Phone: 604-435-0323 | Email: info@cnh.bc.ca

Tag: Operations

  • Karl Chan: 25 years in badminton and tech at CNH

    Karl Chan: 25 years in badminton and tech at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Karl Chan for over 25 years of service!

    Karl Chan

    Throughout the years at CNH, Karl has worn many hats. From teaching youth badminton to becoming our go-to IT consultant, Karl has been the silent force behind our systems. In the beginning, he helped us with all things techie, but soon found his true calling: revolutionizing our point of sales system.

    When CNH first started, the reception team relied on slips of paper and checkmarks to register and receive drop-ins for programs. Booking a room meant battling with a paper calendar and slathering liquid paper on our corrections—what the newbies now call correction tape. It was the Stone Age of administration! But then, our techie superhero Karl introduced us to our first electronic system. It was a dream come true but a nightmare in the learning process.

    Once we were settled, in true Karl fashion, only appeared when the system needed his magic touch. And when our first system began to show signs of age, we found ourselves in a race against time to transition to a new one. Now with our second system calm and settled, Karl has once again retreated into his bat cave. Through endless calls, he guided us through every tech hiccup and crisis.

    Karl’s dedication, patience, and expertise have been invaluable to CNH. An IT superhero, badminton guru and calming presence in times of reception tech turmoil, we congratulate Karl on his 25th anniversary at CNH!

    Learn more about career opportunities at CNH at cnh.bc.ca/careers.

  • Francisco Domingo celebrates 25 years at CNH

    Francisco Domingo celebrates 25 years at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Francisco Domingo for over 25 years of service!

    Francisco first started at CNH as a board member in 1988. Despite language barriers, he always carried a sense of humour into this role. In these early years, Francisco and his family also participated in a range of CNH programs, including English and guitar classes.

    In 1999, Francisco started as a building service worker at CNH and was involved with the building of the Joyce Street location. Francisco says the reason he has stayed at CNH for so long is because of the people.

    In addition to the kindness he’s received over the years, he also enjoys CNH as a place to socialize and connect with others. 

    Congratulations, Francisco!

    Learn more about career opportunities at CNH at cnh.bc.ca/careers.

  • Kulwant Kaur celebrates 30-year milestone at CNH

    Kulwant Kaur celebrates 30-year milestone at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years of service and dedication to the neighbourhood house, were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Kulwant Kaur, Director of Operations, for over 30 years of service!

    Kulwant Kaur

    Kulwant loves working at CNH. She loves how the staff work internally like a family and also the difference CNH makes in the lives of the community residents.

    When Kulwant arrived at CNH in July of 1994, it was love at first sight. Kulwant said she remains amazed at all that the staff do with and for residents and organizations in Renfrew-Collingwood.

    Kulwant came to Canada from her native country, Malaysia, in 1991. At CNH, she started as an Office Manager, then an Office and Volunteer Coordinator for 10 years, and now, for the past 20+ years, she has been the Director of Operations. Along the way, she also served a couple of times as Acting Executive Director.

    Looking back on her years at CNH, Kulwant recalls fondly working with former staff, such as former Executive Directors Paula Carr and Jennifer Gray-Grant, and Operations Directors, Oscar Allueva and Sandra Menzer. She has learned a lot from the past Executive Director, Paula Carr and says there is no university that could teach her what she has learnt from CNH.

    Kulwant with Betty Lepps, Executive Director of CNH, at our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024.

    Kulwant’s favourite memory from CNH is the opening of the Joyce Street location and the Annex. She helped organize the move from the storefront to the new, big Joyce site. Kulwant was deeply involved in the building of the Annex, she said it felt wonderful to be part of the opening and to think of both the satisfaction of all that work completed and the possibilities the new space represents for our neighbourhood. Both the opening ceremonies were huge and felt very celebratory.

    Kulwant expresses huge praise for the Operations team members, saying they are talented, hardworking and very dedicated to CNH.

