This is a very personal message, but also a very important one for our A.R.E. of NY Community.
Several months ago, I shared in one of these e-newsletters, that I planned to retire from the position of Director of our Virtual Center as of the end of 2024.
Now in my 70s, I find there are some things I can do much better than I could when I was in my 20s or 40s. However, there are some things that I cannot do as well as I could when I was younger. One of those things is multi-tasking.
It’s not just that I feel a need to move on to another phase of my life—although that is true. It’s also that, more and more, I’m struggling to keep up with the multiple roles I currently fulfill.
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. We now have a wonderful new Volunteer learning the role of Social Media Coordinator. We welcome Sherry Chow in that role and are grateful for her willingness to serve.
However, there are a number of functions where the department consists of – me.
Board members have 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 (although she’s currently on medical leave).
But there are several other roles that 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 managing all of them together is becoming increasingly untenable for me.
I love the A.R.E. of NY and have been glad to serve as a volunteer for this organization for forty years—but the reality is that I cannot continue to be the center pole holding up this structure.
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 Coordinators or Admins 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.) - Coordinator for the Online Psychic Portal
Monitor our webmail for notifications of bookings for psychic readings. Make sure the Readers are aware of new bookings. Keep a record of the date, time, length and price of each reading. Send feedback form to clients after readings take place. Arrange for Treasurer to send Readers a check at the end of each month. - 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. - 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. - 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 will 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).
But we do offer some benefits to our Volunteers. Free attendance at programs, free readings and free healing sessions with Malcolm Smith can be among those benefits.
To answer the question we started with: What will the A.R.E. of NY look like in 2025?
What we know is this: Any role that a Volunteer takes up, will continue. If a Volunteer takes on the role of Admin for British Spiritual Healer Malcolm Smith’s visits, Malcolm’s practice in NYC will continue. If we don’t have a Volunteer for that role, we won’t be able to bring Malcolm to NYC. The same is true for other roles, such as Admin for Picnics and Fairs.
Could you be the right person to take on one of these roles for a time? If you think you might be or want more info, please contact us at info@edgarcaycenyc.org.
