BOOM! Detroit Blog

It's LEAP Day - Go for a unique way to pitch your business

2012-02-29T14:26:00.000-08:00

Graphic from The New York Times 02.29.2012

Be a star and start your business at the same time!

Carol Roth and The New York Times are challenging entrepreneurs with a creative way to pitch their business plans. She introduced a new contest, MAKE YOUR PITCH, in today's paper. The idea is to produce a 2 minute video that highlights your unique business idea, customers, marketing plans and - most important (this is a business, after all) - how you are going to make money. Qualifying videos will be featured on the NYT small business Facebook page. They are also looking for a most excellent videographer/entrepreneur with a strong business idea to blog about her or his start-up adventures.

Roth writes, ". . .it doesn't matter if you have an idea written on the back of a napkin or if you have a full-fledged business with customers and revenue. If your business model is unproven we want to hear your story. If you are ready to accept our challenge, face the feedback and be considered for the blog, grab your camera and get going."

Ms. Roth, a business strategist who has helped over 1,000 clients raise over $1 billion in capital, will review selected submissions and invite NYT readers to do the same. Video business plans will be judged on Content, Production and Confidence! Be sure to stay in focus, in sync and in charge!

Take the LEAP and star in your future! For full contest rules, click here. When your video is ready, submit it to MakeYourPitch@nytimes.com. Break a leg!

You don’t have to innovate, you just have to do things better - ask MacDonalds

2012-02-15T10:18:00.000-08:00

Randal Charlton up on the roof at TechTown
PHOTO BY DAVID LEWINSKI

Written by Randal Charlton, Executive-in-Residence, BOOM! The New Economy at TechTown - reporting from a MacDonalds,United Kingdom

I don’t know about you, but It really worries me when I hearpeople constantly saying that we have to innovate to compete in the globaleconomy. In the first place I am not sure it is true and secondly, whenever I dohave a new idea, invariably I go to the internet and discover that 500,000people are already doing whatever I thought was going to change the world. Whichis why, over the years, I have become such a fan of McDonalds; so much so, thatI have bought a few shares in the company. (So this blog comes with both aconflict of interest disclosure and a good health advisory).

I have frequented McDonalds for years, mainly because theyhave the best and cleanest toilets close to any highway exit. As I have drivenacross America, my passengers have always expressed appreciation when we havepulled into the Golden Arches for a quick comfort break. Often they have notbothered to order more than a coffee but they have emerged content, ready to travelon.

I have watched in awe as this fast food chain has expandedaround the world to places that were unimaginable a few years ago. Knowing howproud the French are of their reputation for haute cuisine, I was shocked todiscover a thriving McDonalds in sight of the Champs Elysee in the cultural centerof Paris; it seems that the French appreciate clean bathrooms like the rest ofus. And when McDonalds opened theirfirst restaurant in Moscow in the early 1990s I could not wait to see its impact.

Macdonalds in Russia
Photo by Stephanie Fierman

For weeks there were long lines of Muscovites snaking out ofthe restaurant anxious to pay the equivalent of a month’s wages on a big Macand fries. It was, however, the potential cultural shock of the bathrooms thatinterested me. The plain fact is the American food industry and McDonalds dohygiene better than anyone else in the world and when you think about it we alluse the bathroom - several times a day. After six weeks, the bathroom in the McDonalds in Moscow was as sparkling fresh as a field of lavender. The ability of McDonalds to train local staff to adopt a newAmerican culture of cleanliness was nothing short of amazing.

So I was not surprised, last week, when McDonalds plan toexpand in England received extensive prime time news coverage. It drew thepublic approval of no less than the British Prime Minister Douglas Cameron andhis deputy Nick Clegg. The country of my birth does certain things well but ourtalents do not always extend to clean toilets.

