October 2020 Minutes
UM President’s Council of Retired Employees
umaine.edu/retirees
October 9, 2020
8:15 to 9:15 am
Minutes
Meeting via Zoom
Attendees: Dusty Dowse, Marian Dressler, Richard Judd, Sarah McPartland-Good, Thomas Sandford, Phyllis Thibodeau, Nancy Boyington, Louis Bassano, David Bagley and Sue Randall
Absent: Mike Pullen (perhaps Mike can join us by telephone in the future since he doesn’t use Zoom)
An announcement: Claire announced that she is retiring from the University at the end of the calendar year, perhaps 7 weeks from now. She extended a Thank You to the PCRE for the “retiree” training.
Meeting called to order:
Dusty Dowse formally called the meeting to order at 8:15 a.m.
Approval of September 11, 2020 meeting minutes, with 2 corrections (Mike Pullen was absent and update spelling of Thomas Sandford to include a “d”).
Election of Officers: All members present voted Dusty Dowse to continue as our Chair for the upcoming academic year (with gratitude). Dusty suggested taking the acting off his title.
Discussion of proposed agenda items for upcoming meetings:
Future agenda items: Health insurance, updating mailing list (we don’t have a complete list). Each member should send topics/agenda items to Dusty. Also, should think about Homecoming; perhaps a Virtual Homecoming. Other items include: Brownie Scholarship and the Oral History Project with All Maine Women group.
The University President has requested a meeting with us on 6 November, our usual time (8:15 am).
Consideration of what the Council may wish to do going forward with regard to the AON health coverage:
Discussion ensued: What kind of information should the PCRE get out to our membership? The unions, MEA retiree group and others are taking action and may consider this a breach of contract. Members shared their interactions with the webinar and with AON benefits representatives. Perhaps we need to decide on our purpose when we meet with the President on November 6. Put this topic on our agenda with the President. The question surfaced again: does the University keep a list of all retirees? Some things that interfere is when a retiree changes their status, or some others retired under the Federal program.
Richard agreed that we need to come up with a list of questions for the President. Dusty asked that each PCRE member email Dusty with the following information before our November 6 meeting:
- Your current experiences
- Questions that you need answers to
- Also, a short paragraph of your experience and comments
Motion to adjourn: Unanimous
Meeting adjourned at 9:15 am.
The next meeting is scheduled for November 6 at 8:15 on Zoom
Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Boyington