Posted in N&V

Hazards of the people, by the people, for the people

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By Bob Buddemeier

NEWS UPDATE

After the article below was written, the following information was released by station KPTV 12, Portland (Officials confirm deliberate physical attacks on Oregon and Washington substations (kptv.com), 7 Dec 22.

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) – Following what authorities are calling a targeted gunfire attack towards power substations in North Carolina over the weekend, a federal memo warned substations in Oregon and Washington recently had “physical attacks on substations using handtools, arson, firearms, and metal chains possibly in response to an online call for attacks on critical infrastructure.”

Twelve hours of darkness.  Temperatures below freezing at night.  Not the time to be without electricity.

From the December 5 Mail-Tribune:

“The Associated Press:

CARTHAGE, N.C. — Two power substations in a North Carolina county were damaged by gunfire in what is being investigated as a criminal act, causing damage that could take days to repair and leaving tens of thousands of people without electricity, authorities said Sunday.”

Power outages are one of our most frequent emergencies.  Among their many causes are natural hazards such as earthquakes, wildfires, and winter storms. In terms of hazard evaluation, it is increasingly clear that human threats need to be considered, whether considered “natural” or not.

Additional reports on the North Carolina sabotage leave little doubt  that the acts were carried out quickly,  with widely available weapons, and by perpetrators who knew enough to target the most valuable and vulnerable components of the power stations.

Could it happen here? Of course it could.  According to CBS News (6 Dec 22), in January a bulletin from the Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic violent extremists “have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electrical grid as a particularly attractive target.”  Oregon has already been the site of lethal conflicts (Portland, Malheur County).  Armed conflict is the most shocking, but cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism pose threats to society’s infrastructure that are at least as great.

Can you survive many days of cold and darkness?  It’s completely possible – with preparation.  Without preparation, it’s difficult at best.

For information:

RVM – Go to MyRVM main menu, click the Emergency Preparedness tab, then scroll down to Emergency Situations and further to Emergency Preparedness Information. Below that is the RVM “Power Outage Information” document.

Residents’ Preparedness Group (RPG) — https://thecomplement.info/2022/10/05/rpg-manual-resident-preparedness-2/    Specifically, see https://thecomplement.info/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Cottage-Elec-1-final-rev.pdf

Note 1:  The documents referenced above address primarily short-term outages.  Loss of electricity for multiple days, or over a large spatial scale, will cause more and greater problems.

Note 2:  In an earlier Complement article, Joni Johnson addressed some aspects of preparing for a power outage: “Emergency Power at Home: Why, What and How.”

Ancestry Vignette- Hawaii

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By Joni Johnson

This article began quite casually.  I met Arnold Lum while doing take out at the Manor.  Somehow, we started talking about his family and wham, I got really excited about his ancestry.  So many people at the Manor come from Hawaii but I had no idea where their roots were before then. Family histories are fascinating because so many of them started elsewhere and so differently from my own.

So here is a bit of his life story. I hope this is the first of many pieces on the lives of our amazing residents.  Arnold is from the Canton region of China on his mother’s side and half Hawaiian-half Canton Chinese on his father’s side.  His parents met and married on Maui but eventually moved to Oahu. There is even some Persian/Indian background with traders that came to China years before he was born.

But the fascinating part is how they got together at all.  Arnold’s great grandfather on his mother’s side, Chun Yook Lum, came to California from China to work on the railroad.  He was a man with a dream and lots of fortitude.  What started out as a laborer position on the Central Pacific railway turned into a job as a provisioner.  This meant that his work required him to find out what was needed to nourish the crew and to get those items bought and delivered. He realized immediately the potential of taking his skills and creating his own company doing the same for the many Chinese who were settling in California but wanted a taste of home.

He eventually settled in San Francisco’s Chinatown and sent for his wife and two boys.  While there, like other Chinese, he opened his own cigar factory in what is now South of Market and was very successful.