Over the next five years the US food chain plans 1,300 newoutlets (complete with pristine bathrooms) and 2,500 new jobs. Interviewed onthe BBC, the UK Chief Executive, appropriately named Jill McDonald, naturallyhighlighted the total McDonalds experience which includes great burgers, friesand milk shakes as well as value for money. Jill McDonald also mentioned MickyDs plans to expand in China. Now if you have ever had a bathroom break in Chinayou will understand why I have telephoned my broker to buy a few more big Macshares.

Its not that this American company does a single thing thatcan be described as innovative. They just do everything better, including thetoilets, which as I get older, I have to confess I appreciate more often everyday.

Bravo! My last roof, really

2012-02-02T10:58:00.000-08:00

Betsy Reid Creedon
BOOM! The New Economy Champion

A great article in Psychology Today by Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of Civic Ventures, a think tank on boomers, work and social purpose. It is an essay adapted from his latest book, The Big Shift: Navigating the New Stage Beyond Midlife (PublicAffairs, 2011). He calls it "On Your Next-to-Last Dog."

A lot of talk has gone down about what to call this stage of life: 2nd Act, Act II, Act III, 3rd Act, 2nd Stage, Midcourse, Third Chapter, etc. Marc writes about his mother-in-law who calls it My Next-to-the-Last-Dog, "The way Donna figures it, there are about four years left on her current dog, Jack, after which she could get another one, maybe a medium-size canine with an expectancy of 10 to 12 years." That gives Donna about 16 to 18 years in this magic time between middle age and old age.

For me, it's about my house. We moved into this - now 115 year-old - house about 25 years ago and, on cue, the roof started leaking. So, we put on a new roof. True to its 25-year guarantee, this spring it sprang some leaks and we re-roofed with longer guarentee. Actually, a life-time guarantee! Whose lifetime? Mine, I guess. Minimum 25-30 years. So around 2040 give or take I will go grudgingly into old age and leave my "Last Roof Stage" of life.

Marc figures "Last few dogs" will not catch on as a name for this time of our lives. I figure "Last roof" will not resonate with the 77 million or so baby boomers who are leaving their midlife with vim, vigor and a mission for discovery. Marc likes Encore Stage and so do I. He writes, ". . . the Encore Stage-or Encore Adulthood-is the answer, best capturing the new phase this is opening up between the middle years and late life. It locates its place in the new map of life. . . and gives the new phase appropriate standing and weight as one of life's major periods."

After a great performance the crowd shouts out "Bravo" and "Encore." Bravo for a job well done. Encore for more! I'm in the Encore Years of my life and I say, "Bring it on. I want more!"

What about you?

The little village that is the home of the nuthatch, frogs, toads and older adults

2012-01-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

Randal Charlton
copyright Civic Ventures, with permission

Written by Randal Charlton, Executive-in-Residence, BOOM! The New Economy at TechTown - reporting from East Horsley, in Surrey, England

The village of East Horsley hides its secrets very well.Drive through the main street and you see an unremarkable small parade ofshops-the usual stuff that you find in any English village – an Indian andChinese restaurant, a fish and chip shop, a pharmacy, a post office, a smallgeneral store and a couple of charity shops. Blink and you are under therailroad arch and on your way to the next village with the secrets of East Horsleysafe.

However, if you consult Wikipedia you will find that EastHorsley village in Surrey is the most affluent village in the whole of theUK; not bad for an ordinary looking place with a population of 8,000, manyof them older adults. East Horsley has become the most desirable place to live inEngland for a number of reasons including the obvious outstanding educationsystem; but, there are a several hidden assets that hold potential lessons forDetroit.

There is a local university for older adults called the University of the Third Age - U3A. It offers forty or more courses to older adults that wantto learn new activities and interests. Then there is a large communal gardencalled Grace and Flavor. What’s different about this vegetable patch is thateveryone can take part even if you cannot wield a shovel or do energeticactivities like planting crops or weeding. There is tea to be made, accounts tobe kept, seeds to be sorted, a 101 other jobs to suit each participant. Andeveryone shares in the crops according to their input.

