In my last blog post, I published the document that Sean Kelly and his staff wrote clarifying the structure of the Kendal system. It explained that the system is really a support system for 13 affiliated communities.

Kendal-Crosslands Communities (KCC). KCC is one of the 13 affiliates that make up the Kendal System. The full list of 13 is in the previous post. KCC consists of four campuses: Crosslands, Coniston, Cartmel, and Kendal at Longwood. KCC has a single administration in charge of all four local campuses. It is headed by Lisa Marsilio, our CEO.

In this blog post, I will explore some of the ways that residents of Kendal at Longwood can participate in, work with, and partner with the administration of KCC.

KCC board vs. KRA board. Let’s start with board meetings. The board that residents are likely to be most familiar with is the Kendal Residents’ Association (KRA) board. It meets monthly, and its meetings are open to all Longwood residents (in the auditorium traditionally, but lately on Zoom). In large part, the KRA operates independently of the administration. KRA is responsible for the social and cultural aspects of the community and “to communicate and cooperate with the KCC Board of Directors and staff at Kendal in promoting a provident, healthful, enjoyable, and useful community life” (which is how the KRA bylaws put it). All Kendal at Longwood residents are automatically members of the KRA. There are parallel resident groups at Crosslands, Cartmel, and Coniston.

The primary KCC administrators are invited to report to public meetings of the KRA board, and those meetings also provide an opportunity for residents to interact with them and get their questions answered.

KCC also has its own board, but its meetings are not public. The KCC board is the board to whom Lisa, the CEO, reports. It is the governing board for all four KCC communities. Two residents from among the four campuses serve on the KCC board. At the moment, Tom Paxon (a Longwood resident) occupies one spot, and the other is in the process of being filled. Lisa Marsilio describes the process by which vacancies are filled as follows: she “works with the Residents Presidents, who seek nominations, a job description is provided, an application and interview process is conducted, and together in a collaborative approach, residents are chosen to serve.”

Then there is a third board: the Kendal Corporation board. This was mentioned briefly in the previous blog post. There is no requirement for residents to have a spot on this board, but there is currently one serving (and, until recently, there were two). As described in the previous post, the Kendal Corporation deals entirely with the relationship among Kendal affiliates. It has limited interactions with residents.

Committee connections with the KCC board. One way that residents interact with the KCC board is through service on committees. The KCC board has the following committees with resident representation:

  • KCC Board Finance Committee
  • KCC Board Property/Stewardship Committee
    • KCC/ Ad Hoc for Revitalization Committee
  • KCC Board Philanthropy Committee
  • KCC Board Long Range Planning Committee
    • KCC Diversity and Inclusion Work Group
  • KCC Board Health Services Committee
    • Kendal Health Center Renovation Committee

The list of residents currently serving on these committees can be found here.

Committee connections with staff and administration. Some non-board committees involve both residents and staff, and many of these have co-chairs (one resident, one staff member). These are primarily KRA committees. Examples include:

  • Space Allocation Collaborative Committee
  • Health Services Collaborative Committee
  • Culinary/Food Service Committee
  • Nature Conservancy
  • Safety Committee
  • Kendal Spiritual Life Committee
  • Interior Design/Decor Committee
  • Energy Committee

The list of residents currently serving on these committees can be found here.

There are other committees with a mix of staff and residents. The best way to get a sense of these is to look through the committee list on the KRA website, clicking on the ones you’re curious about.

If you think you might like to serve on one of these committees, you should talk to the contact person listed on one of the links above.

Personal connections with staff and administration. Even if you are not interested in committees and board meetings, there are the many informal contacts you can have with KCC staff and administration as a resident, whether in the health center, the dining room, the fitness center, along the walkways, at the front desk, or elsewhere on campus. These contacts are a critical part of the glue that holds our campus together, and I look forward to the time when vaccines allow us to resume these informal contacts.  

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I would like to acknowledge Betty Warner’s expert help in understanding the committee-related issues described here, and the assistance of Lisa Marsilio and Michele Berardi in clarifying the details of board appointments. (But I’m still responsible for any errors you may find.)