Submitted by Eric
“Asset management is the process of making decisions about the use and care of infrastructure to deliver services in a way that considers current and future needs, manages risks and opportunities, and makes the best use of resources.”
For those of you who attended the General Meeting in July, Planning and Development articulated the need for an extensive evidence based decision making process that would assist the membership in determining a direction regarding rehabilitation of our housing stock and ageing in place. At the meeting we recognized the work of members over the past 40 years who maintained and, for the most part, successfully managed SHC. But it was articulated that the urgency we are experiencing is a result of inadequate long-term planning and that we cannot ask future generations to inherit a crisis. Instead, we must establish a strong culture of evidence-based, long-term asset and strategic risk management at Sunnyhill. This means looking at the services we provide, the infrastructure we own, and the human and capital resources we have or require. As the handbook below suggests, “asset management is a set of practices for making good decisions, and it’s an ongoing process.”
The first step in this process, is for each and every member to understand what asset and strategic risk management is and why we would do it.
So please take the time to read Building Community Resilience Through Asset Management. Urban Systems wrote this document for Alberta municipalities, but the principles apply to Sunnyhill.