Unfortunately, his success was short lived in what became of clash of cultures and jealousy. Denis Kearney, an Irishman new to San Francisco, became increasing frustrated by the business acumen and success of the Chinese in the area who he felt were taking away his business options.  This frustration turned to rage, and with his gift for gab, he turned this rage into  what is called Kearney’s massacre, where Chinese buildings and buildings owned by whites with Chinese workers were burned down in an effort to force the Chinese to leave San Francisco.

https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/1877-san-francisco-anti-chinese-race-riots-11302710.php

Chun Yook Lum lost everything in the fire and decided to abandon his stake in California and move to Oahu.  Meeting his newly arrived family, he boarded a steamer to Hawaii where he finally realized his dream of supplying Chinese goods to Chinese immigrants in Hawaii.  This time, he provided textiles and implements to the many Chinese working on the plantations.

Arnold’s grandfather on his mother’s side, Chun Kam Chow, was 10 years old when he arrived in Hawaii. He saw the importance of language acquisition and education immediately. He worked during the day as a houseboy to Princess (future and last queen) Liliuokalani and went to school at night to improve his English. In the Princess’s household, Chun Kam Chow’s job was to take care of the then current governor Dominis and his wife.  This allowed him to practice his English as he studied away.  With his English skills, Arnold’s grandfather acted as a liaison with his father and the English speaking community.  Then he was part of group acting as a translator that  traveled across the country to Massachusetts to buy a muslin bleaching machine to bring back to Hawaii to whiten textiles so that they could be printed or used as white material.

While in China as a small boy, he was betrothed to a girl of his same age in the Canton region.  He had not seen her for years.  But the bond still existed, and so at the age of 32, he found himself back in China to fetch his “child bride” who was also 32.  Her name was Mark Choy Kan, and Arnold still has strong memories of the grandmother (Popo) that came to Hawaii to live with the family.

Proof of Taro Patch inheritance

On Arnold’s paternal side, he has both Hawaiian and Chinese blood lines.  His grandfather, Ahlo Lum Ling, spent his youth in the Lahaina area of Maui selling silks.  In his travels, he would visit the last native village of Hawaii, Kahakuloa,  where  he met his wife, Kamina’auo. https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/hawaii/time-stands-still-village-hi/  She had inherited a number of taro patches, which made her even more attractive as a mate.  So Ahlo spent his time between the beautiful highland town and Lahaina where he had a store. Below is a youtube of Arnold’s cousin singing a song directly from this village.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiHUjDeirdY

Plaque for Alfred’s work as supervisor of the boarding school.

Arnold’s father, Alfred Lum, was born in 1901 and participated in the then typical six years of schooling before working.  On Oahu, he helped build the first road over the mountain – the Pali road.  Then he went to work in Maui as a cowboy in the Lahaina Luna, where he eventually became a farm manager and then supervisor of a local boarding school for Hawaiians. There, he was able to teach all sorts of farming tips for maintaining a farm, like how to slaughter an animal properly.

While Arnold’s dad was in Lahaina Luna, Arnold’s mother, Ethel Chun, took a different path.  She had loved art all of her life and went to Chiounard Art Institute in southern California and finally on to get her masters degree in art education.  But sadly, there were no jobs to be found, and so, magically, she got a job teaching at the same boarding school where Arnold’s dad was in charge.  And so love, marriage and children.  Hence, Arnold. And finally the family went to Oahu to work for the family business.

While interviewing Arnold, I got to see a number of beautiful paintings that his mother did.  But even better, the picture below shows Arnold wearing one of the first aloha shirts that his mother designed.  His mother actually designed the very first aloha shirt.

From Arnold, himself:

Uncle Joe (Ellery J. Chun) was my mom’s oldest sib.  My grandfather Chun Kam Chow named him Ellery, because Goong Goong (Cantonese familial name for grandpa) read Ellery Queen detective novels in the evening, after the kids were fed and settled.

Uncle Joe was a Yale ‘32 graduate.  He disliked his first name and asked the Yalies to call him “Joe”, which was a variant of his middle name.  Uncle Joe is consistently referred to as a tailor in the literature about the Aloha shirt, but he couldn’t sew.  The backstory is that he was tasked by Goong Goong to develop a business plan for the family store that would capture the growing tourist industry.  He decided to start the first mass-printed Aloha shirt production line, which was his first great idea (the second was promoting foreign banking investment in Hawai’i).  To prevent imitation, Uncle Joe trademarked the name “Aloha shirt”.

