Get With the Program.

Shake Out Your Sails for the Retirement Wave !

HAPPEN Meeting - October 23, 2007 Mississauga

Mark Venning and Gerald Bramm are co-presenting at HAPPEN this month to a group of business professionals in career transition.

www.changerangers.com
www.gbramm.com

For details on location for the meeting visit:

www.happen.ca

Reframing Opportunity:
Shake Out Your Sails for the Retirement Wave!

Like in a tropical storm watch, those involved in the recruitment or retention of Boomer talent are on the shoreline wanting to know how this demographic group will shift the system. Is there wild weather ahead? It is an absorbing and uncertain question today, given the news headlines – Aging Workforce, Looming Skill Shortages and The Mad Race for Talent.

In the middle of all the media hype, how will Boomers “re-work retirement”? With the attitudes of today’s Boomers changing towards “active aging”, a person has more options in their choice to work longer but differently than previous generations and with the outdated version of retirement as a “crisp end” to work - “career longevity” has new meaning.

Join Mark Venning and Gerald Bramm to discuss the latest options for careers in later life, a braver move towards re-working retirement and a look at some highlights for workers and organizations in an aging world. This special 90 minute interactive presentation will include a summary from Gerald Bramm of current research on attitudes and perceptions of HAPPEN members on this very subject.

Reframing Opportunity-April 2007 Presentations

Mark Venning of Change Rangers made two presentations this April 2007 on "Re-working Retirement and Career Longeveity"

Titled Boomer Talent on the Shifting Tide:Reframing Opportunity, the presentations were targeted to two different groups - on April 16 at the CERIC- CANNEXUS National Career Development Conference (to career professionals in public and private sector environments) and on April 18 at the Staffing Edge Symposium (to recruiters, owners and managers of staffing firms).

The core message to both groups was that the issue we are facing as a society is not retirement, but longevity and as Theodore Roszak says in Longevity Revolution - "As longevity assumes the dimensions of a second lifetime… terms like “seniors”, “elders”, “retired” – run the risk of blurring more than they clarify . . ."

If work is to be part of that "second lifetime" says Mark, then what career professionals and recruiters need to look at is reframing opportunity- rethinking what is a workforce and encouraging options for careers in later life or in other words promoting career longevity as part of active aging.

Highlights!

Audit our aging workforce . . .

- Greater numbers express desire and / or need to work longer – but differently
- Check in – how are they looking at their later life situation right now?
- What is their swing between “silent detachment” & “creative engagement”?
- Boomers 40’s and early 50’s – what will ongoing engagement look like?
- 55 + age band - how will their contributions continue to add value?

Change relationship to work . . . aging talent won’t go away, it just displaces!

- Fluid, flexible options for later-life careers
- Compressed work week, contracted terms
- Trend towards self employment
- Creative process - your own portfolio design

Our “Life Course” is redefining . . . The “blurred exit” vs. the “crisp exit”

- Retirement is still a standardized event
- BUT not like time past - you stopped work and died
- Manage exits better – out with the crisp!
- “Boomer Alumni” – more than a retiree club, re-contract the relationship

Mark Venning- Global News Hour: February 19, 2007

Pleased to announce that Mark Venning of Change Rangers will have a brief spot on the Global News Hour on Monday, February 19, sometime between 6 and 7 PM. Global News Hour covers the GTA and Southwestern Ontario region.

The Global News feature story is about the new attitude toward the concept of Retirement and the longevity factor that has changed the way we look at working later in life. The Change Rangers focus is "Re-Working Retirement & Career Longevity".

Also interviewed by Consumer & Investigative Reporter Sean O'Shea will be Victor Wells-a Corporate Finance Specialist, who has made a successful later life career transition with the professional help of Nelson Cusitar of Cusitar Associates in Oakville.

Mark Venning on Career Buzz - Radio CIUT 89.5 FM

Starting off a brand new year for Change Rangers, on February 23, 2007 at 11 am, Mark Venning will appear on the University of Toronto Radio Station CIUT 89.5 FM. This is a revised date from the original scheduled date of January12.

Career Buzz is hosted by Mark Franklin of Career Cycles. The 1 hour show will discuss the career journey of each of the guests in addition to a dialogue around current career issues.

