By Barbara Kaufman
MnSF State President

It’s amazing how short a year can be. It seems like only yesterday that the Federation was debating how we, as an organization, could survive. Now we stand at the threshold of a beginning a chance to re-think, re-form and re-develop our organization.

This will not be an easy time. Instead we all will find ourselves challenged to maintain and improve our skills and our knowledge, so that we can more effectively promote the Federation’s mission. Your board has planned to meet twice a month, at least until the end of this year. There is much, much work to be done.

We have begun. We have a new and streamlined set of bylaws. You have elected a new Board of Directors, creating a smaller and more focused governance body. We are eagerly anticipating the creation of an advisory group which holds the promise of better communication among the board and the local units. “Among” I say, because I hope this body will provide a meaningful linkage not just to the Board of Directors, but also among the local units. We are also looking forward to identifying and recruiting a few additional board members, people with special skills and knowledge that will be helpful to us all. And this is only a beginning.

I really want to take a moment to thank outgoing president, Lois Williams, for the fantastic job she has done in shepherding us all through a most difficult time. I’m sure she has agonized over our present and our future. I’m sure she has been at least a little exasperated at times. But through it all, she was the strong and determined leader we all needed. Thanks, Lois, for a job well done!

And thanks, too, to the Board of Directors. They have also worked hard to achieve our current opportunity to begin anew. It takes courage and vision to support change. Never once did I hear, “But we’ve always done it this way!” even though the temptation must have been great.

So let us begin together to transform our Federation into the premiere grass-roots representative of older adults in the whole state of Minnesota.