For Matt. Board vote Friday, rollout Wednesday.
The only item on the plan that needs a board vote. What it is worth, the six decisions only Matt can make, and whether a vote in three days is even possible.
Merge vacation and personal leave into one bank that people earn as they work, instead of handing over a full year on day one. Everyone loses at least a week. Years four and five lose two.
| Worth | $64,000 to $85,000 a year, none of it payroll. Not the $130,000 figure that has been circulating |
| Needs | A board vote. The only item in the whole plan that does |
| Blocked by | Whether the bylaws allow a vote in three days. Read them first |
| Decide | Six things, and the real one is existing staff or new hires only |
| Ask counsel | Whether use-it-or-lose-it is lawful here, and what happens to leave people already hold |
| Clock running | Three people have already emailed to take leave before the cap lands |
If a three-day vote is not possible, nothing is lost. Announce on the 2nd that the change is coming and takes effect on board approval. The only bad version is announcing it as done and finding out on Tuesday that it is not.
Leave today is frontloaded: a full year lands before any of it is earned. Someone can resign on day ninety-one owed weeks of pay they have not worked. The proposal merges vacation and personal into one accrued bank.
| Years here | Today | Proposed | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 10 vacation + 5 personal | 10 days | −5 |
| 3 | 15 vacation + 5 personal | 15 days | −5 |
| 4 to 5 | 20 vacation + 5 personal | 15 days | −10 |
| 6 and over | 20 vacation + 5 personal | 20 days | −5 |
| Sick leave | 10 days | 10 days | no change |
The case for it: twenty-five days plus nine paid holidays is close to seven weeks a year, which no comparable agency offers.
| What it does | Value | How reliable |
|---|---|---|
| Cuts unused-leave liability and separation payouts | $63,927 | Real. Becomes cash only when someone leaves |
| Frees clinician days that could be billed | $68,297 | Excluded. Not credible |
| Cuts payroll | $0 | Salaried staff are paid the same either way |
🪤 Use $64,000 to $85,000. A figure of $130,000 to $175,000 has been circulating, including in documents I built. It gets there by adding back the clinician-days line, which Matt already rejected in writing on the 21 August deck: "several clinicians do not have enough clients to fill the days they already have." Presenting the larger number invites the one question with no good answer, which is why payroll did not move.
The honest case is not the money. It reduces what Arukah owes and brings leave in line with comparable agencies. That reason survives a follow-up question.
A board acting between meetings normally needs unanimous written consent, where one director who does not reply stops it, or a special meeting with whatever notice the bylaws require. If that notice is longer than three days, this route is closed.
Read the bylaws before anything else on this page.
⚖️ In Illinois, earned vacation is treated as wages. Existing balances are most likely protected and can only be stopped from growing, not taken back. Which means the $63,927 does not arrive on the effective date. It arrives gradually as balances run down and accrual replaces frontloading, so year one saves less than the annual figure suggests, and nobody has calculated how much less. The board should hear that from Matt rather than work it out later.
Three people have emailed asking to take leave now so they do not lose it under the cap. The change is known well enough to act on, and staff are behaving rationally. Every undecided day burns more of the balance this exists to reduce.
It is also a fairness problem: whoever moved first keeps the most. Set a cut-off date and say it out loud.
assumptionThe ten people leaving are unaffected. They are paid out under the current policy because the change will not be in force before they go. That is the $20,142.77 already in the plan, and it does not move whichever way the board votes.
Same call as the employment questions, not a separate one.
A narrative is not something a director can approve. Three things:
🔑 That last clause is what makes a Friday vote possible. The board approves the substance now while the legal questions close in parallel, instead of waiting on lawyers before anyone can vote.
| When | What | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Today | Read the bylaws on written consent and special-meeting notice. This decides whether the rest is possible | Matt |
| Today | Add the five leave questions to the counsel call already being booked | Matt |
| Thursday | Answer the six decisions. The big one is existing staff or new hires only | Matt |
| Thursday | Produce the redlined handbook section | Ruth |
| Friday | Packet goes out with the resolution attached | Matt |