Mark Venning will share his views and ideas on global aging population issues that will change our perspective on "career longevity" and the potential trends for career choices related to the needs of shifting demographics.

In addition, among the other guests are career changer Debbie Beam (following her ongoing transition story).

The Maturing Workforce: Not Business As Usual

Mark Venning is presenting at the IAJVS Conference in Minneapolis, May 21 -23, 2006. The theme of the conference is The Maturing Workforce: Not Business As Usual.

As International President for the Association of Career Professionals International and Founder of Change Rangers - Mark will be on a plenary session panel titled, "The New Face of Retirement: Perspectives on Career Longevity" with Marlene Zakai, Director Grants Process Operations at US based, Corporation for National & Community Service; moderated by Karen Goldenberg, President of IAJVS and CEO of JVS Toronto.

In addition to the plenary session, Mark will lead a group discussion on "Generational Issues in an Aging World".

This annual conference is held by IAJVS - a nonprofit network of 29 national and international human service agencies in major metropolitan areas in the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Israel. Member agencies provide a vast array of services that have a direct effect on the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year: career management, skills training, rehabilitation programs, health services, and home and community-based services.

Career Development: Second Middle Age

The following article by Marge Watters is from the February 13, 2006 issue of the Canadian HR Reporter www.hrreporter.com

The message is directed at organizations and reflects well the growing attention to the issue of "employee engagement". It is the goal of Change Rangers to help put out this conversation and present the views of others and draw attention to other individual thought leaders, organizations and professional associations.

Career development for employees heading into their 'second middle age'T By Marge Watters

This is the first of a two-part series on older employees. Part two, in the Feb. 27 issue of Canadian HR Reporter, looks at the need for workforce recruitment and retention strategies that target older workers

How does your organization view the career potential of employees who are in their mid to late 50s?

Is there an assumption that they are on the downhill stretch to retirement? Are they seen as blocking up-and-coming employees? Are they passed over for positions where there will be a steep learning curve? Are scarce development dollars spent on younger employees rather than on them? If so, you may be discouraging people who could form a very valuable talent pool.

If an employer doesn’t pay attention to the career development of staff as they approach age 60, it won’t have the benefit of their productivity during their second middle age.

The “second middle age” is a term coined by Helen Harkness in her book, Don’t Stop the Career Clock. It refers to the 20-year period when an individual is between ages 60 and 80. It ought to be viewed as a time of potential and valuable contribution rather than “the retirement years” or worse, “old age.”

Here are practical career development strategies that will help keep employees fully engaged during their second middle age.

Adopting a new attitude

Discard the stereotypes. Older workers are not necessarily closed-minded, reluctant to embrace change, risk averse and focused on the past. Their views are grounded in years of hard-earned experience and many of them are open-minded, flexible, willing to take calculated risks and forward-thinking.

•While employees are in their 50s, begin working with them to plan for future roles rather than assuming they will soon retire. Engage in positive career development conversations before frustration or burn-out sets in.

•Treat agism with the same disdain given to other prejudices.

•Create a culture where people at all levels regularly rotate through roles to reduce the occurrence of older employees blocking younger workers.

•Rely on experienced employees to save the organization from repeating mistakes by engaging them as trouble-shooters or internal auditors.

•Think creatively about offering them lateral moves, international assignments, mentoring opportunities or internal coaching roles.

•Establish key account relationship roles or second older employees to external charitable endeavours as ambassadors for the organization.

Providing career counselling

People want to do work that interests them, takes advantage of their knowledge, honours their values and uses their key skills. These factors change for the individual over time, and often a person’s career path takes her away from the work she truly enjoys. Returning to an earlier role could be rejuvenating in second middle age or it might be feasible to launch into a completely new endeavour as an alternative to retirement. To help employees stay on a productive career track, it is crucial to provide good career counselling.

•Include career development conversations as a mandatory part of regular performance appraisals.

•Train managers to conduct purposeful career management conversations and provide tools to assist employees with managing their own careers.

•Offer seminars or engage independent consultants to work one-on-one with employees looking for a new role.

