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Geezer Forum at a crossroad

by PAUL GRAVES Contributing Writer
| December 18, 2021 1:00 AM

In January 2022, the Geezer Forum will be 10 years old! Even though we met infrequently during the first 22 months of the COVID pandemic, we had a presence in the minds and hearts of many folks in our community. I am very thankful for the attention many of you have paid to our gathering!

Having said that, I also need to let you know that the Geezer Forum is at what I think is a significant crossroad. Which direction the forum takes will depend a great deal on YOU!

Part of what brings us to this crossroad is my own energy level. After 10 years of hosting these gatherings, (and adding 10 years to my life), my energy and enthusiasm levels for planning over 200 forums is dwindling. The planning efforts have been a great learning experience in themselves.

But I personally need a big break! So if the Geezer Forum is to continue, it needs to involve more people in the planning.

From time to time, I did invite folks with the planning process. Some of you stepped up. And I appreciated your effort. But I didn’t do a good job of getting folks to help with the planning on an ongoing basis. I own that.

Now I need to get serious about making the forum more than a one-man band, or a “Lone Ranger”. (If you’re old enough, you know what those 2 references are about.)

So, until further notice, the Geezer Forum will stop meeting until some structural decisions are made:

  1. If the forum is to continue in its current format of bi-monthly meetings with speakers coming to share insights about one aging issue or another, more persons will need to step up and be invested in the planning process. I’m very willing to make that happen, however that might be. But I will no longer the only person responsible to make the forum happen.

We need people who either know community resources or would like to learn more about the wealth of resources in our area. Contact me at elderadvocates@nctv.com if this is a task you want to explore!

  1. If the forum is to done in a new format, perhaps with fewer meetings, perhaps special events/topics, etc., I still need to find folks who want to do the on-going planning. So again, I invite you to contact me with your willingness, and your ideas!
  2. The third option for the Geezer Forum? The forum will discontinue if no group is developed to continue the planning. The Geezer Forum is now temporarily discontinued until we know whether that planning group comes together.

From what I’ve heard in personal conversations with a variety of people, there is a place for the Geezer Forum in Sandpoint. The learning and social connections that happening because of the forum are important to a good many people.

And I’m very humbled by knowing that! I hope it will continue. But that will only happen if we develop a forum-by-committee model.

By the way: I will continue to write Dear Geezer whether or not the Geezer Forum continues. There are always new insights, or old insights that need to be remembered, that Dear Geezer will address.

Please let me know what you are thinking about, friends. If you do contact me, please use my email address rather than my phone number. Having your thoughts in writing will help me decide what future the Geezer Forum has.

Paul Graves, M.Div., is lead geezer-in-training for Elder Advocates, a consulting ministry on aging issues. Contact Paul at 208-610-4971 or elderadvocates@nctv.com.