It’s time to share something with you—our Community—that we’ve been discussing in Board meetings and with our Volunteers, Practitioners and Presenters.
Currently, I serve as Director of the A.R.E. of NY Virtual Center—a volunteer position. I’ve been a volunteer for A.R.E. of NY since the 1980s—as part of the team that founded our brick-and-mortar Center in 1997; as the first Director of that Center until 2008; as a Board member after I moved to Virginia; as Board Chair—and now as Director again—of the Virtual Center.
Over these last several years, I was also a caregiver for my husband, who had Alzheimers and lymphoma. As many of you know, Peter left the Earth plane in December 2022.
It has been an exhausting, emotionally draining time for me. Now I need renewal and change.
It’s time for me to step away from the role of our Virtual Center Director and move on to another phase of my life.
I will gladly continue to be an A.R.E. of NY Volunteer in some capacity, but I will no longer be the “center pole” of the organization.
I have loved serving A.R.E. of NY. For me, it was much more than a volunteer job. It was a mission, and often it was a great joy. But it’s time for me to move on.
I’ve let our Board know that I will be resigning as Center Director at the end of 2024.
This long lead time is intended to give our Community the opportunity to develop a new structure or team to keep the Edgar Cayce Work flowing and growing in NYC.
It’s important that we begin to address the need for new leadership and volunteerism now—and not wait until the end of 2024.
An Executive Committee
An organization’s Director usually supervises the heads of a variety of different departments—and we do have some “department heads.” Tijana Cekic is our Events Coordinator. Nya Fleron is our web developer. Currently, Marilyn Ridley is the Coordinator for our Online Psychic Portal.
However, there are a number of functions where the department has consisted of – me.
One example is the role of Administrator for Malcolm Smith’s regular visits to NYC.
Board members have already stepped up to take over some roles I’ve been carrying. For example, Ileana Mendez took over the role of Coordinator of our Cayce Ambassadors (the Volunteers who host our programs).
But there are a number of other roles that will need to be filled, to keep the A.R.E. of NY Community and Virtual Center flourishing.
None of these individual roles are overwhelming in themselves. But all of them together have become increasingly overwhelming for me as I “mature.”
The task for our Board and Community now, is to find/attract and train Volunteers who are willing and able to take on each of these roles for a time—ideally at least a year—and who would find the work fulfilling. (Two Volunteers could also share a role.)
With the help of our Community, our Board plans to develop an Executive Committee, made up of the Coordinators or Administrators for the different “departments.”
Here are the roles that need to be filled and a brief description of the tasks involved in each:
- Admin for Malcolm Smith visits.
Interface with Malcolm and Balance Arts Center. Create and maintain schedule of appointments. (We receive notification of Malcolm’s bookings via webmail. Appointment info is manually transferred to an Excel spreadsheet. We’re looking into ways this could be done automatically.) Trouble-shooting for clients who have trouble registering, need financial assistance, need to cancel or change appointments, etc. Contacting/scheduling Assistant/Receptionist Volunteers. Send reminder e-mail to all clients. Phone those who don’t confirm. Do final accounting & let Treasurer know amount to send Malcolm. Maintain Master List of Malcolm’s clients. Follow-up with Clients List after each visit.Admin for Online Psychic Fairs/Picnics
Work with Event Coordinator to set date. Contact and schedule Readers & Healers who donate services, as well as Volunteers who host in the Social/Presentation Room. Create schedule of appointments as people book “Angel Services.” This is much like the scheduling with Malcolm: We receive notifications of “Angel Service” bookings via webmail. Appointment info is manually transferred to a spreadsheet. Part of the task is trouble-shooting for people who need help booking services, need to cancel or change appointments, etc. (This Admin MIGHT also work with Tijana during Online Fairs, to meet and greet people and help them get into the breakout rooms for services with their Readers or Healers – or help them into the Social Presentation Room. That could be part of this role but doesn’t have to be.) - Customer Service.
Respond to customer service requests that come via phone and webmail. (Volunteer, Don Slovin, picks up phone messages, screens them & passes those that require an answer on.) Customer Service requests often involve difficulties registering for events, or the need to cancel or change a registration/booking. Position requires training to access the “back end” of our website and make, cancel, change bookings/registrations manually. We also receive some program proposals, questions about the Cayce readings, etc. (Board members can provide help with Cayce questions.) - Writing/Editing Weekly E-newsletters.
Some content for our weekly e-newsletters is provided by Tijana in her role as Events Coordinator. Task: Edit and organize that content, write an introduction and add other content e.g. from the Dream Group or Board; send the draft to Nya Fleron, who puts the e-newsletter together in Mailchimp. Review Mailchimp draft of newsletter and sign off on it before sending. - Social Media Posting and Advertising.
Currently, we post on our two Facebook pages, Official Edgar Cayce Page, New York and Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. of New York Events Page—and in a FB group called ARE Extended Family. This includes inspirational content as well as postings about our events and services that we turn into ads and “boost” (paying for increased circulation of an ad) to reach a larger audience. We also post events in Eventbrite and Conscious City Guide. We have also sometimes advertised in other online media such as the online version of Wisdom magazine. We could also use Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms to reach a larger, possibly younger audience. A younger and more media savvy person might be able to accomplish much more with Social Media posting than I have. - Tracking and Acknowledging Donations.
We strive to acknowledge donations as soon as possible after receiving them. We also maintain a record of donations and send end-of-year summary acknowledgements to donors who have made larger or multiple contributions. A Volunteer who takes over this area may not have to write all thank-you letters her- or himself. Some Board members have pitched in to write acknowledgement letters in the past. - Supervisory Roles
Currently I work with and oversee Tijana Cekic in her capacity as Events Coordinator. I also work with and oversee Nya Fleron in her capacity as Web Mistress. (Nya posts information on our website and creates the web design, but is not responsible for creating the content.) We would need an Executive Committee Chair (or other title to be decided) to oversee and coordinate the various different “department heads,” and coordinate with the Board. - The Open Door Editor/Layout person.
We did publish a quarterly newsletter with much more content than our weekly e-newsletters, including features and articles written by a variety of our Community members. I was the last editor of TOD—which has not been published in some time—and also did the layout. However, editing and layout can be done by two different people. The Open Door was created in MS Publisher, but could be reformatted and published in another publishing program. TOD was shared with most of our Community online. We also mailed a small number of hard copies to people who do not go online. These Editor/Layout roles would require someone with writing and editing skills and someone with design skills in an appropriate publishing program.
We are not currently in a position to pay people to take on these tasks (although any of these roles could become a paid part-time job if we generate more income to pay more salaries. See our Summer fundraiser here.)
We do offer benefits to our Volunteers, including (depending on their roles) free attendance at some programs/events and free sessions with Malcolm Smith.
Are you the right person to take on one of these roles for a time? Do you know someone who would be willing, able and who would enjoy any of these roles?
Being of service can be a great joy, especially when we serve as part of a dedicated team.
We ask you to join our Board and me in keeping this matter in prayer.
Let’s invite Spirit in—perhaps to bring some inspiration about our next steps—and to guide to us those persons who would benefit from serving A.R.E. of NY and be of benefit to A.R.E. of NY in the above or other capacities.
If you want to volunteer, learn more about these roles, ask a question, comment or make a suggestion, please contact us at info@edgarcaycenyc.org.
May God bless all Volunteers! Thank you.
Light & Love,
Lynne Salomon Miceli
A.R.E. of NY Virtual Center Director
