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Reorganization,
Community Collaboration Management:
From 2000-2006 I served on the Board of Directors
for Tarrant County Youth Collaboration (TCYC). By 2002 the organization had
outgrown its 20 year old mission, lost its focus and needed decisive leadership during a time of organizational transition.
Hired in 2004 as the new Executive Director, John quickly took TCYC in a new and much more tightly focused direction.
He took the notion of collaboration from a touchy-feely just get to know each other atmosphere where collaboration
might happen to an organized way of finding and formalizing contractual collaborations that took advantage of the strengths
of each partner to produce outcomes that were greater than the individual parts. This transition took imagination, pro-active
strategic planning, great personal tenacity and a remarkable ability to create a shared vision for the future. It led to a
total rethinking of staffing patterns and to recruitment of Board members with much more serious and professional skill sets.
The organization was completely transformed under John’s leadership and to this day is seen as a cutting edge organization
with real vision.
Mike Steele
President & CEO
Communities in Schools
of Greater Tarrant County
Community Collaboration Management, Program
Design and Implementation:
As Project Director for United Way Northeast, it was my privilege
to work with John on three different collaborative projects during the years 2003-2006. As Chairperson
of the Partnership for Children, he kept a group of child-serving agencies focused on strategies to improve quality of life
for very young children. In related work, he envisioned a world where specific neighborhoods took responsibility for the safety
of their kids; this vision grew into the Children’s Neighborhood Network, and one of these neighborhoods, an area of
West Hurst, grew its own advisory council that included representatives from the local police department, the neighborhood
Presbyterian church, the elementary school PTA, United Way, and neighborhood residents. In addition, he directed the birth
and growth of Building Connections/Building Community, or BC2, which took the neighborhood model another evolutionary step
into a collaboration of governmental entities – city, school, church, and community agency – to focus on strengthening
a particular community in North Richland Hills; data showed a drop in the number of child abuse cases reported to CPS in that
community following the development of the collaboration.
Eventually John was able to bring all these projects together under the umbrella
of the Tarrant County Youth Collaboration, which he served effectively as executive director until his move to New Mexico.
John genuinely believes in the power of connectedness, as indicated in the motto adopted by the Partnership For Children
during his tenure there: “Doing together what we cannot do alone.” He understands the concept of social capital
and has the toolbox of people skills that can draw community leaders together to meld their strengths.
Faye Beaulieu, PhD
Project Director
United Way - Northeast, Bedford, Texas
faye.beaulieu@unitedwaytarrant.org
Community Collaboration Management,
Program Design and Implementation:
In 2005, after discovering
that the city had experienced a 54% increase in child neglect and abuse cases reported to Child Protective Services from 2001-2004,
Tarrant County Youth Collaboration (TCYC) began the process of mapping all CPS referrals made from within the city reported
from July 2004-June 2005 in an effort to determine where the group’s efforts could best be focused. TCYC and the City of North
Richland Hills formed a partnership with civic and business leaders, the local school district and the faith community to
undertake a child neglect and abuse project: Building Connections – Building Community (BC2).
The program was originally coordinated and managed by the TCYC Executive
Director: John Ross. John played a key role in the development of the program, specifically
core program structure, recruitment of all of the partners involved, and the administrative and fiscal oversight.
BC2 became a unique collaboration of grassroots type organizations with a mission based upon research that indicated
that parents who abuse or neglect their children are more likely to be socially isolated from formal and informal support
systems.
Following the formation of
the BC2 partnership, the city subsequently realized an 8.7% decrease in child neglect and abuse cases reported to CPS in 2005.
. . BC2 continues to thrive due to its cooperative, synergistic relationships that compose its structure.
Each members breathes life into the project and brings an energy that ensures the group continues to look for new and
creative ways to combat the social problems associated with child neglect and abuse: click here for complete statement
Jimmy Perdue
Assistant City Manager
(former Chief of Police)
Andy Kancel
Assistant Chief of Police
City of North Richland Hills,
Texas
Program Expansion, Reorganization:
I am a corporate lawyer in New York and, since late 2005, have coordinated the pro bono
legal work for American Ballroom Theater (Dancing Classrooms) at the firms at which I have been a partner, currently Katten
Muchin Rosenman LLP.
John
Ross was initially hired to assist ABrT with its expansion from a primarily local charity based in New York City to one with
a national and international franchise. John started this process by developing a clearer and more uniform
license agreement with a better delineated fee structure and by pursuing the license negotiations with new municipalities
in a more systematic manner. He expanded the trademark protection for ABrT’s marks and logo outside
the U.S. and aggressively moved to restrain potential infringements. He then built out the staff of ABrT
to include a new day-to-day head of operations to replace one of the retiring founders, updated and substantially revised
the employee manual, resolved legal issues relating to ABrT’s pension plan and tax status, and imposed higher standards
of communication, transparency and accountability on employees, thereby improving efficiency both with respect to staffing
and financial resources.
Based
on my observations and work with John Ross beginning in the summer of 2007, he has made significant improvements in the corporate
governance procedures, management structure, communications, staffing and legal compliance areas of the company during a particularly
dynamic period in its evolution. These measures have helped transform the organization into a much more
focused and business-like venture that is better positioned not only to accomplish its mission but to benefit from the increased
publicity that has accompanied its dramatic growth and success.
It
is a tribute to John’s patience, wisdom, skill and diplomacy that he has been successful in balancing the sometimes
conflicting demands of the organization founders, Board members and National site leaders while helping ABrT extend the curriculum,
both domestically and abroad, preserve its intellectual property rights and strengthen its infrastructure. ABrT
has benefitted tremendously from John Ross’s work and can now pursue its goals much more effectively, even in a difficult
economic climate.
