ITN Blog
If you would like to contribute to our blog, please contact us. We would love to hear from our members, volunteers, and anyone with an interest in senior mobility.
From John Balentine, ITNPortland Dispatcher
Thursday, August 13, 2009
A day in the life of an ITN dispatcher
The day starts early. It's 6 a.m., mid-winter. Snow is falling persistently. It's still dark but the small LCD display on my ITN® cell phone sends a faint glow onto my bedroom ceiling. From the number on the display I know it's a driver calling. I think to myself, this can't be good.
"It's Jeanie. My car won't start. There's no way I can make that 7 a.m. pick-up," the voice on the other end of the line says.
So starts an average day in the life of a dispatcher for ITNPortland™.
It's the dispatcher's job to make sure the day's rides run smoothly. While we spend hours the day before preparing the next day's schedule, rarely does a day go exactly according to plan.
It's now 7:30 a.m. and I'm in my car driving to ITN's office at the Dana Warp Mill on Bridge Street. in Westbrook. Another call comes in on my cell phone, this time from Mrs. Smith. She forgot to schedule a pick-up for 11 a.m. I tell her I'll call her back when I get to the office and can check the schedule. After arriving at work, I go through each driver's schedule for that day and eventually find an opening. I quickly call Mrs. Smith back and tell her we will pick her up at 11 a.m. Victory! The first bump of the day is resolved.
The day progresses as usual. Members needing rides for the next day call and schedule their upcoming rides. The other dispatcher Eric Bartlett, veteran dispatcher Mary Lou Zahn, or myself will answer each call, "ITN, this is (our name), how can I help you?" Most folks are very friendly, appreciative that an organization such as ITN is around to provide such a needed service.
After lunch at my desk, the next day's schedule beckons. Knowing that most people have already called in to request their rides for the next day, I use ITN's computer system to begin the process of scheduling the next day's rides. To efficiently schedule, a dispatcher needs to know where destinations are and how long it takes to get there.
Scheduling is one thing. Having the day's list of 50 to 70 rides proceed according to schedule is quite another. Despite such snags as heavy traffic, train crossings, and weather delays (especially in the winter), it's remarkable the day's schedule progresses as smoothly as it usually does.
But other times, the schedule can get off track. One thing that can ruin our schedule, is delays at doctor's appointments. When someone calls to request a ride for a doctor's appointment, the dispatcher's job is to work with the rider to figure out how long an appointment will last. Obviously, some appointments last longer than others. Someone needing surgery will often need hours compared to someone visiting for a routine checkup. Many times, our estimate will be accurate. Other times, an ITN driver will arrive only to find the rider is still in with a doctor. As these snags occur throughout the day, we do our best to shift the schedule accordingly.
By 4 p.m., the next day's schedule is usually complete. Inevitably, someone will call after 4 p.m. to schedule a ride for the next day. After working those into the schedule, we'll print out each driver's manifest. A manifest is a sheet of paper detailing specific pick-up and drop-off times and locations, the rider's name, the doctor's name, and any other pertinent information.
At ITNPortland, we have paid drivers, who use company cars, and volunteer drivers, who use their own cars. Since volunteers rarely come to ITN's office in Westbrook, most request we e-mail their driver manifest information the night before. Depending on the number of volunteers available for the next day and how slow our typing fingers are moving, this process can take upwards of an hour to complete. We then call to confirm that everyone received their schedule and if they have any questions about the next day's rides.
At 6 p.m., one of us will forward the office phone to the ITN cell phone and head out the door. As in the morning, inevitably someone will call at night to request a ride for the next day. The cell phone will ring, a shaft of LCD light will brighten my bedroom and I'll awake to either a rider needing a ride or a driver not available for the day. But so goes the dispatching business. Our job is managing the snags. And when people need us, they can call and be sure an ITN dispatcher will answer.
From Rodney Glassman, the Ward 2 Tucson City Councilman and a member of the Pima Council on Aging Board of Directors, Tucson, Arizona
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
SPOTLIGHT ON THIS WEEK'S COUNCIL AGENDA (Regional Transportation Opportunities for Seniors)
This week, in addition to the normal discussions of our City budget and some land use projects, I am very excited to be presenting a new concept to the Mayor and Council at our study session in regards to senior transit opportunities. The transportation needs of seniors throughout our entire region regularly go unmet, decreasing their independence and limiting their access to healthcare, shopping and community activities.
