McKinnon steps down
Caregivers search for new leader



GUILDERLAND — After almost two years, the executive director of Community Caregivers has decided to resign, but she’s not forthcoming about why.
"I’ve enjoyed my time here," Judith McKinnon simply told The Enterprise. "It’s a wonderful organization with very dedicated people."

When asked why she was leaving, McKinnon told The Enterprise this week that she wasn’t ready to discuss it. She plans on writing letters about it to Caregivers’ volunteers later, she said.
"She wanted to do something a little different," Joseph Purcell, the president of Caregivers’ board of trustees, told The Enterprise of McKinnon. "She wanted to get involved in work more directly related with clients."

Community Caregivers harnesses the energy and skills of volunteers to provide free services for Albany County residents in need. For example, a volunteer may drive an elderly person to a medical appointment or help an ailing young mother with child care.

The agency was originally based in Altamont and is now located at 300 Mill Rose Court, off Route 155 in Guilderland.

As executive director of the organization, McKinnon was in charge of fund-raising and management.
"She’s a sensitive kind of person and she liked to do more than management," Purcell said. "...I know her well enough to know the kind of thing she liked, so I wasn’t totally surprised."

He added that he’ll be sad to see McKinnon go. She will leave her post sometime between Nov. 1 and 15, Purcell said.

McKinnon began as Community Caregivers’ executive director in February of 2004. Then 50, McKinnon said she moved back to this area, after a decade of traveling west, to be near her three grandchildren.
"It’s a model program for this area," she said then of Community Caregivers. "There’s no other program in the Capital District that does what we do.
"The whole focus is to support people so they can remain independent in the home," McKinnon said then. "You know what I really like about his program" We all like to sit and listen to reminiscences about people...It harks of that time...so people feel they’re part of that. I think that serves us well."

Director search

Purcell replaced co-presidents Judith and Arnold Rothstein in July, but he had volunteered with the organization for years.

When Purcell took over as president, McKinnon told The Enterprise that Community Caregivers is heading into a new era where younger professionals are taking on leadership roles.
"We’re starting to be pretty intentional about bringing on board people that have professional connections to the community," she said then. "It’s been a natural evolution."

As part of the changing atmosphere, Community Caregivers also recently got a new vice president and two new members on its board of directors.

McKinnon said in August that she was excited about the shifting focus of Community Caregivers.
This week, when asked if her decision to leave was difficult, McKinnon said, "You do get close to people, but the needs of the organization have changed. They need certain things at certain times and certain people fit the bill at certain times."

Community Caregivers is now running an ad in The Enterprise, stating that the agency is looking for an energetic leader for organizational development, fund development, programming, and public relations.

Asked if the agency is looking for someone less like McKinnon, since she decided the job didn’t fit her, Purcell said it wasn’t.
"She brings characteristics that are terrific," he said of McKinnon. "We want someone sensitive to the program and empathetic to the clients we have."

When McKinnon was hired two years ago, the full-time position paid $39,500. Now, Purcell said, it pays somewhere in the mid-$40,000 range.

The job requires a bachelor’s degree and a minimum of five years’ organization leadership, preferably with a not-for-profit organization.
"We need someone who is very capable in the area of fund-raising and management," Purcell said. "We’re looking for somebody who has both kinds of strengths and who is service-oriented, although the person who becomes executive director won’t get to do a lot of services themselves."

Résumés will be accepted until Nov. 10 and then a committee, consisting of board members and other Caregivers’ volunteers, will begin interviews. When McKinnon applied for her job two years ago, she was selected out of 100 people, Purcell said.
"Hopefully, we’ll get a lot of people interested again," he said.