I thought that we already provided this function...
There are obvious geographial limitations, but ideas & enthusiasm both travel well.
Del

I don't see it in the

CR4 Sections (looking at the right side of the screen...)

User Group list

or

User Group Requests (except this thread)

Did I miss it somewhere? Forums full of duplicates aren't much fun or effective.

So are all retired guys more clever than unretired guys...?

...generally quite experienced, available and a touch bored...all to our advantage

Long time ago they made all the mistakes and learned out of it. Right now it is my turn ... in the future I'm going to be very clever and knowledgeable!!! That is why my posts are still…

Hi,

I agree, this has gotten way out of hand. Help should be strictly on a humanitarian basis and in no way interfere with engineering firms trying to make a legitimate living. Due to its large response, I have yet to get a handle on the format. Do we sit around, have a beer and discuss the design of a better walking cane or muse about the possibility of a global fresh water shortage and what can prevent it?

I think if any significant amount of time is spent on something, either you get paid (if there's a profit to be made) or it's pro-bono volunteer work for whatever nobel task is comes around.

Personally, a balance between the two is where I'd go with it. To be able to volunteer and travel with Engineers without Borders I'd gladly do some for-pay work to cover the plane tickets. Without getting into anything exotic overseas, there are many issues with food, water and transport to be found in our own back yards. (...saying that makes me thing of my garden, gutters and car...heh heh!)

I proposed the group (and hopefully a forum section will follow) since there are way too many possibilities to cover in one thread.

This thread is just to represent the interested individuals.

If we form a registered NGO under any UN organisation then we can be eligible for funding.Also we can approach Airlines to offer free tickets for noble cause. Such tickets are issued to families of employees of Airlines with condition that there are some vacant seats in the plane. If we are registered then getting such tickets may not be a problem.Regarding some out of pocket expenses that can be solved by getting funds from UN and any rich foundations.

Suresh Sharma

Not sure how the retirees / helpful differs from the rest of CR4?

I think a specific corner/group/section would make it easier for requests for help concerning educational/non-profit/etc causes to be seen by individuals who can offer more help than some brief advice on a forum. The normal forums get so much use that a great idea or project will get quickly pushed aside as new messages and requests flood in.

Nothing against quick help at all but sometimes there are more significant things that could greatly benefit from someone becoming interested and wanting to contribute more than a reply in a forum.

I guess a volunteer 'job board' of sorts for people wanting to stay in touch with their domain of expertise. I'm not sure how else to define such a thing...

KKjensen-

I like your idea of a "job board" - somewhere someone or some group could post a project description and solicitation for specific skills, as well as posting "progress reports"- some way for participants to get feedback on how significant their contributions are to a project, especially for those "not for pay" contributors.

As for a separate forum for retirees to keep their hats in the ring, I would worry that the retirees might abandon the rest of us and go off into their own little corner. What has been proposed on the referenced blog sounds like the idea driving CR4 in toto. The only thing missing is the feedback loop- a lot of posters never come back with information regarding the resolution of their issues. Others are very good at providing updates, but sometimes these are easily missed. Private messaging is a good way to keep up with projects of special interest, but then the rest of us miss out on the real meat...

True...I guess I was trying to think of a way to facilitate getting more involved in something, beyond a one or two post reply in a forum.

That's a good idea for a group. Per your request, we've added Retired Engineers/Mentors to the Engineering Fields Group. All registered members of CR4 are welcome to join Retired Engineers/Mentors or any other User Group. User groups are a great way for CR4 members to find and network with other engineers working in similar fields or with similar interests.

And to everyone, feel free to suggest other user groups that you'd like to see.

every body wants my experience and solve their problems at the end of the day i get a Big thanks no money that was promised ,except some rare cases the advance i received for the travel to the city wh.No doubt the world needs experienced engineers retired at free of cost.my advice is be careful before accept the challenges the engineers turned management gurus offer

crm

It seems that simple fact is overlooked, and that is that retired people usually have less money then working population, and that asking them to volunteer is not fair, as surely if they are intelligent and experienced they would not be bored to death, sit and do nothing but watch how grass grow.........

