OSURA Board Meeting Minutes

OSURA Board Meeting Minutes

Friday, June 4, 2010

Refer to the end of these minutes for the Minutes of the May 12 Annual Meeting.

The following minutes are for the Meeting/Retreat held June 4 at the Poole residence.

Distributed at this meeting were: “OSURA Officer Timeline,” a “History and Mission” statement, “OSURA Bylaws, “ and several “Empowered-by-Orange” items.

Present: John Block, Carroll DeKock (new member), Erin Haynes, Kathy Heath (Membership Chair, invited), Carol Kronstad, Jim Krueger, Tom McClintock (new member), Gerry Olson (new member), Helen Polensek, Susan Poole, Terri Tower, Jo Anne Trow.

Absent: Gideon Alegado (on a six-month leave), Kate Sanders, Gary Tiedeman.

Meeting called to order at 11:17 A.M. by President Susan Poole.

Approval of minutes: The April meeting minutes were approved as distributed and revised via email.

Treasurer’s report: Carol Kronstad reported that a current OSU Foundation report was currently not available. [A updated version was distributed to the Boardon June 6, as follows: For the OSU Foundation account: July 1, 2009 beginning balance, $21065.36; Income to date, $8088.00; Expenses to date, $4651.50; Ending balance, $24515.86.]

For the OSU account (XURA): July 1, 2009 beginning balance, $9000.00; Expenses to date, $ 4942.45; Ending balance, $ 4057.55.

As a special order of business, President Susan Poole presented outgoing president Jo Anne Trow with both a spoken and tangible expression of the Board’s appreciation for her outstanding service to OSURA as President.

Committee Reports

Golf Comm: Jo Anne Trow reported that the annual tournament is scheduled for September 15, 2010, with Gary Meddaugh again in charge.TerriTower suggested that the committee consider a river float for the non-golfers.

Member Services Comm: Jo Anne Trow reported that two meetings continue to be in the planning stages: “Prepare to Care” program in October and the “Financial Storm” program in November. Gordon Reistad is chairing this committee.

Program Comm: Chair Helen Polensek reported that the tour of the OregonGardens in Silverton on May 20 worked out well, with twenty in attendance. The committee felt that this is a good event to repeat in 2011.

Membership Comm: Kathy Heath, Chair, said there was no activity on which to report now, but the committee will be active this year.

Scholarship Comm: John Block, Chair. No report; however, refer to the Annual Meeting minutes at the end of these minutes. There was a call for clarifying the eligibility of students regarding undergraduate versus graduate status prior to the 2011 search.

Newsletter/Directory: Gary Tiedeman, Chair. No report. The Spring Newsletter was distributed prior to the Annual Meeting. It looked very good. Tom McClintock will be assisting Gary on this committee.

Volunteer Comm: ChairTerriTower reported that requests for volunteers to carry out a “campus cleanup” on Friday June 11 have gone out. This is a special OSURA service effort and is distinct from other volunteer duties during Commencement.

Old Business

President Poole began with the good news that Helen Polensek has volunteered to be the new Chair of the Program Committee. Former chair, Curt McCann plans to continue to contribute as a committee member.

Annual Meeting. It was generally agreed that the May 12 meeting went very well, especially the order and timing of events. Changes to make for next year: make sure everything needed is there in advance (we were missing utensils at first), order less food, announce that leftover boxes are available before people leave so that unused food is utilized.

Northwest Retirees Annual Meeting. Jo Anne Trow and Kathy Heath gave a quick recap of the 2009 meeting at the University of Washington.TerriTower, our representative at the recent 2010 meeting at Western Washington, summarized results from that meeting, which she said was very useful. She distributed a list of “Topics for Discussion” from that meeting. Some points made:

Event is a business/discussion meeting (although the first meeting historically was focused mainly on entertainment.)
There is broad representation from NW schools, Montana through Oregon.(UBC, though invited, was not represented.) UW has the oldest and strongest program. OSURA is probably the newest, yet one of the strongest programs represented.
PSU has undertaken a written history of its campus.
UW does an annual survey taken among all retirees on “What do you do for your campus now that you have retired?”
MontanaState (following a program that began at ArizonaState) offers courses for emeritus faculty. [It was noted that OSURA was doing this several years ago, and this successful effort was spun-off to form what is now ALL.]
Several schools reported that they have benefited from being in AROPE.

There was general discussion of things that OSURA might want to do: co-host a new retirees coffee, offer complimentary first-year memberships to some, or all new retirees, initiate interest groups (for example, as Folk Club does) perhaps, involving hiking or traveling abroad, and take on a role as providing assistance in International-student mentoring (the PSU group has been asked to do this).

Golf tournament. See committee reports.

New Business

Following an exchange of opinions among Board members via email in May, the Board decided not to go forward this summer with an OSURA Board reception at President Ray’s home.

NW Retirees meeting in 2011. OSURA has committed to hosting this meeting on May 18-20, 2011. Room reservations at Hilton Garden Inn were mentioned. Reservation of a block of rooms at Hilton or elsewhere will need to be made soon. ACTION REQUIRED. Susan Poole asked for volunteers to serve on a committee for this 2011 event. Jo Anne Trow, TerrriTower, and Erin Haynes volunteered. Susan will name a chair. ACTION REQUIRED.

OSURA Officer Timeline. Susan distributed a two page document outlining by month, the tasks and events that we need to take action on. The list had been updated and prepared by Past-President Jo Anne Trow.

