It’s time to scrap the old-fashioned views of retirees sitting on their couches or playing bingo. Today’s retirees are active and engaged in their lives. They are physically fit, working second careers or developing skills, and volunteering to help others. People are living to age 100 more frequently, and the way they choose to engage and remain active requires us all to rethink learning.  

Our team at Setser Group provided C-Suite as a Service to the North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees’ Association (NCRGEA), a nonprofit organization that is the voice and go-to resource for North Carolina’s retired public servants. Its mission is to advance, promote, and protect the benefits, interests, and well-being of North Carolina’s retired state and local public servants. With more than 65,000 members, NCRGEA is one of the largest retiree groups in the nation. 

What does C-Suite as a Service look like? At NCRGEA, Bryan served as the interim executive director, and the Setser Group team functions in other project-based roles. Setser Group was instrumental in creating the organization's strategic plan and guided NCRGEA through a SWOT analysis for further recommendations and strategy planning.

Note: You can click the image above to make it full-size. 

View the full strategic plan here.

Our team provided the framework for the permanent executive director search. We also planned the virtual Celebration of Public Service Week. The event culminated with Board President Vann Langston introducing Tim O'Connell as NCRGEA’s new executive director.

What does planning for a week-long online celebration filmed on Zoom and broadcast on YouTube look like? It depends. Do you want a clip from the governor, state representatives, and other dignitaries mixed in? If so, count on this: Intensity! On all counts, it was a first for the organization.

Here are the highlights of our planning:

• Aligned conference strands with NCRGEA Strategic Priorities, all connected to an overarching theme of celebrating public service.

• Identified topics within strands and recruited session presenters from within the organization (including board members) and external partners.

• Created integrated media strategy to promote the conference.

• Designed sessions and schedules to best optimize attendees’ interests and attention.

• Communicated regularly with possible conference participants - NCRGEA members, nonmembers government retirees, government pre-retirees, and benefits specialists with NC government organizations; during the conference, included daily digests for registrants.

• Identified pain points with regard to a virtual event. Decision made to live stream conference on YouTube. Those wanting to actively participate were provided with instructions to do so.

• Considered the need to make post-conference repeat or new views easier - took live stream videos and broke them into session clips.

• Recognized the need to analyze results for future events - sent a post-conference survey to gather feedback; asked both attendees and non-attendees for information.

Every third bullet could easily have been And Some Sort of Magic Happens Here. It was truly a team and NCRGEA partnership effort.

We have two important tools you can use to support retirees. 

We also have two tools instrumental to our work at NCRGEA. 

We were honored to have Dr. Dudley Flood at our Celebration of Public Service Week. If you do not know Dr. Flood, he is North Carolina’s champion of education. Dr. Flood, along with Gene Causby, were tasked with desegregating North Carolina schools—a daunting and dangerous assignment. Flood, who is black, and Causby, who is white, crisscrossed the state from 1969 to 1973, meeting with every community to resolve integration issues and lower the temperature of racial tensions. It was a remarkable feat, and North Carolina is forever indebted to these two educators for their important work. The Dudley Flood Center for Educational Equity and Opportunity works collaboratively to solve issues of systemic racism by advocating for changes in policy and practice. See Dr. Flood’s introduction at the NCREA celebration here:

We also want to celebrate Clifton Blake Metcalf, who became the first recipient of NCRGEA’s Lifetime Public Service Award!

Read about Clifton and the award here, and congratulations, Clifton!

Want to share Setser Group on social media?

Join Setser Group in celebrating the North Carolina Retired Governmental Employees’ Association! Learn how we provided C-Suite as a Service to the organization at https://www.setsergroup.com/connect.

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