He is new to the ReServe Board of Directors, taking his seat in June to provide advice, counsel and leadership to the organization whose purpose is, he says, “To give older adults an opportunity to use their skills, talents and life experiences through work or service to benefit ourselves and the community.”

He is the fourth generation of Solomon B.’s (last name Watson), and a practiced leader and lawyer in Boston and New York, even though ”my natural proclivity is one of introversion.” That tendency, he says, elicits a style to lead by influence and persuasion as much as to lead by authority. ”I try to get the same good results as any good manager or leader–and can be tough when necessary.” So he could have been found in the trenches with his troops whether leading a platoon of MPs in the Mekong Delta as a young Army lieutenant or seasoning his troop of lawyers as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer of The New York Times Company.

Solomon B. Watson IV (known as Sol) has a law degree from Harvard, but when he left Woodstown NJ (Pop. about 2600 in the early 60s) for Howard University, he studied English and journalism. After graduation, his membership in the ROTC put him in upstate New York and in Vietnam and in the company of young lawyers serving their tours. Most notable was Capt. Stephen A. Swartz, a graduate of Boston University Law School. “He was smart, savvy, cordial, and very capable,” Watson said. Recalling a conversation about his future with the military, Watson says Swartz’ advice was to get out and consider law school. It came on top of a recent diagnosis of pseudofolliculitis barbae. The skin irritation caused by close shaves of curly facial hair may be remedied by letting the beard grow—a military no-no. Watson has had a beard since this diagnosis in 1968.

Watson went to Harvard Law and after graduation to the Boston law firm of Bingham, Dana & Gould. After returning from Vietnam Swartz joined the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and assisted Watson in becoming an intern there after his first year in law school. The two have retained their friendship. “In large measure, Steve Swartz is responsible for my being a lawyer and the beginning of my legal career,” Watson said.

While he was in Boston, Watson was a founder of the Massachusetts Black Lawyers Association, a professional networking group ultimately recognized by more established lawyer organizations. Shortly after joining The Times’ legal department in 1974, he joined the advisory board of the Agent Orange Settlement Fund, helping families of children with deformities attributed to the herbicide use in Vietnam.

Watson worked his way to the top of Times’ legal department, leading a staff of a dozen or so lawyers, each immersed in one or more areas of law integral to operating the $3+ billion diversified media company. One of his prides is that long before he retired two years ago, “I had developed a very good legal staff, lead by an outstanding successor. When I left I was confident the company would be well served by the department and its new general counsel.”

Watson says he thoroughly enjoyed his career at The Times, having worked with several generations of management and having seen many changes in the business and legal environments. He was once referred to by a colleague as the “prime minister” because of his counseling of employees at various levels of the company.

In retirement he continues to lend his acumen to several organizations, including the Executive Leadership Council, a group of more than 400 black executives who are within two ranks of the CEO. Watson mentors young lawyers and executives, whom he calls his “troops,” a legacy of his Army days as a platoon leader. Among other commitments he is an advisory board member of the Howard University Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation; board member of the Hudson River Foundation, and, most recently, a board member of ReServe.

“My goal as a director,” he says, “is to help the board give the organization some strategic and other direction as it grows to be influential in the New York City area, and also as it grows as a national model for civic engagement. “ The groundwork for expansion was laid at ReServe’s Replication Conference in New York last May, which attracted nonprofits from across the country interested in the ReServe business model and, in Watson’s words “how it could help their organizations utilize older adults who are able and want an encore career.”

Watson lives on the Upper West Side with his wife, Brenda, retired Director of Human Resources at the Times. He says he’s a stay-at-home type of guy, and if there is one “issue” in their marriage, it’s that she likes to travel. The compromise is to take one big trip a year (this year to two islands of Hawaii.) Otherwise he’s content with saltwater fly-fishing off Martha’s Vineyard and the Florida Keys. While he eats fish he generally returns his catch to the sea with no regret (”catch-and-release”). He says he has simple tastes and his palate tends toward what he calls “AFITS” (all food is the same).

His pro bono work fits nicely with retirement and what he calls the “Three F’s: Family, Friends and Folks of Similar Interests.” He has twin daughters from an earlier marriage and three grandchildren: Trey, the 10-year-old son of Kira, a lawyer, and Tiara and Kayla, the twin daughters of Katitti, an elementary school teacher. He says, “I love spending time with the 28-month-old twins,” in part because they remind him of his daughters when they were toddlers.

