The Coordinating Circle

The activities of the Sage-ing Guild are defined, developed and carried out by the Coordinating Circle, a leadership group of at least seven and up to eleven professional members of the Sage-ing Guild. The members of the Coordinating Circle volunteer their time and talents to ensure that all Guild members can communicate with each other and have the needed support to develop and publicize their own sage-ing practices. The Coordinating Circle currently meets monthly, via teleconference. The authority of the Coordinating Circle includes the authority to:

  • Prepare and approve the Guild budget
  • Create educational programs, publications and grants
  • Hire staff, consultants and contractors to carry out programs and activities
  • Approve applications for grants and disburse grant awards
  • Establish committees
*See Bylaws for complete details of Coordinating Circle duties and responsibilities.

The term of office for a Coordinating Circle member is three years, with a two term limit. Every three years, three members rotate out of the Circle and are replaced by three new members who have been invited to join by the sitting Coordinating Circle.

The Coordinating Circle selects the Guild officers from the Coordinating Circle members. The officers form the Executive Committee of the Coordinating Circle which is empowered to act between meetings in accordance with powers and duties granted by the Coordinating Circle.

Committees are used extensively to carry out Guild business. Standing committees include:

  • Executive Committee
  • Education Committee
  • Standards Committee

Ad hoc committees are formed from time to time to handle specific projects or to serve a specific short term function.

The Coordinating Circle Today

  
Gary Carlson Gary Carlson, Ph.D., is a co-founder, former Board Chair, Training Faculty member and Outreach Committee chair of the Sage-ing Guild, an international organization focused on teaching conscious aging principles. He served on the Board of the Spiritual Eldering Institute and is a leader and co-founder of the Conscious Aging Network of New Mexico. He recently received the first Reb Zalman Leadership Award from the Sage-ing Guild. Gary retired fifteen years ago after a 31-year career as a research scientist and technical manager. For over 20 years, he has participated as a leader and participant in human potential activities, including 13 New Mexico Men's Wellness conferences, six New Mexico Conferences on Aging and various other local and national conferences.

Gary serves as Website Coordinator & Outreach Committee Committee Chair for the Coordinating Circle.

  

  
Nancy Gray-Hemstock Nancy Gray-Hemstock, MSW, works in the field of aging. I bring many years of life experience as an administrator and social worker. Currently I present and facilitate Sage-ing workshops and retreats; and I research for University of Victoria's Centre on Aging. I'm a Certified Sage-ing Leader (CSL), Executive Board member, and past mentor and liaison to the Education Committee of the Sage-ing Guild. I lead Story-Keeping: Guided Autobiography workshops and retreats; and I record the telling of "Life Stories" by Victoria Hospice patients and private clients.

Nancy serves as Secretary of the Coordinating Circle and will be the enthusiastic Hospitality Committee chair for the Sage-ing Guild's 2012 International Conference.

  

  
Ron Pevny Ron Pevny, M.A., is a Certified Sage-ing Leader, life coach, and rite of passage guide who, for more than thirty years, has offered wilderness quests, retreats and other support services for people and organizations in transition. In 2002 he co-developed nature-based Choosing Conscious Elderhood retreats, presented around the U.S. to serve as rites of passage into conscious elderhood. In recent years he has expanded this work by founding and directing the Center for Conscious Eldering based in Colorado.

Ron serves as the Outreach Committee Liaison for the Coordinating Circle, with a special focus on creating collaborative relationships with other organizations committed to conscious aging.

  

  
David Rozell David Rozell has been a member of the Sage-ing Guild since 2010. David retired in 2003 after long careers in the nuclear, renewable energy and environmental protection fields. Since retiring he has dedicated his life to creating a different model of aging in the world. David is a certified professional retirement coach with clients throughout the U.S. and is an adjunct instructor in Gerontology at Marylhurst University where he teaches an Intentional Aging course. David also leads retirement planning workshops and developed and taught Aging as A Spiritual Path courses in Portland. He is an "intermittent" blogger at The Intentional Aging Collective. Among his most recent involvement with non-profit organizations he is an advisor to the Geezer Gallery, the Volunteers of America, and was a co-founder and Director of the Make Music Project, all in Oregon. David lives in Portland, Oregon.

