Cynthia Scarborough leaves Sonoma’s Vintage House

After almost 20 years as director of the social center for Sonoma’s seniors, Cynthia Scarborough is stepping down.|

When Cynthia Scarborough came to work at Vintage House in 1994, it was a much different place – still with the same mission of providing healthier, happier lives for Sonoma’s seniors, but smaller, much smaller. More staffing means more programs, but it all comes from more support; and Scarborough’s term as executive director, which began in 1998, has had a lot to do with that growth.

As she prepares to step down at the end of June – handing over the reins for the time being to the temporary executive director, Carol Patterson – Scarborough took time to review her experience at Vintage House with the Index-Tribune, demonstrating much of the incisive intelligence and heartfelt empathy that has characterized her tenure.

You’re leaving after almost 20 years – that’s quite a run.

It has been. When I came here in 1994, we had two part-time positions – the program director role that I stepped into was 20 hours a week, and the executive director was 24 hours. And that was it – it was a very small budget, and very small staff, two part-time people. Then a funny thing happened – I fell I love with Vintage House. Even as the challenges increased and I worked under two different executive directors, it was getting increasingly frustrating. I was myself on the verge of leaving as the program director early in ‘98, when the board president asked if I would stick around and be interim executive director while they looked for somebody new. I was ready to leave, but I said OK, it sounds like things might be getting better, so I’ll stick around.

How was it you became permanent ED?

I didn’t think I wanted to be executive director, but when they came back and said, ‘We’d like you to step in full-time, permanent,’ I hesitated only very briefly. I had renewed my passion, and felt that even though I hadn’t been trained as an executive director, and had not been looking for management-level work, I thought I can’t do any worse! And I stayed.

And stay you did – until just this year….

I was passionate about Vintage House, the people who are Vintage House, and our potential to make an impact in the community. That passion for Vintage House and the role we played in the community, plus a tremendous amount of learning on the job, propelled me forward for all these years.

How has Vintage House grown over the years?

Today we are six core staff, with three part-time hourly employees. Of the six core staff, five are full time, and one is four-fifths time. And it’s the six core staff who keep Vintage House going, who keep the doors open. Everyone’s juggling a lot of balls, as is true with every nonprofit these days.

What sort of staffing is required?

There is me, executive director, and we have an operations manager who also covers the rental of our facility when we’re not using it, oversees the facility itself, its maintenance issues. We also have a program director who oversees all of the programs that we implement, and then another program position for our LIMO (Local Independent Mobility Options) free rides for non-driving seniors. We have two dedicated program staff, a front desk receptionist, and a support staff that supports both admin and program.

Plus, for the last several years we've averaged well over 350 volunteers each year, contributing over 1,100 hours, enlivening our programs and supporting our administration. Conservatively valued at $313,000 by Independent Sector (independentsector.org), this volunteer labor extends the reach of our staff without burdening our budget.

How many people use the services of Vintage House?

Now there’s an average of just over 2,000 people, on an annual basis. Some show up once or twice a year, like Christmas or Thanksgiving dinner. Others are here multiple times a week – that 2,000 covers a wide range of engagement. There are some people who are here literally five days a week, with one activity or another.

That’s a lot of growth, in staff as well as the people you serve. You must have seen some changes.

The world is a very different place today than it was when I started. I think the biggest piece of that, we all recognize, is technology. And I’m not particularly tech-smart. I’ve learned enough to keep up with spreadsheets and word processing – I couldn’t live without them – but I am not proficient with social media, and that’s a key factor for nonprofits today, promoting ourselves.

That can’t be why you’re leaving – because of Facebook?

I had been considering retiring in the next three years or so, thinking I’m going to want to step down. After recently hiring two younger staff who come with a whole different skill set, for a variety of reasons it seemed like the time was right.

My passion has not gone away, but I’m run down. We’ve had some significant challenges keeping up with the demand for increased programs – we haven’t had the financing to keep up with the program increases. Everybody has been stretched really thin, and I’m feeling that.

My last day is June 30; our interim executive director (Carol Patterson) will begin by getting the lay of the land, begin getting positioned so that she can help us through a needs-assessment process in identifying which criteria we will focus in on searching for the next permanent executive director.

There’s quite a bit to do in the remaining time this month. I look forward to working with Carol and the board in figuring out who we want to hire for the next full-time director, and what our staffing pattern should look like.

What about after the end of June? What will you be doing?

I’m not looking for anything else right away – I’m not done, but I don’t know what that will be. What I’m doing in effect is granting myself the sabbatical that we have not had the opportunity to give me over the past two years, a month to two months to step back, refresh, and come back newly invigorated. We tried to have that on the agenda for the past couple of years, and it just was not going to happen.

So I’m going to grant myself that time now, and will use the time to figure out what I’m going to do next.

We live in Sonoma Valley, and will be staying. I’m welcoming the opportunity to step down and become Executive Director Emeritus, and still be available in an advisory capacity. And let someone else come in and run the joint!

Email Christian at christian.kallen@sonomanews.com.

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