Boards 2.0 e-newsletter launched for Nonprofit Leaders

Indiana Humanities Council is pleased to share with you the preview edition of Boards 2.0, a free monthly e-mail communication for nonprofit leaders. The first newsletter will officially launch on February 23, 2007. Boards 2.0 provides useful, cutting-edge information and resources to Indiana board members and staff leaders in an effective, easy-to-read format. Boards 2.0 is brought to you by Trustee Leadership Development, Inc., an Indianapolis-based nonprofit focused on developing nonprofit leaders and boards.

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E@H February 15th is Still on!

Despite the inclement weather of the last couple of days the roads are plowed and the presentation tonight is still on. That being said, please take into consideration the conditions in your area and please be safe.

Hope to see you tonight.

More info on February's E@H

The guest for this month's meeting will be Morton Marcus, Director Emeritus of the Indiana Business Research Center at the IU Kelley School of Business; and Carol Stein, President of the Stein Group.

As always the January Evening @ the House offered an illuminating discussion on a very important issue. Please join us in February when we discuss Childcare and Economic Development.

Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration and The Stein Group (TSG), a nonprofit, independent children’s research policy group, recently sponsored public meetings across the state about expanding and increasing accessibility of the state's child care industry. These conversations were intended to jump-start local efforts to move the child care industry onto the agendas of local economic development leaders and businesses across Indiana.

So join in the conversation, February 15 , 2007, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the house.

Bridging the Gap: Part 2

We also talked about the issue of educating organizational leaders on the importance and benefits of having representation from older adults and the difficulties that those organizations might have to work around in order to gain the advantages that older adults can provide. Successfully integrating older citizens into organizations that can benefit from their input will mean finding ways to highlight the values offered by having access to older workers and comparing this, often intangible value, to the real costs of implementing the kinds of programs that will attract their much needed experience.

Given the continuing demand and fluctuation of business needs, it can be a hardship on many leaders to accommodate flexible schedules or create short-term projects from long-range goals, situations that best fit the needs and capabilities of older adults. We talked about current successful models in both the education sector and in the utilization of programs like Your Encore. These programs, however, are most useful where the nature of work is more project-oriented or for specific periods of time, e.g., semesters.

Bridging the Gap: Part 1 Review of January's E@H

Our January guest presenter was Kay Crawford, Senior Fellow at the Center for Aging and Community (CAC) at the University of Indianapolis. During the Evening, Kay presented findings from the Center's research on Meaningful Work for Older Adults and Aging in Place, including some surprising statistics about the Baby Boom generation.

The presentation provoked meaningful discussions on a variety of related topics, including:

• How did retirement become attached to a certain age? Are Boomers pressing a change in that concept?
• Differences between generations within the workforce and how can we best use the skills and advantages of each generation.

The group discussed the similarities that exist among the various generations within the workplace. So much attention is currently given to the differences in values between Baby-boomers and Generation Xers. While highlighting differences is key to understanding why groups fail to communicate effectively, it does not provide instruction on what needs to be done to correct the problem.

Upon further reflection we noticed many similar values. In order raise the quality of dialogue on this subject, we must begin focusing our discussions around what we have in common and then build on those similarities to find practical solutions.

Back at the House: January 18th!

The holiday reception in December was a great chance to chat, eat some tasty treats, and strengthen the Evenings @ the House network. Donations were also collected for the local organization, Hoosier's Helping Veterans and their Families (HVAF) (http://www.hvaf.org ) and delivered by E@H Programming Committee member Roger Williams. Thanks to the rest of the Planning Committee for their ongoing work and for the great homemade treats that they shared with our growing network of appreciative conversationalists.

Regular programming continues in 2007. On January 18 at 5:30 p.m. we talk about Generations and Leaders: "Filling the Gap" of leadership turnover.