Save The Naugas!

We had a group of retirees stay at the Naugas last week. They had all retired from the same large corporation, were now living on pensions and 401K money and were having fun. Their trip was arranged by their retiree association, and we gave them a pretty good nightly rate.

I got to chat with the president of the retiree association about his “job.” He said he volunteers his time for the job, and likes it because it keeps him busy and actively engaged. He said he had decided to become active in the retiree association even before he retired, when he was just thinking about retiring.

I asked him what it was like to lead a retired staff association. He said that leadership of a retiree association was a lot different than leading a business, because all his staff – vice president, secretary, treasurer, sargeant at arms, travel director, discussion group director, wellness chair – were all volunteers. He could not order them around, like he could paid staff.

In addition, the members of the retiree association had more absences due to health issues, many were lonely widows or widowers, financial difficulties, and some had “memory problems” (in many cases, a code word for Alzheimers disease). These all made retiree association management more challenging than corporate management.

He said he had located a resource for retiree association leaders, an internet mailing list named RetireeAssociations where they could discuss their mutual problems and find common solutions.

Our discussion helped me understand better some of the things that go on here at the Naugas…although we will never be large enough to have our own association of retired staff.