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Welcome... (PDF)       -  from  Jennie Deese, GGS President

• GGS is the largest state organization of multidisciplinary professionals in the field of aging.

• GGS enhances public awareness of the needs, rights and continuing contributions of older persons.

• GGS promotes efforts to meet the needs of older persons through innovative and state of the art approaches to service.

• GGS provides student scholarships and promotes career development in gerontology.

• GGS collaborates with other organizations in expanding services, programs, education and research in aging.

• GGS serves as the focal point for Senior Advocacy relating to public and social policy within the State of Georgia.

  Our Staff...

Walter Coffey
Administrative Director
P.O. Box 7905
Atlanta, GA 30357
E-mail Walter Coffey at ggs7905@bellsouth.net
 

 

 

Our Legislative Advocate...
Kim Raymond - Coordinator of the Senior Citizen Advocacy Project

The Senior Advocacy Project is a collaboration between Georgia Gerontology Society and the Area Agencies on Aging in Georgia.
E-mail Kim Raymond at ktraymon@charter.net

  Interesting Facts About GGS:

• GGS successfully lobbied the Governor to organize the State Coordinating Council for Aging, the forerunner to the Division of Aging Services.

• GGS was named the Georgia Association on Aging for 1 year in the 1960s.

• GGS considered registering as a lobbying organization at one point.

• GGS leadership was primarily academicians and researchers in the early years.

• GGS has published numerous books.

• There have been 4 geographical chapters of GGS in its history: the Atlanta and Athens chapters in the 1950s and 1960s and the Brunswick and Savannah/Chatham Chapters in the 1990s.

• GGS has had a total of 37 Presidents from the following cities: Atlanta (19), Athens (5), Augusta (2), Carrollton (2), and 1 each from Brunswick, Columbus, Covington, Gainesville, Macon, Milledgeville, Thomasville, Warm Springs, and West Point.

• Barbara Rosenberg is the longest-serving President with 4 one-year terms in 1991, 1992, 2003, and 2004.

• 17 men have served as President, but Ron Schoeffler was the last in 1990.

• Presidents have included: 7 university faculty, 13 community service provider executives, 6 state staff, 5 Area Agency on Aging directors or management staff, and 6 whose occupations are unknown at this time.

• GGS has had 5 paid employees in its history: Louisa Botkin (1974 – 1975), Sue Nort (1976 – 1977), Joan Attaway (1977 – 1979), Linnie Martin (1989 – 1992), and Walter Coffey (1992 to the present).

• For the first 22 years, the GGS Annual Meeting and Conference was held in either Atlanta or Athens. The first city it went to after that was Macon.

• The first and only time the GGS Conference was held in Southwest Georgia was in 1989 in Albany.

• Including this year, GGS has held a continuous series of 50 Annual meetings and conferences in these cities: Atlanta (15), Athens (13), Macon (4), Augusta (4), Savannah (4), St. Simons Island (3), Helen (2), Columbus (2), Albany (1), Stone Mountain (1), and Young Harris (1).

• The annual awards program began in 1966. The named Awards were established as follows: John Tyler Mauldin Award (1968), Elsie Alvis Award (1980), Louis Newmark Award (1982), Robert P. Wray Legislative Award/re-designated the Scholarship Award (1989), Marietta Suhart Award (1993), and the Dan Hickman Care Management Award (1998).

• Student Mary Ellen (DasGupta) Quinn won the Scholarship Award while in graduate school and went on to win the Marietta Suhart Award for her contributions as a geriatrics nursing faculty member of Medical College of Georgia School of Nursing in Athens.

• Eleanor Richardson is the only elected official to win both the Legislative Award and one of the other major awards, the John Tyler Mauldin Award.

• More than 20 members have been recognized over the years with 2 or 3 awards, including Citations of Merit. The most-honored member is Kay Hind, who won the Award for a Professional in Aging (1978), the John Tyler Mauldin Award twice (1987 and 1992), and the Elsie Alvis Award (2003).