There's a new interim manager at Mansons Hall community centre after a year long transition.

In late November, Tammy Collingwood stepped into the role after volunteering in a number of leadership positions with the Southern Cortes Community Association (SSCA). 

Collingwood was first elected to the Southern Cortes Community Association's (SSCA) in November 2021, quickly being appointed vice president of the non-profit's board. This July, when President Myrna Kerr's term expired, Collingwood then became SCCA president.

This October, Collingwood said that the board asked her to step down as president and step up as interim hall manager. The position of hall manager has been in transition since November 2021, when long-time manager Mary Lavelle resigned.

Moving forward, the role may be divided among a few employees, as the SCCA board has determined that the hall manager role encompasses too many specialized responsibilities. 

“The manager position is just such a huge position. It's like bookkeeping, programming, managing, administrative communications, budgeting, community engagement, building management, and so not often do you find all those qualities in one person. The idea was to come in to investigate how can we divide up this job, and also how can we streamline and make our processes more efficient so that the job is doable,” Collingwood said.

This past year, despite the lack of a full-time hall manager, the volunteer board has developed some of the hall's programs. The playschool hours have doubled twice, bringing the community childcare offerings into full-time status. There's also new affordable exercise and wellness programming available for members that is only $5 per class. The classes are being offered by community volunteers. Collingwood said that the programming is being offered in response to community feedback, adding that the SCCA is “seeing what's working and what's not working and trying to spin all of that into some sort of gold for the community.”

The rental fees have created a barrier for some instructors hoping to offer affordable programming, Collingwood said, and streamlining these services also involves coordinating with other nonprofits that offer programming.

The SCCA's budgeting has also been a central challenge to hiring new staff

“We don’t have money for staffing because wages were raised significantly,” Collingwood said.

To help alleviate the financial strain, Collingwood has been applying for grants (including the Gender Equality Grant, a fire mitigation grant and a tourism and destination infrastructure grant) and anticipates that some financial help is on the way. The SCCA plans to post the job opening of executive director in the new year.

To hear more about the Southern Cortes Community Association’s progress this year, listen to the CKTZ update below: