Welcome... (PDF) -  from  Wallace White, 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...

	Abby Cox Administrative Director E-mail Abby Cox at administrator@georgiagerontologysociety.org 706-296-9795
	Our Legislative Advocate... Nancy Pitra - Coordinator of the Senior Citizen Advocacy Project The Senior Advocacy Project is a collaboration among the Georgia Gerontology Society, the Area Agencies on Aging in Georgia and the Georgia Council on Aging.  You may e-mail Nancy Pitra at nrpitra@elderadvocacy-ga.com

  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).