LPN Newsletter - Fall 2009
News and Upcoming Events
LPN Calendar of Events
Oct. 9
Fall Quarterly Meeting
Dec. 6-7
Life Planning Pre-Conference
Dec. 7-9
National Conference on Positive Aging
Dec. 22
Deadline for Newsletter Articles
Jan. 8
Winter 2010 Quarterly Meeting
Fall 2009 Quarterly Meeting
The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Retirement Planning
Friday, October 9, 2009, 9:30 A.M. - 2:00 P.M.
Hyatt Summerfield Suites, Waltham, MA
The LPN Fall 2009 Quarterly Meeting is scheduled for Friday, October 9 at the Hyatt Summerfield Suites Boston/Waltham, MA. The Program Committee has put together a program entitled "The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Retirement Planning."
Massachusetts AARP State Director Deborah Banda is our guest speaker. She will address current financial research findings including alternative strategies used by pre-retirees and those already in retirement as a result of changes in their financial situations. A panel from the financial sector of our membership will follow with their perspectives on the topic. Breakout sessions will brainstorm strategies to more effectively help our clients navigate changes in their life planning and to share resources that will enhance our work.
Agenda
9:30 - Registration, Networking and Coffee
10:00 - Business Meeting
10:30 - Presentation
"The Impact of the Economic Crisis on Retirement Planning" - results from recent research
Deborah Banda, AARP Director, Massachusetts
11:30 - Panel Discussion
"Implications for Our Work with Clients"
Panel Moderator, Amy Lampert
Panelists, Ray Lucas and Robin Dziuba
12:15 Lunch
1:00 Break out Sessions
- Brainstorming - Strategies to More Effectively Work With Clients
- Resource Sharing
2:00 Adjournment
BIO - Deborah Banda is the director of the Massachusetts State Office of AARP. Debbie currently serves on the commonwealth's Health Care Quality and Cost Council Advisory Committee and the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund Advisory Board. She is on the Board of Directors of Operation A.B.L.E. of Greater Boston, a nonprofit dedicated to providing employment and training opportunities for mature workers, and is a past member of the Board of the Massachusetts Coalition for the Prevention of Medical Errors. She is currently a member for the Massachusetts Team of the National Governors Association Police Academy of Civic Engagement of older adults.
Prior to joining AARP in 1999, Debbie was an assistant attorney general and Deputy Director of Communications in the office of Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger. She is a member of the Massachusetts Bar and also spent more than a decade as a broadcast journalist in the Boston media market. Debbie is a boomer and lifelong resident of Massachusetts.
Registration: LPN@lifeplanningnetwork.org
Location: waltham.summerfieldsuites.hyatt.com
P.S. Bring a Guest to the Meeting and be a Winner!
The LPN membership is growing locally and nationally! Please keep the momentum going by inviting a friend or colleague to our Fall Quarterly Meeting. Any LPN member bringing a guest who enrolls in LPN that day will be eligible to win a "New England Harvest" gift basket to take home.
This is a great opportunity to bring membership dues up to date.
You Probably Noticed That Something is Different!
One of the goals of the communications committee is to extend the reach and range of our newsletter. So with this fall 2009 edition, the LPN Newsletter is rolling out some new features.Most obvious is the new layout. The layout is part of an overall design model developed to create a consistent graphic image within our messaging system. The design and color palette are compatible with the existing LPN website, our main source of information and communication.
In fact, you will notice that almost every article and news report links directly to the website. In so doing, a whole new scope of writing is available. Expression of content is now the determining factor rather than length of article.
We have divided the newsletter into two main sections, one being News and Upcoming Events and the other Featured Articles. The first section reports on the business of LPN, including a calendar with full announcements and details of upcoming programming and events, reports on committee work, accounts of community outreach programs and other pertinent LPN affairs.
The second section features articles written by LPN members. Some articles are professional in nature, others personal and experiential. In fact, sometimes they are all three at the same time. The overriding theme, though, is in terms of appeal and interest to ourselves in our work as professionals in the field of later-life planning and concomitantly to our own selves as being members of our own target population.
Of note in this edition, also, is the inclusion of business reports from our national chapter LPN organizations and the first featured article from an author outside the New England region.
We would enjoy feedback. If you have comments or suggestions for improving our newsletter, please send them to LPNcomchair@lifeplanningnetwork.org.
Mo Lanier
Editor and Chair LPN Communications Committee
LPN CHAPTER UPDATES
The National Contingent Speaks
Editor's Note: For nearly two years now, a group of LPNers from around the country has met by phone every month. The discussions have had as their objective the formation of new LPN chapters in regions outside New England. One by one, groups have formed, each in their own way, but with a common purpose: to create a community for life planning professionals who support the LPN vision, mission, values and beliefs.
Starting with this issue, we are including news from each of these emerging LPN chapters. This will keep us informed about what is happening elsewhere, what we can learn from their experience and how we can contribute to their success.