While ReServe is increasing its placement opportunities, it also is working to broaden the skills of worker volunteers already in the field. Many of ReServe’s nonprofit partners are in need of professional writers, particularly those who can help write grant proposals to foundations and government agencies.

To help fill that need, ReServe took part in a pilot project with the Community Resource Exchange (CRE), a consulting group for nonprofits in Lower Manhattan which has devised an effective approach to teaching needed skills such as grant-writing. Overall, CRE provides a variety of capacity-building resources to about 200 nonprofit organizations.

ReServists received CRE certification upon completion of the five-day course in September, adding value to future placement with increased skill sets. Both students and teachers voiced high praise for the program. “From our first session together, I could tell that the ReServists had the skills, talent and expertise to become effective fundraisers and grant writers,” Ximena Rua-Merkin, CRE Senior Consultant and course leader, said. Student Ed Falk’s assessment: “The course provided very comprehensive information on techniques used by nonprofits to raise money.”

While a well-written grant proposal is at the heart of a nonprofit development office, the process of raising funds doesn’t end there, nor did the classes. ReServists also learned how to build relationships with funders and foundation board members.

Richard Loyd, a guest speaker at one of the sessions, said that one way to cultivate a foundation is to encourage its movers and shakers to attend events sponsored by the group seeking funds. “Invite them to participate and see what your organization really does,” he said.

“Your project may not be the right fit,” he added. “Now might not be the right time. It’s very possible that they might be saying, ‘Next year…,’ so it’s very important when someone says something like that, that you have a system in place for following up in the future. This is why you make a phone call. Talk to them.”

“You may have two things that you are very excited about and which are very fundable,” Loyd continued. “When you talk to a program officer, find out which might be a better fit.” Rua-Merkin followed up on this point by saying, “They may ask you what is the priority for your organization.”
ReServist Beverly Hemmings said the course provided a valuable blueprint and insightful nuances of the fundraising process in a stress-free environment.” The clarity of the handouts and presentation amassed a wealth of information. It will be useful well beyond the classroom.”

ReServist Barbara Griffing agreed: “It was excellent. CRE could not have prepared and conducted this course more thoroughly.”

ReServist Jan Herman

As Human Resources Director of The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, Yosette Jones-Johnson knows a great deal about the value of experienced staff. The right person in the right position can help lift an organization to an all-new level of effectiveness.

That’s why, she says, “We’re profoundly grateful to have the ReServists. We certainly couldn’t afford to hire someone with this level of experience outright. And it takes a lot of care to place a ReServist with this kind of opportunity and have it work so well.”

Retired journalist Jan Herman, one of the Graduate Center’s current ReServists speaks up immediately. “I was struck by that too. The matching setup is very considered.”

Yosette refers to Loretta Williams, a ReServist in Human Resources, as a “perfect” consultant on complex issues regarding the health benefits of city employees, because of the experience Loretta brings as a retired city employee.

“Someone with her experience can tackle almost anything that we confront. There is an answer. And she’s going to help get people there.”

“ReServe is very respectful in the process of communicating with ReServists and laying the best possible foundation for their work. And they follow up! These are very valuable, very different kinds of attributes.”

David Manning, the Graduate Center’s Director of Media Relations and Marketing, explains the benefits of having a ReServist: “For me, reaching out to journalists, having a ReServist come in who is a terrifically experienced, qualified journalist is remarkable.

“If I were setting out to hire an assistant—if there were the money to do that—it would be someone with his kind of qualifications. And because we don’t have that position, and can’t fund that position, to be able to have the kind of skills that Jan has is amazing.

“Just this morning, I had Jan work on making a list of journalists to contact. The Graduate Center has recently done a major breakthrough study of second-generation immigrants, and we want to get exposure on it.

“I sent a pitch out and followed it up with an invitation to come to a performance. One of the writers who responded expressed some interest, so I wrote back, talking about the complexity of the study and how she could focus in on one element of it in an article. And she said, ‘Well, write back and send me a pitch focused in on the element.’ So I turned it over to Jan.

“Turns out he not only can do it, he knows the journalist in question at a major publication, knows what somebody on the other side wants, is familiar, now, with the study, and how to shape something that can be targeted to that person. That’s a significant and important skill to have.”