But perhaps the biggest reason why both young and old liketo live in this village lies within a stone's throw of the rather dull shoppingcenter. East Horsley is surrounded by countryside, including a largetract of land right next to village center, that until recently suffered neglect similar to that of the honeycombof empty spaces that have appeared in Detroit as the city population has slidfrom 2 million to 700,000.

The East Horsley land extended to 44 acres; land that in the1700s was common ground. Through benign neglect the land became a wild forestfull of the chaos that nature generates when left alone. Vast trees were leftrotting where they fell and invasive species like rhododendron were allowed toproliferate and provide enough cover for a band of outlaws. The forest was auseless liability on the village doorstep.

In 2002 the locals got together, bought the forest, andemployed local forestry experts to manage it. Invasive species have beenremoved. Areas of light are being created to encourage flowers to grow on theforest bed. Public pathways have been woven through and around the forest.Birds like the nuthatch, as well as frogs, the common toad and larger wildlifelike foxes can now be found. So too can people, including older adults who walkthemselves and their dogs through the forest to enjoy the countryside, keeping themselves fit.

It is not impossible to imagine the empty spaces of Detroit – theequivalent of 2,000 football pitches – being quickly turned into a beautifulasset that could transform the way everyone views our city.

Where the magic happens

2012-01-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

Written by Betsy Reid Creedon, BOOM! The New Economy Champion, TechTown, Detroit

The Aging Services Consortium of Detroit will present a forum on The Graying of Our Population on February 8th. The panel will include Kurt Metzger, director of Data Driven Detroit, Dr. Tom Jankowski, Associate Director of Research at the Wayne State University Institute of Gerontology, and Ron Dzwonkowsi, Detroit Free Press columnist and Tim Wintermute, Exec. Director of the Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation. The forum was announced in Mr. Metzger's blog, The Detroit Data Guru, titled "When Demographic Analysis Causes Concern."

The concern? Our state is aging. In his January 1st column, Michigan showing more gray, no future in that, Mr. Dzwonkowski wrote that the data "shows a troubling trend. There's an ever growing share of people like me in Michigan -- over age 50, well over in my case -- and no matter how important we think we are, there's no future in us (unless you're in health care, non-pediatric)."

Young people are not coming in and older folks are not leaving. That's what the numbers tell us. But, there are other numbers. The Kauffman Foundation's study "The Coming of Entrepreneurship Boom" reports:

"In every single year from 1996 to 2007, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had a higher rate of entrepreneurial activity than those aged 20-34.
For the entire period, the 55-64 group averaged a rate of entrepreneurial activity roughly one-third larger than their youngest counterparts."

Leslie Smith, CEO & President
TechTown, Detroit

At TechTown, Detroit's business incubator and accelerator and home of BOOM! The New Economy, 47% of our entrepreneur clients are 50+ in age.

It's the best of all worlds: experience, knowledge + passion and innovation. Detroit needs it all. As Leslie Smith, CEO of TechTown, has been known to say, "It is in the intersection that the magic occurs. The point is that without the young people to receive the transfer of knowledge, innovation and enthusiasm, the magic it lost. The fact that we need to attract scads more young people is true. Then we connect them and make magic."

Never Too Late to be a Contender

2012-01-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

Kerry Hannon
Author, Journalist, Speaker

By Betsy Reid Creedon, BOOM! The New Economy Champion, TechTown, Detroit

Kerry Hannon writes a blog "Second Verse" for Forbes on boomer careers, retirement, aging and personal finance. She's the author of What’s Next? Follow Your Passion and Find Your Dream Job , a book all about people who have made exciting mid-life career changes. Kerry writes a column for AARP, and is a MetLife Foundation Fellow on Aging.

We met in California where she interviewed Randal Charlton at the Purpose Prize Award celebration in December. The result is her blog today titled, "Train like Muhammad Ali: Read These Tips for Boomer Entrepreneurs." She writes "Charlton’s efforts at Detroit’s business incubator TechTown, where he was the executive director from 2007 until the end of October — and the turnaround in his personal life–landed him one of five $100,000 Purpose Prizes, which honors Americans over 60 who are developing new ways to tackle social problems." Kerry then shares crucial lessons learned by the serial entrepreneur. Good advice for those of us who are stepping into our encore careers and are interested in starting up our own enterprise. Click here to read Kerry's blog.

