Last Updated on February 1, 2023
President’s Remarks for February 2023 Sunburst
The Greek Philosopher Heraclitus once said, “No man steps in the same river twice.” Today, we are not the same person we were yesterday nor will we be the same person tomorrow. And so it is with Charlestown. Many changes have taken place in Charlestown’s 40 years of existence. Before I had the privilege and honor to be elected as the Residents’ Council 38th President, I asked previous Council presidents what words of wisdom/advice they would give anyone aspiring to the position. The common theme was “Be flexible; conditions can change rapidly. Every year is different, and the community is dynamic with constant change being the norm.” Prophetic words, indeed. Unexpectedly, Chandra Kumar, our past Executive Director left Charlestown to pursue a new career path. She began her short tenure with us by fostering a more productive partnership with the Council and actively sought out our opinion and that of individual residents with an open door policy. We know that this will continue with Don Grove as our Interim Executive Director, who knows our community well. We wish both continued success as they face the challenging change in their lives. Everything is change so we should try to not get upset about it. Reflect on the past but move forward; we will be okay.
The Residents’ Council actively continues to advocate for residents needs and opinions by whatever means possible and has requested greater transparency and communication from Administration and Corporate. We asked for more input into decisions made by them before those decisions are made. At the Council’s request, an update on IT was presented to the community by Erickson Living’s Chief Information Officer Hans Keller and VP of IT Operations and Enterprise Architecture Jay Romero, who answered many of the questions residents had regarding Wi-Fi and MyErickson issues. Slowly but surely, things are improving. For the first time Council members met with the Erickson Living Regional Executive Vice Presidents of Corporate Operations, Dining, Finance and Sales at their request. We had a productive meeting where we expressed various residents’ concerns, among them, the design standards used in the repositioning of the buildings as they relate to the safety needs of the aging population, especially concerning fall prevention. The Council will meet with the Board of Directors on February 8. Please let any council member know of any issue that you would like us to discuss with them. Soon, we will be hearing the results of the Holleran Survey and the response to the concerns expressed therein by the residents and Administration’s plans moving forward. Stay tuned!
Reminder
The Residents’ Council temporarily changed the time of the January and February meetings from 7:00 PM to 3:00 PM and promised to evaluate whether or not to go back to 7 PM depending on residents’ attendance. At the January meeting, we had a record attendance of 99 residents. We encourage you to contact any council member with questions/issues you would like to bring up ahead of the meeting. Index cards will be available at the entrance to the auditorium for you to write them down. Or you can ask them after the committee reports at the meeting.
The next Residents’ Council Meeting will be held on Tuesday,
February 7, 2023 at 3:00 PM in the Auditorium.