Editor’s note: This column appeared in BusinessWeek’s special report, “The Case Against Retirement.”

After 25 years of climbing her first ladder at Hewlett-Packard, Gina Cassinelli knew it was time for a change. “All of a sudden, you wake up and you say…I can’t believe I’ve been here 20 or 25 years,” she recalls. “I loved what I did, but I don’t want to do it for 20 more.”

Cassinelli took early retirement, then tried to open a new career door with few guides and little help. “You get to a point in your life where you have to feel like what you’re doing matters,” Cassinelli says. “But how to do it? That’s hard.”

The road used to be much easier. For 50 years, the average fiftysomething American was headed inexorably toward a clear-cut career and life transition: the transition to a leisure-based retirement.

There's an emerging new status symbol for baby boomers looking to make some changes: an Encore Fellowship.

They’re only a small part of much larger legislation, but encore careers may be one of the enduring legacies of the Serve America Act that is now before Congress and is expected to be sent soon to President Obama for his signature.

The bipartisan bill, which paves the way for a major expansion of national service opportunities for people of all ages, places public service at the center of the new stage of work that is emerging between the end of midlife careers and true old age. It calls on people who have finished their midlife work to put their experience to work transforming education, reducing poverty, improving health care and protecting the environment.

In his new column on Politico, Matt Miller identifies President Obama’s most important task: “To clear out the cobwebs in the American mind.”

Miller, a senior adviser at the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., takes a strong broom to some of those cobwebs himself in his provocative new book, The Tyranny of Dead Ideas. I caught up with Miller recently to ask him about “dead” and “destined” ideas in the looming debate over baby boomer “entitlement” spending.

President Obama hasn’t (yet) championed an encore careers initiative, but pieces of such an agenda already are emerging in the administration’s plans and proposals. (For more on the rationale for such an encore careers initiative, see “Social + Security = Encore Careers.”)

President Obama and his team are looking for smart solutions that deliver not only budget savings but also better outcomes, not only fiscal responsibility, but also economic recovery and national renewal. Obama should look to tens of millions of baby boomers who want to extend their working lives with encore careers that answer his call for "a new era of responsibility."

Obama need only step in front of the encore careers parade to turn a promising trend into major a social institution that can reduce the nation's budget deficits, restore individuals' personal finances, and unleash a tremendous pool of talent on some of our biggest challenges such as education, climate change, and global poverty and health.

Encore Fellowships are a central feature of both the Serve America Act of 2008, introduced by Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, and the Encore Service Act of 2008, proposed by Senators Chris Dodd and Thad Cochran, along with Kennedy.

Other innovative features in the bills would also help catalyze new solutions to major social challenges by calling Americans of all ages to serve their country and their communities. The two bills have some minor differences in approach, which will be worked out in the inevitably lengthy legislative process.

Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are both co-sponsors of the Serve America Act, and both have pledged to sign it into law if elected.

At the ServiceNation Summit in New York City, Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Orrin Hatch introduced “a sweeping new national service bill” to recruit 175,000 Americans for work in health, education, environmental protection and anti-poverty programs, the Boston Globe reports.

The legislation includes provisions for Encore Fellowships aimed at older adults making the transition from their primary careers to encore careers in areas of critical need, such as education, health care and nonprofit management.

Senator Chris Dodd has introduced the Encore Service Act of 2008, which will offer stipends and educational awards to experienced Americans 55 and over, and will create the Encore Fellows Program to place outstanding older adults in one-year management and leadership positions in public service or private nonprofits.

The bill complements the new national service bill introduced by Sens. Kennedy and Hatch, which also includes provisions for encore service and calls for the creation of the Encore Fellows program. The two bills will ultimately be reconciled into a single piece of legislation.

“Whether you are a junior in high school or a new retiree, serving your country can be one of the most rewarding and unforgettable experiences of your life,” Dodd, a returned Peace Corps volunteer, said in a statement. “By harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of our nation’s youth and the wisdom and life experiences of older Americans, we can help meet many of our nation’s most pressing educational, environmental, and public safety needs through community service.”

In a forum at the ServiceNation Summit on September 11, Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain both pledged to sign the new national service legislation if they are elected president.

Richard Stengel, Time magazine’s managing editor, kicked off a recent issue with a note to readers announcing a service “summit” in New York City on September 12.

“It is a unique moment for the idea of national service,” Stengel wrote. “You have two presidential candidates who believe deeply in service and who have made it part of their core message to voters. You have millions of Americans who are yearning to be more involved in the world and in their communities. You have corporations and businesses that are making civic engagement a key part of their mission.”