A wonderful program was introduced to my office by Jim Murphy of the Pima Council on Aging called, "Independent Transportation Network" (ITNAmerica). The ITNAmerica program offers a solution to this problem by providing door-to-door, arm-through-arm service using a business model that includes volunteer drivers (www.itnamerica.org). As both the Ward 2 Tucson City Councilman and a member of the Pima Council on Aging Board of Directors, I presented the concept of ITN to the Board of the Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) at their April meeting. At the end of my presentation, Mayor Walkup moved that the RTA Board direct staff to pursue the project with our Ward 2 Tucson City Council Office, Pima Council on Aging, ITN and other stakeholders to complete due diligence and bring the project proposal back to RTA Board for funding authorization in the fall.
As we move forward in investigating this exciting concept, Mayor Walkup and I thought it would be appropriate to bring the idea before the full Mayor and Council to introduce the program and provide everyone the opportunity to contribute to this effort. Just like the rainwater harvesting, gray water plumbing, solar-powered water heating and opening schoolyards up as neighborhood parks, I am pleased to bring another one of my campaign commitments, expanding transit opportunities for seniors, to the forefront with the help of the Pima Council on Aging and the Regional Transportation Authority. If you would like to view the presentation you can watch it at www.tucson12.tv. We have lots more to come!
From John Balentine, ITNPortland Dispatcher
Friday, April 10, 2009
Driving through his old haunts is a perk for "Uncle Dave"
David Chute, an ITN® volunteer driver and retired banker now living in South Portland, prefers his friends call him, "Uncle Dave."
"That's what I would use as my handle when I would call in stock and bond trades for customers at the bank," Chute said. "We had to execute the trades in a hurry so I'd say, "This is Uncle Dave,' and the broker would immediately know who I was.'"
Today, after retiring at the end of 2008 after almost 40 years as a banker, Chute is making himself known to a new group of folks, this time in the charity sector. Chute is keeping busy volunteering for four area charities: ITNPortland, the Ronald McDonald House, Southern Maine Agency on Aging, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute where he will soon teach an introductory economics class and a history of computing course as well.
To ITN riders, Chute is easily recognizable. He is an outgoing, friendly gentleman with a heart for helping people.
"I assisted my mother for the last 25 years, until she died in 2007, by taking her grocery shopping, to the doctor, and hair appointments," Chute said. "I enjoyed doing that and I get to do it again here at ITN."
Chute heard about the Independent Transportation Network® while working for Maine Bank & Trust. In the mid-1990s, he made acquaintance with Katherine Freund, founder of ITN, who was a customer at the bank. And Chute also worked for 20 years with one of ITN's best known and longest serving volunteer drivers, Martha Giles. After Giles retired, she devoted much of her time to driving for ITN, a service Chute viewed as admirable.
"Martha was always a perky lady, and the idea of driving for ITN always sounded interesting," Chute said. "The last few years of my banking career I worked for Chittenden Corporation, based in Vermont. So I would drive there on a regular basis and kind of liked the driving portion of it."
Chute also enjoys the personal aspect of volunteering for ITN.
"I enjoy meeting the people and helping them get to where they need to go," he said.
Born and raised on Glecker Road in Portland, near Cheverus High School, Chute also gets to drive through his old haunts while driving for ITN.
"My father worked for 35 years at American Can Company, which was located on Reed Street. He used to walk to work from where we lived on Gleckler. And the other day, I drove this one gentleman who lives on Gleckler Road, and we shot the breeze about the old times. It was really nice," Chute said.
Like all the drivers at ITN, "Uncle Dave" is a great chauffer, not just for his driving skills but also for his personality. Perhaps you'll see his 2007 Pontiac Torrent driving up to your door someday soon. And when you meet him, don't forget to say, "Hi Uncle Dave!" While he may not be related to you, you can be sure he'll treat you like family while you're in his car.
From Katherine Freund, Founder and President, ITNAmerica
Monday, April 06, 2009
[My Car] Just Sits There.
I travel all over the world now for ITN, but when I am home in Portland, Maine, I always volunteer to drive on weekends, usually Sunday mornings. The personal experience of meeting older people never grows old for me.
I know cars are vehicles, but I always think of them as rolling rooms with upholstered couches and easy chairs facing forward, air-conditioned or heated for the season, with picture windows and piped in music. What private space could be more conducive to conversation?
Last week, as I was driving one of our members to church, I learned that she was born in her grandmother's house a few blocks from where I now live. On the way home, I detoured a bit so she could point it out to me. We talked about church, about the 1883 brick building we passed that is now on the market (it was once a school, she said) and about the article she read in the newspaper describing CarTrade™.
She wanted to tell me about her own car. "It just sits there," she said. "My car."
I nodded. "Oh, I can drive it if I want to," she explained, " and maybe some say I should. But I don't want to anymore. I'm just not interested."
