ASSOCIATION OF MONTANA RETIRED PUBLIC EMPLOYEES
Board Minutes
100 North Park Avenue, PERA Conference Room
December 15, 2015
CALL TO ORDER
The board meeting of the Association of Montana Retired Public Employees was called to order by Mike O’Connor at 9:30 a.m.
BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT
Cathy Kendall, Mike O’Connor, Lyle Manley, Jan Brown, Jim Lewis, James Driggers, Patty Mott, and Shannon Voss (staff). John H. McEwen and Dale Boespflug were excused.
GUESTS
Steve Garrison and Dore Schwinden
MINUTES
The November minutes were moved, seconded, and passed.
LOBBYING UPDATE
Leo Berry was unable to attend the Board meeting to provide the Board with any lobbying updates.
MPERA UPDATE
Dore Schwinden, Executive Director of MPERA, reported evaluation results for 2015. He had good news—all systems experienced investment gains. We now have more than $7 billion in total assets and more than 60,000 participants. He noted the entire evaluation is available on the MPERA website.
Dore also reported they have issued two Requests For Proposals (RFPs). One RFP is for a stable value fund. The other RFP is for actuarial services for the upcoming 5-7 years. They are in the process of making the awards to the proposed award winners. He also reported that their IT project has made significant progress.
Dore reported he still offers pre-retirement seminars and will make sure the schedule is readily available.
There was some concern raised by the Board that the GABA set for retirees hired on or after July 1, 2013 will not keep up with inflation. There was also a suggestion to summarize the GABA rates for each “Tier” on AMRPE’s website to provide as a reference for our members.
TREASURER’S REPORT
John McEwen was unable to attend the Board meeting but emailed Board Members a brief summary of the Treasurer’s report. It was noted that AMRPE gained approximately 140 new members due to the new member mailing sent out in September.
PERB BOARD MEETING
Mike O’Connor reported that he attended the PERB Board meeting on December 10, and affirmed the importance of AMRPE representation at this board meeting. He also reported the Montana Board of Investments hired a new Chief Investment Officer (CIO), Joseph Cullen.
MEMBERSHIP
Shannon Voss reported that in October, we received the Montana Vital Statistics Death List from the State. This “deceased list” will always be a couple months behind the current date, but should help us maintain our member database. We are able to run a query to help us identify those deceased who are AMRPE members, and update our records. This will hopefully alleviate the burden for family members needing to notify us of their loss.
The list we received in October was current through August, and we identified about 40 deceased members. We have requested receipt of this list on a quarterly basis.
Shannon Voss also reported that there are currently 2,524 active members in the database (to include lifetime members). Our report shows 164 members did not renew their membership in 2014.
OLD BUSINESS
At the previous meeting, the Board discussed changes in bylaws allowing some flexibility in how often board members meet. Lyle Manley suggested that the Board decide at each meeting whether they need to meet the following month. The Board felt there was no need to meet in January. The next Board meeting will be February 16, 2016.
The Board decided to remove the monthly “AMRPE Board Meeting” announcements in the Independent Record “Helena Events” and online at Helenaevents.com. Instead, the Board Meeting dates and the location will be posted on the AMRPE website.
NEW BUSINESS
Bylaws Updates
James Driggers reviewed the changes the committee proposes to make to the bylaws. A motion was passed to adopt the changes (including a few minor editing suggestions that were discussed). The updated bylaws will be posted online.
Contractor Agreement Update
Our contract for services with CMS (Communication and Management Services) is set to expire at the end of the calendar year. A motion was passed to renew the contract for 2016.
Election of Board Members and Officers
A motion was passed to establish new three year Board terms for Jan Brown, Mike O’Connor and Cathy Kendall beginning January 1.
A motion was passed to establish 2016 Officers as follows: Mike O’Connor, President; Lyle Manley, Vice President; Jan Brown, Secretary; and John McEwen, Treasurer.
Newsletter Planning
The next newsletter will be distributed in February. Ideas for possible topics include a summary of the lawsuit outcome, membership renewal reminder, summary of the MPERA investments, and encouragement to our members to educate themselves on candidates’ stance for retirement issues in the upcoming election year. Articles should be drafted by February 1st.
Committee Change Assignments for 2016
Mike O’Connor encouraged Board Members to let him know if anyone would like to participate on a different committee.
Records Retention Policy Review
CMS should look at the records retention schedule and purge old records.
The meeting adjourned at 11:30.
The next meeting will be held in the MPERA conference room at 100 North Park Avenue in Helena on February 16th at 9:30 A.M.
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