David works on Sage-ing Initiatives in Communities for the Coordinating Circle.

  

  
Carol Scott-Kassner Carol Scott-Kassner, Ph.D., has been a certified Sage-ing Leader since 2005. Carol regularly presents Intensives in the Seattle area with her business partner, Pat Lewis. They are both CSL's and have a business called "Aging With Wisdom." Carol also works as a mentor for new CSL's and pairs with Gary Carlson to train CSL's. She writes articles for a quarterly paper in Seattle on the spirituality of aging. She is a commissioned minister of the United Church of Christ to a ministry of the spirituality of aging and of spiritual direction. She lives and works in the Seattle area. Prior to this work, Carol was a professor of music education and has written many books in that field. She has served on numerous non-profit boards and is happy to bring that experience to the Sage-ing Guild.

Carol serves as the Chair of the Coordinating Circle.

  

  
Eston Williams Eston Williams A Buddhist proverb says, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear." Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi's book appeared as Eston realized that he had more years behind him than ahead of him. As pastor of a small rural church in East Texas, each Sunday morning he looked into the faces of others who were even further down the road than he and wondered how he would minister to them in the years to come. "Spiritual eldering has given me a challenging new vision of growing older and the tools which can enable me to grow personally and to assist others along their spiritual journeys."

Eston has served as pastor of Aley United Methodist Church in Seven Points, Texas, since 1998. He uses the skills and resources he gained as a Sage-ing Circle Facilitator to lead classes in "Spiritual Eldering" in churches, libraries and community colleges. He hopes to inspire other pastors to share this program of spiritual growth with their communities. Eston earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1971 from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas and his Master of Theology degree from Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in 1975. Eston and his bride, Cathy, live in Mabank, Texas on the same block as their two daughters and their husbands. They welcomed their first grandchild into their lives on October 25th of 2011.

Eston serves as Chair-Elect and is on the Membership Committee of the Coordinating Circle.

  

  
Bob Wood

Bob serves as Treasurer of the Coordinating Circle.

  

  
Joe Yankech Joe Yankech I am a retired civil servant of Michigan. I am a Ph.D.'d sociologist from Michigan State University. My areas of interest are complex social organizations and cross cultural sociology. I have been involved with Sage-ing as a CSL and SCF since 2005 and have facilitated sage-ing workshops at Transformations Spirituality Center in Kalamazoo MI. My current interests are helping establish a Health Clinic with the Rotary International Club in the northern mountains of Peru, working for social justice issues in Kalamazoo MI while being open to spirit as to what is around the next bend in the road for me. I have three grown sons and am recently widowed.

Joe serves as the liaison from the Education Committee to the Coordinating Circle.

  

The Coordinating Circle Staff

  
Robin Gobetz

Robin serves as Co-administrator of the Sage-ing Guild.

  

  
Peggy Moody

Peggy serves as the webmaster for the Sage-ing Guild.

  

  
Paul Severance In 1979, Paul Severance founded United Senior Action (USA) of Indiana, and served as its Executive Director through 2004 when he retired. USA over 14,000 dues-paying members and was the premier senior public policy advocacy organization in the state.

Paul has served on the Board and Executive Committee of the National Coalition of Consumer Organizations on Aging (NCCO), a constituent unit of the National Council on the Aging; and on the Consumer Action Board of the Medicare Rights Center.

In addition to his work with the Sage-ing Guild, Paul has founded the Center for the New Elder dedicated to inspiring elders to make a difference for future generations. Through the Center, Paul conducts workshops, teleseminars and Mastermind groups for elders.

Paul serves as Co-administrator of the Sage-ing Guild & Membership Committee Chair for the Coordinating Circle.

  



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