I was recently reminded that the website is static.

This is a problem for AAI, and I believe I know the cure.

I will today begin a series of posts describing our process, which is quite active despite appearances.

First, I want to describe a process we have been developing, where we are beginning to define the needs for all the households of our existing leadership.  We also have decided in the meetings last week, that we will start to define the organization in a flow chart, and we are getting close to being able to present these efforts at our upcoming allies meeting, on Thursday the 17th of June.  This mapping or charting of our organization will allow future allies to see how we operate and decide whether they might be able to fit within our structure.

Last week I announced the upcoming potluck, at Joy’s and my place’ the need to establish committees for ‘Mission Development’ and ‘Real Estate Development’ this month, and soon after, ‘Fund Raising’; and the time, location and day  of our next Allies Meeting.

MISSION DEVELOPMENT

AAI is a member of Sara Garrett’s motiveSpace Coalition.  This organization brings together community groups and neighbors to develop resources to address the needs of each organization for physical space, and build those spaces.  The Executive Team; Gary, Mary, and myself; is currently engaging with Sara to put together a ‘Seed Team’ from among her professional allies, architects, developers, funding agents, etc. to bring our vision into reality.  Part of this process is to define just who we are, and how we function, what do we need to do, and how would we interact with the world.  The Mission has been defined, and is currently under major revision.  If you want to help with this process, you will become one of our Leadership Team.  These are chosen by our Executive Team from among what we call our allies.  All leaders who serve on committees will be considered part of our Leadership Team, and will meet with members of the Exec. Team periodically for accountability, and present the results of their work to the Allies in our monthly meeting.

At a recent meeting of the Exec. Team, we began to identify the roles we need to play to make this Initiative a success.  These roles will be grouped into two broad categories, one assigned to the Executive Team and the other delegated to the Leadership team.  More detail will be provided to the Allies at our Thursday 6/17 Allies Meeting.

REAL ESTATE

A few weeks ago, four of our active AAI team members, Mary Bedard and myself from the Executive Team, and prime ally Madeline Janovec and her great colleague, and new AAI team member Carole Hagin, went for a tour of three potential sites.  It was agreed at our last Monthly Allies meeting that having an actual site to coalesce our vision around would help us bring all the energies at our disposal into alignment with our vision.

The trip included the site of an existing commercial building that is for sale at SE Harney in the corner of Portland close to the intersection of Highway 99E and Milwaukie Blvd.  It is a very large old structure and has a few challenges.  Potential for workshop space in it is quite significant.  There is also room for several residences, on the second floor.

The second site was in North Portland at N. Columbia Way and N Macrum 1 Block East of the Intersection with N. Fessendon.  There is a cluster of three quite interesting homes in a compound with space between them.  The owner has been in construction there for some time.  Gary Marschke has met the owner and he expressed interest in our project.  Each building looks to be two or three stories, and their suitability to a shared home commune would be possible, but we all agreed that having more than one level would not work for us.

The third site was the open lot in Fairview Village, which was a suburban development East of Portland and North of Gresham between Troutdale and East Portland.

Here are the notes from our last allies meeting about this property.  I have yet to make a report on two recent meetings related to this site.

‘That seemed to segue into the discussion of the discussions we’ve been having with Barry Smith Architects.  Barry and his employee, Chris Nestlerode (who had worked on the Memorial Coliseum proposal for Vision into Action with Gary) gave a tour of a property they want to develop into a senior independent living facility in Fairview Village, North of Gresham, at 233^rd and Halsey.  Gary, Mary and I attended the tour along with Chris and Barry.  It turns out that the whole community, with its own city charter has been developed with most of the structures being designed by Barry and his company over the past 15 years.  His developer partner, Garth ___?____ will meet with our team soon and discuss the potential of our helping to design the building.

There is a design model that the entire city plan has relied on which was very much in fashion 15 years ago, called New Urbanism.  It has faded a bit and there have been some spectacular failures, one being ‘Celebration Village’, in Florida(?).  Alan is willing to help us think about how we could impact the process in the best way.  One thing he suggested was to ask Barry if they are required to build according to then standards of the C.N.U. or Congress of New Urbanism.  He also suggested we consider the functions of our building first.’

We will have a new meeting with whomever wants to meet as the Real Estate Committee within a week of our upcoming Allies Meeting on the 17th, where all these options will be discussed in much greater detail.