Jan seems equally impressed by David’s skill in media relations. “In this particular case, you know, David sent out such a really good press release that it became the basis for a New York Times article. And I don’t think that the New York Times article did much more than basically repeat the press release.

“So for me, it’s a good thing, coming to work here. I like the idea of working for an institution that has substance to it. I get as much as I give, from my point of view.”

David picks up again: “Someone mentioned the word ‘volunteer.’ And I’ve worked on the other side of things with volunteers…Volunteers can be more management, sometimes, than they’re worth. Not that they’re not wonderful people, committed, capable, etc.

“But the thing about Jan is that I’m dealing with somebody that comes with experience and skills. It doesn’t require that kind of management. I can give him a much more general assignment and he’ll know what I’m talking about. I mean, I’ve been trying to stump him with something . . .” and here he breaks off into laughter.

Jan expresses a similar admiration. “I feel like I’m talking to a peer, frankly, and a peer who actually knows the business far better than I do in terms of public relations and media relations. So actually, a lot of it is a learning experience for me.”

David sums it up. “And the common ground, for each of us is that this is such an interesting place. I don’t just say that as a PR agent. This is a fascinating place. The dimensions of creative, intellectual, social, collegial people and activities going on around here are just infinite.”

ReServe invited ReServists who have or have had a placement to participate in an online survey. Thanks to all of you who responded. Here is what you told us:

56% applied to ReServe to be able to continue using your professional skills.

69.3% feel the stipend was important to your decision-making process to join ReServe.

84.5% feel that ReServe appropriately matched you with a partner organization.

84.4% feel that ReServe placed you in a position appropriate to your skills and experience.

81.0% feel that your placement makes appropriate use of your skills.

70% feel enriched by your ReServe placement.

77.4% feel/felt productive because of your ReServe placement.

79.1% feel/felt valued in your ReServe placement.

51.4% feel/felt healthier because of your ReServe placement.

80.1% feel like you made a meaningful contribution to the organization(s) you worked with during your ReServe placement.

77.7% read ReServe’s electronic newsletter.

At age 50, Scott Kariya left behind a successful career as a headhunter. He was tired of the long hours and short-term satisfaction but soon found that being idle wasn’t the road to happiness, either: “I was good at every job I did except retirement.” After reading about Reserve in the New York Times, he came looking for part-time employment—with a resume printed on recycled paper. He wound up not at another nonprofit but with ReServe’s three full-time program officers doing (what else?) matching human talent to need, though he finds it much more low-key and personally fulfilling.

Like most ReServists he works three half-days a week, which he says is perfect because he wants time to learn to relax, a discipline he is trying to master. He has left behind 70-hour work weeks as a corporate headhunter, but continues his commitment as a certified member of a Red Cross emergency response team and advocates with a group to promote bike riding and mass transit. He recently added a one-man conservation campaign because, he says, he hates waste, which explains why he uses scrap paper for his resume, and why he’s first to switch off unused lights in the office.

Kariya, now 52, is a Japanese-American who grew up in Leonia, NJ, a small town in Bergen County near Fort Lee, and graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. His grandparents immigrated in the early 1900s. They, along with his parents and other relatives were sent to internment camps during World War II but they harbored no bitterness. In fact, his mother, an octogenarian, still speaks in high schools and takes part in panel discussions about her camp experience. “They recognize,” Kariya says, “that it was an unfortunate time in American history, that it is important to remind people about it so that it does not happen again. But they are willing to say, ‘It’s over.’ ”

Like corporate waste, Kariya doesn’t like to see human potential unrealized and skills not maximized just because they don’t fit the bottom line. “It just galls me to think that there are all these valuable things that people have that are not being used. In the old days people used to ask me, ‘Don’t you feel good about getting people positions?’” But that really wasn’t what mattered to him. Now it is. “These non-profit organizations are so grateful to have highly skilled, experienced people who, quite frankly, they would not be able to afford at regular market rates.” ReServists contribute and the non-profits benefit. To a former corporate headhunter, he says, “That’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.”

Standing: Lendynette Pacheco, Coordinating Business Advisor; Monica Dean, Director
Seated: Cornelius “Corny” Marx, Stanley Kohlenberg, and William Drewes, ReServists.