Ruth Bell delivers in more ways than one . . .

2012-01-12T18:13:00.000-08:00

Chugga's Bakery
Pull-a-part Bread

It's dark and cold outside - about to start snowing. But all is not lost. Ruth Bell just showed up with a basket of freshly baked jalapeno cornbread. I ordered two loaves after sampling her wares at a MEDC Commercial Kitchen Pilot Project sampling here at TechTown earlier this week. The way my friends here at TechTown are acting, only one loaf may make it home tonight.

Ruth is a great example of our BOOM! The New Economy initiative. A Boomer herself, Ruth began her Encore Career when the linen shop she worked for closed. Jobs were hard to find. Her kids reminded her of her most excellent baking skills, so Ruth took matters into her own hands. She started over. Ruth brought her idea here to TechTown and went through the THRIVE program, starting Chugga's Bakery with those same kids who urged her to start her own business. Business is good (so is the bread). So good, in fact, that Chugga's Bakery, Creators of Pull-a-part Bread, are moving out of their shared commercial kitchen into a space of their own. And, they are applying to be a speciality food vendor at Detroit's Eastern Market.

In an article in today's Detroit Free Press, business writer John Gallagher reports that, according to Dan Carmody, president of Eastern Market, there are between 40 to 50 speciality vendors at Eastern market - up from none 3 years ago. He writes, "Whole Foods Market Co-CEO Walter Robb called Detroit a national leader in the local food movement. And Chris Brown, chief operating officer of the City of Detroit, said Eastern Market helps accomplish the city’s twin goals of creating jobs and getting fresh food to people."

Ruth does both. Employing her kids in the family business and offering up really delicious, all natural fresh bread. Look for Chugga's at Eastern Market one of these days.

Contact John Gallagher at Gallagher@freepress.com or 313-222-5173.

Cheer up, Mr. Dzwonkowski, you may be the key. . .

2012-01-11T08:38:00.000-08:00

By Randal Charlton, Executive-in-Residence, TechTown, Detroit

I would like to cheer up the Detroit Free Press columnist Ron Dzwonkowski. In hisfirst column of 2012 he carried out a depressing analysis of Michigan’spopulation data. He pointed out that we are unfortunately aging and Mr.Dzwonkowski confessed that he was part of the dreadful problem, since he hadlong passed his 50th birthday. He saw no future for the state, because of thegrowing ranks of old folks like him.

Onthe contrary, I believe there is compelling evidence that oldies like Mr.Dzwonkowski may hold the key to Detroit and Michigan's turnaround.

Firstoff there is evidence that the baby boom generation throughout America is morethan pulling its weight. A recent study by the Kauffman Foundation has revealedthat there are more new entrepreneurs in the 55 to 64 year old age group thanany other age segment.

NowMr. Dzwonkowski, I am sure, is aware that the whole of America, indeed the wholeof the western world, is aging as the millions of babies born in the post WorldWar II period turn 65. At the same time improved health is leading to longerlives while fewer children are being born. In short, we are all facing the challengeof the same population trends. These trends suggest that generations will haveto work later in life and learn to work with people of vastly different ages.

Sowhat gives the graying population of Michigan an economic edge? Here, in aneffort to get Mr. Dzwonkowski's year off to a better start, are a few reasonswhy Detroit's oldies will outperform the rest:

1.Many Detroit baby boomers have a manufacturing background. As wages rise inChina, India and elsewhere and fuel becomes more expensive worldwide, it makesmore sense to manufacture closer to market. As Detroit seeks to compete in theglobal economy, the manufacturing knowhow of Detroiters may be invaluable toyounger entrepreneurs as well as foreigners seeking to once again manufactureproducts for America in America.