My Punahou schoolmate Dale Hope, author of “The Aloha Shirt”, discovered the trademark when he titled his book.  He called me up at work and said “Now what?”  I said “go ask Uncle Joe for permission.”  The rest, as they say, is history.

Having tasked Uncle Joe with developing a biz plan to market Aloha shirts, Goong Goong asked my mom to design the textile patterns for these puppies.  After all, he was paying for the kids’ college educations, having already paid to send five of his brood to Punahou School.  So my mom, being the family artist and studying at Chiounard, drew the first textile boards and mailed them back home.  These are the boards archived at the Smithsonian Museum of American History (textile dept., second floor of the bldg.).

And so we close our little vignette, fascinated by the family history of one man from Hawaii.

 

 

 

 

Camping Solo- The True Story

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By Joni Johnson

Summer dreams- My camping experience as a first time tent camper, seen by winters light.

I have never tent camped. I have backpacked and then did a few RV runs with my husband Tom.   But I wanted to join the Southern Oregon Returned Peace Corps volunteers on their annual camping adventure.  I owned no camping equipment, so I went all out.  I decided to try sleeping in my SUV, which required a mattress that would fit.  And, of course, I needed a sleeping bag.  Then came the little one burner stove that would use butane, and all the little goodies for feeding myself while on the road.  At the Peace Corps planning meeting, I discovered that the only toilet available in the group campsite would be a porta-potty and my thought about whipping out of my car once or twice during the night for that necessary bathroom call, required plan B.  Plan B turned out to be a little toilet seat and plastic bag and some Gel to harden the liquid.  But where could I put it?  Certainly not right outside my car.  So, of course, that necessitated a tent.  I decided to get a tent that would connect to my car.  This would give me a mobile bedroom and an accompanying living room complete with lots of lanterns, a table and stool and my darling little toilet seat.  !  I forgot to mention the two great tables I bought, plus a camping chair.

I was ready!  I had tried out my tent on my driveway and it worked pretty well.  Thanks to Dolores and Saul, I was able to get it back into its carrier.  The stove worked.  The mattress worked.  I was off.

The idea was to spend three nights in a group campsite at Sunset Bay State Park with about 25 people.  I pulled out my tent, and of course, immediately got offers of help so the tent went up quite easily.  Unfortunately, my car was not quite as level as the tent.  And my sleeping bag was slippery, so I had to be careful not to fall out of the car onto the tent floor.  But I managed it.

The experience was great for the first two nights.  Lots of stories around the campfire.  A first night dinner with Asifa and David with wine and a table cloth. A great hike along the ocean.  I got a chance to meet new people and I learned about the value of a sleeping bag liner, which I bought for the next trip. And when my car battery died from not turning the car off after inflating the mattress, I learned that there is this marvelous gadget that is a battery generator with car leads that started my car without a hitch.  I now have one of those.

 

 

 

 

 

≈

 

The third day, I disconnected from my tent to enjoy the pleasures of Coos Bay and surroundings. When I returned and tried to reconnect to my tent, I had a rather major problem.  My car started moving (I did something.  Still not sure what) and it began slipping backwards into the tent.  It got about one third of the way through the tent before I was able to stop it.  So it broke some poles and tore about a two foot gash in the side of the tent facing the car.  Luckily, some people had good tape and I was good to go for the rest of the night, except…

It was threatening rain.  The people in tents had mostly decided to leave before I got back from Coos Bay.  I was seriously depressed about what I had done to the tent.  So, the best way to handle depression in those instances is to book a room at the 7 Feathers casino and two hours later (with lots of help from Asifa to get my tent folded and back in the car) I was in a beautiful room with a luxurious bed.  I won $35 and had prime rib.  It was the perfect ending to a great camping trip.

OK— Was I finished with camping?  Heck no.  I had already booked two nights at Joseph Stewart State Park.  The real test was doing it alone.  Luckily, Jane St Claire wanted to join in, so Jane (who has been camping for fifty years in tents, trailers and now in a fully outfitted Honda Element) and my dog, Starr and I headed off for our next camping adventure.

I was so happy that Jane was there because it took an hour to put the tent up and another hour or so to take the tent down with the both of us trying our best.  I don’t know whether the problem was with the tent itself or the damage it had sustained, but the campground had a trash compactor, and my tent was  happily disposed of before we left

Did that dampen my camping spirit?  Not at all.  We hiked. Met delightful people.  We set up our appetizer table overlooking the lake and watched the stars come up as we drank “on the rocks” and wine.  It was heavenly except for the tent and sleeping in the car.  I decided I didn’t like crawling into my bed several times a night.