I am one of unfortunate retired group, and I am fighting for survival every day, specially in time of crisis like this one, where government talk about lowering pensions and paychecks, and at same time raising prices of energents, which raise price of food as well :-((

Therefore I would suggest that it would be better if problems to be solved would be listed, teams form CR4 members formed on voluntary basis and then some criteria used to measure contribution from each team member on scale from 1 to 10, and when problem is solved then reward should be divided among team members according to coefficient of their usefulness in finding that particular solution. That would help both problem posters and retired people, and in time those that made not even average contributions would fall off (perhaps this scale ought to be from zero to 10) so only people who are really able to solve problems would remain, and teams would in time form that can efficiently work together. Implementation would fall in hands of person living closest to Problem Poster, or could be executed by local company or person(s) that have necessary skills for this particular project.

If project concern problem that is widespread and lot of people can get benefit from such problem solution, then if it is something novel or innovation of existing technology this should be patented and production started, from which that particular team would be getting royalty. That would enable our retired colleagues to live better and be able to solve some limited scope problems even for free or for just symbolic sum of money (because people usually dont value things they get for free).

Team members would contribute two ways: providing possible solutions for problem AND providing constructive critic of such proposed solution.

There should be also animated Investors that can post projects for which they are ready to invest money, and then teams can be formed to work on such projects, if there are not persons who already have solution ready or invention in this area.

That way also engineers who are inventors could sell their inventions and earn royalty that would enable them to work on more inventions, which would surely help the World in general..............

Support of inventors is one thing that is sorely inadequate, so if CR4 can help or at least find sponsors or interested Investors, I am sure this community would have great benefits, as IMHO any engineer worth his salt is inventor in his soul :-))

I have system of financing developed where solving of problem or technology supplied would be paid in full and yet it would not cost person or company receiving it single cent, providing that savings are made (like in home produced electricity) or profit earned (if for instance homemade electricity is sold to neighbours or to the Grid company). Even Investor(s) that would finance it stand to gain 20% per year on money invested, while this money would multiply from 7 to 350 times in period of 10 years, so everybody would profit.

It could all be done under CR4 roof, and system provide covering of all administration expenses as well, in case it does not collide with basic premises upon which CR4 is formed. I usually call this TDF which is acronym for Technology Dissemination Fund, and was originally intended for transfer of technology to poor countries in order to make better living for poor people and so lessen gap between rich and poor countries.

CR4 ADMIN: This post was edited to remove advertising outside the Commercial Space forum. Please review Section 14 of the CR4 Site FAQ about advertising.

Regards from Zagreb, the Capitol of Croatia, Europe!

Marijan Pollak, IT SA/SE 1st. Class, Instructor and Team Leader (retired)

I'm not against the "greyer and wiser" population. I work with highly experienced people every day and I benifit greatly from this.

What I don't understand is:

If retired people is a clever as they claim to be, then why weren't they clever enough to plan ahead for their old age? If you were clever enough to run a successful company, designed the best products, were the best instructor and the greatest team leader then why did you neclect yourself...

If retired people is a clever as they claim to be, then why weren't they clever enough to plan ahead for their old age?
Because the people in charge generally aren't the engineers.
The accountants and CEO hold the purse strings, oh and yes the financial institutions have pissed many of our pension funds up the wall.

If you want help from a retired accountant or CEO...be my guest.
Personally I wouldn't trust one to give me the time of day
Del

Del-

Engineering is a lifestyle, not a career. One does not retire from a lifestyle. If one enjoys the lifestyle, one does not quit just because the government says you have accumulated too many years to qualify for gainful employment...