    In her free time, Kulwant loves to watch Bollywood movies, walk trails with her “Just Walking” group and have dinner with friends.

    Her life goal was to fulfill her 60th birthday dream of visiting Paris but she could not at that time as we were in a pandemic. She is finally going to travel to Paris this year to walk up the Eiffel Tower, tour London and may also visit Switzerland.

    Looking back, Kulwant notes, some people work at their jobs simply for their paycheck. Kulwant stresses that is not her motivation; she works from the head and the heart. As those who work with her would say, it shows. Congratulations, Kulwant on 30+ years at CNH!

    Learn more about career opportunities at CNH at cnh.bc.ca/careers.

  • Elisa Casilla: Over 15 years of service in payroll and accounting at CNH

    Elisa Casilla: Over 15 years of service in payroll and accounting at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At each year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Elisa Casilla for 15 years of service. Here’s what Kulwant Kaur, Director of Operations, had to say about Elisa:

    I have had the privilege to work with Elisa for the past 16 years. 

    Elisa first joined CNH in 2007 as a casual accounting assistant and learned the work very quickly. In 2008, she was hired as a temporary accounting assistant. Elisa worked diligently and was promoted to payroll and benefits manager in 2010. She is very hardworking, extremely trustworthy, very dedicated and does not hesitate to help other staff even if she is extremely busy with very tight deadlines. If you know Elisa well, she is calm and has a good sense of humour but can get very serious, too, especially if it is about payroll. Elisa takes her responsibilities very seriously. There is a funny quote when new staff are introduced to Elisa, their supervisor would say to be nice to her as she does payroll.

    Elisa says she has enjoyed working at CNH for all these years because of its family-oriented and flexible work environment. Her daughter even attended our school-age child care program at Graham Bruce and is now in university. Time flies so fast.

    Thank you, Elisa, for all your contribution. CNH is very lucky to have you all these years!

    To learn about current career opportunities at CNH, visit www.cnh.bc.ca/about/careers.

  • Candice Li celebrates 15 years at CNH

    Candice Li celebrates 15 years at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At the 2022 Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    Last year, we recognize and celebrate Candice Li for 15 years of service to Collingwood Neighbourhood House. Here’s what Candice’s supervisor, Jenny Eng-Chan, had to say about her:

    “Candice is one of our vibrant and boldest members of the Reception team. You can hear and feel her presence even before seeing her! I mean this in a positive way. She is confident and has that one-of-a-kind personality. This was first evident upon interviewing her. I recall that entire day was strange—the other interviewer had to cancel at the last minute and the room that I had booked to do the interview went into overtime. I was scrambling to find a place to conduct the job interview. There were limited choices: it was either the women’s changing room or the main kitchen! Obviously, I picked the kitchen. Candice was adaptable to the situation and continued to be unfazed at the noise and the interruptions. And this quality made her a perfect addition to the Reception Team.”

    “Along the way, I have learned that Candice had an aptitude for configuring programs and she loves to use her analytical CSI skills. When it was time for us to transition from our old-fashioned way of receiving and preparing payments received at the front desk to a more modern Point of Sales system, Candice was right there tackling the job. She was one of the key players involved in implementing our very first Point of Sales system, and if that wasn’t enough, she took part in building the second one, which we are using today. Candice constantly thanks me for her white hairs but I had promised Candice that there will not be a third time for at least another 10 years and by then, either we would have all retired or our hair would have naturally turned white, so I can’t be blamed for this.”

    “Besides her work, Candice has this talent of being able to transform almost any fruit into her “special juices,” also known as wine. She loves to test out the potency of her creations on her reception teammates and this is a part of the reason of why the Front Desk staff is always so pleasant. On that note, my wish for Candice is for her to continue perfecting her juice-making skills and testing them out on us. Cheers to many more years.”

    For information about careers at CNH, visit www.cnh.bc.ca/about/careers.

    ***

    Top image: Candice Li looking straight at the camera.