So now I have a new tent that is 9’ by 11’ that does not attach to the car. I set this up on the driveway and put it up by myself in about 17 minutes, which isn’t too bad for the first time.  And I bought an air mattress that self inflates to a height of 20 inches. I slept on that one night at home while watching Criminal Minds.  I can hardly wait to go camping again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Things that I learned:

First of all, I love my toilet and all the rest of my gadgets.  I am totally set for the next trip because all my needs are in two plastic bins and the bags for the tent, mattress, tables, chairs and my little potty.

Most of my friends think I am nuts.  I heard lots of comments about a nice bed and warm shower in a luxury hotel as a better option.  I may join them after next season.  But for now, I can hardly wait to put up my tent and get started again.  Starr agrees.

 

Our Very Own Clock Repair Guy- Don Blue

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By Joni Johnson

Our clock in the Manor dining room is working again thanks to Don Blue.  This is his story.  The clock stopped working and was shunted to a side room and replaced with a little clock that was difficult to see.  Luckily, instead of throwing it out, Don was called in.  He replaced the battery and purchased a new movement from L.C. Antiques and had it working again.  Until it stopped a few days later.  With Don’s expertise, it was discovered that the little hand was touching the big hand on occasion and stopping the clock from functioning.  So Don made a few adjustments and the clock is back in its spot, telling us when we have to stop eating.

       The Manor Clock

How did Don become our Clock Repair Person?  These stories often start with some serendipitous event and this was no exception.  Don’s career was as a geologist in the petroleum business.  So his work had nothing to do with clocks.  However, in 1973, he bought a clock in Kenneybunk, Maine, that wasn’t working.  When he returned to Tustin, California, where he lived at the time, he started going to clock repair classes at the local adult school so that he could repair this clock.

    Don’s first clock

              He continued his clock repair education for five years, which included moving to Eagle Rock, California.  Then he started buying and trading clocks and at one point had over 30 clocks.  Some of these beauties still grace his house.  I counted 11, and I think there were a few more.  Many of them were brought back to life by Don’s expertise.  Luckily, with the exception of two clocks, none of them chime, so sanity is still intact in the Blue household.

When he came to RVM about twelve years ago, he teamed up with George Christiansen who had a beautiful little clock repair room on the fifth floor of the Manor.  Both he and George would even make house calls around campus to repair some of the clocks here at the Manor.  After George passed away, Don gave up his fifth floor spot to the computer people because it was almost as easy to work on clocks at his home.  And luckily for us, he still loves doing this. Now Don confines his horological work by replacing watch batteries for residents and making occasional house calls for bulky clocks.

 

 

This clock was originally made for the International Time Recording Company, which later became IBM.

This clock originally tolled class starts at the University of Utah Geology Department

Dave Cochran Changed History

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Dave Cochran passed away on October 7.  We feel that it is appropriate to remember him and his singular accomplishment by republishing this profile that first appeared in July, 2021

by Joni Johnson

What I find incredible about RVM is the number of people who have had fascinating careers.  Dave Cochran is one of them.  David Packard introduced him to a navy admiral as the man who invented the HP-35 – the pocket calculator that changed the world.  One year after its invention in 1972, slide-rules were a thing of the past.  While numerous people worked on it, Dave was HP’s Project Chief for the HP-35. Basically, he was responsible for how it looked and how it worked. For his part in the development of architecture and algorithms of the HP-35, he was included in the bicentennial issue of Time Magazine’s “American Ingenuity”. One of the major components of the HP-35 was its use of Reverse Polish notation (RPN). Instead of putting in 8×2=16, you would you hit 8, Enter, 2, X  (you still get 16).  Dave said that the reason he used this was due to the greater exactness of the equations under study and less chance of ambiguity. People either loved it or hated it, but it was mostly techies who loved it, so ultimately mass marketing demand led HP back to ordinary algebraic formulations.