Investing in training and development

Recent research debunks the myth of the inevitable decline of mental ability with age. While slower processing and some memory loss are typical of aging, these are not necessarily signs of diminishing capacity in primary mental functions such as verbal meaning, spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, numerical ability or word fluency. These important mental competencies can remain intact well into someone’s 90s in the absence of illness, making second middle agers worthy candidates for training and development. It is easy to compensate for a slower mental pace and occasional memory lapse when intellectual capability is respected.

•Accommodate the older learner’s physical needs in the classroom. Supply good lighting and easy-to-read visual aids. Reduce background noise and have trainers use microphones.

•Match educational opportunities to career planning goals. For older employees, new learning needs to be focused and practical.

•Provide participative learning opportunities to capitalize on the experiences of older students. They have a strong ability to integrate new concepts with existing knowledge.

•Believe in the “use it or lose it” adage. Continuous learning enhances job performance and generates confidence in an employee’s ability to make a valuable contribution to the organization.

Honouring the need for work-life balance

After decades of commuting, working long hours and taking short holidays, many people look forward to retirement as a welcome break from the unrelenting routine. The prospect of sleeping in seven days a week, taking an extended trip or spending the winter in Florida can have a lot of appeal. Creative work arrangements could offer some of these perks to second middle agers.

•Include an analysis of work-life balance in career counselling sessions. Trying to find the right balance of work, leisure and volunteer activities is challenging and requires regular review.

•Offer the opportunity to take sabbaticals. This would allow second middle agers to take extended time off without having to retire permanently.

•Use non-standard employment options. Employees in second middle age might do contract work, take consulting assignments or work on a part-time or seasonal basis.

•Offer phased-in retirement where the hours of work are reduced and income is supplemented by tapping into pensions.

The demographics are well-documented. In 1991, only 29 per cent of Canada’s working-age population was between ages 45 and 64. By 2015, that percentage is projected to swell to 48 per cent. The workforce will shrink dramatically if all baby boomers retire permanently. This makes the retention of second middle agers an HR imperative.

Second middle age employees could be organizational gold. Research has shown they have lower rates of absenteeism, fewer accidents, higher levels of job satisfaction and possess a stronger work ethic. Why wouldn’t employers encourage them to develop their careers and remain productive in the workforce as long as possible?

Marge Watters is the author of It’s Your Move, and a founder of KWA Partners, a national career management services firm. She can be reached at mwatters@kwapartners.com.

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Show them you care
Offer financial planning assistance

As people approach traditional retirement age, career decisions are often inextricably linked to the individual’s comfort with their financial position. Provide financial planning assistance well before retirement is imminent.

•Educate employees about the company pension plan, group RRSPs, stock options, employee savings plans and any other programs that are in place.

•Provide financial planning seminars given by independent, qualified individuals who are not selling investment products or insurance. These seminars should include opportunities for participants to analyze the cost of their lifestyles, quantify their financial responsibilities including debts and dependents, evaluate their risk tolerance for unpredictable expenses such as medical bills and consider their intentions about leaving money for their heirs.

•Follow the seminars with opportunities for individual consultation so that each employee can determine the amount of income they will need to earn in their second middle age to provide for permanent retirement.

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Evaluating atypical candidates
10 steps to the right fit

For a company’s recruitment expert, it’s important to stay on top of innovative practices and not to fall into the trap of considering only resumés from conventional candidates. To assist in the evaluation of atypical candidates, here are some tips:

•If you’re not familiar with the industry or type of work outlined in a resumé, conduct some research to broaden your understanding of the skills presented and to better determine their transferability. Don’t make the excuse you’re too busy — ¬taking the time to learn now will provide you with a competitive edge as the recruitment market tightens.

•Begin interviews by asking individuals to tell their work history in a chronological order, including how it transpired. Investigate any inconsistencies or areas of concern to ensure you are satisfied with the narrative. For example, if there are gaps in experience, explore why and how they have been managed, and find out whether there are valid reasons behind them or if they are indicative of someone with a serious attitude ¬problem.

•Determine the individual’s core competencies, how they align with the job and the organizational profile.

•Drill down to uncover specifics that enable the evaluation of someone’s candidacy against stated selection criteria. If “relationship management” is a key criterion, then delve into the person’s qualifications in this area and follow up with references to validate the information gathered through the interview.

