Club President Attends Conference On Aging

President/CEO of AAA Central Penn Leonard R. Sempier, a delegate at large, participated recently in the historic 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCoA) in Washington, D.C.

The conferences are decennial events designed to make recommendations to the president and Congress on national aging policies for the future. The 2005 conference, Dec. 11-14, was the fifth in U.S. history and the first of the 21st century.

Sempier joined approximately 1,200 delegates from across the United States selected by governors, members of Congress, the National Congress of American Indians and the WHCoA Policy Committee. They were asked to vote on up to 50 resolutions that they believe are the most important for current and future generations of seniors and to develop implementation strategies that will produce results that will make a difference in the lives of future generations. Among the resolutions were capacity for safe driving, transportation options, planning along the lifespan, our community workplace of the future and health and long-term living.

"I was delighted to be part of the White House Conference on Aging and help to get our two transportation initiatives passed," Sempier said about initiatives to support older drivers to retain mobility and independence through strategies to continue safe driving and other viable transportation options.

"Most of the delegates I spoke to indicated that transportation overall was one of the top five issues in their state and that they would be voting for it from the 73 resolutions we could select," Sempier said.

The WHCoA had a legislative mandate to focus on the aging of today and tomorrow, including 78 million baby boomers  who began turning 60 in January. In convening the conference, Policy Committee Chair Dorcas R. Hardy encouraged the delegates to "envision the future" as they worked on how the resolutions they selected might be put into action, and to include actions that business, industry, private and non-profit sectors, families, communities and individuals make take - and not solely the actions of federal, state and local governments.

"I was impressed with Bella Dinh-Zarr and the entire AAA Foundation Team and the hard work they did to keep transportation top of mind within the conference and with the delegates," Sempier said. "This hard working team even had their boss, Peter Kissinger, working the AAA booth at the conference on Sunday instead of watching a good Redskins game.

"I was amazed to meet so many concerned delegates of all age groups who were concerned about our aging population," he continued. "One of the most insightful presentations was by the Honorable David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States. In his graphic presentation of the 78 million baby boomers, he equated our generation to a tsunami of people impacting the overall structure of the working force, Social Security, Medicare and many other items in our economy and world in the coming years. Because of his presentation, I purposely got involved in the resolution ‘Remove barriers to the retention and hiring of older workers, including age discrimination,’ one of the resolutions which passed."

For nearly two years, the WHCoA has sought input from an array of stakeholders to develop the agenda and plan for the WHCoA. Emerging issues were identified and refined through public input received from approximately 400 events involving 130,000 people across the nation as well as general comments received by the WHCoA. The final conference report will be completed in June.

"It was a very worthwhile conference and I was delighted to get to know the hardworking AAA Foundation staff," Sempier said.

For information about the WHCoA, visit http://www.whcoa.gov.