ASAE LIFE MEMBER OFFERS GOLDEN ADVICE.

Retirement is unique for every association executive, but Ernest J. Bolduc, CAE, has a hard-to-beat blueprint for the golden years--one that has allowed him to build a life full of meaning and satisfaction.

When he retired as executive director of the National Council of the Paper Industry for Air and Stream Improvement, New York City, in 1982, Bolduc continued to work from his home as principal of his own management consulting firm on various paid and pro bono projects. Associations in such farflung sites as Botswana and Ghana, Africa, and Bucharest, Romania, have benefited from this ASAE life member's management expertise. In fact, shortly after being interviewed for this article, Bolduc was headed once again to Romania to work for a two-month stint with start-up associations as a consultant to the Center for International Private Enterprise, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Closer to home, Bolduc is an active community volunteer. He regularly reads books to children at the local library, sings in a church choral group, and teaches cooking classes as a local fundraising activity. Working with children, notes Bolduc, brings a special joy as "they have no reservations because you're black or white or tall or green. They take you for what you are."

Bolduc does not mince words when it comes to offering retirement advice. "I wasn't going to retire and just wait for the box to come along," he says. "1 may be retired-but I'm not tired. I'm nearly 80 years old and people can't believe it."

Here, then, are some of Bolduc's golden tidbits of advice.

* "Do not stay home and do nothing. Become involved. It's not what you do. It's the fact that you're doing it," observes Bolduc, who explains why this mind-set is so important. "If you've been in a chief staff capacity or any senior management capacity, all of a sudden, when you retire, you've got nobody waiting to hear what you're saying. You've got nobody who won't act until they clear it with you. Some people, unless they have that ego trip, they die. They can't live without it. [But the reality is that] organizations grow and change and they don't want us [older executives] around. You have to stay active and keep busy."

* Don't stop being a member, urges Bolduc, who has served several times as a leader on ASAE's evaluation teams, and is also a life member of the New York Society of Association Executives. "If you become active, you talk to people and people talk to you. They call you. You've got to give back. Why? Because it makes you complete. You get more than you give. Believe me, you can't pay for the kind of help that you get from friends and colleagues."

* Get online so you can stay informed and stay in touch with all your friends and colleagues. "I'm communicating all the time all around the world," says Bolduc, who adds that it's not necessary to know all the bells and whistles of high-tech communication to benefit from what the Internet has to offer. Bolduc's e-mail address is: [e-mail].