•Probe to get a clear sense about their vision for successfully navigating or delivering in the position.

•Make every effort to ascertain their true motivation for assuming this new path and find out if the candidate is running away from or toward an opportunity.

•Ask questions that enable you to assess whether someone can make the shift both successfully and happily into a “T-4 person.”

•Consider using a reliable assessment tool that will measure the individual’s behaviour against the organizational and job profile.

•Employ the services of a qualified professional career coach to conduct an in-depth analysis of the individual’s competencies, attributes and values.

•Take the time to confirm references. Perform background checks — for credit, criminal history, and education — and carry out a full 360-degree reference check to validate key data.

Mark Venning @ ExecuNet Toronto : Feb.22, 2006

CAN OLD WORMS CATCH NEW FISH?: RE-WORKING RETIREMENT AND LATER LIFE CAREERS

Mark Venning,Change Rangers

ExecuNet Toronto
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 (5:00 - 8:00 PM)
The Toronto Board of Trade
1 First Canadian Place
Concourse Level
100 King Street West
Toronto, ON

http://www.execunet.com/e_network_detail.cfm?fmtid=6263

CAPP Talk

CAPP Education Day – Ontario Chapter
November 18, 2005

Can Old Worms Catch New Fish? :
Re-working Retirement & Later Life Careers

A mid-stage Boomer - rock star Prince turned 47 in 2005. Asked when he would retire he said, “Retire, how strange is that idea?” How strange indeed. With the attitudes of today’s Boomers changing towards “active aging”, a person has more options in their choice to work longer but differently than previous generations with their version of retirement as a crisp end to work.

In Canada, as with many countries in Europe, where the shifting demographics of an aging population are creating more analysis for policy makers and business leaders, “career longevity” has a new meaning.

Mark discussed the latest options for careers in later life, a braver move towards re-working retirement and looked at some highlights on recent global issues for workers and organizations in an aging world.

For a copy of the PPT presentation email from this web site- click Contact at the top of the page

Visit www.retirementplanners.net

Mark Venning on Contact Point Board of Directors

As of July 21, 2005, Mark Venning joined Contact Point on the Board of Directors. Contact Point is a practitioner-driven, Canadian website dedicated to providing multi-sectoral career development pratitioners with career resources, learning and networking.

Contact Point is an interactive web site with a respectable number of visitors from around the world who are interested in access to Canadian content. In addition to his global perspective as President of ACP International, Mark's private sector experience in the career services industry is also welcomed as Contact Point develops as a dynamic resource for career professionals.

Contact Point is supported by the Counselling Foundation of Canada. The French version is Orient Action.

www.contactpoint.ca

www.orientaction.ca

Dan Pink Creates - A Whole New Mind

Human Capital Institute- Career Transition Panel

Effective May 9 2005, Mark Venning of Change Rangers joined the Career Transition Panel teleconference. This bi-monthly tought leadership panel on this date discussed the question:

Is there a War FOR Talent or a War ON Talent? And what does the answer mean for hiring, talent development and career advancement.

Click below here for the transcript of the comments made by Mark Venning as part of the conversation.

In the North American vocabulary we have claimed a “war on drugs”, a “war on terrorism” and a “war on trans-fats in food”.

Is it really appropriate any more to call the search for talented people a “war on talent” or even a “war for talent”?

What message are we sending to people who may have moved on from being seen as “pawns” in a war?

Has his phrasing that comes from the “fast company” mentality of the second half of the 1990’s worn thin?

How many companies are “fast” as opposed to “slow” or “paralytic” in terms of investing in talent management?

Is talent management or talent development or talent leadership a conversation that resonates only at mid to senior levels of organizations?

In some ways perhaps we are in a “talent auction” or even a “reverse auction” where some of the best people “bid “ or “vote” themselves off the organization’s show if the plot or script has lost its value.

At the ACP International conference in Chicago in April 2005 at a session titled

Talent Management: Who Really Has Control?
The question was asked, has the loyalty battle been lost?

(Here we are in “battle” again.)