Program for New Retirees. There was continued discussion about kinds of things we might do. Kathy Heath, as liaison to Member Services, led the effort to examine the question of what, if anything, we should initiate. ACTION.

Board Liaisons. Susan Poole will serve as liaison to the Membership Comm. and Helen Polensek to the Member Services Comm.

Past President Jo Anne Trow distributed a two-page copy of the most recent OSURA by-laws and took the Board through the highlights.

Preparation for University Day, September September 13th. We will again have a booth at this event and volunteers will be needed. We need to identify items now that we will distribute on that day. Susan shared with us several catalogs of potential items. There was general agreement that we would purchase: (1) post-it type note pads with an appropriate OSURA identifier and (2) click-type pens, also with OSURA identifier. These items could also be used at other times, including giving them to members paying dues for 2010-11. Kathy Heath was authorized to make the purchases through Kate prior to June 30. ACTION REQUIRED.

Lunch break. Action was centered on enjoying a “Powered by Orange” type lunch (thank you Susan!!)

Retreat

Mission. Susan distributed a History, Mission, and Objectives sheet. She suggested that it would be a good idea to have one or more Board members make recommendations to update these statements.

Expanding membership. Ways to increase membership were discussed. Some ideas: ask new members, “why did you decide to join?”, make a concerted effort to reach retirees who declined membership upon retirement, create interest groups, initiate focus groups with a facilitator, attract members into a mentoring type program for international students. Carroll DeKock pointed out that we must keep our focus on interesting and involving activities for our members. Few people will join just to belong to OSURA.

Volunteer opportunities. We have a tradition of providing volunteer opportunities, but there are probably different kinds of things we could do. The suggestion was made to ask Member Services Committee assist with this. ACTION.

Visibility and net-working. There was some discussion of this. Net-working with other universities in-state, and the Northwest should be considered.

There was some discussion about creating a survey of all OSU retirees (not limited to OSURA members) asking the question “In what ways do you contribute to and enhance OSU as a retiree?” The University of Washington has done this, as noted in the discussion of the Northwest Regional Meeting.

OSU Foundation. It was agreed that we should maintain a close relationship with one or more representatives of OSUF. Since Tom McLennan was our most recent contact, we should stay in touch with him, including inviting him to a Board meeting. ACTION. We should also consider that the Foundation may appreciate an opportunity to be in touch with our members about gifts to OSU.

University Advancement. Jim Krueger suggested that the Board should consider hosting Luanne Lawrence and Ed and Beth Ray, possibly as invitees to a Board meeting, followed by a Board-hosted lunch.

Meeting adjourned at 3:00 P.M. No meeting in July. Next meeting: Friday, August 6, 10:00 A.M., Cascade Hall, 2nd Floor Conference Room.

Susan announced the subsequent meeting schedule: September 10, October 1, November 5, December 3, January 7, February 4, March 4, April 1, (all Fridays at 10:00 A.M.) and the Annual Meeting on May 11.

Minutes for the OSURA Annual Business Meeting, May 12, 2010.

Refreshments served beginning at 2:30 P.M. Approximatly seventy members were present for socializing and for the Annual Meeting.

At 3:00 P.M., President Jo Anne Trow called the group to order for a brief business meeting. Treasurer Carol Kronstad distributed and explained the 2009-2010 Treasurer’s report for the OSURA account with the OSU Foundation. In summary, the figures were: Beginning balance, $21065.36; Income, $7858.00; Expenses, $4612.70; End balance, $24310.66.

Election of New Board Members. Nominations Chairman, Bill Smart, distributed a ballot sheet with the names of the following nominees for three-year terms: Carroll DeKock, Tom McClintock, and Gerry Olson. After a call for additional nominations from the floor, it was moved by John Landers and seconded by several members that nominations be closed and that these three nominees be declared elected. Motion approved by unanimous voice vote.

TerriTower, Chair of the Volunteer Committee, next took the floor to report that forty-four members have served at one or more events for which OSURA provided assistance. To honor outstanding contributions, Terri recognized Jerry and Sue Borden for exceptional service to OSURA and OSU. Roy Arnold was named recipient of the OSURA Volunteer of the Year Award.

Susan Poole, Chair of the OSURA Scholarship Committee, reported that a total of forty-nine applications were received in competition for this year’s scholarship awards. Susan introduced the two winners, each to receive a $1000 scholarship. They are Christopher Betzing (majoring in Radiation Health Physics and also Biochemistry/Biophysics) and Ben Kong (majoring in Pre-Pharmacy). Both students are members of the UniversityHonorsCollege. Each awardee spoke for several minutes, highlighting their goals in health studies here at OSU.

President Jo Anne Trow recognized and thanked our two retiring Board members, Bill Smart (retiring Past-President) and Curt McCann (retiring Program Chair), as well as Roy Arnold (retiring Member Services Chair) for outstanding service to OSURA. Administrative Assistant Kate Sanders was also recognized for her invaluable efforts in making OSURA run.

President Trow then passed the gavel to our new President, Susan Poole and the formal meeting was adjourned.

Luanne Lawrence, Vice President for University Advancement, addressed the group about “Empowered by Orange,” and provided striking visual portrayals of OSU accomplishments to illustrate what the term means.

University President Ed Ray spoke about his views on the current conditions in the economy and then on the amazing success of the Campaign for OSU.

Thanks to each of our special guest speakers.

Minutes submitted by Jim Krueger, Secretary.