Refer to the Amethyst case study as the basis for your discussion: You are a business consultant who has volunteered to work with and advise Sue Pike and Brendan Stone.

Discuss draft briefing paper for them to present to the Management Committee of Amethyst outlining the key considerations and recommendations which arise in relation to this case. Make particular reference to Crisis Communication, Scenario Planning and Macmillan's framework.

Case study

AMETHYST - CARING AND DELIVERING PEACE OF MIND

In 2005, a small group of people from the Belgian Club in Perth noticed that some members of their regular Saturday social function were no longer attending and appeared to be struggling with day-today tasks. They started visiting a few older members in their homes, helping them with shopping and gardening on a voluntary basis. They soon found there were more than 20 people who would appreciate their support. The group raised some money to cover costs for providing meals, gardening equipment etc by holding regular fundraising events and asking other community members to donate food items and money and to volunteer time to the cause. Their service was free to 'clients'. They decided to call their group 'Amethyst' as their vision was to bring calmness and peace to their clients in their later years by offering shopping and gardening services, social connection and companionship to people whose families had since moved away or were unable to assist ageing family members on a regular basis. Dick Styne, a real estate agent and Belgian community member was the founding chairperson and main instigator of formalising the group as a separate organisation to the Belgian Club and encouraging the committee to grow the program. In 2010, Styne had led them through the process of formalising their group as an incorporated association so that they could apply for grants from federal and state governments. They were successful in getting a grant of $75,000 from Lotterywest in 2012 and, together with the money raised in their annual fundraising events, these funds allowed them to employ a part time admin person and 15 casual care staff to carry out homecare services. Becoming employers brought more responsibility for the treasurer and the committee members who managed the new staff. The organisation, through the work of a dedicated committee member, Jessie Smart, had also developed a corps of about 30 regular volunteers who provided gardening and driving services to their clients. Most of the clients and the volunteers now had no connection to the Belgian community but had been recommended by others in the wider community. In mid-2013, four of the original ten committee members had become older themselves and retired from active involvement on the committee. They advised that the amount of volunteer hours they needed to contribute to monthly meetings to ensure the service could continue to operate, as well as the level of documentation now needed, was getting too much for them, especially as demand for Amethyst's services had grown rather than fading away. Over the years, Amethyst had also formed some ties with 'Blue Diamond', a similar organisation which operated a few suburbs away, giving referrals to clients in each other's service location. Blue Diamond had moved on from being managed purely by their founding committee to being a limited liability company with a CEO and had been very successful in getting funding to professionalise and grow their operation. Amethyst's committee secretary, Sue Pike, was having difficulty keeping up with the paperwork from regular meetings and, along with the treasurer, found all the compliance which was now required by funding and other regulatory bodies around delivering aged care services an increasing burden. Founding committee members had few professional skills and had been attracted purely by their desire to assist the older people in their community. New committee members were hard to find due to the level of work involved in the role and the number and length of meetings as the 4 committee had been dealing with both governance and daily management of the organisation up till then. At the beginning of 2014, Dick Styne suddenly gave notice that he had to stand down due to some serious legal issues he was facing because of his involvement in a real estate development that had gone bankrupt. The remaining committee members called an emergency meeting to discuss Styne's very public fall from a position of trust and the impact this might have on Amethyst and their clients' trust in their financial and organisational management. The Secretary, Sue Pike and the Treasurer, Brendan Stone were tasked with putting together some recommendations for the committee to consider about how to deal with the scandal and, given that the current management committee were tired and needed renewal, they would have to consider the options for continuing to trade, maintaining services to their clients and retaining their volunteers