August 2019 BACC Newsletter

AUGUST 2019 BACC NEWSLETTER

The Bay Area Community Council is the leading organization in engaging community leaders in understanding and shaping the future of the greater Green Bay area.

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President's Message

Dear friends of the Bay Area Community Council,

I am pleased to announce that we have recently received a major contribution to help underwrite the work of our Council in the area of foresight analysis. The Weyers Family Foundation has given us a $10,000 grant to help fund the fall 2019 foresight analysis training of 10-15 community leaders from business, government, education, and the nonprofit sectors. The Foundation sees the value of our work. It’s contribution will help us continue to support a variety of organizations throughout our community as they learn how to better anticipate and lead change for the betterment of our greater Green Bay community. As Tracy Weyers, a director the of the Foundation stated, "The BACC’s work has had high impact community-wide. Because of this we feel honored to help them bring foresight analysis workshops to the business, education, government and nonprofit sectors of our community. This work will inform and positively influence all of us as we navigate the waves of change ahead of us.”

By 2018, the BACC outgrew the parenting of its three co-founding organizations. This change has given us the freedom to explore multiple avenues in which to partner with other community groups in planning for the future. Because of this change, we are now responsible for additional fundraising for the valuable work of our Council. Contributions like this do so much to encourage our volunteer board to enhance the deep thinking that needs to occur for the betterment of the greater community. We are continuing to seek sponsors for the Bay Area Community Council. Interested parties should contact us at office@bayareacommunitycouncil.org for information regarding further funding opportunities.

Thank you, Tracy Weyers and the Weyers Family Foundation for your outstanding gift!

Paul Demuth

President

AUGUST 8 BACC Board meeting

The Board of Directors of the Bay Area Community Council met for a business meeting and foresight analysis training by Garry Golden at St. Norbert College on August 8.

The Board approved the addition of Beth Kowalski, Executive Director of the Neville Public Museum, at the meeting. The Board also acknowledged the departures of Bob Woessner and Morgan Fuller. Members had a long discussion about expectations of Board members and the desire to attract strategic partners to help us advance our mission.

Know your BACC Director: Jaime Lynch

Tell us a little bit about yourself—where you were raised, past and current professions and careers, how long you have lived in Brown County, and some of your favorite pass times

I was born and raised in Seattle and spent my summers on Orcas Island, a large horseshoe-shaped island on the border of Washington State and Canada. After graduating from Western Washington University (just 15 minutes by seaplane from Orcas), I began what I thought was my ideal job, summer camp director of YMCA Camp Orkila, a large residential camp on the northwest corner of Orcas Island.

I quickly learned that non-summers are lonely on an island and shipped off to Ohio State University to complete plan b, a PhD sociology. It was at OSU that I met my wife Alexa. After graduation in 2011, we moved together to Green Bay to start our careers as sociologists at St. Norbert College. In the winter of 2018 we welcomed our daughter Lulu into the family and we have been sleeping intermittently ever since. When not professor-ing or fathering, you can find me playing ultimate frisbee, eating too many brussels sprouts, and complaining about winter.

Describe your relationship to the BACC—when did you start on the BACC, what are your hopes for the BACC, what personal gifts do you bring to the BACC mission?

I joined the BACC in the fall of 2018 with the hope of accelerating positive structural improvements to the overall quality of life and population health of Brown County. I am an expert researcher and data sleuth with the skills to sharpen BACC’s contribution to evidence-based initiatives.

What do you like most about life in Brown County?

5. Drive times

4. Cheese curds

3. Excellent summers

2. Being a professor

1. Fox River Trail

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"A proactive response to our community's increased number of seniors"

BACC Director Devon Christianson provides the seventh installation of a series by BACC directors connecting foresight analysis to life in our community

“The disconnect between Maine’s aging population and its need for young workers to care for that population is expected to be mirrored in states throughout the country over the coming decade, demographic experts say. And that’s especially true in states with populations with fewer immigrants, who are disproportionately represented in many occupations serving the elderly, statistics show,” Jeff Stein “‘ This will be catastrophic’: Maine families face elder boom, worker shortage in preview of nation’s future,” Washington Post, August 14, 2019.

BACC Board Member Jamie Lynch, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Strategic Research Institute, St. Norbert College, noted in a January 2019 presentation to the BACC Board of Directors that 23 percent of greater Green Bay population was age 55 or over and that by 2040, 32 percent, nearly one of every three people, will be over age 55. As we reflected on these statistics that are higher than the national norm, we nodded in agreement as we surveyed the age demographic of our own Board and the impact of care and support for senior aged individuals which many of us have born.

I was reminded of Jamie’s presentation and linkages between Maine’s situation and some of our own challenges. Maine, as the tip of the US iceberg, is ready to plow into all of the states in our country in the next few decades. The national numbers don’t lie. The number of older adults over 65 is projected to double by the year 2050. What will this mean to our economy, our need for enhanced technology, our political landscape?

Future family caregivers, who thought government dollars were what was needed to care for their aging parents, will be affected by the declining number of younger workers to serve in the care industry. In Maine, the oldest state in our nation, family caregivers are taking second jobs to help pay for skyrocketing care. States with low immigration rates will struggle the most. And, without workers, nursing homes, the proverbial safety net, can’t keep their doors open. The fines for inadequate care and not meeting staffing ratios along with low reimbursement rates have forced a trend of closure. In Brown County, we have seen such closures in the past two years-a signal indeed.

If we are going to see a preferred future for our aging population, reinventing how we think about financing long term care and attracting and training caregivers will be imperative. Applying technology is also key; imagine camera surveillance in homes to help monitor seniors’ sleeping, eating, medication, and motion patterns. Robotic personal care may come, as caregivers miss work, develop mental health issues, struggle to care for their children or afford their education as a 30 year caregiving role is thrust upon them.

How can Brown County build a preferred future? Where do we start? Creating a Livable Community, as defined by AARP, is one way to get the ball rolling . With an overall index score of 58, Brown County can do better. Attracting and keeping a younger workforce, providing training in high schools in the medical field, and tackling transportation and housing issues are good places to begin.

Without the successful application of foresight analysis, in which local leaders in workforce development and health care respond to key events, trends, and choices in their industries in order to create the future instead of reacting to current conditions, Maine’s scenario might very well became our own.

Favorite resources and news you can use

Recent news stories, articles, books, videos, Websites or venues of interest to the BACC supporters and newsletter readers, recommend by the BACC staff and directors. Also community events of interest to the BACC supporters

Bemiller, Haley. " Green Bay to developers: If you want city assistance, you need to create public art." Green Bay Press Gazette, August 21, 2019.

Brown County United Way, Family Services Crisis Center, Aging and Disability Resource Center. " 2018 Collaborative Community Report: Patterns of Need and Potential Service Gaps in Brown County."

Hendrix, Steve. " Three Perspectives, One America," Trust Magazine, July 26, 2019.

Kavanaugh, Karen. " Careers and Caregiving Compete for Employees' Hours," PEW, August 12, 2019.

Zuboff, Shoshana. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. New York: PublicAffairs, 2019.

Shoshana Zuboff, named "the true prophet of the information age" by the Financial Times, has always been ahead of her time. She asks why the once-celebrated miracle of digital is turning into a nightmare. Zuboff tackles the social, political, business, personal, and technological meaning of "surveillance capitalism" as an unprecedented new market form.