Since October 2007, ReServists have been working in the City University of New York system, part of ReServe’s ongoing commitment to supporting the work of our civic institutions.

Five of these ReServists are currently at work at the Lawrence N. Field Center for Entrepreneurship, part of CUNY’s Baruch College, located in midtown Manhattan.

ReServe stopped by to talk with the Field Center staff and our ReServists there about their incredibly fresh ideas on older adults, CUNY’s unique resources, and how the success of a small business can benefit just about everyone.

ReServe (RS) Tell us about the work that’s going on at the Field Center, and the particular skills the ReServists are bringing to their work. How is this model of civic engagement helping CUNY?

Monica Dean (MD), Director We are basically the nerve center for entrepreneurship at the college. We serve several college constituencies, including students, faculty, and alumni, as well as budding and existing entrepreneurs. We have research that’s conducted out of the Center, we provide counseling as well as workshops for entrepreneurs, and then we have several programming activities that are for students.

I think what’s really important about our entrepreneurship Center, what’s really key about our success here, is that [southern California real estate developer and Baruch College alumnus] Lawrence Field is intimately involved in the work that we do. We meet with him on a regular basis. He comes to New York several times a year. He’ll chair the board, and he is very supportive of all the work that we do.

As of December of 2007, we received a new gift from him, a $10M gift, which is in addition to a previous gift of $3M. That new gift really puts us in a new playing field in terms of how we can serve our stakeholders, as well as how we’re viewed on a nationally and internationally.

As part of our new gift we are required to develop an advisory board, and that’s what [ReServist] Corny Marx is helping us to do. So he, in addition to helping us look at what type of people would fit in terms of board members, also has a lot of connections within the New York City community, and that’s helped tremendously. So in fact some of his contacts have agreed to become board members. He’s been working with [Academic Director] Ed Rogoff and myself developing that aspect. It’s a huge effort.

RS I’m hearing from a lot of our organizations that one of the great things that ReServists are bringing is a Rolodex, so to speak, an address book.

Bill Drewes (BD) That’s called “intellectual capital.”

RS Intellectual capital. Thank you. So Corny, in bringing this intellectual capital to bear, how is that going for you?

Corny Marx (CM) We’ve got the board up to [about] ten. And they are mostly entrepreneurial people, which mirrors the Center’s mission. And I think that’s the great thing about this group of people is that they’ve all done it. Not all, but virtually all have built themselves within a corporation or within their own business, from zero background.

MD Another major activity has been our marketing efforts. And that’s something that Lendy [Lendynette Pacheco, Coordinating Business Advisor] has been working on. And Stan has been working very intimately with us, trying to develop our collateral materials, as well as figuring out how to position ourselves in New York City, an environment where there’s a lot of competition from other service providers and other organizations.

That’s where the folks here at ReServe are filling in and helping us. They started in March. And, you know, they’ve all made a very significant impact to our work within a very short period of time. They all have way more experience than any of us do!

RS So Stanley, what kind of things do you see yourself bringing on account of having this experience?

SK Well, you have out there a student class aspiring to become, in a great many ways, business people. And we would like to get them more interested in the entrepreneurship center. This requires all of the same marketing techniques that you use to sell a product, because we are, in fact, a product.

I spent most of my career in marketing. And [informing students and potential students about the resources available at the Field Center] is just another marketing problem in effect.

We’re redoing our brochures. There’s a wealth of information sitting in the files here. There are all these success stories that we can use as promotional material. Because in the end that’s our product: a person successfully in business, lasting more than the conventional two years before you go under.

For instance yesterday I was with a former client of ours from 2002, who has become very successful, and we’re writing up a success story on her so that we can use it in promotion. And I’ve gone through all the files from 2002 to 2007, getting everybody. I went through the Web and found those still in business. There are 105 that have Web sites. And I’m going to go visit them all. Eventually.

MD As I said before, a core piece of our work is our services to the community, so, that’s providing workshops, as well as counseling clients one on one. And we have two groups that we focus on, one of which is minority entrepreneurs, and the other is women entrepreneurs.

BD We’re putting together five different sets of curricula. And it’s been quite exciting putting them together!

We also address the immigrant issue, which is very important. In New York City, for example, 80% of new job creation in the last ten years has been in small business.

