Bob Pitman was sworn in as the national chair of the National Institute of Senior Centers on March 16, 2006, in Anaheim, CA.  Pitman is the executive director of Senior Center Services of Bartholomew County in Columbus, IN. His acceptance speech is below.

Acceptance Speech

Thank you very much.

You know, the longest I had held a professional position before I came to the Senior Center was 3 1/2 years.  That was 21 years ago.  Little did I suspect that I was embarking on the adventure of a lifetime.

Most of the people who made that adventure possible are gathered in this room today.

It's with special pride that I am able to introduce my loved ones who have kept things going on the home front while I have traipsed all over the United States, my long-suffering wife Judy and our two beautiful daughters, Emma and Cassie.  I would also like to introduce Emma's boyfriend, Andy Harmon.  (Would you all please stand?)  Emma and Andy have been together for over four years now.  If he can survive five days cooped up with the Pitman clan, we figure he ought to be able to handle anything.

Also in the room are so many of my close friends and colleagues from the NISC Delegate Council who have given me strength and support and hope for nearly eleven years now.

In particular, I would like to recognize our friend, leader, and mentor, not to mention one of the foremost experts on loons in North America, Christine Beatty.

Next I would like to thank someone who manages to proudly wave the senior center banner high while walking a political tightrope, our NISC Director Constance Todd.

And finally, I want to thank my good friend and long-time roomie Jay Morgan, without whom I would be nothing more than a missing person's report in Albuquerque, or Salt Lake City, New Orleans, or only God knows where else.

All of you in this room are special to me because you are members of what I consider to be a very noble profession.  I just did a quick total of the number of years of service represented by the 10 officers of NISC.  Would you believe it's more than 200 years?

Why do we stay?  There may be some different reasons, but one we all have in common is that we get to serve some of the most amazing role models for growing older.  And we are wiser and better people for it.   At the end of the day, we may come home frustrated, and tired, and even defeated, but we come home knowing that we have made a difference or have tried our damnedest to do so.

We serve in a field full of opportunity and with the potential to positively impact our communities.  And yet the place where we work, senior centers, is one of the most unrecognized, under-appreciated---and even maligned of community organizations.

We have a wonderful story to tell, and we must learn how to tell it well.

There are those, both within and outside of our centers, to whom we must send a message.

To staff members who say, "We tried that ten years ago and it didn't work" or "We have always done it this way," we must send a message.

To our fellow center directors who survey their core members and say, "our seniors like things the way they are," we must send a message.

To our Board or Advisory Members who say, "We have a great center---why would we spend all that time and money to go through accreditation?" we must send a message.

To community members who say, "I'll never use a senior center" or "If they want a new building, let THEM build it," we must send a message.

To funders who say, "You really don't have any SCIENTIFIC outcomes that prove the benefits of senior center programs," we must send a message.

To those in the aging network who say, “Senior centers are incapable of change and will be extinct in 20 years,” we must send a message.

And to our long-time center members, God bless them, who say to a new participant, "That's MY CHAIR, you can't sit there,” we must send a message.

And here is our message:

WE ARE MAD AS HELL, AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!

I ask for your help in meeting the need for change head on, in educating others about the importance of our work, and in furthering our noble and selfless vision of prolonging the productivity and well being of seniors while actively engaging them in community life.

Thank you.

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