In some sense, America’s electronic future was serendipitously linked to the fact that the Navy’s electronic school was on Treasure Island, just a short distance away from Palo Alto where he grew up. His original interest was in mechanics and he planned to study mechanical engineering at Stanford before the Korean War took him to other shores for five years.  But since the Navy offered him a nine-month training in electronics on Treasure Island, that is what he studied. And after the war was over, he went into electrical engineering when he was able to return to Stanford. While studying, he managed a part -time job at Hewlett-Packard and of course this relationship melded into a full-time career when he received his degree.

 

How one’s mind works is certainly the fascinating part of the creative process.  Dave believes that creativity is developed and learned by trial and error.  If your circuit works the first time, you don’t learn anything.  He thinks graphically, imagining shapes in his mind.  He was part of a Princeton study looking at his thinking ability.  They wanted to know if he needed to visualize things along the way, which he does. He invents by having a goal and then stretching the idea to reach the goal.

 

Of course, there would be no HP-35 without Bill Hewlett.  He wanted a calculator that would fit inside his desk.
Before that, calculators were much, much larger.  Dave, leading the team, developed the HP 9100. Unfortunately, it was just a little big for Hewlett’s desk, so quietly, they restructured his desk so that it would fit.  The 9100 was the first mass-produced computer in the history of the world.  Before that, no one had ever built fifty at once.

 

As soon as that was done, Hewlett pushed for a pocket calculator.  One that would do everything that the 9100 would do, but would fit perfectly in his pocket.  The team dreamed of designing Bill new shirts with bigger pockets, but that didn’t last long. And so the HP-35 was on its way. Hewlett started to bug Dave personally and would come into the lab and look at him and ask him how it was coming.

 

Dave said that the HP-35 ruined parties.  Before, if there were a piano player at a party, everybody would cluster around and either listen or sing.  After the HP-35 got off the ground, groups of men would be huddled together and women would be on the other side wondering what was going on. I thought this was rather a sexist comment and so I asked him again about men and women during the seventies. But he reiterated that at that time, there were almost no women engineers.  And even today male engineers outnumber females ten to one.

Dave said that he saw how the HP-35 changed the world first hand.  He would go down to universities out of state for college recruiting and would give a little talk about the HP-35 design.  Afterwards, the professors would tell him how difficult it made their lives.  “What do I do? Do I let them use a calculator (instead of a slide rule)?  They all can’t afford it ($395).  Do I have to buy them for everybody?”

 

During the development stage, they had a “name the baby” contest with many entries such as Math Marvel, Athena, etc.  But Hewlett came by and said it should be call the HP-35 because it had 35 keys. And that was that.

 

This is actually a picture of Dave

The HP-35 was the number-one selling HP product of all time.  Looking back, it was Dave’s most important project.  But 70% of his projects at HP were successful, meaning that they went into production and were profitable for the company.  If he couldn’t embrace it, he either killed the project or got off of it.

A friend of mine said ,” I had an HP-35 and it was a great calculator. The keys had “positive click action” and I loved that. You also had to enter your equations using Reverse Polish Notation which was odd at first but easy to learn.  I was the last student in my high school physics class to use a slide rule because the others all had calculators and I couldn’t afford one. Then I won the HP in a contest and that was the end of the slide rule.”

Of course, Dave had an HP-35 for me to hold.  He kept talking about the keys and how they felt, and they did feel wonderful.  They would click easily and comfortably so that you knew your number was going in.  What he loved the most was the admiration and appreciation of the engineers who knew what it took to develop the product.  He loved fixing problems and unlike today pretty much wherever you work, HP of that time was very collaborative so it was a pleasure to work there.  Thank you Dave for the HP-35.  I remember the slide rule.  I am glad that it is gone!!!!!

Addendum:   People have asked about the others at HP who worked on the HP-35 so here they are: Tom Osborne, Paul Stoft, Paul Williams, Chu Yen, Ken Peterson, Rich Marconi, Charlie Hill, Bill Misson,  Dick Osgood, Clarence Studley, Bernie Musch, Jim Duley, Margaret Marsen, John Welsch, Ed Liljenwall, Tom Holden, Neil Honeychurch, Thomas Whitney, Chung C. Tung and France Rodé.