I was born in Federative Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia that later changed name to Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia, out of which Croatia was just one of its republics. We were raised in country where private property was nearly non existent, and everyone was expected to contribute according to his/her abilities while being provided for basic needs, which means that no matter how many millions of $ I earned or saved for company I was working for, I got always same salary. From this salary was paid Pension Fund, that was supposed to provide retirement money, but it was not other but great Ponzi scheme since money was just channeled from working people to retired ones and any surplus was going into state budget to be spent on other things. As long as people were mostly dying before reaching age for retirement, that presented no problem for government, but with raising standard of living people started living longer so number of those reaching retirement age doubled and tripled. Answer from government was to extend working period from 30 to 35 and then to 40 years, but this just postponed facing with problem and created more unemployment as opening of companies or their enlargement did not follow natural growth of population. We also have had great inflation that was eating any deposited money fast, and in my lifetime there was 3 devaluations of monetary value, every time when paychecks start showing millions, and price of eggs run into hundreds :-((

After death of our lifetime President and Marshall of Army Josip Broz TITO, things wend by inertia another 13 years when different republics started to look for the way to get rid of central government or to enlarge their territory on expense of other nationalities, so war for independence started after Srbija occupied 30% of Croatia and 50% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, annexed Vojvodina and Kosovo in attempt to form >>Great Srbija<<. In preparation for this Yugoslavian Army (that were third by strenght in Europe and therefore thorn in the eye of other Europeian countries) sequestered all arms from our >>Territorial units of defense<< to preclude republics to fight back againest Srbia, and Serbs held all key command positions in the army. At same time UN decided that it has to protect teritories where Croatian Serbs rebelled and proclaimed independence from Croatia, and we got embargo on importing arms as well. In order to provide money to buy arms for country defense, our new government proclaimed that all foreign currency savings of people is to be considered to be >>Old Savings<< and not worth more than 30% of regular exchange rate.

Because of this I lost my own and inherited life savings of my parents, as exchange rates were changed as well and we could not get even remaining 30% of foreign currency savings, but were allowed to pick up just 50$ per month for period over 3 years.

I got retired for health reasons, as doctors concluded I would not live more than 3 months in best case. However, due to one doctors mistake in medicine prescribed for entirely other medicall problem, I somehow managed to survive in limited fashion, (because when this medicine shrunk all my weins, my inoperable brain aneurism shrunk also) after 3 years of strictest resting and disposal of all medicines that only damaged my kidneys and caused extremely high blood pressure. Unfortunately damages were ireversible so I am able to work few hours per day at best, and now I am nearing 60 so nobody would employ me because we have extremely high unemployment since independence was proclaimed. In Addition to this I had eyestroke one and half year ago, and I lost half of vision field on my left eye.

Anyhow, when I finaly got remnants of my life savings, I opened a company and was doing moderately well (in spite of fact that goverment has forbiden me to register any of my most profitable enterprises) untill 1998 when my Business Bank colapsed together with 16 other Banks, mostly privately owned, which took away my earned capital since 1993 when I founded company of my own. Just in that same Bank over 70 000 companies were keeping their money and just few survived this debacle. Since 3 of my biggest client companies perished there as well and left big bills unpaid, I hit the bottom again. I managed to continue and collected about 100 000 US $ by year 2000, when I made exclusive contract with one TV company for making 3D animated advertisements, so I invested this money in necesary software and computers, as well as for pay of my employees. Goverment have in the meantims discovered way to fill budget with money by raising taxes and has imposed VAT in size of 22% on everything, including customs fees (in size 15 to 45%), transportation costs paid for goods and luxury tax (in size of 30%), and of course there was enlarged tax on profit in size of 35%. So when we add it all, companies work for government, not for earning profit......

Unfortunately for me, one previous employee of TV company has returned from US and opened his company for production of TV advertisements, so in spite of exclusive contract and fulfilled orders, they refused to pay invoices I sent them, and I have to put case on Trade Court. Since our Judges are underpaid and understaffed, it took 5 years to get verdict by which TV company has to pay my invoice in size of 120 000 US $ and court and lawyer expenses worth another 20 000 US $ together with penalty for late payment in size of 50 000 US $, and then I would also be able to sue them for breaking of contract for another 70 000 US $, or total of 260 000 US $.....

Instead of payment TV company went bancrupt and was liquidated after another two years process.......

Now I cannot even get back taxes paid on this invoice, as they changed law from 10 to 6 years period of enforceability for collecting taxes or returning them, and to all I lost also one year pay I was paying to my employees.......

