A Nice Moment

So, today at a meeting of hospital leadership the CFO spoke about a new software package the health system had purchased.  The reason to buy the software was to simplify the process of recording time spent on activities for “community benefit.”  We keep track of those activities because we want to demonstrate each year that our tax-exempt status is appropriate.  After all, the justification for exempting certain organizations from taxes is that they provide benefit to the community equivalent to the benefits that taxes would otherwise pay for.

The CFO said, “All the managers who need to be trained in this software have received email telling them to attend training.”  But, I hadn’t received any email.  And I do a lot in the community, both in churches and elsewhere.

So, after the meeting I stopped the CFO, and said, “I didn’t get the email.  Certainly, I need the training.”

The CFO answered, “No, you don’t.  We consider all of your work to be of community benefit.  You don’t need to keep track of your community benefit hours, because we’ll simply count all your hours.”

It’s nice to be appreciated!