October 2024 Minutes

November 1, 2024 Minutes

President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday, October 4, 2024, at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room, 2nd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House and Zoom

Present: Louis Bassano, Richard Borgman (Vice Chair), Richard Kent, Cindy-Eves Thomas, Thomas Sandford (Chair), Althea Tibbetts, Sarah McPartland-Good (Ex Officio)

Absent: David Bagley, Gail Werrbach, Richard Judd (Secretary)

Approval of June 7, 2024, Minutes: Approved Unanimously.

PCRE Membership: There are two open positions; classified and gold card eligible. The open positions were mentioned at Homecoming and some people indicated to Tom that they might be willing to serve at a future date. Potential members include Mike Eckardt, Sue Landry, Michelle Bailey, William Mitchell (Botany), Desiree Butterfield-Nage (Library). Tom will contact Sue Landry to see if she wants to join the Council.

Richard Borgman and David Bagley are expected to leave PRCE this year and will need to be replaced. Also, Tom plans to step down as chair and may be leaving the Council as well.

Change Requirement of Gold Card Eligible Member to Member-At-Large: Last meeting the Council voted that Tom craft a letter to the President recommending a change to the “Gold Card Eligible” member, one who is currently employed at the university with at least 25 years employment, to a broader definition that would allow another member at-large or gold-card eligible member. The letter was presented and unanimously approved. Tom will send it to the President for her approval.

2024 Retiree Observations:

  • Information Tables – There was discussion about asking the folks staffing the information tables to remain longer into the afternoon to allow more retirees to visit with them. Various options for adjusting the schedule were discussed that would allow this to happen. It was recommended that we build additional time for visiting the information tables into the schedule.
  • Tours – Regarding the various tours, all seemed to enjoy the Rogers Farm, the Versant Power Astronomy Center and Planetarium and the Ursa Hotels. Unfortunately, the tour of the Littlefield Gardens had to be cancelled at the last minute. Also, it would have been nice to be able to take more retirees on a tour of Hotel Ursa.
  • Keynote – Dr. Jacquelyn Gill, Associate Professor of Paleoecology and Plant Ecology, delivered an excellent keynote presentation entitled “Aspects of Climate Change.” We plan to follow up on Dr. Gills request to retirees to help document climate changes.
  • Hikel Award – It was suggested that we consider having one of the Council members (or a member of the Hikel selection committee), describe the achievements of the recipient with the President presenting the award.
  • Acknowledging UMaine Foundation – It was agreed that appreciation to the UMaine Foundation support should be included in future Homecoming Brochures.
  • Parking Passes – Providing parking passes for everyone was a great idea and should be done in future Homecomings.
  • Overall – Everyone thought we did a good job organizing Homecoming this year. The evaluations were excellent. The program was overwhelmingly rated either a “4” or “5” by those participants completing the survey (5 being the highest)

Target Dates:

  • Homecoming – The dates selected were June 4th or 5th and June 11th and 12th depending upon the availability of President Ferrini-Mundy.
  • Hikel Award Nomination Deadline – December 1st was thought to be a good deadline because it allowed adequate time for application review, selection, and final recommendation by President Ferrini-Mundy. It was noted nominations for the award could be solicited from not only current employees as done now but also from retirees.
  • Silver Track Mailing – April 1st was selected as the deadline for mailing Silver Tracks. Also, mailing it out by that date gives retirees time to plan ahead to attend Homecoming, which will be featured in the newsletter.
  • Tours and Speaker for Homecoming – The date for selecting and planning for Homecoming Tours and a Keynote Speaker will be discussed at our next meeting.

Retiree Accounts of Climate Change: Dr. Gill asked retirees to share their experiences with climate change. Tom plans to contact Dr. Gill to ask for specifics, including how she plans to use the data. Council members discussed following up on Dr. Gill’s request by communicating with retirees on this topic via direct email or through a future newsletter.

Updates:

Website – Cindy provided an update on the need for her to participate in training on the new website construction system. It has already been used to update the Council’s home and membership pages. Cindy indicated that information on the climate change stories that we may be soliciting from retirees could also be included on our website.

Other:

Rick brought up the question of all retirees getting access to the university gym facilities. Claire showed him how to gain access by going to a website, SilverSneakers.com, and entering data from his health plan. This may be an issue for other retirees who wish to use the gym but are unable to gain access. Perhaps this topic should be included in a future newsletter.

Motion to Adjourn: The meeting adjourned at 9:50 AM