We hear so often about older people who don't want to stop driving, sometimes we're not listening hard enough to those who do. I have heard these words—"I don't want to anymore," and had this conversation since I began driving for ITN in 1995.
She explained that members of her family were willing to drive her, but that they had to come from an hour away, and she worried about the trouble to them. Then she said what most families never guess—that sometimes she wanted to go shopping by herself. All in all, she needed more independent mobility—the stuff ITN was born to provide.
"How do I know what my car is worth?" she asked, sitting beside me on the couch in our private rolling room.
"Why don't I just have the manager call you?" I asked. I knew that he would give her a fair price—wholesale, not retail—but the very best price we could secure, and we would not charge a cent for the service to her. CarTrade™ is a benefit of ITN membership. CarTrade™ is different than a donation (which ITN also accepts), because people who trade their cars receive the benefit of the vehicles value toward the cost of their rides. And all ITN rides are highly subsidized by voluntary, local community support. CarTrade™ is a great deal for older people, and their adult children, who worry about the vehicles and their parents.
She thought about my offer. "That would be nice," she said. "Thank you."
When I first started the Independent Transportation Network®, I believed that people would make good choices if they had good alternatives. I still believe it is true.
From Katherine Freund, Founder and President, ITNAmerica
Monday, December 01, 2008
Birth of the Ginger Boy™
There is a story behind our Ginger Boy. He was born one sunny day this past year in our ITNAmerica office in the old Dana Warp Mill, on the Presumpscot River, in Westbrook, Maine.
There's a big white board in my office that I never use. Everybody else at ITNAmerica, especially our software developers, has diagrams, arrows, formulae, "do lists" and flow charts on their white boards. On the day that would become Ginger Boy's birthday, our team from the Affiliate Support Department and I were meeting at the conference table beside my empty white board, talking about the good hearts of all the people across the country who want to provide quality transportation to older people in their communities. It is truly remarkable how many people want to help.
But what we also discussed was how people with a "non-profit" heart so often find any notion of business practices either foreign, or mysterious, or even negative. Somehow, millions of people have no sense of the connection between resources and solutions. Here at ITNAmerica, where the sustainable ITN model has now run for years through fares from those who use the service and a diversified base of voluntary, local community support, we apply sound business practices on a moment-to-moment, hour-to-hour basis. And the result is not only a highly consumer-oriented, quality service, it is a non-profit organization that is sustainable without continuous infusions of taxpayer dollars for operating expenses. This is what I call having a business head.
I leaped up from my chair, grabbed a marker, and traced the outline of a Ginger Boy Cookie. On his chest, I drew a red non-profit heart, and across his forehead, in blue, I wrote "business head." Then, with another marker, I drew a spark plug in his hand, because I think we must all be willing to do the rides, and do the work, and write the checks ourselves to solve this problem.
"Look," I said to my staff. We need to teach people that to effectively solve this problem, we need a non-profit heart, a business head, and we can't be afraid to get our hands dirty. The Ginger Boy was born. Our little guy is an entrepreneur.
By now, the Ginger Boy has traveled a bit. I remembered him sometime later when I was asked to present ITNAmerica as a case study for the first Masters Degree class at the new Erickson School: Aging, Management and Policy. He was very popular. Then I introduced him at the University of Tampa executive program for social entrepreneurs. I was subsequently contacted and asked if he could be referenced in an undergraduate class, too.
The baker in me soon won out, and I baked Ginger Boy cookies for a trip to Washington, where I served them at a meeting with former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, and at the Aspen Institute / Root Cause panel discussion on social entrepreneurs and government.
I believe that good solutions are grassroots solutions, and in our lifetimes, they are high-tech, as well. Ask the folks who ran President-Elect Obama's campaign. This is ITNAmerica, too, the marriage of high-tech and grassroots, conceived and built for the benefit of sustainable community mobility for older people and their families. But I'll write about that in my next blog.
For now, we're posting my Ginger Boy recipe (adapted from the back of a Gold Medal flour bag) so you can also bring together your non-profit heart and your business head to help support ITNAmerica and sustainable, dignified transportation for older people across our nation.
From Tom Porter, Executive Director, ITNOrlando
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Ann Nicolson was the first ITNOrlando volunteer to drive for us, even if it was just "pretend." One of the local news shows did a story about us and Ann drove for the television camera weeks before we gave our first "real" ride. Over one hundred times since then, Ann got into her car, picked up a customer and drove them to their destination. Ann, like all of our volunteers, was a very generous person.
