ORANJ Plenary – Celebrating 25 years

May 17, 2016

Twenty five years ago the first meeting of ORANJ was held at Applewood with seven CCRCs represented. Last month 120 residents from 20 New Jersey CCRCs were in attendance as ORANJ founder and former president John Cook was recognized. This post includes a little bit of ORANJ history along with 12 links to documents from the April 20 plenary meeting.

ORANJ History Excerpts:

“The first official meeting of ORANJ was held at Applewood Estates on May 8, 1991, with seven CCRCs represented. The number of CCRCs in the state had increased from only four, about five years earlier, to 13 in 1991. All 13 had been contacted and invited to send representatives, but only about half participated.

“In 1994 John Cook of Applewood Estates was elected president and Bob Anderson of Medford Leas was elected vice president. These two filled those offices interchangeably for the next eight years. During those years they traveled to many communities to assist them in the creation of their own Residents’ Association, and to encourage them to participate in the state organization.

“During those early years Bob and John traveled, not only throughout New Jersey, but also to neighboring states to speak with organizers of groups in the other states. In addition, they attended meetings of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (AAHSA) where concerns of CCRC residents were discussed. It was in a hotel in Philadelphia in 1996, at the time of an annual meeting of AAHSA, that the inaugural meeting of the National Association of Continuing Care Residents’ Associations (NACCRA) was held. Bob and John were two of the original directors of that organization. Because ORANJ had a small treasury, the expense of these travels was borne by the individuals. In fact, most of the costs or ORANJ were borne by the participants. As the organization grew in size it was divided into four geographical zones with a vice president for each zone. At the same time, internal organization created committees assigned to specific areas: legislative, finance, communication, etc. The development of these committees led to the growth of ORANJ.”

These Spring 2016 documents are available on this website.