made her redundant, especially since she put so much of herself into getting it off the ground.

if only!…“hard-nosed profit-maximising optimal streetwise commercial management yadder yadder”? ..

no evidence of ‘profit-maximising’; ‘streetwise’; or ‘comercial management’ ….but certainly lots of self serving ‘yadder, yadder’.

When will we hear from the board of Lifeline Canberra ?

Yarrah said :

Strange “commercial” decisions indeed, and poorly implemented.

Hmmmm….I greatly suspect that “hard-nosed profit-maximising optimal streetwise commercial management yadder yadder” and volunteer organisations don’t go too well together. The volunteers are self-evidently doing it for love, and administrators who focus on purely commercial aspects just piss the volunteers off by behaving like heartless sharks, as seems to be the case here.

It would seem that Lifeline has three enterprises and no business manager with the relevant acumen to operate:
1. a warehouse and conduct the bookfairs;
2. the Bean Talkin’ coffee cart;
3. the Hipsley Lane vintage clothing business.
The Lifeline bookfairs generate the income. Are the bookfairs monies being used to subsidize the coffee cart and the clothing business? If so, on what basis?