October 2025 Minutes

President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday 3 October 2025 at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room, 3rd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House and Zoom

Members: Louis Bassano, Gail Dyer-Martin, Michael Eckardt, Richard Kent, Jennifer Perry, Thomas Sandford, Claire Strickland, Althea Tibbetts. Ex Officio Member: Sarah McPartland-Good

Approval of Minutes of 9/5/25: Louis moved approval. Althea seconded. Approved.

Members: Gail Werrbach, who represented the College of Earth, Life and Health (ELH), has resigned from PCRE. She will be missed for her contributions to PCRE and for her collegiality. We send our sympathies to Gail and her family as they confront the illnesses in her family.

PCRE welcomed Claire Strickland back to PCRE.

Hikel Award: PCRE agreed to move forward again this year with a request for nominations. We are adding Retirees to the current employee distribution list plus moving the schedule earlier, so we should have better response than last year. We are targeting Nov 1 for the distribution of emails and Nov 24 as the deadline for nominations. The request will be the same as last year except that the age requirement has been removed. The criteria that a nominee must be doing service at something different from their employment was discussed but remained. Sarah offered to handle both email distributions.

Retiree Homecoming: David Hart, the director of the Center for Sustainability, has agreed to be the featured speaker. Mike has offered to introduce the speaker. Only one tour – the Page Farm and Home Museum has been confirmed. There has been no response for the Tick Lab, the Littlefield Gardens and the Orono Bog Walk. Althea and Gail Dyer-Martin agreed to be in charge of the vendors. Last year the vendors under Gail and Althea was a great success.

The President appears to have other commitments for the day of our Homecoming. We have to anticipate what we will do if the President is not available. Perhaps the President can produce a video, if she will be absent.

Retiree Interviews: Katherine Poulin, the Historian of the All Maine Women (AMW) contacted Tom concerning the interviews. Although it was possible that AMW could hold the interviews in the Fall, they have decided to conduct them in the Spring semester as usual. Since PCRE knows that AMW will be conducting the interviews, we can go ahead to find four candidates to be interviewed when it is convenient for us, probably in December.

Newsletter: Jen, Rich, and Claire agreed to help on the newsletter. Tom will participate on the newsletter also. We are looking for a finish of the newsletter in January or February. Monique from the Foundation will meet with the newsletter group right after the November meeting is finished to talk about schedule and other items. Past newsletters are posted on the PCRE website.

It was suggested that the effect on the University of the various changes by the Federal government, such as suspension of research funds, could be documented as a special feature.

Retiree Outing: The Moosehead trip was cancelled due to low interest. We can rethink what we want for an outing. There will be enough lead time with an announcement in the newsletter.

Website: June 2025 minutes posted.

Other: The new policy for gym use discussed at the September meeting only applies to Orono campus. If UMaine retirees living in other cities, like Portland, wish to use local gyms at other Maine System campuses, then they are not covered. However, this can be reexamined if there turns out to be a demand. Louis proposed that a note be placed in the newsletter to let retirees at other locations in Maine should let PCRE know so that PCRE can present these for reexamination. The issue of retirees from other campuses using Orono resources was raised – are they covered. Louis agreed to raise this issue with Andrea Gifford, Dean of Students at Orono.

Claire raised the issue that the eligible events for which those with a Gold Card could attend have not been forwarded yet to holders of Gold Cards. Althea had contacted Taylor on the 13th of September for this same issue, and Taylor indicated that the list just went to the Print Office to be sent out. However, by today 3 October, no one has received them. Tom indicated he would follow up with Taylor. Claire suggested that in the past that these eligible events were sent out in July or August. Tom indicated that he would contact Joseph DeSalvo, Chief of Staff in the President’s office, to express our concern.

In addition some Gold Card holders do not have a card. The parking office on campus does provide new Gold Cards. The use of the Gold Card at events was discussed on our website after an investigation a few years ago. We may have to update that website.