Oldschool.

second day of the "oldschool" idea.. name keeps ringing in my head, though.
oldschool, oldschool.. sounds both cute and elegant at the same time

anyway, we spent the whole of our saturday meeting debating again on the feasibility of our ideas. i arrived late, only to discover that there's been a general consensus that the organic food restaurant deal was too bland. no pun intended
(though i would really like to do it, cos i like fresh fruits and vegetables =P)

we argued over which idea to pick, some having a preference for the image make-over turn-you-into-a-casanova idea, some rooting for this turn-your-movie-star-dream-into-reality idea..
and just when I thought it wasn’t possible to squeeze anything out of the senior members of our society anymore, there was an idea to become life-coaches for the retirees and help plan their retirement life
the atmosphere was tense, tempers and nostrils were flared, subway sandwiches strewn across the room, butts slapped, laptops smashed, tables overturned, billiard balls accidentally swallowed, more butts slapped.. before we went ahead with the life-coach plan.
name: “oldschool.”

sunday was then spent putting some meat on the boney idea.
some research was done and here are some (hopefully) useful stats:
(by the way, the term “elderly” generally refers to those 65 and above, and the term “old-old” refers to those 85 and above. I wonder what’s young-old then. or young-young. or old-young.)

as at 2006,
we have a total population of 4.483m. of these, there are about 940,000 people who are 50 and above. (that’s our target group)
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/keystats/annual/indicators.html

as at 2005, for residents aged 65 years and above,
21,858 live alone. of these, 4,140 are single. (that’s where the social interaction part comes in. hope they’re still game for ice-breaking activities, though)
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/keystats/annual/ghs/r2/t93-95.pdf

in 2005,
there were 4,562 elderly couples who earn less than $1k per month. (that’s where the employment opportunities part comes in, hopefully.)
http://www.singstat.gov.sg/keystats/annual/ghs/r2/t67-74.pdf


the kind of facilities we would have at our centre was also discussed, since then it would make a difference whether we primarily want the old folk to come to us or we pay them visits.
since we’re not going to construct an 18-hole golf course, its probably better to just have a few seminar rooms and the occasional guest lecture. hence we're paying more visits.
the money could come in either by having a monthly fee, for the higher-tiered memberships (where you can consult our consultants multiple times a month or attend guest lectures to your heart’s content) or a one-time consultation fee for the lower-tiered memberships.

lastly, the mini 6 question online survey was done up (and sent out) and let’s cross our fingers for this tuesday’s presentation.

ed