In the sense that we know it from the “industrial age” model, the response was yes. Individuals are more loyal to themselves and managing their own career. The “manage your own career theme has been part of the early 1990’s thinking in such messages delivered by the likes of William Bridges.

His book Job Shift in 1994 was subtitled, “How to prosper in a world without jobs”

But there are people who still “want to belong”, are still be part of organizations, groups, teams. Perhaps rather than loyalty being lost, it’s simply shifted.

It’s now - treat me well while I’m here.

In spite of all the corporate marketing around “employer of choice” and considering the fall out from corporate scandals, there is a viral scepticism in conversations taking place outside and inside the walls of an organization. Conversations between individuals- friends, family, peer groups, professional networks etc. Often it’s not built on a career building dream but rather on the kind of good experience they are getting or not getting at their place of work.

I am reminded of Robert Reich’s phrase in his 2000 book the “Future of Success”

“we are living in the age of the better deal, where it’s easier to switch to something better”

• In my view Careerism in the 21st Century…
“will be more about the integration of work, learning and living in an age diverse world, where working longer by choice and in different interactions - will mean more creative thinking about what makes a life’s work and in what order we sort it and manage it.”

• There is a movement in career development thinking towards taking more of a “serendipitous” approach to career, less dependent upon following the dots but a focus on the journey, “become a good traveler” or as I would say it “this is a pilgrimage”.

• As Stuart Walkley suggested at the ACP International London Symposium in March 2005, (European Vice President of career transition and organisational consulting firm Right Management Consultants, part of Manpower Inc.)

• “As career professionals, are we being too pleasant with clients? Should we not be more provoking?... Helping people groping in the dark and finding something by accident”.

• To the closing question, what do line managers need? What we need is an open realistic dialogue that sets clarity around expectations through the “entrance, engagement and exit process”. Never lose site that an exit may be an open door to a reengagement in a different way at a different time.

• Managers at all levels need the courage to have conversations at the individual level and could also benefit from more exposure to or education about current and emerging career management thinking.

Mark Venning Joins Human Capital Institute - Career Transition Panel

Click here for details of who's who on the bi-monthly panel which is part of the Talent Development community.

http://www.humancapitalinstitute.org/hci/tracks_transition.guid

Dan Pink, Live! @ Rotman

Dan Pink author of Free Agent Nation is speaking in Toronto June 7, 2005 at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto to launch his latest work " A Whole New Mind" (Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age". Visit the Rotman web site at www.rotman.utoronto.ca/events for details.

One Stop Speakers Bureau on Re-working Retirement!

Change Rangers “the leading voice on career longevity” is a one stop Speakers Bureau for organizations including professional associations. Geared for executives and senior level business professionals, exploring later life career options and Re-working Retirement – presentations are arranged for conferences, seminars or internal groups of an organization.

Career issues in an aging world are very much on the radar screen globally in these middle days of the current decade. Over the last two decades of fast paced change, speed driven business cycles, and stressed out workplaces – a person’s career may have exactly been “a swift running course”.

Perhaps the pollution of careerism flooding web sites and bookshelves has distorted our view of career, and now for those in later life - this is the time more people want to integrate their work into their world in a productive way “on my terms”.

Health being well, as Boomers journey through a later life career over the next decade; they face longevity like no other generation in history. And the concept of retirement born in the Industrial Age model has new translation. There are creative options.

Contact Change Rangers if you want an enthusiastic and realistic point of view on the topic areas in the sample “Speaker Theme Parks” listed below.

Generational Issues in an Aging World

Career Industry Trends & Issues
Discover that not all guest speakers cost a whole arm or a leg. But let’s negotiate from $2000 - maybe that’s only a skin graft. The specific content of presentations will be discussed and personalized for your organization.

Career Professionals Dialogue in London

ACP International – UK Career Symposium March 4, 2005
Institute of Directors, 116 Pall Mall, London.

Mastering Our Future: Achieving Global Recognition for All Career Professionals

A must attend event for Career Professionals working in Education, Business Organisations, Career Management Firms, Public Organisations or Independent Practice.

For the first time under one roof in the UK, on March 4th 2005, professionals from all areas of practice will be able to gain a better understanding of who they are in relation to others who offer career services in quite diverse venues.

