AARP: It's not a four-letter word?

The 78-million member association hopes the baby boom will keep it from going bust. Its national convention in Orlando next week focuses on changing perceptions.

By STEPHEN NOHLGREN

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 12, 2000

Here's a word association quiz:

AARP -- Medicare (right).

AARP -- financial planning (okay).

AARP -- Chunky Monkey and Cherry Garcia?

Yup, when AARP holds its national convention next week in Orlando, speakers will include those aging hippie ice cream moguls, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield.

They will talk about entrepreneurship, certainly not the leisurely sort of topic one would expect from AARP of yore, when cheap insurance and travel discounts helped forge America's retirees into a lobbying and marketing leviathan.

But those days are over. AARP is repositioning itself to greet an even more powerful force: The baby boom.

At 78-million strong, boomers more than double AARP's estimated membership of 34-million. Lure them in, and the organization's future is secure. Lose them, and their clout will wither and die.

The challenge is substantial. Early boomers came of age when people older than 30 were not to be trusted. They aren't joiners by nature. Even on the backside of life expectancy, they tend to treasure youth.

[Photo: AP 1998] Jerry Greenfield, left, and Ben Cohen, Ben & Jerry to ice cream lovers, are two of the many well-known speakers who will make appearances at the AARP’s annual convention in Orlando next week. Others include Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Jane Bryant Quinn and Dr. Ruth Westheimer.

To some, the AARP membership card that arrives, unsolicited, in one's 50th year is as welcome as bladder control commercials or a gag birthday card where the fire department douses the cake because of all the candles.

Says Lynch Elementary teacher Patty Williams, who turned 50 last month: "I'm not going to join at this point. When I think of AARP, I think of my mother's age. Older people. I'm not there yet."

Based on people 50 through 54 -- the first group of boomers eligible to join -- AARP's track record is mixed. About one in four of those boomers have joined, compared to an all-ages membership rate of roughly 45 percent.

The AARP hopes that boomers will come around eventually, joining as they get older. To speed that along, the organization has shifted much of its emphasis. It wants to convey to the Patty Williamses of the world: We are not your mother's AARP anymore.

"We recognize that there is a new generation of people on the horizon, with different needs and desires," says spokeswoman Lisa Davis. "We kicked into high gear to meet those needs."

For starters, they changed the name. AARP was founded 42 years ago as the American Association of Retired Persons, an image well-suited to theater discounts and RVs at the KOA campground.

But two years ago, the organization became plain old AARP. The name doesn't stand for anything anymore -- not Acquiring Advantage on Retail Products, not Ageless Americans who Reject Patronizers. Just AARP, like clearing your throat.

Even with a smaller percentage of baby boomers signing up, more than 11,000 of them turn 50 every day, enough to keep AARP membership rolls on the upswing. Now, about half the membership is under 65 and two out of five members are still working.

An association of "retired persons" just didn't fit anymore.

Modern Maturity magazine, sent free to AARP's 22-million households, is now broken into two press runs. One for retired people, the other for those still working.

Youth, vitality and the good life are dominant themes. Sophia Loren's "age-defying" secrets graced one recent cover, while an elaborate chart inside tracked the 50 "greatest adventures" in the world, including mountain climbing in Nepal and cruising to the North Pole aboard a nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker.

Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe, a 52-year-old magazine-o-phile, reads Modern Maturity, with its celebrity profiles, because he likes "knowing that there are a whole bunch of people older than I am."

When his wife, Denise, paid her $8 and joined, McCabe became an AARP associate member for free. Other than the magazine, says McCabe, their only advantage so far was a motel room discount last summer that was slightly lower than the AAA rate.

Another AARP overture to boomers is found on the Internet. At next week's convention, AARP officials will introduce a new Web site -- http://www.aarplifeanswers.com -- geared to cyber-savvy boomers.

Users can join chat rooms, read articles like "Dating Again for the Mature Adult," and buy services, like a counselor who, for $75, will help find a nursing home for your ailing parent or research fun places to take visiting grandkids.

Major Web site topics include caregiving, grandparenting and midlife career changes.

"We know that retirement for baby boomers is not going to mean completely ending all work," Davis says. "We are looking at "recareering' and education. Lifelong learning is going to be very important."

Thus, Ben & Jerry become convention speakers, expounding on the possibilities of midlife entrepreneurship (ice cream social immediately following).

Their presentation falls in "The Baby Boom track," a convention feature started a few years ago. Speeches are scheduled during business hours, when Orlando-area working folk presumably can scoot over for a quick fix.

Other "baby boom" topics include "From Hippie to Homeowner: Financial Planning for Retirement" and "Don't Pull Your Hair Out . . . Manage Your Stress Instead!"

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, the diminutive sex guru, will address the convention twice. In a session for regular conventiongoers, she will discuss "Love and Intimacy: Live Your Life to the Fullest!"

Her theme on the boomer track is a bit spicier: "Making Time for Fun and Frolic."

-- St. Petersburg Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

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