  • A key part of CNH: Sheri Parke celebrates 15 years at CNH

    A key part of CNH: Sheri Parke celebrates 15 years at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Sheri Parke for 15 years of service to Collingwood Neighbourhood House. Here’s what Sheri’s supervisors, Emily Rees and Irene Mella, had to say about her:

    “Sheri Parke is a key part of Collingwood Neighbourhood House. She started her work at CNH in 2007 as the Neighbourhood Small Grants Program Coordinator, helping residents apply for neighbourhood small grants for projects that build community. In 2016, she started working as a casual Office Assistant in the admin office at the Joyce St location and would eventually become regular administrative staff in 2018. Sheri is also a highly engaged member of CNH’s Joint Occupational Health & Safety Committee, and volunteers to pick up bread from COBS Bread for the Families Branching Out program on Fridays.

    “We are grateful that Sheri is hard working, creative and friendly with all staff. Sheri is always willing to lend a hand, steps up to take the lead, and has been a constant in the admin office, even during COVID while most staff were working remotely. Irene says, “I trust Sheri to hold down the fort, and I value her ability to problem solve and think on her feet.”

    “When asked why she stayed so long at CNH, Sheri says, “I really appreciate the super friendly working environment. It also matters to me that CNH is diverse, inclusive and cares about their staff. I also enjoy being in the building when it is alive with hustle and bustle, delicious smells coming from the kitchen and happy activity everywhere.”

    “Sheri’s favourite work-related memory includes working on special events with the Admin Team. Sheri says, “I believe it is really important to gather and celebrate together with the community. My favourite is always the Neighbourhood Small Grants (NSG) Celebration dinner held each year at CNH. I get to engage with so many new and returning participants who are genuinely excited to share the results of their NSG project. When we ask people to turn to someone new and introduce themselves and share their project success, the energy level immediately sparks with excited conversations and laughter. People meeting one another at gatherings like these is very rewarding for me.”

    “We are so grateful to work alongside you, Sheri! Congratulations!”

    For information about careers at CNH, visit www.cnh.bc.ca/about/careers.

    ***

    Top image: Sheri Parke smiling at the camera.

  • Long-time staff Maria Nombrado shares her inspiration for spending 25 years at CNH

    Long-time staff Maria Nombrado shares her inspiration for spending 25 years at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Maria Nombrado for 25 years of service. Here’s what Flamingo Xie, Financial Controller, had to say about Maria:

    “25 years is a quarter of a century, half of Maria’s lifetime. Her glasses are getting thick and she might need anti-wrinkle cream in the future, but she still looks great in her colleagues’ eyes.

    “Maria started work as an office volunteer and a paid computer lab volunteer at CNH. After working in our administration and accounting office, she landed her current role as Accounting Manager. I asked her the reason she has worked at CNH for 25 years. This is what she said:

    1. 1. Commendations for her hard work. Maria said she used to be very emotional when her former supervisor verbally appreciated her work. Other Directors at CNH also appreciated Maria’s dedication. Those recognitions boost Maria’s self-esteem and confidence.
    2. 2. Her family. Secondly, Maria’s said the love and support of her husband and her two sons, Skye and Edrick, are what keep her going.
    3. 3. What CNH stands for. The last one is because of our organization. Maria feels we offer excellent services in the community and excellent recreation programs for all ages. She also appreciates the environment at CNH which she describes as multicultural and family-oriented. As a staff member, she also feels CNH fosters positive employer-employee relationships.

    “Maria said she is happy to say that CNH is where she would like to work until her hair turns gray. Thank you, Maria, for 25 years of hard work and dedication. Thank you for making each day of work something we can all be proud of.”

    For information about careers at CNH, visit www.cnh.bc.ca/about/careers.

    ***

    Top image: Maria Nombrado at CNH’s AGM on Sept. 28, 2022.

