June 2025 Minutes
President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday 6 June 2025 at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room
Members: Louis Bassano, Gail Dyer-Martin, Richard Judd (Secretary), Richard Kent, Thomas Sandford (Chair), Jen Perry, Althea Tibbetts, Gail Werrbach, Sarah McPartland-Good (ex officio)
Approval of 2 May 2025 Minutes: Minutes were approved with a correction: table tents were not done by the Foundation but by Events & Hospitality. Tom will change the minutes. Louis moved to accept; Althea seconded; motion was approved.
Recap of Retiree Homecoming Fair: One hundred thirty seven registered for Homecoming, and about 10 attended who were not on the list, but there were 47 no-shows at the checkoff table. Plus there were 28 guests and vendors staying for lunch. It is not clear how many attended but did not pick up their name tags. Jeff Mills received donations for the Foundation at the event.
The Council discussed the following items:
1) names on the tags were in larger print, but we should consider adding department affiliations; name tags should be on a table at the top of the stairs to prevent entering the vendor area without checking in, and a volunteer should staff the table.
2) Swag bags are available for free from the University Bookstore.
3) Vendors should have copies of the program.
4) The morning coffee, which was put out at 7:30, was not hot later in the day.
5) Tour leaders should have signs.
6) Attendees should be given a few minutes to fill out the evaluation form before the tours start. (We received 46 responses.)
7) Around 37 attendees were signed up on the Tick lab tour.
8) Next year we could offer a tour of the Orono Bog and sponsor a panel discussion of informal issues regarding retirement.
9) Richard has photos that could be added to the website.
10) We should transmit retiree interviews at a table.
11) We should send out an email reminder one or two days before the Homecoming.
Retiree Outing: Tom reported that renting a Cyr bus for a Boothbay Botanical Gardens tour would cost $1,200. If we recruited less than 30 people, this would cost $40 or more per person. Tickets are $18 for seniors. A bus from the motor pool would require sponsorship from an active employee and an approved driver. Council discussed car-pooling to Boothbay. Louis suggested an email to retirees to determine interest. A Katahdin tour of Moosehead Lake costs $40 for a shorter cruise to Moose Island and Beaver cove, and $50 for a longer cruise. Council will discuss this further in the fall. Council also discussed means of promoting the outing by email and website posting. We might post a choice of tours (with costs), and ask for suggestions. Council decided not to offer an outing this summer and to start advertising earlier in the fall. We will discuss other possibilities in the fall.
Other: Council discussed ways of encouraging nominations for the Hikel Award, possibly by broadening the criteria for eligibility and asking the President to send out a call for nominations earlier. Council will discuss this further in the fall. Council will remind the President’s Office to reappoint Council members. Sarah has received three climate change stories that should be sent to Jacqueline and posted on the website (perhaps with editorial adjustments). Tom will forward them to Cindy to post on the website.