That’s it for now.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Corcoran

Founder- 971-563-3694

“The Aging Artfully Initiative works to provide affordable independent living communities with nurturing environments and innovative programs for elders that foster the pursuit of creativity in all forms.”

Key Words- Independent, innovation, creativity, programs…

October 2nd was an amazing AAI Allies Meeting at Old Wives Tales on Burnside.

We had an intimate meeting this month with a smaller group than in September. It allowed us to greet and share with new allies who are excited about participating in AAI.

Those who attended

Rachael Lorenz: blogger, juried photographer, fashion consultant, potential curator and marketing volunteer for Geezer Gallery. Rachael attended with her fiance Tim Rooney, musician, teacher and personal historian (Portland Community Media). Tim’s work involves video documentary and oral history. Currently Rachael and Tim are collaborating on several video and photography projects. Their insight as Allies is much anticipated!

Tami Matthews: Development Director: Life by Design Northwest. Tami brings an intensity that will help us all. Life by Design NW’s involvement with AAI is key to our future. Supporting the vision of LBDNW and getting the word out about the organization is one of our goals.

My terrific friend and the development director at Elders in Action, Brenda Morgan, shared the meeting with us. Brenda and Rachael share exciting news about: The Grandworks Northwest Art Festival being held in mid May, 2010! Along with Geezer Gallery, Elders in Action are organizing a juried Art Festival featuring a plethora of elder talent from our region. AAI will also be involved in some capacity, and yesterday I attended the steering committee meeting at EiA for GrandWorks NW.

Frances Spak: Project Director of ‘Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities’ at Jewish Family Services. Still leading at 84, Frances is the delight of many friends and inspires us all with her efforts. It was wonderful to share our allies meeting with her.

Julian Lauzanna: Videographer /(YouTube contributor) : Primal Digital. Julian and I have been meeting frequently to discuss our vision of making the upcoming Hillsdale Micro-Cinema project successful.

The Micro-Cinema is offering a series is devoted to ‘Aging Artfully in America’. The Micro-Cinema is held in the Community Room at the Watershed Building, 6388 SW Capital Highway (Corner of Bertha and Capital): Doors @ 6:30 pm

Hillsdale’s Micro-Cinema Oct. 20th:6:30-9, will be screening: ‘Still Kicking‘: Amy Gorman’s short film. Amy is an elder’s advocate and founder of the Aging Artfully organization from Berkeley CA.

Also being shown is the first installment of ‘A Whole New Old’. This video is a labor of love in progress by Amy Henderson and the Geezer Gallery.

The series continues on the last Tuesdays, in Nov. with ‘Young Filmmakers’, and Dec. with Global sustainability. See Julian’s Blog for details

Mary Saunders: active in Recode and City Repair. Mary has some new angles to bring to the group. I hope she stays in touch.

Meagan Lawlor: volunteer at Life by Design NW. Megan is building a career coaching system for elders which is being hosted by Marylhurst University. AAI intends to continue to foster her work.

My stalwart friend and team member, Zoe Johnson, who volunteers time with AAI. A natural administrator, Zoe helps organize our information, update the calendar, maintain the website and is building a database for AAI.

Rounding out our wonderful allies: Gary Marschke: Altruism for Fun and Profit, Mary Bedard, (Landscape Architect), as well as Joy Allen: Fabric Sculpture Artist, my fiancé.

I want thank all those who attended in both body and the spirit of AAI. Looking forward to sharing more at our next meeting, November 12, 2009.

See the calendar for upcoming meetings, potlucks and the like. More entries soon!

Stay in touch. So much is happening.

Yours in Service to Elders and the Arts!

Jim Corcoran

Another interesting week.

I was able to get into the latest class of Local Agenda, a social entrepreneurs start up course at Springboard Innovation in Portland.  Very exciting.  My colleague Mary Bedard went through it and gained a lot of knowledge.
That starts on Thursday the 8th.

Last Tuesday, we convened the second monthly Aging Artfully Allies meeting, and this time we had 18 total including two of the three Executive team, Mary and myself.  Gary was tied up in a meeting the former mayor Tom Potter.  (Good Excuse.)

I’ll cut and paste the list of allies here, with their short, somewhat inaccurate descriptions.

Amy Henderson, founder of the ‘Geezer Gallery’, a start up non-profit, with a lot of progress toward having an actual space. GG is a very strong player in this work and represents many opportunities for AAI.

Mike Johnson, Amy’s fiancée, and co-founder of the Geezer Gallery.