  • An ‘asset’ to CNH operations: Qasim Ahmadi celebrates 25-year milestone

    An ‘asset’ to CNH operations: Qasim Ahmadi celebrates 25-year milestone

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Qasim Ahmadi for 25 years of service. Here’s what Kulwant Kaur, Director of Operations, had to say about Qasim:

    “Qasim started working at CNH as a Building Services Worker in 1997. After only a couple of months, he was promoted to the position of Facility Coordinator. His electrical engineering education, previous work experience and extensive experience in facility management has helped him in overseeing CNH’s buildings – five stand-alone sites and six child care programs at local schools. Qasim has many skills! His attention to detail, meeting all deadlines and ensuring all work requests are completed in a timely manner, are much appreciated.

    “Qasim has also always tried his best to save CNH money by doing a lot of the minor repairs and maintenance work himself. He only calls an external contractor for major repairs. Qasim oversees 11 custodians and he is a very generous and compassionate supervisor. Further, every year without fail, he handwrites Christmas cards for the CNH staff. And when we were able to hold potlucks before COVID, he brought the most delicious rice, Kabuli pulao, to staff meetings. He also enjoys running around Central Park and having BBQs with family and friends. He also loves to go sightseeing with his wife Lilah of 30 years.

    “Qasim is a dedicated and hardworking staff member, and is truly an asset to the Operations team and CNH. It’s been a pleasure to work with him! Congratulations and thank you, Qasim.”

    For information about careers at CNH, visit www.cnh.bc.ca/about/careers.

    ***

    Top image: Qasim Ahmadi at CNH’s AGM on Sept. 28, 2022.

  • 25 years of ‘Tetris:’ Nelly Yep celebrates a milestone at CNH

    25 years of ‘Tetris:’ Nelly Yep celebrates a milestone at CNH

    Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) proudly recognizes its long-serving staff members. At this year’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), CNH staff and contractors who have reached the milestones of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years of service to the neighbourhood house were thanked by the Board of Directors.

    This year, we recognize and celebrate Nelly Yep for 25 years of service. Here’s what Jenny Eng-Chan, Reception Manager, had to say about Nelly:

    “Nelly is our internal booking clerk who keeps CNH’s Main House and Annex running smoothly by scheduling programs and events in their correct timeslot. It is similar to playing Tetris on the computer. What a fun job you would think but this wasn’t always the case as the internal booking process has come a long way over the last 25 years. Back in the ‘old’ days, booking was comprised of a stack of photocopied pages bound together by metal prongs and protected by a plastic blue cover page. Hence, we named it the blue book or our CNH bible. It felt like Nelly was book-binding every six months. Nelly would enter the bookings manually into each day; on each page and sometimes this required a lot of cutting and pasting. Fast forward to today and thank goodness for technology, the blue book has retired.

    “Over the years, Reception has gone through changes. Our furniture has been replaced and the blue book is gone but there is always one constant: Nelly’s attitude toward her work and her co-workers. She has continued to be a helpful and kind person who will always greet you by name. As I haven’t seen her grumpy or negative, I often wondered what the underlying secret to her being so happy and pleasant is. So, I decided to do some detective work and look for clues in her daily rituals. The first thing that I noticed was that she doesn’t eat breakfast and that she loves her veggies but I didn’t think this was ‘the secret.’ There must be something that she does that other people don’t! Then the ‘aha’ moment struck. It must be the two shots of concentrated lemon juice that she always requests at the tea shop when she orders her drink (and she requests this with no sugar). The saying ‘you are what you eat’ doesn’t apply here because Nelly definitely does not exhibit sourness. Rather, she has a sweet and bright disposition.

    “So that’s her secret I suppose? If that is the case, the morning coffee may have to switch out for Nelly’s lemon elixir. Congratulations, Nelly, on your 25th anniversary of playing room-booking Tetris at CNH!”

    For information about careers at CNH, visit www.cnh.bc.ca/about/careers.

    ***

    Top image: Nelly Yep at CNH’s AGM on Sept. 28, 2022.