2.We have had a ten-year start on the rest of America dealing with a recession sowe have better-developed recovery and retraining plans. Our baby boomers arealready being taught how to interact with Generation X, Gen Y and the Millennials.Programs like the state-supported Shifting Gears, TechTown and other incubatorsand accelerators, as well as mentoring and internships for the 50+ crowd, arehelping to establish the next generation of start up companies that will usethe skill sets of multiple generations.

3.Our baby boomers are, to put it politely, in a bigger fix than baby boomers inmost other states. We can’t sell our houses even if we wanted to and the rapiddecline in the Detroit population is going to keep the local house prices lowfar longer. This means the local, older generation will be seriously motivatedfor the foreseeable future.

4.Of course there comes a time when all individuals can no longer contribute tothe work place. Societies that figure out attractive cost effective servicesfor this section of the population will attract medical tourists as well retainand attract retirees who will contribute to economic growth. Many organizationsin Detroit, including those featured on this web site, are already workingtogether to improve services to seniors who need support.

Othercommunities in America and in Europe are taking innovative approaches to usingthe talents and assets of their older generations to maximize their economicimpact. In the next week or two I will be highlighting some interestingapproaches from around the world to the common issue of an aging population,including some ideas that we may want to copy. Detroit’s challenge, I believe,is to use our older population as a catalyst in the chemistry generated bymultiple generations. Who knows, we might produce a reaction powerful enough toreinvent the City.

Is 2012 the year to make the change you've been talking about?

2012-01-05T08:46:00.000-08:00

In SecondAct's Prime Time blog, Michelle V. Rafter has 12 tips for Trading Places in 2012.

I like the first one best, "Follow your heart." As the folks from Encore Careers tell us - it's all about Purpose, Passion and a Paycheck.

A powerful combo when considering switching to a new career, starting your own business or some radical volunteerism! 12 good tips to help you get started on that next chapter in your life.

Sandra Day O’Connor plays video games

2012-01-04T14:13:00.000-08:00

Encore Careers take all sorts of shapes and sizes. How about a formerjustice of the U. S. Supreme Court becoming a video game developer? We heard all about it in early Decemberwhen former Justice O’Connor was the keynote speaker at The Purpose Prize gala. There we were, in a chandalier-littent under the Golden Gate Bridge, with record-breaking winds swirling allaround us, listening to web-developer O’Connor’s mission to educate today’sstudents about the workings of the U.S. government. iCivics encourages middleschool students to get involved. You can be President at a time of internationalperil (Crisis of Nations); run your own law firm specializing in, what else,consititional law (Do I have a right?); run county politics (Counties Work); be the President (Executive Command); and,timely for us all, you can run for the presidency (Win the White House). At 81,the gaming former Justice has a passion for educating American students tobecome informed, involved, thinking citizens. Now that’s a worthy purpose!

Tips for Boomers reaching retirement in 2012

2012-01-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

SecondAct has some great tips for Boomers reaching "retirement" age. Consider your options.

http://www.secondact.com/2011/12/tips-for-baby-boomers-reaching-retirement-age-in-2012/

If at first you don't succeed . . .

2011-12-29T16:12:00.000-08:00

Former TechTown chief Charlton gets Purpose Prize for entrepreneurial work

It's never too late to begin that next phase of your life. Lessons learned can lead to that next great adventure - that's what BOOM! The New Economy is all about. They say that experience is the best teacher - Randal would certainly agree! Read about his long road to success, with all the potholes along the way.

Randal Charlton receives Honorable Mention from THE SECOND ACT

2011-12-29T15:55:00.000-08:00

SecondAct.com has announced their 2011 Best Second Act Game-Changer and he is John Wood, a former executive who quit Microsoft to launch Room to Read, a nonprofit that provides books and libraries to people in impoverished parts of the world.

