TANGO Founder's Forum - April 2023
Rollin Schuster
Managing Director, NFP
President & Founder, TANGO
The more things change, the more they stay the same. . .
As many of you know, when I’m not wearing my President of TANGO “hat” I’m busy in my real job as Managing Director of NFP. That so called “hat” gets exchanged many times throughout the day back and forth between the two organizations. As time goes on these roles become more aligned simply because NFP is wholeheartedly committed to supporting TANGO and the nonprofit sector…a great example of a true socially conscious business.
We at NFP professionally work with many nonprofit organizations including lots of independent schools throughout New England; in fact, of the 1536 TANGO Members 136 of them are private/independent schools. We help them with their insurance, benefits, HR and retirement plans. This lead me to an interesting realization that the more things change the more they stay the same, let me explain:
A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of being asked to speak at the 100th year anniversary meeting of the Association of Business Officers of Preparatory Schools, commonly referred to as ABOPS.
The gentleman who was tasked with introducing me to the group of attending CFO’s lead off by referring to the meeting minutes from the first ABOPS meeting 100 years ago. Here is a brief excerpt:
“(Mr. Corning – Exeter)”
“I call this meeting to order at 11:30 a.m. today, Saturday, February 16, 1924 and our role call shows that 18 of the 24 or 25 schools to which I had written are present”
(J. Wendell – The Hill School)
“One of the most vexatious problems which confronts any business manager is labor turnover”
“(Mr. Crawford)”
“The question of insurance- -in our particular section the insurance company has found reasons to object to the rates they have been giving the school lately, and we find it a very grave problem.”
Guess what my presentation was about?? Labor turnover and insurance! 100 years later we are bantering around the same stuff, I guess that speaks well for job security!
As the old saying goes…the more things change the more they stay the same.
Seriously though, I found it interesting that the issues confronting these nonprofit prep schools back in 1924 are essentially the same as they are today. I did my best to shed some light on what progressive employers are now doing to become “an employer of choice” through the personalization of benefits. If you too are confronted with these age old issues please let us know. Together with NFP we have created some impactful solutions and we would be happy to share our insight with you. Let’s hope our great grand kids aren’t dealing with these issues in 2123!
Quick reminder…The 2023 TANGO Foundation Golf Invitational/TANGOFest are quickly approaching. Please join us on May 17th for a great day of golf and/or the subsequent TANGOFest party to celebrate us hitting 1500 members! To learn more or to register go to tangoalliance.org.
I hope to see many of you at TANGOFest!
Thanks!
Rollin