When I was at the Argentum conference, we crossed paths and I had a chance to hear a bit about a new association, specifically the Senior Dining Association.

By Steve Moran

Three times a day, 365 days a year, senior living dining services touches almost every single resident in every single community.  

  • That is a lot of opportunities for cold food.

  • That is a lot of opportunities for spilled drinks.

  • That is a lot of opportunity for customer service fails.

It is also a tremendous opportunity to make residents and their families fall in love with your community.

The big question is this:  How do you make that happen?

Harris Ader believes a big part of the answer is a new association, specifically the Senior Dining Association. When I was at the Argentum conference, we crossed paths and I had a chance to hear a bit about what he is up to. I followed up with a Zoom video interview which you can view at the bottom of this article.

The Big Idea

The big idea is that while senior living seems to have associations and meetings for all kinds of things there is not really anything for dining professionals. Until the Senior Dining Association was founded, dining folks from our industry either picked up bits and pieces at the various national and regional senior living conferences and/or attended restaurant or other dining service-related conferences. Nothing wrong with those conferences except that senior living has very unique dining service challenges not faced by any other sector.

Harris has several very specific goals for his new association:

  • To provide education and resources to those dining professionals who are working in senior living communities day after day

  • To provide a forum that allows senior living dining pros to network with each other

  • To provide a place for executive directors, regionals and other senior living leaders to grow their expertise in senior living

Membership

There are a number of different memberships available:

  • An individual membership is $99.00 a year

  • Single site, multiple professional memberships for 3, 5 or 7 individuals

  • Corporate discount rates for medium and large multisite organizations

  • Student, supporter and retiree rates and. of course, industry partner rates

Events

They are already doing a number of training events. The first big all hands on-board national conference will be held in March 2019.  

For just starting they already have a significant membership and I expect Harris and his organization to be an important force in the industry moving forward.

Finally, Harris provided me with a special 15% Senior Housing Forum membership discount code:  SENIOR HOUSING FORUM.