Exciting news to us...Randal Charlton received an Honorable Mention!

http://www.secondact.com/2011/12/best-second-act-game-changer-john-wood/

Ebenezer's Encore Career

2011-12-29T14:48:00.000-08:00

Tim Wintermute

Written by Tim Wintermute, Executive Director, Hannan Foundation

The new year is just around the corner and that means either making a New Year’s resolution or resolving not to make one. As most of us know all too well, a New Year’s resolution is about making a change in our lives for the coming year whether it be kicking a bad habit, acquiring a good habit, or embarking on a new path in our life.

When we’re young New Year’s resolutions are primarily acts of imagination and wishful thinking and if our resolve fails, as it usually does, there’s always next year. But when the next years accumulate and you’re well into middle age or beyond, the path we ended up taking has become a rut that seems as deep as the Grand Canyon. We know enough not to set us up for failure or to elicit laughter from our family and friends by uttering a resolution that involves a major change in our life or career and, instead, we whisper it to ourselves in an act of wishful thinking or we state with complete conviction that we resolve to make no resolutions ever again.

I was contemplating all of this with dread when a BOOM! colleague forwarded an email that commented on the pessimism that seems to pervade policy makers and pundits when it comes to the aging population. It struck me as a similar dilemma. We have no confidence that a country where the population is aging (and all developed countries are in the same shape since living longer and having fewer kids comes with the prosperity and productivity) has the capability to change and, instead, change itself is viewed as a threat rather than an opportunity. If we don’t have great expectations and make meaningful resolutions for the New Year we’ll never be disappointed! I suppose if Charles Dickens were alive today he would write a book on the subject called No Great Expectations.

But what about the story that Dickens wrote about this very time of year - A Christmas Carol? As familiar as I am, and no doubt you are, with the story, I had never thought of it before as one in which an older person who is totally set in his ways and who no one else expects to change (even his nephew doesn’t believe that Scrooge will come to dinner on Christmas Day, even though he invites him every year) changes radically and embarks on a new path. He does this because he not only has to face who he was and what he was and where he is headed through the ghosts of his long dead partner Jacob Marley, and Christmas’ past, present and future (and what person middle aged and older isn’t haunted by ghosts of what could have been?) but, more significantly, he is also told that he has the power to change.

Scrooge can not only have great expectations at his age and resolve to make changes, but he can actually make those changes - including setting out on a new path in life, an “encore career” that Dickens summarizes as becoming “as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew or any other good old city, town or borough in the good old world.”

Scrooge surprises everyone since no one expected Ebenezer Scrooge to change; and if he can change, well, who can’t? Now what about that resolution for this new year?

Want to experience one of the first documented Encore Careers? Revisit A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, first published December 19, 1843

The Luella Hannan Memorial Foundation

Occupy movement grows up as old folks camp at Fort Baker

2011-12-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

Randal Charlton

Written by Randal Charlton, Executive-in-Residence, TechTown

In the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge, just down the street from tony Sausalito, the Occupy Wall Street movement took a new and perhaps important turn. Over 200 people, many in their sixties and seventies, occupied Fort Baker, an old military establishment that looks out onto San Francisco Bay. The organizers, Civic Ventures, erected a giant tent to accommodate people who had come from all over the country to discuss new approaches to the so-called golden years. Unlike the other Occupy movements around the country, this movement appears to have a clear agenda.

"We represent the 78 million baby boomers in America who are turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day and we are dissatisfied with society's approach to aging and retirement," said one geriatric protester from a rocking chair on the porch of Fort Baker’s headquarters. "We need to establish a grey army with a great purpose to change America and the world."

The Fort Baker Movement has a variety of demands including a change in the attitude of major corporations. Said one old man, "I am fed up with going to the emergency room at our local hospital in the middle of the night with erections lasting more than four hours. I know the drug companies have to make a living but I wish they would spend less time worrying about my presumed masculine insecurity and more time helping me contribute to society.”

Another protester, a woman in her sixties, complained that society and industry were spending too much time worrying about her sagging skin. "Haven't people heard of gravity? We have to let everything find it's own level. We need fewer businesses selling us futile creams and potions to keep us looking forever young. The way to feel young is to feel useful ."

