April 2009

Friends,

President Obama’s historic victories in the primaries and general election were due in no small part to his unprecedented use of the latest internet technology, including email, text messaging, online billing and social media websites like Facebook.   The campaign relied on these relatively inexpensive tools to communicate, sell, solicit and receive money, names and policy initiatives.  The campaign then used these “commodities” to create, identify, cultivate  and restructure communities of supporters, whose “membership” was based on an endless and ever changing set of variables, e.g. geography, age, ethnicity, social and economic status, attitudes and interests broad and narrow, and responses to the candidates policies and pronouncements.

No question, Obama’s intelligence, community organizing experience, charm and incredible discipline explain why he succeeded, (in addition to the economic implosion!)  But internet technology explains the how; how he cultivated voters and built his public profile before he had a big war chest, and how he was able to continue campaigning until the funds arrived.

Retired professionals are the why ofour success at ReServe. ReServists are smart, accomplished, experienced and disciplined.  They are able to dive into their assignments with little training or supervision and in several cases have contributed significantly to programs, operations and marketing at the organizations in which they are placed.

But having proficiency if not mastery of computer and internet technology is also needed for a ReServists’ success.   Without technical skills, the very best professional experience can be irrelevant in today’s workplace.

At ReServe, we have made it a policy that all applicants be computer literate (if not eloquent) and have an active email account.  In 2008 we launched the Opportunity Board, an internet-based job search tool that lists all of our opportunities in detail. Without IT skills, ReServists cannot search or apply for opportunities with our partner organizations, and without an email account ReServists cannot receive our frequent email blasts.

Indeed, the internet continues to challenge previously conceived methods of communication, dialogue and debate, publishing, shopping and fundraising to name a few.  The nature of technology which is changing every day requires that all of us enhance or relearn skills.
Resistance to technology is not an intellectual deficiency.  Rather it may stem from your experience with business norms established long before the internet, including how information is gathered and shared, how business decisions are made and how employees are recruited and retained, says Rob Salkowitz in his book, Generation Blend: Managing Across the Technology Age Gap.

“The cause of older workers’ rejection or slow adoption of technology and technology-related practices often has more to do with sociological issues and workstyles than with the willingness or ability to learn later in life,” he writes.

There are free or low cost computer courses being given in almost every neighborhood, at park recreation centers and public libraries (for a list of some centers in your area, click here).  In this newsletter, we introduce you to Tom Kamber, the Executive Director of OATS (Older Adult Technology Services).  ReServists can register for free computer courses given by OATS, so please take advantage of this opportunity if you think you need it.

In the coming months, ReServe will be upgrading its internet technology so that we can match the growing numbers of retired professionals and nonprofit organizations more quickly and less expensively.  In our outreach and promotional efforts, we need to take advantage of how and why technology can help us meet the demand for the topnotch skills our ReServists offer.  Please stay tuned for our developments.

Happy internet browsing!

Mary S. Bleiberg

ReServist Jo Sevely, one of 18 ReServists participating in StoryCorps.

Story Corps  has invited 18 ReServists to  visit their recording booth in lower Manhattan and describe their lives after retirement .  The recordings will be stored digitally by Story Corps and archived in the Library of Congress.  Excerpts of individual recordings may be featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition.

Story Corps is a nonprofit organization, which honors Americans by recording stories of their lives.  An individual, young or old is invited to engage in a conversation with a loved one, friend or colleague, which is recorded and stored.  Jack Rosenthal, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees at ReServe, who also serves on the Board at Story Corps, collaborated with Donna Galeno, Director of Story Corps for the idea of ReServist participation

In a pre-recording orientation held at the AARP offices in New York, ReServists met with facilitators from Story Corps to review the procedures related to the recordings and to introduce themselves. ReServists also talked about their often extraordinary and diverse professional accomplishments as well as their current passions.

ReServist Natalie Millner said that adjusting to retirement wasn’t easy for her, “I knew that I could never stop doing things,” she said.  Ms. Millner spent years working for city agencies including 16 years as the Deputy Press Secretary at the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, but became a Health Navigator for ReServe after retiring.   ”I love what I’m doing now.  It is the most wonderful fulfilling affiliation I’ve ever had,” she said of her work with ReServe as a Health Navigator.

ReServist Lila Sternglass who is currently working in marketing and advertising for the nonprofit, New York Youth at Risk, said that entering the male-dominated advertising world in the 1950s was not an easy task but she persevered  and built a successful careers an advertising executive.

However in her current role as a ReServist she has found her creative voice: organization.  “They give me freedom, the freedom to do things the way I thought they should be done,” she said.

Finding one’s voice is one of many benefits of being a ReServist, but ReServe helps marriages too.  ReServists Stan Kohlenberg who founded several successful companies in New York and now is working at Baruch College, said that ReServe helped save his marriage of 54 years.  “I retired in 2007 and found myself at home with my wife [all day].  I want to thank everyone at ReServe for pulling me off my couch.”

Both ReServe and Story Corps are eager for the collaboration. “Older people usually talk about their pasts, what they did before they retired,” said David Brigham, who is a manager at the Story Corps booth.  ”We want to hear more about how people are living their lives in the here and now.”

Iowaka Barber, a ReServe Program Officer agrees and points out,  “ReServists represent the leading edge of a trend:  retired people who are applying their skills and life experience to jobs in the nonprofit sector. Focused and mission driven, they are actively engaged in helping their communities. ”

Older Americans constitute a vast untapped pool of talent and experience .  Stories that  document the richness of ReServists’ daily  lives, the variety  of work assignments and their social impact,  will help change public misconceptions about retirees capacities and motivations.

That’s not just a story, that’s news.