Weekly Village News for March 6, 2026!

From Frank...

I had the pleasure this week of presenting at the Cleveland Park Congregational UCC, along with Christine Bitzer of Seabury Resources for the Aging, on “Planning for the Ages.”  We dealt with what type of arrangements, legal and otherwise, that people can put in place to age where and how they wish.  It was a great event with people attending in person as well as online.  A recording of the event is here for those that weren’t able to join and wish to have access to the information.

There was a key moment in the program that I think is worth sharing.  After reviewing a few hypothetical individuals, how they planned, and what happened to them, we discussed which of the individuals had the most control over their futures.  It was generally agreed that those that planned, including making contingency plans, were better situated, especially when a crisis hit.  But the aha moment, for me at least, was when we discussed what prevented people from planning for their own future.  Was it time, inertia, not knowing who to ask to be a power of attorney, not wanting to face making decisions, not knowing available choices, the expense of getting documents in order, being overwhelmed by the prospect, etc.?  The consensus was all those reasons!  

It’s hard and yet so very important to get our ducks in a row. I’ll admit to you (and you already know that I divulge a lot of my own thoughts and feelings here) that I need to do a lot of this work myself!  So, I’m wondering if folks would like to establish a Planning Group, where we could work over a period, such as six months or a year, on putting together our plans, and have some specific speakers address the cohort group. For example, we could have an elder care attorney come and speak about establishing powers of attorney for finances and healthcare.  It would be a commitment to meet at least monthly and tackle these topics together and then share our individual work that is accomplished between our sessions.  Is this of interest to you?  If so, I’d love to hear from you via email.  If we get 10 or more members interested, we’ll start of group!

Please take a few minutes to peruse the upcoming events and register for those things of interest.  It’s important for everyone to register early for events so that we get an idea of how many will be attending.  Note that members can log into our software, Helpful Village, to register for events, but unfortunately you cannot unregister yourself.  To let us know that you can no longer attend (which is always appreciated with as much notice as possible) you can call 202-615-5853 or email us at info@cwpv.org. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Read all the news and Village programs and events for March 2026 right here!

— Frank Finamore,