What You Need to Know for This Week's Vote on Expanding LeadingAge NY Membership to For-Profit Retirement Housing Providers
(June 24, 2024) Over the past several months, LeadingAge NY has shared a number of details about an exciting opportunity to expand our Retirement Housing membership through an amendment to our bylaws that would allow for-profit Retirement Housing providers to join the association. This proposal – which would apply ONLY to Retirement Housing and NOT extend membership to for-profit providers in other service lines – will be brought up for a vote by the full membership at our 2024 Annual Meeting this Thurs., June 27th, from 1-1:30 p.m.
In advance of the Annual Meeting, we wanted to ensure that you had all of the information you need to make an informed decision. Our first communication on this proposal, sent in February, provided background on the national LeadingAge Board of Directors’ 2020 decision allowing LeadingAge state affiliates to accept for-profit members in a framework appropriate for them, and why the LeadingAge NY Retirement Housing Cabinet and Board of Directors supported exploring this change in NY:
- Retirement Housing Cabinet members are already sharing resources and referrals with for-profit providers in their local networks.
- For-profit Retirement Housing providers are not represented by any other statewide association, and many were LeadingAge NY members prior to becoming for-profit.
- Expanding membership to for-profit Retirement Housing providers would create additional revenue to support our continued advocacy for all service lines.
- A larger Retirement Housing membership would give this service line a stronger voice on key legislative and political issues.
Our second communication, sent in April, reiterated this support and highlighted how 32 of 36 LeadingAge state affiliates have made the decision to accept for-profit members since 2020.
Finally, new insights from Dominick Manfredo, Executive Director/CEO of The Community at Sunset Wood and Vice President of the LeadingAge NY Retirement Housing Cabinet, on the value of this proposal for the Retirement Housing service line and the association as a whole are provided below:
“Given the massive growth in the market-rate senior housing sector, it is the perfect time to start creating relationships with more housing providers outside of our non-profit circle. The Retirement Housing Cabinet is in full support of this bylaw change not only to recruit new members who also serve our growing vulnerable senior population, but also to share our valuable LeadingAge NY advocacy efforts with more providers. Being the only association that lobbies and advocates for market-rate senior housing providers, this provides us with a vital opportunity to amplify our voice utilizing the power of many. In addition, the LeadingAge NY Board of Directors Bylaws Task Force has really scrutinized the language of our changes to make sure that we are looking to bring in market-rate housing providers only, not nursing homes or any other service lines.”
We look forward to your participation in the Annual Meeting and hope that you will offer your support for this exciting change. If you have any questions in the meantime, please feel free to contact Annalyse Komoroske Denio, Jeff Diamond, or Kristen Myers.