Late Saturday officials were considering options for dealing with the fledgling baby boomer movement. One anxious onlooker advocated action to remove them. "You've got to consider there are millions of baby boomers. This thing could get out of hand and threaten retirement communities, the golfing industry and bridge and canasta clubs. We need to take the rocking chairs from the front porches of Fort Baker."

Another official commented that the Fort Baker group seemed to want nothing more radical than purpose in their lives. "There's all this talk of encore careers, giving back to society, saving the world. Maybe we can rebrand Old Age and make it seem like a natural part of life. Old people have experience don't they? Maybe they could be part of the solution rather than part of the problem."

Back among the occupiers, as another brilliant Californian day began, business leaders from major corporations took the microphone to offer the anxious Fort Baker occupiers hope. Following a year or more of planning, the giant multinational Intel Corporation is introducing a new way for their aging workers to transition out of Intel into new careers with purpose.

The high tech company that manufactures computer microchips is supporting retiring staff with paid, year-long fellowships and health care coverage to ease the transitions to life with a purpose. The Fort Baker crowd were told that the first of what may be thousands of fellowships was due to be awarded by Intel to a retiring baby boomer. At the same time a group of Silicon Valley investors have committed $15 million to develop new ways to help baby boomers get advice, education and support for their encore careers.

Elsewhere several drug companies were rumored to be repurposing their research from peddling pills for ED and potions for eternal youth to seeking cures for cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and a host of real ailments that afflict the entire population.

To find out more about The Occupy Fort Baker movement contact Civic ventures at civicventures.org

For background reading on the way boomers are reinventing retirement read The Big Shift by Marc Freedman

Potential revolutionaries may want to consult Tina Rosenburg’s Pulitzer Prize winning book Join the Club, How Peer Pressure Can Transform the World

The Tale of the Prodigal Detroit Baby Boomer

2011-12-29T14:33:00.000-08:00

Randal Charlton

Written by Randal Charlton, Executive-in-Residence, TechTown

There was a young man living and working in Detroit, trying to bring up his family and hoping that his city would recover from the terrible recession. But hard though he worked, his city continued it's long decline. People kept leaving including his own family.

One of his grandparents announced that he was off to Sarasota with the other snowbirds. It's hot there, his grandfather explained and off he flew. He played shuffleboard, bought expensive brightly colored clothes, had dinner out every day at 4.30; he enjoyed a martini-induced sense of wellbeing and was in bed by 8.30 every night.

He worried about skin cancer but otherwise was content for a while. However, in 2008 the economy tanked and his 401k was suddenly severely diminished. He was over 65 and reliant on Social Security and Medicare, which everyone said were bankrupt or would be soon. He had another issue; he had hip replacement surgery and cataracts taken care of so he could walk and see like a man 20 years younger. Somehow the idea of playing shuffleboard for another twenty years, even if he could afford it, was no longer appealing.

So the grandfather returned to Detroit where his grandson with balloons and flowers at Metro Airport baggage collection greeted him. "You look a mess," his son told his father. "The purple and orange shirt doesn't match your complexion, and you have become a chunky monkey. What are you now, 300 lbs.? Haven't you heard of diabetes and heart disease?"

The baby boomer could barely look his son the face but the son took him home and treated the whole family, including the grandparents who had never left town, to a very expensive night out in downtown Detroit. "Why are we celebrating the return of a snowbird?" the grandparents who had never left town asked. "What are we, chopped liver? "The son ignored the remarks and bought the returning baby boomer new warm clothes from a resale shop

Pretty soon the boomer was exercising every day in the freezing cold and eating fresh food from Eastern Market. He lost weight and felt fitter than he had in years. Then the boomer got to thinking. People still need things and I can make things. I made stuff all my working life. So he took over an abandoned factory, got support from Techtown and began making exercise equipment for baby boomers to help them with their rehab after hip and knee surgery.