Within that statistic, the majority of small businesses are being developed by members of a minority group, and low-income communities, and immigrant populations. And the number of big corporations, because of mergers and acquisitions, is getting smaller and smaller. So creating jobs is about small business.

One-third of people living in this country are dependent upon income earned through small businesses. And it’s only been in the last decade that the major business schools have actually looked at creating programs for small businesses. The whole MBA establishment has been geared towards rational analysis, working for a major corporation. They really haven’t addressed this population the way we do.

ReServist Bill Drewes

BD They’re not really looking for a blue-collar student. They’re not really looking at teaching people to start a small business, even though the principles of business are the same.

We’re doing a lot more here at the Field Center than just helping a small business get started or expand. We’re really addressing a major problem that could make or break the strength of our country going forward.

SK The variety of successful cases that we have is enormous and it runs from Subway franchisees to executive recruiters to cafes, a lot of restaurants—some very good ones! And they continue, and grow. We have a bakery on the Lower East Side, a gentleman who came here in 2002, who just wanted to open a little bakery, and now he’s got a huge restaurant down there. It’s the Clinton Street Bakery.

CM Oh yes! Fabulous!

SK He came here to sell cupcakes and stuff.

BD I had a client, a young black man from the Bronx, who wanted to get into the cleaning trade. But it’s very tough for anyone to break into the trade, particularly building cleaners. So he started cleaning toilets in the Bronx. So he did his thing, and we helped him get certified as a minority-owned business, we helped him get a contract from Marriott Hotels.

Now he employs 60 people, and he’s making close to 8 million dollars a year. And out of the 60 people that he employs, the majority of them come from low-income communities, are black or hispanic, mothers off of welfare—

CM I wouldn’t mind having him on the board! That’s a great story.

BD You multiply this times the hundreds and hundreds, and this is a major impact small business entrepreneurs are having. These are the real heroes of our country. Fully one-third of us depend on their success.

ReServe Board Member Sol Watson, ReServe Founder and Chairman Jack Rosenthal, ReServist David Krutchik, Chicago Department for the Aging Commissioner Joyce Gallagher, ReServist Kathy Murnion

Retirees looking for meaning and ways to use their skills and experience and nonprofits looking for seasoned talent have been slow to connect. But their parallel paths are now bending into arcs that create can-do circles, and ReServe, with a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation, provided a forum to offer support and share ideas.

ReServe Chairman Jack Rosenthal and Executive Director Claire H. Altman welcomed some 20 executives and staff from government agencies and non profits nine cities to this mid-May conference in New York City. Harnessing the unused talent of those who’ve retired from the private and public sectors with the needs of public programs is a concept whose time has come. It has everything to do with helping but little to do with volunteering because these people are paid. While pondering how to describe this “new” workforce what to label them and how to define the workplace, ReServe and other organizations have been developing ways to do this with solid results and have earned a vote of confidence from the Atlantic Philanthropies, funder of several programs represented. “We know that older adults can contribute and do better things for our society,” Stacey Easterling, Atlantic program executive, said. She added that her organization was excited about what is being done at ReServe. “We view this as an intriguing experiment.”

NYC Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago and Chicago Commissioner Joyce Gallagher

New York City signed on to the ReServe experiment just a year ago. Commissioner Edwin Mendez-Santiago of the Department for the Aging (DFTA) and a keynote speaker, recounted how DFTA entered into what he called “a win-win” contract with ReServe just a year ago. The idea, he said, was that “City agencies with unmet needs for professional expertise would be able to draw on the skills and experience of retirees recruited and screened by ReServe.” ReServe is a perfect vehicle to offer to City agencies that are committed to increasing age diversity. DFTA is the lead agency for ReServe, coordinating and facilitating relationships among city agencies that signed on to the initiative. Today, nearly 65 ReServists are serving 15 city agencies and five other city agencies are in negotiations. Some 60 percent of the ReServists working for the city come from the private sector.