NorCal LPN
Mary Radu
Our Northern California group currently includes 15-20 individuals from the San Francisco Bay area, with participants coming from as far away as Sacramento to the east and San Jose to the south. The group has been meeting since January of this year and holds teleconference meetings in addition to getting together in-person.
On August 29th, the group held its third in-person meeting in Oakland, with a lively turnout of 14 members. Carleen MacKay and Mary Radu led an interactive presentation on the topic of "Are You Ready for the Future? The Past Won't Get You There."
The focus was on the need for continual learning and adaptation in order to assure success. This applies to us as professionals as well as to our businesses and our clients.
Carleen presented facts, challenges and barriers that are part of the systemic, societal changes that are underway. We looked at how these changes are affecting current business models and business development. Then Mary led participants in brainstorming how they might integrate "learning from the future" into their business practices.
Topics for upcoming meetings and work groups grew out of this discussion. They include a focus on ethical wills, financial planning and housing decisions, and marketing and presentation skills. A small planning group has been formed to discuss organizational issues and bring recommendations back to the larger group. Topics will include meeting structure and schedule, membership recruitment and the opportunity to become an official LPN chapter in early 2010.
Chesapeake LPN
Candy Spitz
Our chapter, covering the northern Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC areas, celebrated its one-year anniversary in August 2009. We are a vibrant group of about 15 who come from a variety of professional backgrounds. Along with getting acquainted over the past year, we carried out three projects.
In November 2008, we collaborated with community partners to host a simulcast of the Second Positive Aging Conference from Minnesota. Over 100 professionals and members of the public attended. Out of these partnerships, CLPN joined with several like-minded professionals to form the Positive Aging Coalition (PAC). Through PAC, our members provide expert content and facilitation services to community programs for people 50+ as they design the rest of their lives.
Just this month, we sponsored a booth at the Jewish Community Center 's Positive Aging Fair. Our members discussed life planning and distributed educational materials to participants. We also began conversations with professionals who are potential CLPN members and who can round out the diversity of the disciplines we represent.
On September 26, 2009, our steering committee will present the CLPN vision and annual plan to our membership for discussion. We are proposing up to four initiatives to carry our work forward. Stay tuned for news on our progress in future newsletters.
Greater Rochester LPN
Susan Larson
Our group is in the formation stage and we are still assessing interest in a local chapter. Eight of us met initially on July 28th, hosted by Next Step Magazine/Back To Learn.
We discussed the merits of LPN and how our areas of practice were related. We also discussed other potential members from a cross-section of fields, spanning financial, health, education, employment and transition services, whom we will invite to our next meeting.
That meeting is scheduled for September 28th, when we will continue our discussion of the LPN mission, vision, values, beliefs and the integral model. We also want to continue to learn more about the backgrounds of attendees and what opportunities might come of these connections. The final item on our agenda will be developing program plans for a November meeting.
Minnesota Second Half of Life Special Interest Group
Kate Schaefers & Jean Tollefson
Our group is in the early stages of development. We started as a Special Interest Group under the auspices of the Minnesota Career Development Association. We have had several in-person meetings, and have two phone conference calls scheduled for this fall.
We have struggled a bit with finding a time and place that will work for our group of 25 or so, given the spread of our metro community. We are therefore experimenting with a new balance between in-person and phone meetings. Our current goal is to solidify what members want and develop a schedule.
We are excited to be featured at MCDA's annual Fall Event. Kate Schaefers and Jean Tollefson will facilitate an interactive, educational session called "Encore Careers: A new working identity in the second half of life." This event will be held on November 17 and we hope it will help build interest and enthusiasm for the group.
Doug Dickson works in close liaison with the LPN chapters. He can be reached at dougdickson17@gmail.com.
LPN IN THE COMMUNITY
Community Conversations - Reaching Out and Inviting In
by Sharon Levinson, SOAR 55 Special Projects Manager
Editor's Note: SOAR 55 (Service Opportunities After Reaching Fifty Five) places mature adults in significant volunteer positions for nonprofit agencies within Newton and the Metro West area. With funding from a grant from the Massachusetts Service Alliance, SOAR 55 hosted LPN members at a Community Conversations Breakfast on June 3, 2009.
For the last several years, and particularly in today's challenging economic climate, there has been an emphasis on creating partnerships, collaborations and cooperative efforts between like-minded organizations. This past June, SOAR 55 invited a group of LPN members to begin a dialogue about working collaboratively to enhance the experience of those individuals charting their course through the Third Age.
- Our goal was threefold:
- to learn more about each others' activities and the services we provide,
- to explore ways that Life Coaches could encourage people to enrich their lives and make a difference in the world through volunteerism and community service, and
- to determine how SOAR 55 could help LPN members in their efforts to provide clients with a comprehensive array of options as they explore later life possibilities.
The Community Conversations Breakfast brought together nearly a dozen LPN Life Coaches, SOAR 55 staff and volunteers Susan Rudner (educator), Nancy Bloom (social worker), and David Chosiad (business executive), who shared their service journeys with the group. Involved with local nonprofits through direct service, skills-based volunteering and pro bono management consulting assignments, the three were articulate and moving in their presentations.
