Todd Slechta is the president of Covenant Initiatives for Care (CIC), an organization that partners with initiatives seeking to assist the underserved population.
CIC provides leadership with a network of support with a mission to advance innovative Christian initiatives that serve the vulnerable.
The Challenge
Todd found that much of his time was consumed with logistical details, and he needed help with tasks such as scheduling, researching, drafting, and booking travel so that he could focus on more of the strategic aspects of his role.
And then an almost perfect match of a BELAY VA — and, as of August, CIC’s newest administrative coordinator — Kelly Hall came onto the scene.
The Solution
Kelly and Todd incredibly had a lot of things in common which led to immediate trust. They are both from Colorado, hold similar faith values, and have prior experience in education as a principal and special education teacher, respectively.
Soft skills aside, Kelly was a great addition to Todd’s team from the beginning.
She hit the ground running by initially taking over the logistical tasks Todd needed off his plate, but he quickly handed over coordinating responsibilities as she became more comfortable and gained institutional knowledge.
“To this day we have never actually met face to face, and we’ve been working together over a year,” Todd realizes. “She controls my calendar, she controls a lot of my correspondence now, and she’s the initial face on my behalf.”
She began working closely with some of the affiliate leaders as she helped set up board- and strategic-planning meetings, documented committee meeting minutes, maintained third-party vendors, aided in hiring processes with an affiliate, created board books and a board director manual, and acquired historical and background information on affiliates.
The Results
After a year of working together, Todd has bought Kelly out of her BELAY contract, and she is now working full time for him as an administrative coordinator.
“Kelly, and our experience with BELAY, was an experiment to see how much logistical support I or the organization needed,” Todd recalls.
“Kelly started bumping up against her contracted hours, and we started realizing we were offloading more and more to her as she grew with the organization.
“We got to the point where we started running cost analysis and said, ‘We needed to hire her,’ and that’s where we ended up.”
This match turned out to also be a great missional fit with CIC as well.
As Kelly completed her tasks list with ease and competence, she also excelled relationally. Todd notes that she sends gifts when someone on their team has a baby or reaches out to someone on their birthday, and that it is invaluable to him.
“[I started to see] the execution of responsibilities being done more and more and done proactively,” Todd says. “Kelly was beginning to understand the pulse and rhythm of who we are and was able to articulate that when she engaged people.
“It became evident that Kelly was connecting with our board, connecting with our affiliate leaders, and connecting missionally.”
When the conversation around a potential buyout started to happen, Kelly was honest with Todd about her need for flexibility as her husband works in ministry and she has two young children. Todd was more than willing to continue to give her the freedom of working on a schedule that best serves her and her family.
“It’s been really great to have a sense of connection even though we are virtual,” Kelly acknowledges.
“He brought me in to get to know the team and let them know who I am. I feel like [Todd and his team] are friends of mine.”
Meet the Specialist
KELLY HALL
Virtual Assistant