Supporting the experience of former Volunteer Calgary Executive Director Martha Parker (see story, “so much to do”, this issue) is the experience of Charles Feaver, reported in a recent column by Carol Goar at The Toronto Star.
Feaver, Goar reports, was a market researcher for Investors Group, who found in his estate planning activities with soon-to-retire boomers that their concern was more on how to plan their post-retirement time than on ensuring an adequate income for their sunset years.
“They had savings but they dreaded being put out to pasture,” she says. “They’d listen to financial advice but it didn’t address their real anxiety.”
So he quit and initiated a web site for people approaching the end of their career who wanted to remain useful and had the financial flexibility to work pro bono, based on considerable research in other countries, consultations with gerontologists and foreign development agencies that send retired executives overseas, and conversations with local voluntary organizations.
The web site (www.youngretired.ca) is up and running, but Winnipeg-based Feaver is now looking for support to expand its reach and services to accommodate the coming surge in retirements of well-educated, experienced boomers.
He really wants to act as a recruitment agency for skilled retirees looking for opportunities to contribute to their community.
Other opportunities
There are, of course, many other opportunities for boomers to find their niches, starting with the web sites of many of the large charities, and including volunteer bureaus in virtually every community in the country.
However, he has had experiences similar to those recounted by Parker, that nonprofits don’t know what to do with these superior volunteers when they knock on the door. “Many give volunteers menial jobs, while paying outside accountants and publicists and consultants to provide services that they could get free of charge,” says Goar.
Professional associations could do more to help their members find meaning post “freedom 55”, Feaver believes, as they do in many other countries. Government, business, and academe could also play a role in resolving the conundrum.
“Feaver doesn’t pretend to have all the answers,” says Goar. “But he knows life after retirement isn’t an endless vacation. People need to be useful, they want to help those coming along behind them, and they like the satisfaction of a job well done.”
Sounds to us like a wasted resource, by a sector that claims to be hungry for help.