Sara Garrett, founder and president of motiveSpace Coalition, providing critical leadership in community initiated development. AAI is a proud client and member of the motiveSpace Coalition.

Barbara Gerke, powerful connector and community organizer, founding member of the DreamSeed Innovation Resources.

Halim Byron, drummer, musicologist, teacher and mystic, founding member of DreamSeed Innovation Resources.

Catherine Moore, independent Elder Care provider, experienced non-profit administrator, coordinator and elder activist.

Zoe Johnson, advanced organizer, founder of the virtual concierge service, ‘U-Squared’.

Jim Corcoran, founder of AAI, president of New Land Jazz LLC, a jazz advocacy company, former contractor and construction industry professional

Joy Allen, Jim’s fiancée, poet and writer, and advanced artist in the realm of fabric sculpture.

Mary Bedard, landscape architect and chair, Friends of the Portland Community Gardens. Executive team member of AAI.

Gary Marshke, long time Portland community activist and organizer, marketing specialist and elder activist. Founding member and Executive Team member of AAI. Founder of ‘Altruism for Fun and Profit’. Member of the board of the North Northeast Business Association, NNEBA.

Angela Hamilton, experienced community organizer, who has recently returned from Ecuador, where she participated in the international project ‘Pachamama’ to engage with indigenous elders to solve global problems. Angela is pursuing a Masters at PSU in Organizational Education, and is a leader in the local chapter of the international Pachamama Alliance. She is also a founding member of the DreamSeed Innovation Resorce.

April Milan, co-owner of ‘Beyond the Clinic’ of Milwaukie, which provides on site Physical Therapy Services.

Ben Musholt, co-owner, marketing specialist and advanced physical therapist with ‘Beyond the Clinic’.

Dave Jewell, elder and resident leader at the Rose Villa Retirement Community in Milwaukie, and retired engineer and social worker.
Madeline Janovec, an elder and a very advanced painter and jewelry maker and owner of a gallery space in SE PDX, and the leader of international exhibitions for women in the Arts, including a major international women’s art conference coming up in 2010 at PSU.

Alan DeLaTorre, a participant in the international study recently completed by the World Health Organization on the affordability of services for elders, and a doctoral candidate at PSU in a combined study of Gerontology and Urban Planning.

Julian Lauzzana, owner of Primal Digital, an video and audio production company, which was active in NYC before coming to Portland, and advanced community organizer serving innovative social change organizations.

Gale Long, retired professor of organizational management at the ‘Bainbridge Graduate Institute’, a progressive college in Washington assembled to meet the needs of applying advanced business skills to healing the planet.

The allies meeting went smoothly and I had a pretty solid agenda and a list of favorite projects and a system for evaluating the relative ‘Importance’ of them.

I felt I was ready to talk to Frances Spak from Jewish Family Services.  She is the program, leader for the ‘aging in place component she calls NORC, ‘naturally occuring retirement communities’. I met her in January when she produced an Elder Services Fair here.  It was eight months before I was in a position to explain my idea, and now we have the brochure.  (I’ll try to get the file up once I learn how to use Word Press.)

So I called Frances on Friday, and she had time to meet me!  Frances is a powerhouse at 84, and gave me four pages of friends to contact!
Amy Gorman, from the other Aging Artfully, called me this week to solidify plans for her arrival next week and our welcome ‘meet and greet’ event  and dinner with the AAI team.  She told me about the national conference of the National Association for Creative Aging, based in D.C.  It will be held in Florida in January.  I don’t see the announcement of the NCCA website,  but keep checking their site (invaluable resources!). Or drop me a note.  Money is tight, so I may not make it.

Much more to report, but I’ll post more later.

Have a great Holiday tomorrow, Everyone.  Joy and I will enjoy the day off.  I lead my second ‘7 Habits’ study group Monday at 6:30 P.M. at ‘The Stafford’ Retirement Community in Lake Oswego.

Blessings and In Service to Elders,

Jim

Our website will be running in a few weeks.  An announcement wil be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, Amy will be coming to Portland to present her movie short called, ‘Still Kickin’ ‘, and talk about her experience learning from Women Artists between 85 and 105!  Her book ‘Aging Artfully’ will be available at the event, Sept. 11th Friday from 3-5 at the White Stag building.  Reservations can be found at the ‘Life by Design Northwest’ website.

Jim Corcoran can be reached at 971-563-3694.

Our brochure can be ordered by emailing jim at jim@agingartfully.org!