Activities Director Duties

[Sloaned 0]

I was hired as an Activities Director at a Retirement Center, and the director that I am replacing is "training me". She had already scheduled the activities through the month of March; and even though she is not my boss, she expects me to be at every single event that she has already scheduled. The events that I am referring to are the events that are held on week nights and weekends. For example, she has an activity planned for four people Saturday night; an event planned for ten people on Sunday; and next week, there are events on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. My questions are as follows: 1) Is this amount of night and weekend activities excessive? 2) Should I not be planning the activities rather her telling me what I should do? When I was hired, I was not informed of any night and weekend activity requirements. She informed me this afternoon that since I was hired to work with these people that they have to be my Number 1 priority and my family is no longer my Number 1 priority. I have thirty-five years experience teaching high school students; and even though high school students and seniors are not alike in many ways, I do have the knowledge and the willingness to work with seniors and learn new things. Any response, suggestions, or ideas are very welcome.

 

Thank you...

[andi12502 0]

I am currently an AD with a population of 280 residents that span the ages from 18 thru 90 years old. We have to run the full gambit from standard senior activities to very innovative programs requiring Video Games as part of our therapy. We found over the past couple of years that the residents stated needs of their own recreation. We had to add younger age based programming that lasted up until 10 pm expecially on the weekends and added program times later morning and early afternoon for the older population. I believe we started out with programs running from 9-5 but found it was not enough. The brain injured population that tends to have a lot of behaviors when their needs are not met immediately required programs that were varied and offered options that were almosts identical if not the same that they had been engaging in when they were at home in the community. These included video games, our own mini version of block buster video, very active sports programs and fully functional weight room. Also needed were several programs using vocational opportunities (restuarant style cafe, bookmaking, post office, store, etc) that fulfilled the needs of those in the population that stated their need for a purposeful job that they could do. Weekend activities were expanded but became more individual based requiring less staff to run programming. IE The Clubhouse was used with many different activities in one room needing only one staff and large group activities became standard including the Coffee socials. For families to better enjoy their time with the residents we instituted special events like concerts that only require a music group who is coming in and two staff members to run it to set up, transport residents, monitor the event, and breakdown for the next program. Sorry for the long response but in short the residents determine the programming so that it is person centered and not a more institutionalized recreation program. But your job can never take presidence over your family. Staff schedules are run to accomodate these events including staff staying late one night to run and the Activity Director planning and monitoring the large events. Your staff needs to be able to do these events as well as you can. If you have no other staff or not sufficient to allow this maximize your residents' ability to enjoy themselves with self-directed recreation and independently run groups. IE have a resident who is capable run a bingo game and keep board games etc on the specific floors so that residents have easy access to these. This should free up some of your nights. Have a talk with HR or your administrator to figure out any changes you need to make in this hectic schedule.

Good luck!

Edited November 8, 2008 by andi12502

[bgjuls18 0]

I was hired as an Activities Director at a Retirement Center, and the director that I am replacing is "training me". She had already scheduled the activities through the month of March; and even though she is not my boss, she expects me to be at every single event that she has already scheduled. The events that I am referring to are the events that are held on week nights and weekends. For example, she has an activity planned for four people Saturday night; an event planned for ten people on Sunday; and next week, there are events on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. My questions are as follows: 1) Is this amount of night and weekend activities excessive? 2) Should I not be planning the activities rather her telling me what I should do? When I was hired, I was not informed of any night and weekend activity requirements. She informed me this afternoon that since I was hired to work with these people that they have to be my Number 1 priority and my family is no longer my Number 1 priority. I have thirty-five years experience teaching high school students; and even though high school students and seniors are not alike in many ways, I do have the knowledge and the willingness to work with seniors and learn new things. Any response, suggestions, or ideas are very welcome.

 

Thank you...

 

When I started my job the AD was already gone but the calendar for the month was one. I started in the middle of the month so I decided not to start a new one. I met with the Administrator many times to ask her what she wanted. For example the night and weekends, activities is in the building from 8m-8p 7 days a week because we have the staff and thats what our administrator wants. I would just ask your administrator what they want and look up the state and fed regs

[kmp0065 0]

I agree with talking to the executive director about what your hours should be. I was informed when I was hired that my position would require me to work on occasional nights and weekends, which I don't really mind. One suggestion I would have is to find volunteers that would be willing to come in and run some of the activities. For example, calling bingo is something that most people do not mind coming in to do. (I agree with the other poster who said you could ask a resident to call as well.) I'm just starting out in my position as the Activity Director, so I'm in the process of seeking out volunteers.

 

I would also ask the executive director if you are able to make changes to the calendar to incorporate activities of your choosing. It seems odd to me that you would be asked to do activities planned by someone else for the next several months. Perhaps this person thought they were being helpful. Good luck.