By  Barbara Kaufman

I’ve had a wonderful time this Spring, traveling around to as many regions as I could and visiting with our members everywhere. Enthusiastic people with good ideas for the future!

But I’ve also been hearing, here and there, a series of questions that give me pause. In essence, they ask, “Now that the state is doing membership and Senior Partners Care, what is the region supposed to be doing?”

And perhaps that question has occurred to you, too.

Frankly, I’d like to reword that quote: “Now that the state has taken on the tedious and time-consuming work of keeping the written records for membership and Senior Partners Care, as well as accounting for the organization’s funds, we at the region have time to do the real work of this organization.”

Let’s talk about some of the potential work for regions.

How about membership? You could be recruiting new members. Or calling new members to welcome them, invite them to meetings, discover what they’re interested in. The region can sponsor events where members can come and socialize and sponsor community events on significant issues or topics to attract new members. Participating in senior expos and county fairs is a great way to publicize your region and attract new members.

For Senior Partners Care, there’s  presenting information to other community groups for the purpose of identifying potential new recipients of care. It’s essential to identify potential community providers of care. How about collaborating with local Area Agencies on Aging to provide information and identify potential new recipients of care?

Advocacy requires contacting local, state and national legislators to advocate on issues and organizing telephone trees to promote local, state and national issues. You can sponsor local meetings to discuss key issues. Regions need to prepare and support resolutions to address concerns and problems. Regions can also share information on issues and collaborate with other local groups to promote issues and concerns.

All organizations need financial support. The region has a role in contacting local groups to ask for funding. You can contact county social service agencies both to inform them of programs such as Senior Partners Care and to solicit their support. You can also contact local foundations and significant givers in the community for their help. 

Regions have an obvious role to play in the state organizational structure. Regional members serve on the advisory council to keep the board of directors aware of your concerns and the region aware of the board’s concerns.  You need to identify and nominate potential volunteer leadership for the organization. On a personal level, you can model volunteer leadership and support for the Federation. And you have a responsibility to encourage members to participate on Senior Federation committees.

Parenthetically, it seems to me that one of the real uses of the advisory council may be as a forum to share experiences and ideas. Many regions are already actively involved in many of these activities. I’m sure this list barely scratches the surface of what regional folks could be doing. As I have often said, this is the real work of the Federation.