February 2024 Minutes
President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday, February 2, 2024 at 8:15 AM
Foster Board Room, 2nd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House
And Zoom
Members Present: Louis Bassano, Richard Borgman (Vice Chair), Thomas Sandford (Chair), Claire Strickland, Gail Werrbach
Ex Officio Members Present: Sarah McPartland-Good, Sharry Woodside.
The Council welcomed Sharry Woodside, Senior Administrative Coordinator in the President’s Office.
Approval of January 12, 2024 Minutes. Approved.
PCRE Membership: We are still in need of three members: two from the classified staff and one Gold Card member. Claire has been trying to contact someone in facilities and will continue to try. Althea Tibbets has agreed to join the Council. Tom reviewed Althea’s bio and will forward our recommendation for her membership on the PCRE to the President’s Office via Sharry.
Hikel Award Recommendation: Tom has forwarded the PCRE recommendation for the 2024 recipient of the Hikel award to the President’s Office. We are awaiting the President’s signature.
Oral History: Tom reported that the All Maine Women interviews of retirees will be on Feb. 10th in Shibles Hall room 212. The format will be a little different this year. The interviewers are going to bring all four retirees together for a group interview instead of individual interviews. The hope is that this format will generate extra insights, stories, and reflections. The person in charge for 2024 is Paige Allen — a sociology major and pre-law student. Mike Scott may not be interviewed due to health issues, so there may only be three interviews. All of the PCRE membership is invited to bagels and coffee on Feb. 10th at 10 am in Shibles 212 to meet the All Maine Women and the interviewees.
Website: Cindy e-mailed a detailed report on various topics pertinent to the Council’s work:
- Oral History Project videos: “After reaching a dead-end in trying to find who has access to the UMaine Retiree’s YouTube account (https://www.youtube.com/@umaineretiree6981), I reached out to the UMaine web office to request the 2019-2020 Oral History Project video be added to UMaine’s YouTube Channel. They agreed to post the video there, which allowed me to embed it into the PCRE Oral History Project web page at https://umaine.edu/retirees/oral-history-project/. YouTube flagged a piece of licensed music on the video, so UMaine Marketing & Communications checked with Ron Lisnet to make sure he had the necessary permission to use the music, which he did. Future videos can be placed on UMaine’s YouTube Channel and working with Ron Lisnet/UMaine Marketing & Communications on editing and posting will ensure all legal issues such as copyright, licensing, and media releases are taken care of.”
- Join Our Mailing List online form: “I’ve created the form (https://umaine.edu/retirees/mailing-list/) but am waiting to hear back from Barb LaPlante at the Foundation before linking to it to make sure the data fields we’re collecting match the fields their team is using for our current mailing list. She’s on vacation this week. It was their preference to have me create and manage the form and send them any data we collect from it on a monthly basis.”
- Online Gold Card Application: “I haven’t heard back from staff in the President’s Office about the creation and/or management of this form.” Sharry reported that the application is online but not at the retiree website. Sharry will check on this. Employees with 25 years of UMaine employment are eligible for the Gold Card.
- Archived Meeting Minutes: Only 7 of the oldest archived meeting minutes remain to be made accessible.
Newsletter: Rick has started work on the Silver Tracks newsletter. He met with Sarah and her team. He also met with Louis and Rich Kent who are joining Rick in thinking about and working on the newsletter. They have a plan moving forward. The newsletter typically has a letter from the President. Rick will email Sharry a draft of a message from the President that could be included in the newsletter. Rick asked for any ideas, retiree announcements and resources to include in the newsletter. Rick is aiming to get the newsletter out around April 1st. As we did last year, the newsletter will combine stories with information about homecoming. The back page of the newsletter will be a form for registering homecoming. We will also do an electronic version with help from Sarah and the foundation. They are aiming for about 6 pages in the paper version. The electronic version will allow us to do a bit more. Rick reported that the newsletter group is talking about an interview with a retiree. Louis reported that Roger Merchant is willing to be interviewed and is available after Feb. 27th. Rick and Louis will conduct the interview.
2024 Retiree Homecoming: The Newsletter will describe the tours, including the participant limit and the need for first come, first served in getting tickets for a specific tour. We will do a better job of letting people know where they need to get to in order to begin a specific tour and have better signs for where folks park will park.
- Speaker: Tom reported on his efforts to find a speaker for homecoming. Several faculty members were away during that time. He will follow up with Council recommendations: Jacquelyn Gill, Kurt Maasch, Jude Killy, Ivan Fernandez.
- Tour — Rogers Farm: Cindy’s email stated: “Kate Garland, Horticultural Professional for Cooperative Extension, is excited to work with us and provide a tour at Rogers Farm. She said to let her know if we have specific requests or needs for accommodations. To learn more about Rogers Farm, see the website at https://extension.umaine.edu/penobscot/home-gardening/rogers-farm/.” We discussed the importance of being very clear about the need for folks to be responsible for their own transportation to the farm if they choose this tour.
- Tour — Astronomy Center: Rick met with the Astronomy Center director. This can be a nice event with a brief tour of the center and telescope, followed by a show. The event would about 1.5 hours. The Center would be able to take a maximum of 50 people and they charge a nominal fee. The Foundation will cover the small fee for the show. Rick asked for the homecoming date to be held.
- Tour — Gardens: Currently, there are self-directed tours of the gardens. Claire will contact someone from Plant and Soil Science who could arrange for a personal tour for retirees.
- Tour — Hotel Ursa: Tom spoke with Heather, the general manager. The official opening is April 23. There are logistics to work out. What would the tour consist of? How long? And how many could be on the tour? Rick is in communication with Erica, who will write a short article about the hotel for the newsletter. Both Heather and Erica will be involved with the tour.
Outing — Puffin Watch: Tom reported that the boats go out of Millbridge — $95 for 2.5 hours. The Millbridge boat only takes 6 people. Are there any larger boats so that we could rent the whole boat for a Puffin Watch? Could we find a boat that holds up to 15-20 people perhaps? We would need to do a trip in July. Last year’s trip didn’t make the full number. We also talked about going to Monhegan. Could we do a meet-up on Monhegan by choosing a date for retirees to go out there at the same time?
Adjournment at 9:30 AM.