Their stories reflected a desire to give back to the community and use their experience and expertise in meaningful and productive ways while deriving a sense of satisfaction and personal growth from their contributions. Whether tutoring a female prisoner studying behind bars for a college degree, helping a human service agency create a marketing and outreach plan, or assisting in the startup of a new, community-based nonprofit, SOAR 55 volunteers are models of Third Agers who are looking to define and redefine their paths and priorities for the rest of their lives.
June's breakfast meeting generated many creative suggestions for cooperative efforts between LPN and SOAR 55, ranging from listing each other on our respective websites, joint training opportunities and panel discussions, and when appropriate, referrals to each other's programs.
As a follow-up to the meeting, Karma Kitaj, LPN member, wrote a post about the event on her blog Retirement As You Want It, and interviewed SOAR 55 volunteer Nancy Bloom for her TV show Alivehood. LPN member Roberta Taylor sent information about her free teleclass on Successful Career Transitions to distribute to SOAR 55 volunteers, and Gene Burnard, another LPN member, has asked us to write an article about the SOAR 55 Nonprofit Management Consulting Program for his website.
We look forward to continuing the conversation and working together to help our respective clients and volunteers merge their passion with compassion, transform giving in to life's challenges by giving back, and reach deep into themselves by reaching out to others.
If you have ideas about additional cooperative activities, or would like further information about our workshops, the Management Consulting Program trainings, or other SOAR 55 volunteer options, please contact Karen Albert at kalbert@ncscweb.org or 617-969-5906, ext. 351, or visit our website at www.soar-ma.org.
Programming to Incorporate Both Theoretical and Practical
Donna Singer, LPN Program Committee Chair
The Program Committee is continuing to make progress in our efforts to present the highest quality programming for our LPN members. This year we are applying a standard format for programs presented at our LPN Quarterly Meetings. Each program topic will align with the work of the Excellence in Practice Committee and will be structured to address both the theoretical and the practical aspects of life planning. That is, theoretically, what basic knowledge do we as practitioners need, whatever our expertise, regarding a particular area of the integral model/"pie of life?" And, practically, what tools and techniques do we currently use or might we put into practice with our clients in each area?
For example, the LPN Fall 2009 Quarterly Meeting will focus on the impact of the current economy on retirement planning. The meeting will begin with a speaker on the theoretical aspects of the economy and the rest of the day will focus on practical ways for us as life planners to help our clients deal with their own challenges in this regard.
As well, the program committee, in a forward-thinking approach, is assembling a year-long program plan. The proposed topics slated for our meetings this LPN calendar year will focus on the following areas:
- Recapping the Life Planning Pre-Conference and National Conference on Positive Aging
- Housing
- Health Care
Again, these programs will address both the theoretical and the practical.
In addition, several more changes are in place. To integrate more LPN talent into our planning process, one or two point persons will be in charge of the planning of each program.
We have hired an individual to carry out the administrative tasks related to each program. And, we are exploring possibilities of other programs, perhaps for a breakfast meeting, an evening meeting, or some other time of day in order to accommodate the schedules of more of our members. We welcome and encourage members to submit their ideas and/or to serve as a point person for one of the quarterly meetings or any other meeting that should develop.
The Program Committee also invites both new and established members to join our committee. We are energetic, forward thinking, and committed to make this another year of excellent programming. Please contact me, Donna Singer, and share your ideas and comments: donna@donnasingerconsulting.com.
Focus on LPCI
Kit Hayes, LPN Excellence in Practice Committee Chair
The Excellence in Practice Committee is in the process of revising the Life Planning Competency Inventory (LPCI) based on feedback from those who took the instrument last spring. Our focus is on developing competencies that relate to the many facets of life in the third age - our shorthand term being "slices of the pie."
The Pie of Life is a model that you may be familiar with since it appears on the LPN website and is also used in our marketing material. It is comprised of these life components:
- Lifelong Learning & Development
- Community
- Family/Relationships
- Leisure/Travel
- Finance/Legal Issues
- Health/Fitness
- Spirituality
- Housing/Lifestyle
- Paid Work
- Non-Paid Work
The committee has engaged a survey methodologist to help us with this next phase. We plan to have the revised LPCI ready prior to the National Conference on Positive Aging in December.
We will be presenting the inventory during the Life Planning Pre-Conference and will again have those who take the instrument provide feedback. We are in the early stages of developing this instrument which we hope will become a widely used professional tool to improve practices and practitioner competence in our new field.
Speakers Bureau Update
For the past few years several LPN members have expressed interest in developing an LPN Speaker's Bureau which would help to get our name and message out to the public.
We need to be known in order to grow and be more of a resource for individuals and the community. However, with energy focused on the upcoming Life Planning Pre-Conference in December, planning for the Speaker's Bureau has been put on the back burner until early spring.
If you are interested, please don't hesitate to contact me at rkt@pathmaking.com. Otherwise, we will be communicating more information about it in the spring.
Hope to see you at the conference!
Roberta Taylor