SOE Champions

Several of our staff and board members attended the annual GiGi’s Conference earlier this month. This conference is always a highlight of the year. It’s a chance to connect and network with other Playhouses’ staff and board members, hear from inspirational keynote speakers, and so much more.

“My favorite part of the conference was meeting all the people from the Playhouses around the country. They have so much energy and understand what it’s like living the day to day of working with our participants, volunteers and community. We brain-stormed together, commiserated, and learned from each other.”

Anna Kronenberger, Program & Volunteer Coordinator and First Time Attendee

Another part of the conference is being recognized for all the hard work that goes into keeping our Playhouse up and running. We’ve shared in the past that the Playhouse is guided by a set of 8 Standards of Execution (SOE) which provide the staff, board members, and volunteers with the expectations from the national office.

We are happy to announce that we received 6 Center of Excellence Ratings, 1 Strong, and 1 Baseline.

By receiving 5 or more in a strong or higher category, we also received a special SOE Champion Award (plaque seen below). This award and all the SOE certificates will be on display at the Playhouse. We’d also love to tell you more about the individual SOEs. Just ask a staff or board member.

Each SOE has three levels and within each level there are anywhere from 15-25 tasks/guidelines that the playhouse must be doing on a regular basis to ensure that the playhouse is successful in each area. Achieving Baseline is good but achieving Center of Excellence is the #bestofall. Typically, there is a committee of volunteers and staff related to each SOE area. The committees monitor the standards throughout the year to ensure we are doing all that is necessary and find ways to achieve new goals as well. If you have a passion for one of these areas and would like to be part of making our Playhouse the best it can be, please reach out.

An overview of all the awards our Playhouse has received over the years can be found here.

Please know that our work is not about the awards and being recognized. It’s about providing the best purposeful programs possible for families and the best experience possible for the volunteers making the programs happen. We do all that we do for YOU, not for the awards. The SOEs guide us in making sure we do the best we can to make the playhouse run smoothly and successfully.

Our board president shared 2 words at the beginning of the conference. One was to represent the last year and the other to represent the upcoming year. She shared longevity and succession. We have been providing programs and services here in the Quad Cities for 13 years and hope to see the succession in the board and staffing only make our playhouse stronger in the years to come. We thank all of the families, volunteers, board members, and staff who have been part of making our Playhouse the best it can be!