In no time he was receiving inquiries from Canada, China and India. The son was mystified, but the aging baby boomer explained, "You have to go where the market is. We live in a global economy and there are 300 million in the middle-class in India. Like all people with money, they want the best health care and they know that America has been doing joint replacements for years and are very experienced. One thing led to another and pretty soon the aging baby boomer was working with local Detroit hospitals and doctors and a whole new medical tourism industry developed. Then real estate prices began to recover. People moved back into the city and even the grandparents who had never left town were content.

For more information on the resurgence of Detroit, real estate prices and great medical education and treatment,

get on a plane and see for yourself, or visit

TechTown techtownwsu.org

Wayne State University http://wayne.edu/

Henry Ford Medical center http://www.henryford.com/

Beaumont Health System http://www.beaumont.edu/

Oaklwood Healthcare System http://www.oakwood.org/

St. John’s Healthcare System http://www.stjohnprovidence.org/

Detroit Medical Center http://www.dmc.org/

Kim Hodge strings together a new approach to community banking in Detroit

2011-12-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

Randal Charlton

Written by Randal Charlton, Executive-In-Residence, TechTown

If you ask Kim Hodge how her Timebanks work in Detroit she may well reach into her bag and pull out a ball of colored yarn. She did that recently at a meeting I attended on the west side of Detroit and I took part in a banking lesson that looked like we were constructing a Halloween spiders web.

There I was in a circle of eight people throwing a ball of wool from person to person. The person with the ball was instructed to ask the assembled company if anyone could help with getting a task done, something, anything, that the individual couldn’t complete unaided. It could be help with building an internet web site or transport services or foreign language lessons or work around the house- anything. A hand would go up and the ball would be thrown to the person prepared to carry out the task. Then that person would present a new request to the group and as a hand went up the ball would be thrown on. Back and forth the ball went with each person holding on to the thread as they caught it so that in short order there was a spiders web of wool threads crisscrossed between the group.

"There, said Banker Hodge with satisfaction. “You see you are all connected. You have the collective knowledge and experience to meet the needs of the entire group.“

Welcome to Timebanks, a concept that is beginning, in these difficult economic times to spread around the world. Kim Hodge is leading the movement in Michigan and her leadership was recognized at the recent annual meeting of the Michigan Chapter of AARP. Kim was honored with the first ever Steve Gools award for outstanding contributions to Social Change in the community.

Basically Timebanks help local communities to help each other. Everyones time is valued equally. You give an hour of your expertise and you have earned an hour in the bank which you can use to meet a need you have. Timebanks help people save money but they do a lot more. “They connect unmet needs to untapped resources, they help people get to know each other and they make communities betters places to live and work.” Another benefit is that there is money involved and no tax.”

Each timebank takes a silently different approach, depending on the needs of the community, says Kim Hodge. The ban ks that work best have a organizer who is often a community volunteer.

There is an obvious attraction for older adults who need work done or transportation that they cannot do themselves.In England there is at least one Timebank organized around health care issues. In the US, Timebanks centered on senior care have received grants of $1.2million form the Robert Wood Foundation. Locally the Community Foundation of South East Michigan has provided support.

So far Kim has helped eight Timebanks get up and running in Michigan and she is ready to help. Elsewhere there are another 40 plus timebanks around the US and timebanks in 26 countries around the world. Communities in England have established 126 timebanks and seem to be leading the way in adopting the concept

To find out more information on Timebanks in South East Michigan go to:

www.mitimebanks.org

or write to the Michigan Alliance of Timebanks,27580 California Drive SE, Lathrup Village, MI 48076.

To see how people are using timebanks to build communities around the world go to:

Wikipedia.org and search for Time banking.

For information on other services and ideas that may be of value to the over 50 crowd contact:

Melissa Seifert, AARP,

517-267-8934 office,

Mseifert@AARP.org

The Community Foundation of South East Michigan; cfsem.org

Betsy Creedon at boomtheneweconomy.org Email Betsy@boomdetroit.co