2022 Health Center Halloween Party

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Health Center Halloween 2022

What’s New in November

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*-Do you want to get a personal email notification of a new Complement issue or new material?   Email us at openinforvm@gmail.com and we will put you on the mailing list

Interested in previous issues?  Scroll to the bottom of the page.  In the center is a “Load More” link.  Click this to display past articles.

 

NEWS & VIEWS

Our Very Own Clock Repair Guy — Don Blue, by Joni Johnson

Dave Cochran Changed History, by Joni Johnson  (Dave passed away on October 7, 2022. We reprint this July 2021 profile in recognition of him and his accomplishments.)

How to Be a Bigger Tipper…, by Bob Buddemeier

Health Center Halloween Party, photos by Reina Lopez

 

ARTS & INFO 

2022 RVM Craft Fair, by Connie Kent

NIT WIT NEWZ– November 2022,  by A. Looney

November in the Library: Arts and Artists, by Anne Newins

Language Fun, by Connie Kent

Events and Opportunities: November 2022–February 2023, by Bob Buddemeier/ Mary Jane Morrison

in Big, Borrowed, or Both

3550:  the Portland Mirabella quarterly magazine (most recent issue) Click Here

Mirabella Monthly, Newsletter of the Seattle Mirabella (November issue) Click Here

 

PREPARE

Show and Tell and Survive…, by Bob Buddemeier

Dan Wagner–An Appreciation, by RPG Leadership (Bob Berger, Dan Curtis, Bob Buddemeier)

Karnatz Korner October – November 2022

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She’s back — Sarah the K,  lightly edited by Bob Buddemeier

YEE-HAH!  OCTOBER IS HERE!  Pumpkins ‘n Beer ‘n Volunteers ‘n soooo much more!

 Oct 10 – Spotlight on Who’s Who from the 60’s photos in the Manor lobby! Answer sheets will be available at the display. If you don’t recognize them now, see if you were any better in the past.  Then on Oct 14th the display comes down and photos will be returned to inhouse mailboxes.

Oct 13, 20, 27 AND Nov 3, 10, 17 Thursty Thursday is happening! Assorted beverages, snacks and conversations will be available in the Manor lobby and Umpqua room from 4p – 6p! 2 great Locations to pick from 😊

Oct 19 – Come vote for the new cover of the resident directory! Residents have submitted their favorite campus photos, and the top 3, selected by the secret Karnatz Kommittee, will be on display on the lobby.

Oct 20  Campus wide opportunity Faire! This is going to be awesome! Promise! To quote the creators:

“From play reading to poker; from board and court games to painting, quilting and tango. It’s happening across campus – at the Manor, the Plaza, the Lake, Resident Gardens, and down on Quail point and the Annex. 80 groups are participating,

WIN gift certificates, flowers, and even a water filtration system. Learn how to write a condolence note at the YANA table, or talk to our newly formed Green Team, or visit

Roberta, who will be happy to show you the Manor’s Art collection on the 10th floor. Listen to a play reading or come dancing. We have fabulous grand prizes for people who visit the most locations and display tables.

We’ll have vehicles circling the campus – on a hop-on and hop-off arrangement. We’ll have snacks and even Champagne. Something new: The Deschutes room will be home to 12 nonprofits where our residents volunteer.

Come one, Come all and ENJOY our RESIDENT LED ACTIVITIES!! Opportunity Fair Passports coming soon!

Oct 25 – Oktoberfest! 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. Live band (Rogue Suspects) in the Manor auditorium to boogie down to*. Summit and HRL Brewery will be in the lobby with plenty of assorted beers to try. Bring a friend, grab a snack, and have a dance before dinner.   [*boogie down to:  Compound intransitive verb form used in retirement communities, meaning “lock one wheel of your walker and shuffle in circles to the accompaniment of some specified music.”]

November 7 – 11 The Super famous RVM Annual Resident Scarecrow Contest will be happening! Last year was pretty amazing, let’s see what will show up this year! It’s not really a contest – although participants do get a Karnatz Prize! So start planning your creation to go on display in the Manor Lobby!  Remember to keep the boutique and haberdashery in mind for those special pieces!

November 11, Veterans Day ceremony begins at 1:00 pm in the Auditorium with Reverend Scott. Followed by a Meet the Veterans, to hear their stories sign ups required. More information to follow on this program!