One of Ann's first riders was Eleanor Irvine. They discovered they had a lot in common and quickly became good friends. Ann would drive them to lunch, to look at the newest stores and restaurants that had recently opened and to evening social outings. On the news clip, Ann said that she liked to drive and mentioned that she wanted to ensure she had a place in someone's car when she could no longer drive. That place was in my car on January 11, 2008, sooner than any of us expected and it was from a hospital to Ann's temporary home in a Winter Park rehabilitation center. Ann passed away on Thursday, January 31, 2008.
The following Monday, I picked up Eleanor Irvine and we drove to the memorial service. I was not surprised when several of Ann's lifelong friends and family members noted her many interests, her sense of humor and her zest for living. I was not surprised when they recounted the many ways that she helped others and generously gave of herself. And I was not surprised when Ann's daughter Lucy told me she learned generosity from her mom and directed that the mileage credits Ann earned go to Eleanor and that Ann's car go to ITN.
It's sad knowing that I will no longer talk to Ann or see her smiling face at our volunteer celebrations. I'm sure that those of you who knew her will miss her, too. I hope that Ann's family (and I believe Ann) will take comfort in knowing that she is still giving generously to our customers and still providing rides to Eleanor Irvine.
From: Ruth Lando, Communications Director
The Community Foundation of Sarasota County
Friday, January 25, 2008 1:06 PM
Katherine,
I just left the meeting you conducted for us here at the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. I want to tell you that you are completely inspiring and devastatingly powerful in your low-key, understated way.
Thank you for a marvelous presentation! I can't wait for us to dot all the I's and cross all the T's and make our ITN happen in Sarasota!
I have two remarkably resilient and independent elderly parents (88 and 95 years old) who still live on their own and manage to get everywhere they want to go with our public transportation system! They either take 2 busses (having to make a transfer at the downtown transfer station for almost every destination)…or they pay $1.50 apiece and secure a reserved ride with "SCAT PLUS"- a public transit van that accepts reservations for rides from seniors 24 hours in advance. (Amazingly, they are driven door to door!)
My parents use SCAT PLUS for doctors' appointments, but also to go to the mall to shop or do errands or their banking. Unfortunately, the van is often late or through some screw up in dispatch doesn't come at all. They've been left "stranded" at home or at an appointment on numerous occasions. They also can't alter the time for pick up, so if an appointment finishes early they still have to wait for their requested time for the driver to return. This has resulted in all-day-long outings that could easily have been just a couple of hours in duration. And they have to be ready and waiting for the van driver ONE HOUR prior to pickup time, which is often quite inconvenient. (Especially if there is no where they can sit and wait out of the sun or rain.) However, SCAT PLUS has proven to be a lifesaver for them (and for me!)
My parents live in the Jefferson Center, a HUD owned building populated by lower income people 55 and over, many of whom would be perfect candidates for ITN rides or even to be drivers! I understand some of the tenants already use their personal cars as ersatz taxis now to make money on the side.
I hope my parents will both be alive long enough to make use of an ITN service. My only fear is that they'll be too frugal to pay more than $1.50 per person…so I'll have to do my part to get them supplied with a whole bunch of ride credits!
Anyhow, thank you for your enlightening information and for sharing your passion. Hope to have an opportunity to spend time with you again in the future,
Ruth
From: Katherine Freund
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
My Friend, Max
Born January 18, 1919 - Died February 7, 2007
My friend, Max Israelite, died this week, at 88. He taught me about friendship, decency and the kind of generosity that comes with caring deeply for others. Max was one of the founding Board members of the Independent Transportation Network®. I will never forget him.
I met Max in 1994, when he was published in Newsweek Magazine's "My Turn" section. He wrote an essay about giving up driving when he turned 75. He said he was going to tear up his license and never get behind the wheel of a car again. He didn't trust his state, Pennsylvania, to monitor his skills properly, and he was worried about the consequences. He concluded by saying that he realized he might be stopping too soon, but that he would rather stop five years too soon than "one millisecond too late."
The millisecond I read his essay, I knew I had to call him, because a few years before, an 84 year old man did stop driving too late, and he ran over my 3 year son. I had to say thank you.
Max was living in Levittown, Pennsylvania, at the time. I remember calling information to get the phone number, and the man with the faltering voice (Max managed a stutter all his life) who answered my call and spent as much time talking with me as I needed. He told me that people were calling him from all over the country, people who had lost family members—children, parents, spouses—and people who had been run over themselves and survived.