Still, all this time I was doing business whichever way I can, but to get some capital I mortgaged my property on 14 years period. Unfortunately my traveling representatives, both citizens of India, tought they are more clever than me, so in spite of my strictest orders they sent package with silver jewelery worth over 100 000 Euro from Indonesia uninsured, and misdeclared to be worth just 1000 US $ also. So when feriboat that was carrying this package over the river sunk together with 138 passengers that drowned, my jewelery was lost in its muddy waters for good.

Because 35 000 Euro worth of goods were paid by American Express Company Cards hold by my traveling representatives, I got in debt to AMEX who decided to follow their policy and blocked my company account, in spite of my protests that this way I would not be able to earn money and pay debt back......

I managed to return 15 000 Euro of this debt in last three years, so 20 000 still remain to be paid, but since 10 000 Euro is for late payment acumulated AMEX would setle for less to close the case. But I had 4 private AMEX cards with various credits in various stages of payment which were revoked and so I had to pay remainder of credits back at once, and all the while I have to pay 500 Euro per month of mortgage credit instalments, which is more than my 400 Euro pension. I also have to pay bookkeeping company all the time because government require regular reports from my company, regardless fact that it is blocked and cannot earn any money....

My traveling tepresentatives have run away after making such problem, and Indian Embassy refuse to do anything about it, saying it was >>business risk<< I have taken.

Just before that package was lost I got married to woman from India, whose father needed heart operation and pacemaker, so I send some money for this also, and on 26th of January 2009 Bus has run over my wife's younger sister and her only daughter who remained dead on spot. That girl was among finalists for >>Miss Universe<< contest in India, talented and beautifull...... Her father went crazy upon receiving of such news about his daughter and wife, so family have one more person to take care of, and my wife's sister is bound to stay in hospital for another 6 months. I have sent my wife to Kolkata, but still money for treatment of sister and her own expenses are necesary, and all this I am expected to provide........

Recently Banks have risen interest rates even on previously given loans and credits, so I have to pay 10% more starting from May this year, and government hints that they would have to lower pension payments as well as wages for workers, so I may finish with receiving less and giving more......

So You know my situation in details, how it is possible.......

What eat me most is that my inventions could help whole World, because with cheap electricity many things would be cheaper to produce, therefore they could also be cheaper to buy, and increased production would bring back jobs and normal salaries, which means people would be able to pay mortgage credits and would not lose homes to Banks, which in turn would not deplete funds of Insurance companies and things would return to normal... Cheap electricity would enable mass introduction of electromobiles, and this would decrease demand for earth oil and gas, and lesser demand would bring prices down also. Cooking with electricity can save some wood in countries that mostly use wood for cooking, or enable use of cow dung for fertilizing fields instead of being used for fire making like it is in India, and Windpower can be used for irigation of fields, and where there is no water available, my water condensation units of agriculturall capacity can provide it for growing more food, and so on..........

I have some more also valuable projects (in terms of humankind in general) that wait funding, so it is not for my personall wealth and spending that I want to earn money. Othervise, because of my upbringing, I would perhaps be inclined to give it all for free to people, just like great countryman of mine, Engineer Nikola Tesla, who wanted to give free energy to the World.........

Any help would be greatly appreciated...........

there's no place to plug in my slide rule...

Money

Money, volunteerism, NGO's, self-organizing fiscal entities and a variety of other "solutions" have been proposed in a thread that actually just asked for volunteering opportunities.

So perhaps there is more demand than I would have imagined for getting paid for this activity.

There are two approaches that come to mind:

For the solo operator who prefers to work alone I might recommend Innocentive. I am sure having found something you might need help with you could come back and organize some help.

For those who wish (if the demand is sufficient) perhaps the hosts could create a section of the Commercial space in General for proposing projects and self-organizing teams could congregate there.

For both groups there are a host of online resources for file exchange, project space, revision control of documents already mentioned here and in other threads.

I came here for the comaraderie, the openness of ideas and conversation. I will probably continue to use the forum as such. That said, I have nothing against those that wish to pursue refunding their lost retirements here, either.

I do fear it might change the nature of a place I love dearly, but change is the only constant in life.