Leading experts from all sectors will give their views and lead discussion groups on vital issues to us all - including the ‘globalisation of work’ and ‘the key challenges in delivering career services’.

This one-day symposium sponsored and organised by ACP International – United Kingdom, aims to help to raise the bar for career professionals by focusing on strategy around personal growth as a professional, educating the world and communicating value.

“By coming together to develop common language and understanding of our individual services, and to share best practice we will be able to offer the communities we serve stronger proof of the true value of our offering”.

Speakers at the Symposium will include:

Professor Tony Watts
Senior Fellow and Life President of NICEC; Visiting Professor of Career Development at the University of Derby; and a Visiting Professor at Canterbury Christ Church University College. He has lectured in over 40 countries, has many publications to his credit, and has been a consultant to various international organisations including the Council of Europe, the European Commission, OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank.

Mark Venning
Career strategist and founder of Change Rangers – “The Leading Voice on Career Longevity”. As of May 2004, Mark’s industry role is the International President of ACP International. He currently works on the Professional Development team for the Canadian Education & Research Institute for Counselling and is a member of the Canadian Association of Pre-retirement Planners

Stuart Walkley
Stuart is European Vice President of career transition and organisational consulting firm Right Management Consultants, part of Manpower Inc. Stuart’s career has spanned a diverse number of disciplines from freelance broadcasting with the BBC to providing world-wide solutions in organisational consulting and career development needs.

Penny Chester
Penny is an experienced corporate psychologist. Following her Director-level career, she successfully set up and ran her own organisational consulting business. Penny is the current President of ACP International–UK and President-elect of ACP International. She also sits on the International Career Certification Board and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

The Career Services Evolution In Chicago!

The Association of Career Professionals International (ACP International) holds its annual World Conference in Chicago April 14 - 17, 2005

Career Services Evolution: The Diversity Challenge

As the current International President of ACP International, I am proud to say that as we enter our 16th year in 2005, we have a dynamic program for all career professionals.

These are breakthrough times for career professionals around the world where our profession contributes in a major way to the global story of workers and the workplace.

This is the age of diversity and evolution is in play! ACP International membership now represents a diverse spectrum of career professional services delivered in multiple venues. We work in more holistic ways with organizations and individuals across so many layers of complex career, cultural and life issues.

Presenters and attendees this year come from the diverse spectrum of Career Firms, Independent Career Practices, Internal Corporate HR/Career Programs, Universities, Colleges & Business Schools.

Here is a sample of one session on Saturday April 16.

Corporate Diversity Initiatives: Transforming Challenges
into Success

Moderator: Phillip Roark, President & CEO, Insala, LLC

Panelists:

Maribeth Bailey, Director, Career Management Services,Deloitte Services LP
Deborah Kuhn, Vice President and Senior HR Consultant, Career Services, JP Morgan Chase
Daphne Schechter, Senior Consultant,Workplace Fairness & Diversity Strategies, The Coca-Cola Company
Brian Sorge, Vice President, Client Solutions, Lambert & Associates

This group will discuss the many facets of corporate diversity initiatives and how to leverage career services programs to meet the next generation of coaching - multicultural development.

The evolutionary cycle of social change and the changing legal landscape for employers around the world shows that diversity legislation is advantageous to both employees and employers. Multiculturalism is no longer a social mandate but a way to stay successful in today’s marketplace.

Learn from this panel of corporate career management leaders, how career services programs have helped organizations overcome diversity challenges resulting in successful multicultural leadership, improved overall financial performance, enhanced public image, reduced turnover, creation of a broader customer base, and other very powerful, value added results.

Full Brochure www.acpinternational.org/conference

The Elephant and the Flea

The Elephant and the Flea
Looking Backwards to the Future

Charles Handy

Hutchinson, Random House, London 2001

For the Fifty Plus Executive looking for a story that speaks to a future outside organizational life, this is the book that will best serve as the model for rethinking that future. After all, Charles Handy first coined the phrase "portfolio career" in the early 1980's and since then we have seen a larger number of people living this life. With the increasing interest in this life model, it would seem that many more authentic stories have yet to be seen and heard.