Phyllis Segal, another guest speaker, is vice president of Civic Ventures in Boston that promotes the value of experience in solving serious social problems. Segal said Civic Ventures may have hit upon a name for the movement of retirees from the private sector to the nonprofit sector: Encore Career, which she said, has the seriousness and level of commitment of work but has the spirit of service. “We are a culture, especially the Baby Boom generation, that defines ourselves by our work—and most people need to work. So we’re seeing a revolution in volunteerism, in unpaid work. And salary compensation, some type of tangible recognition, is a proxy for significance, a sign that you value yourself and that the organization that you work for values you.” Oxymorons such as “retirement jobs” and “stipended volunteerism” require explanation, she said, but, “everyone seems to know what an Encore Career is. It’s after your mid-life work, it’s a new stage of work, and it’s different from what you did before.” Also, she said, “it’s about giving back, working for the public good.”

Claire Altman, executive director, outlined the ReServe model and turned to whether and how nonprofits across the nation might benefit from ReServe’s experiences in the three years since it was founded. Recruiting able workers in the 50-plus population for pre-school, after-school and innovative classroom projects is one area in need of help. Just as critical is the need to develop the mechanics to provide at-home services for seniors that the government does not provide. Segal broached another area where ReServe might be invaluable to all nonprofits: Where will the next crop of leaders come from?

Suzanne Hines, consulting manager at United Way in Houston, said this issue is the largest they face. “We have so many people aging out. We recently got a grant from Shell for a leadership development program where we’re trying to focus on the next generation and succession planning. Altman said United Way did a study of nonprofits in New York City four years ago and found that half of today’s leaders will retire in the next five years. “Nonprofit leadership at the very top level is a big issue,” she said. “The people they will be hiring will be in their Forties and probably with MBAs, so they will need mentoring.” Segal said the job of executive director needs to be reshaped. “You’re looking at a generation that is not workaholic like the Boomers,” she said. The Annie E. Casey Foundation has been looking into the problem, and according to one study the prognosis so far isn’t good. Neal Naigus, assistant to the president at Portland (OR) Community College, said the experience is similar in seating new board members. One solution, he said, may be to invite executive directors retired from nonprofits to give young people the kind of leadership training they need to become effective board members. Carol Greenfield of Boston is founder of Discovering What’s Next: Revitalizing Retirement. The all-volunteer organization is in search of an executive director. “I wish we could have hired a ReServist,” she said, tongue in cheek. “It would have saved us a lot of money.”

Speaking of money, a general conundrum was acknowledged of how and how much to pay the non-staff community. ReServists receive $10 an hour for about 15 hours a week, no matter how much they had commanded in the private sector. Altman said ReServe has looked at several levels. There may be another, higher level of stipend for targeted consulting work, she said, but at the moment the fixed rate seems to work. David Krutchik, who had a career in marketing, spoke as a guest ReServist at the conference. He said he did not believe in the pay-for-performance model of the for-profit sector. “Getting paid $10 an hour is part of the contribution I’m making to the job, to ReServe and to continuing to be engaged in the world,” he said. The minute compensation becomes a ladder, he added, it could open a huge can of worms.

Ideas were many for recruiting paid volunteers in the over-50 age bracket, but those with goals of sustainability had added value. Civic Ventures, for example, has a pilot project in Silicon Valley in which corporations help move their soon-to-retire or recently retired employees into the social sector. Phyllis Segal stressed the need to develop a transition plan into Encore Career as early as age 45, “so that it is as natural to this generation as the idea of ‘Someday we’ll play golf’ was to our parents’ generation. As a society, we invent a new stage of life every century,” she said. “This is our turn to create a new stage of life.” Dick Goldberg, director of Coming of Age in Philadelphia, is among many who believe in working with partners. He has teamed up with Temple University and the PBS station to help promote civic engagement for the 50-plus crowd. “Replication is all about building partnerships and getting everyone in the community to make a commitment,” he said.

Coming of Age Director Dick Goldberg

One weakness in the movement is an inability to sell nonprofits on bargain-priced talent. “This sounds like marketing and communications to me,” Coming of Age’s Goldberg said. “How do you communicate customer benefit at a cheaper price? Just by saying what you used to do and it will be easy.” Altman found it an interesting way to talk about ReServe. Judy Norton from ReServe, agreed. She said when promoting ReServe to organizations, she tells them: “I was a senior vice-president at JP Morgan Chase for over 31 years, and I’m a ReServist.” Then all of a sudden it clicks.

Segal’s advice is to stress that organizations hiring ReServists are receiving a grant or pro bono service that has a value way beyond that. “As a nonprofit executive, I like to put this pro-bono, in-kind contribution on my financial statement. What you’re presenting is a grant of X dollars in order to get that of $10,000,” which is the annual cost of engaging a ReServist who works 15 hours per week.