November 15, RVM Craft Fair, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Manor Auditorium.  See the notice in the Arts and Info section of this issue, then come, look, admire, and buy!

 

Knock, Knock

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by Bob Buddemeier

 

The sound of opportunities.  Many opportunities.  Many, many opportunities.  In fact, to a first approximation, ALL of the more or less organized opportunities available at RVM.

Organized by Asifa Kanji, Sandy Rogers, and Sarah Karnatz, and supported by a cast of hundreds, the First Annual RVM Opportunities Fair will explode throughout the buildings and grounds of RVM on Thursday, October 20, from 9 a.m.to 1 p.m..

It will be your big chance to:

Meet lots of active and creative people.

Meet at least some reclusive people who have been lured out of their dens.

Learn what people do at RVM

Get to know about:   games and sports;  arts, crafts and music;  resident governance;  service, good deeds and good works.

Sign up for lotteries.  Get nifty handouts and more information than you can possibly handle.

Join, participate, contribute.  Or just watch and wonder.

How can your resist?

Forget about that — don’t resist, just come out.

 

Click Here to view or download the Opportunity Fair Layout

How to be a Bigger Tipper…

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by Bob Buddemeier

On the left of the figure below is the total take for the Employee Thank You fund at the end of the donation period –just shy of $570K.

That’s pretty good — but I had hoped it might be even better.  Any employee who makes it through 2022 will have survived Covid precautions (for self, colleagues, and residents), supply chain disruptions, and major staffing shortages that demanded more work and more flexibility.  I kind of figured that we might be more generous.  Part of that is altruistic, but part of it is enlightened self-interest.  We residents will be happier and better served the more good employees we can attract and retain.  And it is no secret that money plays an important role in both attraction and retention.

How generous are we and might we be?   Let’s assume that RVM has 900 residents.  I figure that 200 are in a physical or mental state that precludes them from worrying about things like this.  I suspect there might be another 100 who are on a tight budget and/or worried about their financial future.  Finally, let’s allow for another hundred that are just basic skinflints with a strong sense of entitlement.

That leaves 500 people who are solvent, somewhat aware, and fairly decent.  If each of them chipped in $100/month, we’d edge up to $600K. How could we boost that further?

Well, having asked the question, I do have a few suggestions to offer.

RVM offers a convenient option for contributing to the Thank-You fund by way of a monthly charge on your RVM statement– see Sheila Johnson in the business office to sign up (x7672),  Quite a few people use that, some write individual checks, and some use a combination.

For individual residents:

  • If you use monthly payments, go see Sheila and sign up for 10% more.
  • If you don’t, sign up for a monthly amount equal to at least 10% of your greatest past total donation.
  • Paying this way makes the amount feel smaller, and insures against missing the payment for some reason.

For the Residents Council and RVM:

  • We put a lot of begs in a very brief askit.  Instead of compressing the process into a couple of months of bad poetry, perhaps we could spend more effort in gradually building a foundation of ongoing giving by recruiting more people into the monthly donation via the service bill.
  • A longer season would provide more time to make personal contacts with new residents, and to solicit larger donations.
  • Inform the residents — what are the salary levels in the area that we are competing with, and what will it take to be and stay competitive?  I’m sure that a lot of us would rather voluntarily support leadership in staff recruiting than chasing wages from behind with mandatory fee increases.

So, how do we do that?  Surprise, surprise, I have some answers here, too.

  • Stop pretending you can get it done in a couple of months, and make it an ongoing committee of two people with staggered 2-year terms. They can have a big push, but in the off-season they can concentrate on education and recruitment.
  • More publicity for the program as a whole and especially for the monthly donation option. Include it in new resident orientation.  Occasional ads or notices in Bits & Pieces, hillTopics, and on Channel 900.  Talk to neighborhood meetings or resident groups and organizations.
  • Set up a thermometer with a “number of sign-ups” goal. The total number of people (and total dollars) signed up for monthly payments should be compared year to year, since the total will drift downward if there is not continuous recruiting.
  • On the MyRVM Meritgram page, post a notice that the user can also offer more tangible rewards to all of the employees – with directions on how to give, or to sign up.  AND, include the where and how-to information with all of the mentions.

Moral of the story:  figure out how to give so it doesn’t hurt – and then do it, and enlist others.