Ten years after its
formal organization as a not-for-profit under the protection of
Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the International Longevity Center
becomes fully independent in control of its own affairs in
January. The ILC's tax exempt status under the IRS
Code in which its parent Mount Sinai was the "sole member"
and intimately in charge of all affairs, including the
election of the Board of Directors was modified by a joint agreement
in December and approved by New York State authorities in
January.
"This is an
historic achievement in the development of the ILC,"
said Edward Berube, a member of the ILC board and
chair of its Sustainability Committee which has been working on
the matter for two years. The change in IRS status gives
the ILC greater independence in governance, operations and fiscal
accountability. At the same time an affiliation with
Mount Sinai continues and Mount Sinai will appoint two members to
the ILC Board.
"For the ILC this is the
best of both worlds," says Dr. Robert Butler, founding president,
who conceived the idea of the ILC in the 1980s and got it started as
part of MSSM's Department of Geriatrics in 1990. The
ILC physically left Mount Sinai in 1999 when it moved to its
own headquarters building at 60 E. 86th Street. "We now
have greater capacity to plan our own future while at the
same time maintaining warm, familial ties with our parent
organization." Dr. Butler praised the leadership of Mount
Sinai over the years for encouraging the ILC to grow
and develop. "It is sort of like a child growing up and
leaving home while still staying in touch with the parents," said
Mr. Berube.
The ILC now handles its
own fiscal affairs, including payroll,
benefits, insurances and the like, and reports solely to its
own board, rather than to the administration and board of Mount
Sinai.
At a recent meeting of
the ILC Board, Chairman Max Link called the change "a great way to
launch the ILC on a truly independent course that will assure its
future and make it easier to develop all kinds of exciting
relationships the world over." He hailed the work of the board
and staff in initiating and facilitating the changes.
Continued
relations between MSSM's Brookdale Department of
Geriatrics include the jointly administered Hatch
International Lectureship, the MSSM logo on ILC
publications, and a faculty-staff steering committee which
will seek out collaborative venture for research and policy
connections.
Various MSSM seminars
and program activities frequently meet at the ILC and MSSM faculty
take part in several ILC advisory groups and task forces.
The Brookdale Department was the first geriatrics department in
a U.S. medical school and continues to be one of the highest
ranked in the nation. "We value and treasure that
association," said Dr. Butler.
A board committee
headed by Mr. Berube and including directors Llyod
Frank, William Martin, Humphrey Taylor,
John Zweig and Everette Dennis charted the change
of status effort and were advised by former director Ray Handlan,
also a former president of Atlantic Philanthropies, the ILC's
founding benefactor.