Rachel B. Coan
Partner
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, New York
Partner
Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP, New York
Reorganization:
From 2001 to 2007, I served as President of the Board, Fourth Street Parent and Child Learning Center in Arlington, Texas. This was the period of dramatic challenge and transition as the newly formed non-profit was emerging from the former Fourth Street Project, Inc. We had an Executive Director at the outset of the non-profit formation in 2001 who transitioned into another position during 2003. Financially and in business practices, Fourth Street was seriously challenged. From a service delivery and clinical standpoint, the Fourth Street Project had been first rate for about 15 years. During the first four years of its non-profit life, Fourth Street experiences several near death experiences. Today I understand that it is on very sound financial footing and has recently purchased a new building.John
Ross was absolutely instrumental in leading the workout turnaround and laying a firm foundation upon which the future success
of the non-profit period is based. Mr. Ross served as Interim Executive Director for a period of about one year in 2003
and 2004. There were three critical aspects of his work that saved the organization. First, he began a systematic
process of managing and engaging the Board and its members in the most constructive way for the well being of the principle
business, which was the school. Second, he actively managed and aligned the school director, staff resources, and teachers
in which a way that the outcomes were positive for all concerned despite very challenging times. Third, he put into
place business practices that supported the professional service delivery at the heart of the school while helping to shut
down the clinic which was a financial drain on the organization. Throughout this turnaround, Mr. Ross maintained
a positive attitude, reached out to a range of constituencies to importantly include parents of children in the school.
My
professional assessment is that John Ross is a highly talented and motivated professional. He demonstrated outstanding
skills in helping the board reorganize Fourth Street. As both a professor in business and a Fellow of the American Psychological
Association, I rank John at the top of his profession and would hire him again for any non-profit organizational or turnaround
work.
James Campbell (Jim) Quick
John and Judy Goolsby Distinguished Professor
Goolsby Leadership Academy, College
of Business
The University of Texas at Arlington
Community Collaboration
Management, Program Design and Implementation:
As
a Child Protective Services Program Administrator for Tarrant and Parker counties (Texas), I first worked with John Ross in
the NETCARE project, a child neglect and abuse prevention program that targeted families reported to Child Protective Services
due to issues of neglect. Later on, when I was the Deputy Regional Director for Child Protective Services
in the Arlington Region, John created a cooperative child neglect and abuse prevention program (BC2) involving several agencies
in the community to provide services to families in an effort to avoid children coming into the welfare system. Both programs
were excellent partnerships for the Agency I represented.
In my association with John I have found him to be committed to community issues and dedicated to improving the quality of life for children. He is extremely creative and capable of designing programs to achieve positive outcomes. John is a professional with strong ethics who has been able to bring stakeholders in the community together to discuss and support programs for families in need of assistance.
Susan
Ferrari, LMSW
Strategic and
Annual Planning:
I have had the pleasure of working with
John Ross on several projects over the last 10 years. I first worked closely with John
on developing and implementing a comprehensive planning and evaluation program for the staff at Campfire USA First Texas Council.
John demonstrated a keen strategic perspective. He was very thorough in developing this program which allowed the strategic
initiatives of the Council to cascade throughout the organization. The strategic initiatives were translated into goals, objectives
and action items at the departmental and individual contributor level.
I also worked with John on the development of a stakeholder analysis and strategic plan
for the Partnership for Children in Tarrant County Texas (John was Chairperson of this collaboration). Again John demonstrated
an awareness of the critical issues and a strategic mindset.
Throughout my work with John there has been one defining characteristic that transcends
his excellence in development and implementation of strategies. That characteristic is his passion for the children in the
communities he serves. Others may have technical expertise that can be brought to bear on an issue, but John brings his heart
to these issues. His passion is contagious!
In summary, John possesses the unique combination of a strategic perspective, the discipline
necessary to implement and follow through with a plan, and a passion for the impact that his work can have on the children
of our communities.
J. Lee Whittington, Ph.D.
Professor of Management
Graduate School of Management, College of Business
University of Dallas
Community
Collaboration Management, Strategic Planning:
The Arlington Child Care Council, a
community collaboration focusing on early childhood development, will always be indebted to John Ross’ management skills
and sense of community. John's collaborative style, knowledge and insight into community stakeholders, and innate leadership
skills rescued a nascent concept of our community's thirst to care for our youngest citizens. John led us
through a comprehensive Strategic Planning process and guided us through implementation of that plan. Entities
as diverse as the Chamber of Commerce, Arlington Independent School District, City of Arlington, private business and community
volunteers came together under John's tutelage to embrace a common vision. Arlington is better for his leadership.
Mel LeBlanc
Co-Chair, the Arlington
Child Care Council
Arlington
City Council, District 1, Arlington, Texas
Program Expansion,
Reorganization:
John Ross joined The American Ballroom Theater (ABrT) in 2007 as our National Network
Director to help us bring our program, Dancing Classrooms, to children around the US and Internationally. In two short years he has successfully negotiated contracts
with 12 cities. Each community's needs and circumstances are unique so the expansion has required complex and individual
arrangements for each new National Site. It is a tribute to John's competence that we have this many viable programs and,
importantly, he has achieved this expansion while not exceeding the budget allowed.
Because of ABrT's rapid expansion, we realized in January 2008 that this 25 year old organization needed to be restructured. John's extensive not-for-profit experience was invaluable in helping us achieve that transition. He has served as the Interim Associate Executive Director for 9 months. In that time he has helped us to reshape our Board, altered staffing patterns, created a Management Team, and helped us gain better financial management. His efforts will bring us back to a balanced budget within two years. As the ABrT Treasurer, I can attest to John's special skill in understanding the economic and structural needs of a not-for-profit organization.
John J. Entwistle
Board Treasurer
American Ballroom Theater, New York
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