Before the internet, Max became a kind of switch board operator connecting hurt people to each other. He especially wanted me to meet a young librarian from Kansas, Mike Sharp, who was run over while riding his bicycle, and Sheldon Suroff, a father who had recently lost a 21 year old son to a wrong way older driver in Missouri. Mike was searching every published document on older drivers in the Library of Congress, and Sheldon was trying to find better ways to screen impaired drivers, of any age. Sheldon went on to found CARD, Concerned Americans for Responsible Driving, and was responsible for the legislative change in Missouri that now requires impaired drivers to be reported.
Max and I soon discovered that he was visiting my home state, Maine, to see a friend sign for the hearing impaired at a community theatre production of Fiddler on the Roof. We agreed to meet for breakfast, and by the time the pancakes arrived, we decided to become friends. I told him about this idea I had to start a transportation service for people who needed an alternative to driving. I wanted to use cars, not vans or buses, and I wanted it to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, just like the private automobile. I wanted it to pick people up and take them where they wanted to go, so they would have the kind of mobility they really needed to live their lives with dignity and independence. I told my new friend, who was so good at listening, that I honestly believed it would help older people make good choices about driving. "There isn't a family in America," I told Max, "that is untouched by this problem." I asked Max if he would serve on the Board of Directors.
"Me?" he said. "I am just a chicken farmer. What do I know about being on a Board of Directors?"
It's true, Max was at one time a chicken farmer, and a postal worker, when farming didn't pay and he wanted to put his children through college. But he was also a thinker and a writer, with several hundred published essays to his credit, and he was one of the most ethical people I have ever known. Some people in the Washington research community were concerned that Max's Newsweek essay would stir up a lot of discrimination against older people. They asked me to write a letter to the editor, to counterbalance the anticipated effect of his essay.
"Is it so rare," I said, "to see someone put others before himself that you do not even know how to recognize ethical behavior when you see it?" The experts said that I didn't understand, but Max's essay was subsequently incorporated into a Canadian high school ethics text book.
Max did give up his license at age 75, and for six years he attended monthly Board of Directors meetings, schlepping to Maine on the bus from Acton, Massachusetts, where he had moved to be near his beloved family. Toward the end, it was just too much for him, so his son, Larry, also joined the Board, and took off work to come to Maine for the meetings. Max donated to every fundraising program and in his 80's, walked in the annual March of the Members to help raise precious funds to subsidize the rides of older people who use the Independent Transportation Network®. Max shared my vision of a national solution that I now realize he understood he would never live to enjoy in his community. When he retired from the Board, we named an award for him—the Max Israelite Volunteer of the Year Award. It is a modified Tzedakah Box, a handmade pottery vase with a little village on the sides and a hole in the top to drop coins for righteous acts. The village represents all of the places in the community where volunteers drive older people.
All ITN affiliates are membership organizations, representing the people we serve. Our affiliation agreement for new communities wishing to start an ITN service requires that the Board of Directors include members drawn from the older people who use the service and the volunteers who make the transportation possible. In one community, the transportation experts rejected this policy with the comment that they "did not want their senior transit service run by a bunch of old people."
Fine by me. That leaves more of those old people for us. Goodbye, my dear friend, Max. I will never forget you.
From: Katherine Freund
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
The Senate Gallery
I had never visited the Capital before. I had been to Washington, DC, many times, but I had never before seen the inside of the Capital building, where policy and history are made. On Thursday, February 16, 2006, I was there, in the Senate gallery, waiting for Senator Susan Collins of Maine to appear on the floor of the Senate. I had to pass many guards and security checkpoints, through long and beautiful corridors, to arrive in the gallery, high over the Senate floor. There I waited, surrounded by marble busts of past Vice Presidents, knowing I would see this room and this event in my memory for many years. Senator Collins was about to introduce the Older Americans Sustainable Mobility Act of 2006.
All things start somewhere, and even great things start small. From the moment I got the idea for the Independent Transportation Network® model for senior transportation, I knew I was a little person with a big idea. The previous year, an 84-year-old driver ran over my 3-year old son. My son survived and is today a wonderful young man, but I knew that many others were not so blessed, and I knew that the man who drove that car was as much a victim as my son.
My big idea was to create a national solution, a non-profit transportation network for America's aging population. I have now been working on this solution for 17 years. There will be many blog entries, many stories to tell, many struggles, failures and successes to relate. There will be the stories leading up to the Senator's bill, and the hopes and dreams, work and effort that will carry us forward into the future. I hope I tell them all well. I invite you to join me.
"Floor time," I now know, is scarce, and a Senator must request it. That Thursday, Senator Collins asked for 12 minutes of time. It was about 5:15 pm. This is what she said, and this is the bill she introduced. I am forever grateful to my Senator for listening to one small, determined voice.
Older Americans Sustainable Mobility Act of 2006