Jacky Hood: Here and Now

John McLaren transformed San Francisco and the Peninsula from an arid treeless semi-desert to a park-like environment that we enjoy daily. The gruff Scot was employed by the estates of San Mateo county and later by the City of San Francisco. Sunset Magazine called him a true master gardener and the highest horticultural authority in the West.

Mandatory retirement at age 70 was waived by the San Francisco city council. McLaren continued his work until his death at the age of 96.

Many people take up gardening in their retirement; McLaren gardened on a grand scale throughout his long adult life and was well-paid for that mastery.

I rarely recommend costly services or products for job-seekers. I will make an exception for Employment Crossing. I subscribe to Project Management Crossing for $30/month, one of about 50 different flavors. The others include HR Crossing, Finance Crossing, etc.  Membership in one type gives search access to all of the others. The Crossing sites pull job openings from many other sites and offers excellent search, sort, and notification features.

MIT Sloan Presentation on Leadership
A few days ago the Sloan School of Business at MIT released an excellent video of W.A.Gore CEO Terri Kelly. The title is Creating a Culture of Innovation.

http://sloanreview.mit.edu/improvisations/2009/02/13/creating-a-culture-of-innovation/

W. L. Gore & Associates has been called “the most innovative company in America” by Fast Company magazine and has been named to that magazine’s current Fast 50 list of innovative companies. W. L. Gore is number 47 on the Fortune list of 100 best companies to work for.

Now is the time for the federal and state governments to cancel mortgage interest deductibility and replace it with Registered Home Ownership Savings Plans. Money contributed to such plans would be tax deductible in the year contributed. If the money is withdrawn for any reason other than home purchase, back taxes would be due.

Shirley Magidson may be known to many as an ultra-liberal activist. I prefer to focus on her career as an inventor. Her early success was in the invention of the underwire brassierre. This invention and the Maiden Form Brassierre Company made her wealthy. Years later Ms. Magidson was still inventing. She patented a sleep mask at the age of 78.

A terrific new website offers company-specific salary information. The site claims to be for technology careers but I found rich information for teachers and other professions.  The interface is Google-like so do not expect much information about the company itself: Salary Dom. Even the AboutUs page is sparse.  The URL is  http://www.salarydom.com/

Boomer411 is a wealth of useful and fascinating information. The site uses a powerful tagging system to tap the collective experience of large numbers of Boomers to select the best websites, blogs, video and other content. Check it out!  http://www.boomer411.com 

More information and registration is available at http://www.chalkinstitute.org/boomers.html for these three events:

Book Swap and Career Talk 3pm Sunday September 7

Boomer/Senior Career Paths Mini-Conference and Job Fair 6pm Tuesday October 7

Lunch & Learn Webinar 12Noon Friday November 7

Working for pay keeps Boomers & Seniors active, engage, healthy, and wealthy. Options include staying in a current position, finding a new position, becoming a contractor/consultant, or starting a company. Add a fifth option: becoming an inventor. Mature adults have been inventing for centuries. They are close to the needs of the 100 million strong boomer/senior market and have the maturity to see the intersection among need, technical possibility, and market acceptance. A major advantage of invention over other options: a continuing stream of income.