Back to replication issues, Altman said ReServe has looked at a social franchise model of signing an organization onto quality elements of ReServe. In return, for an annual fee, the organization could tap into ReServe’s resources. Michael Funk, director of Experience Corps in San Francisco, noted that people involved with Experience Corps feel part of a movement because it has a national presence with 20 sites. He thought the same could happen for ReServe. Diane Redd, organizational consultant for the Organ Community Organization in Portland, said she believed nonprofits would embrace funding a replication model that’s branded and fee-based.

Commissioner Joyce Gallagher of the Department for the Aging in Chicago, said, “We’ve been thinking about this hierarchy of needs and giving back. But I think there’s a need to build a spirit as well as mind and body. “I think ReServe is a very spiritual program, and I’d like to bring it to Chicago.”

JASA is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual JASA Volunteer Ventures Expo, a free conference and volunteer opportunities fair for adults 50+ on Thursday, June 19th. This event is being produced in association with UJA-Federation of New York, New York City Department for the Aging, ReServe, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, and Idealist.org/Action Without Borders.

EVENT: JASA VOLUNTEER VENTURES EXPO
DATE: Thursday, June 19th, 2008
TIME: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
LOCATION: UJA-Federation of New York, 130 E.59th Street
FEE: Admission is free for adults 50+, but advanced registration is required. Call (212) 273-5291 or email volunteer@jasa.org

Older adults from across the New York Metropolitan area will be joining JASA to learn about new trends in volunteerism and to meet with representatives from New York City nonprofit organizations with a dedicated commitment to reaching older volunteers.

-Meet with representatives from over 60 NYC nonprofits looking for volunteers.

-Choose from workshops on being an effective board member, volunteering with chidren and youth, finding the right volunteer opportunity online, and empowering yourself as a volunteer.

-Meet other people with an interest in volunteering and social action.

Professional Volunteer Managers will have the opportunity to register for a professional workshop on volunteer management.

Admission is free for adults 50+, but advanced registration is required. To receive a registration form and workshop details, please contact JASA Volunteer Services at (212) 273-5291 or volunteer@jasa.org.

He hikes. He bikes. He runs. He fishes, he skis and works out. He plays tennis and golf. As time allows, he reads at home in the city or at a country house in Northwest Connecticut. He carves out time for his family, is an active board member of a half-dozen nonprofit organizations, including ReServe, and travels for business and pleasure. A recent two-week span saw him in Frankfurt, Madrid, Phoenix, Los Angeles and San Francisco for business, then on to Antigua and Belize to celebrate his wife’s birthday.

At a special occasion on his 65th birthday, his wife, Anne, toasted him with affection and with this: “I have been married to John Herrmann for 25 years, and I’m exhausted.”

Today, at age 72, John Herrmann Jr. is Vice Chairman of Lincoln International, a global mid-market investment bank which he joined in 2007. After a Yale undergraduate degree and military service, he took a Harvard MBA directly to Lehman Brothers. In 1990 he was recruited by a Japanese bank to start his own firm, which was sold 10 years later to what is now JP Morgan Chase. He retired last September as senior managing director of mergers and acquisitions and immediately put his Midas touch on Lincoln International.

After 40 years in investment banking, Herrmann is still at the top of his game. He has a lifetime record of 1,000 M&A transactions. But, he says, “Success is measured not in the number of transactions, but the number that work.” The average is one in four. His, he says, is one in three.

Herrmann has just arrived from an early breakfast meeting, sartorially correct in a well-tailored suit—and a signature bowtie that he knots himself. His office is on the top floor of a Madison Avenue building. To get there requires an elevator key and a guest pass.

He rests his elbows on a conference room armchair and makes a tent with his fingers as he gathers his thoughts. He recounts how the introduction of Kleenex after World War II saved him from any notion of joining the family business, Herrmann Hankies, linen for men and women—“They Soften the Blow.” In its prime, the company sold men’s handkerchiefs for the breast pocket and the back pocket—“One for Show, One for Blow.” But pocket squares soon were doomed by fashion dictates, paper became the workhorse hanky, and the young Herrmann embarked on a career that would provide well for his family and offer the means to actively support charitable organizations.

