At its December meeting, the H.E.L.P. board of directors named the organization's officers for 2006. They selected Cathy Allen as Chair, Nan Salley as Vice Chair and Kerry Welch as Treasurer. Rod Burkley will serve as Immediate Past Chair. The officers will be installed at H.E.L.P.'s annual board workshop in January.

Other members of H.E.L.P.'s volunteer board of directors include Jean Adelsman, Helen Dennis, Liz Fitzgerald, Dr. Lowell Greenberg, Suzi Gulcher, Hal Lazar, Logan Meyer, Julia Parton and Dr. Ellen Tarlow.

Cathy Grove, director of development, commented "we're about to celebrate H.E.L.P.'s tenth birthday, thanks in large part to the long-standing leadership and support of our hard-working board." Cathy Allen added "H.E.L.P.'s work and services are uniformly top quality. Its board is professional and caring. I'm proud to be selected to lead this community treasure."

H.E.L.P. is an award-winning Torrance, California -based non-profit education and counseling center providing impartial information to older adults and families on elder care, law, finances and more. Since its inception in 1996, it has helped thousands of individuals, couples and families. Its services include public classes, private consultations, publications and telephone and Internet assistance. H.E.L.P. is located at 1404 Cravens Avenue, Torrance, California 90501. The phone number is (310) 533-1996, and the Internet addresses are www.help4srs.org, www.annuitytruth.org and www.better-endings.org.