As Handy says in the first chapter, he was looking for a way to explain "why large organizations (elephants) needed irritant individuals or groups (fleas) to introduce innovations and ideas essential to their survival". But telling his "going portfolio" story in the book, across the wide sweep of global work changes , the message is all for the fleas.

Reading this book when it first arrived, Handy painted for me in his authentic voice all the possibilities and the realistic challenges of the "independent life" in a flexible later life career. Not that you can't be 30 and have this reality, but there is a particular appeal (though underscored in career discussions up to now) for the Fifty Plus.

If Handy encourages anything through the telling of his story, it is that you need to be eclectic in your thinking - exploring more of who you are reflected in what you do, learning to "do different" and that in"chunking the work" you may find yourself cutting across the grain of your past patterns of life.

While for some, portfolio careers may not be a choice it may be a case of waking up one day finding you are doing it anyway. Little makings of Handy's "fleadom" will most likey be lived successfully when communities of fleas connect - not just on the need to network but to learn from the challenges of the pilgrimage.

I revisited this book again, three years on and realized that there is so much more confidence and vocabulary a flea needs to develop if it wants to buzz in the ears rather than living on the hide of an elephant. Should there be fleadom courses for the fifty plus?

Change Rangers Presents at Elder Connection

November 24, 2004 at 7:30am

Monthly Networking Breakfast meeting for businesses who specialize in services for seniors.

La Pentola Ristorante
2 Credit Union Drive, Toronto

Reserve by phone 416 444-7598

Can Old Worms Catch New Fish? :
Re-working Retirement & Later Life Careers

Presented by Mark Venning

A later end Boomer – the agile rock star Prince, turned 46 this year. Asked when he would retire he said, “Retire, how strange is that idea?”

Are you counting the days ‘til you retire? Retire to what? How will your plans to retire be tested by your desire or need to work on?

Come join Mark Venning for a sharp, fast look at the latest options for careers in later life, a braver move towards re-working retirement and a look at some highlights on recent global issues for workers in an aging world.

Change Rangers Presents at HAPPEN & EARN

Recent speaking engagements brought Change Rangers on the road with a new presentation on the subject "Re-working Retirement & Later Life Careers". Speaking at meetings for HAPPEN in Burlington on September 29 and this week in Toronto at EARN on October 20, Mark Venning addressed two groups of executives and business professionals in career transition.

The largely Boomer audience were encouraged to think about their later life career options with fresh ideas given that work life may be longer than expected for some, based on the need or desire to work in different ways well beyond the notion of retirement.

For over a decade, both HAPPEN (1991) and EARN (1990) have served thousands of executives and business professionals in Mississauga, Burlington and Toronto as self help networks and as a learning centre. Recent loss of funding by HRSDC has placed both these not for profit organizations in a position of repositioning their business model.

As in their early years, without the funding from the federal government, HAPPEN and EARN will once again learn to thrive on the energy, innovation and hard work of the leadership and volunteer members. Congratulations and may the force be with you!

href="http://www.earnworks.ca">
http://www.happen.ca

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:

Annette Summers
Executive Director ACP International
202-547-6377
als@acpinternational.org

Al Rickard
President Association Vision
703-402-9713
arickard@associationvision.com

Mark Venning Elected President
Of ACP International

Washington, DC, June 28, 2004 –

Mark Venning, founder of Change Rangers, an Oakville, Ontario-based career service firm geared for executives and senior-level professionals exploring later life career options, has been elected president of ACP International.

He began his term at the ACP International Conference in Venice, Italy, in May 2004. His volunteer leadership term runs through May 2006. ACP International is a global organization with members in over 30 countries who provide life-long career related services.

During his two-year term, Venning will lead more than 2,000 members of ACP International, who are career professionals that help individuals and businesses assess and leverage skills and talents to achieve success.

Venning plans to emphasize career issues in an aging world as one of the themes of his presidency – he is a frequent speaker on the subject of “re-working retirement”.

“At a time when organizations are challenged by engaging generations at work, workers today are challenging the very meaning of the word “career,’” Venning explains. “As many ‘baby boomers’ approach traditional retirement age, they are looking to stay engaged in work longer than previous generations. Determining how work is crafted into the big picture of the journey through later life will require planning that goes outside traditional career patterns. This is one of many issues that career professionals are skilled in helping their clients.”