Philanthropy is a Herrmann family tradition, beginning a century ago when his paternal grandmother helped found a settlement house on the Lower East Side for newly arrived East European Jews. His mother’s first volunteer work was with the Red Cross in World War II. She later worked at the Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, of which her son is now president. Herrmann also is chairman of the Steep Rock Association Environmental Trust, serves on the National Public Radio Board and the Visiting Committee of the Yale Music School. His wife and their two sons have given or continue to lend their time and talent to educational projects such as City Year New York and Breakthrough Collaborative. Anne also is on the auxiliary board of Mount Sinai Hospital and Medical Center.

After a lifetime of dedication to established high-profile philanthropies, what is the lure of ReServe, a relative fledgling in the non-profit world as spelled out for him by founders Jack Rosenthal and Herb Sturz? “I’d never been in a start-up of a social service agency,” Herrmann says.

Herrmann came on board two years ago, shortly after ReServe’s inception. He says that while he has found it slow getting anything new started, the project has been worthwhile, in part because the idea of paying volunteers has led to an employee-employer relationship. “When you pay someone it is easier to assess performance, to think about how good or not good the worker is.” For the volunteers, most of them retired professionals, he says, “The job gives people an opportunity to continue to have active minds, and the pay gives them a sense of value to their employers.”

In 1886, Stanton Coit founded America’s first settlement house, the Neighborhood Guild (later renamed University Settlement) on New York City’s Lower East Side, influenced by the founders and staff of London’s Toynbee Hall and other British social activists who believed that students and people of wealth should “settle” in poverty-stricken neighborhoods both to provide services to help improve the daily quality of life, as well as to evaluate conditions and work for social reform.

From the late 1800s until the mid-1900s, settlement house staff resided in the same buildings in which neighborhood residents participated in programs and activities. Living in close proximity, settlement staff regarded the people who used the settlement as “neighbors,” not “clients.”

Many settlement staff today continue to live in the same neighborhoods as their settlement’s program participants. The shared sense of community still exists between settlement staff and the people who participate in settlement programs.

–from the Web site of United Neighborhood Houses, the umbrella organization for the settlement house system in New York City.

The Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is the largest Bronx-based “settlement house.” Their mission is to improve the economic and social well being of individuals, families and communities who are most in need.

Director of Development Ken Small: “Government contracts say you can do very specific, very finite things with the government’s money.” In this regard, Ken says, “ReServe helps us fill some very critical internal needs.

“This is the stuff that oftentimes doesn’t make the newspapers because it’s not glitzy and it’s not glamorous.

“But we need folk who have the ability to do this sort of stuff in order to sustain this organization so that we can do the programs, we can do the services,” without interruptions for the clients, especially when regular staff members must stop some work to comply with routine government audits, often with little or no notice.

ReServist Asher Yablon and General Counsel Eileen Torres on-site at CAB’s Morris Avenue office in the Bronx.

ReServists Luz Bettancourt and Asher Yablon both come from corporate backgrounds. And both of them were placed to support the work of Eileen Torres, CAB’s General Counsel. But their reasons for connecting with CAB through ReServe are very different.

Says Luz, “For me as a spirit, when I first came to this country I lived in the Bronx. And I’m very familiar with the Bronx.

“I used to work at Calvary Hospital [in the Bronx], which is an excellent institution, and I grew so much there for a very long time. Then when I needed a change, I went to Manhattan,” working as a high level administrative assistant. “But I always had that desire to help others.”

Her work as a Program Administrator in the Human Resources Department has reconnected her to that sense of purpose, and brings her back into community in the Bronx.

Asher’s motives were very straightforward: “My goal was simply just to keep my mind occupied. To be perfectly honest, I didn’t really have a burning desire to work for a social service organization. I just was looking to feel that I’m accomplishing something.”

ReServe also has another kind of “success story” at CAB in Ken Kagel, a former tech executive who started at CAB as a ReServist and has moved into a regular staff position as Proxurement Director.

Human Resources Manager Jessica Smith-Houk explains that to bring a family from a situation of homelessness and acute need, “into even just stable housing and a stable family, a tremendous level of service is required.

“It’s nice to have the ReServists come with experience and other things. The knowledge base may be coming from another place–the corporate world rather than the nonprofit sector—but the skills translate.”