For more information about ACP International, visit www.acpinternational.com. For more information about Venning’s firm, visit www.changerangers.com.

New Book - The Canadian Retirement Guide

Just about to digest this new book!

The Canadian Retirement Guide: A Comprehensive Handbook on Aging, Retirement, Caregiving & Health (How to Plan and Pay for it). Jill O'Donnell, Graham McWaters & John A. Page 2004 -Insomniac Press, Toronto. $21.95 CDN

Congratulations to Jill O'Donnell who is the founder of Complete Geriatric Care & founder and host of The Elder Connection, a monthly networking breakfast series for professionals whose services address the growing elder care needs of the Greater Toronto Area.

Stay tuned to this journal for the book review later this month.

Venice Conference Features Experts on Work & Careers in an Aging World

ACP International Conference- May 13 - 16, 2004
Laguna Palace Hotel - Venice, Italy

Picking up on one of the issues from Theodore Roszak's book - "The Longevity Revolution" a panel of international experts will engage a conference of career consultants and coaches in:
A Study of Working in an Aging World

Moderator:
 W.Stanton Smith, National Director,
Employer of Choice- Next Generation Initiatives, Deloitte

Panel Members:
 Anne Marie Guillemard, Professor of Sociology, The Sorbonne, Paris, France, member of the European Academy of Sciences & Author of “L’âge de L’emploi” 2003

 Philip Taylor, PhD, Senior Researcher, Executive Director- Cambridge Research Centre on Aging, University of Cambridge, England

 Vittorio Filippi, Sociologist, Faculty of Economics, Venice University, Italy

Continuing from the theme of Life and Work Issues in an Aging World from the 2003 conference in Puerto Rico, we are honoured to have experts speak with us about their work in the study of trends, attitudes, policies and principles for careers in an aging world.

Presentations from our panellists we will follow with moderated group work. Then the panel will offer feedback to help us form conclusions for our professional work focusing on:

 Innovations for older workers across cultures
 Changing our vision of aging- exploring the new value of contributions to society on the part of older workers
 Redefining retirement as world demographics suggest a longevity revolution where working longer in different ways will be the norm

Community Bandwidth Supports Change Rangers: New Web Journal Goes Live!

Once again Community Bandwidth demonstrates their understanding of the career services industry by supporting the launch of the new Change Rangers web site. The value of what we call their "marketing through technology service", needs to be simply - experienced!

Community Bandwidth » Where it all begins » Technology. Simplified

Change Rangers Web Journal Goes Live!

Welcome to the Change Rangers new site, a web journal for those deeply
interested in career longevity issues.

Let our conversation start by asking us to revisit what the word career means. Just for fun, if you go back in the Oxford dictionary to read earlier word origins and meanings of the word , you can see how the evolution has brought us to where we are now.

Get the Theme Park Headline up above!

And if we let ourselves journey in time to the year 2034 and read an Oxford word version for career, perhaps it may well read:

A personal life and work legacy of achievements
that made it through the polluted world
of resumes and job boards on the Internet.

How do you want to design your career legacy? Come inside the Change Rangers web journal and ponder the possibilities.

Thanks to Phillip Smith of Community Bandwidth and Jarret Hardie of Development by Design for pulling this together. Two creative guys who know how to put form to conversation on the web.

Strategic Partnership: Fulcrum Search Science and Change Rangers

We are pleased to announce that as of February 1st, 2004 Fulcrum Search Science, a Canadian Executive Search organization, added Change Rangers to their Strategic Partnership Program.

Visit Fulcrum's web site under Strategic Partners (Human Resources) and also check under the Candidate Newsletter for the Re-working Retirement article in the 1st Quarter edition

Fulcrum Search Science

Book Review

The Longevity Revolution (As Boomers Become Elders) by Theodore Roszak. If you read one book this year that will stimulate your thinking for what of the socio-economic agenda might be in the years ahead, this is the one. Roszak escorts you through a thoughtful and eclectic view of the future as it relates to life, society, relationships, retirement and the aging process itself. Publisher: Berkeley Hills Books. Cost: $23CDN