May 2024 Minutes
President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday 3 May 2024 at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room, 2nd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House
and zoom
Members: David Bagley, Louis Bassano, Richard Borgman (Vice Chair), Richard Judd (Secretary), Richard Kent, Thomas Sandford (Chair), Claire Strickland, Cindy Eves-Thomas, Althea Tibbetts, Gail Werrbach; Ex Officio Members: Sarah McPartland-Good, Isabella LoRusso.
1. Approval of 5 Apr 2024 Minutes: Louis moved to accept; Claire seconded. Minutes were approved unanimously. Isabella introduced Taylor Defa (who will eventually replace Isabella).
2. PCRE Membership: The Council needs to fill a category for an hourly (classified) employee. Claire suggested announcing the opening at the homecoming. Council discussed changing the Gold Card eligible position to a member-at-large position. Tom believes PCRE can make this change without changing the by-laws. The proposal would be sent to the president. Rick will look for the by-laws to verify this. PCRE would need to send the old wording and the new wording to the president. PCRE agreed in principle to the change.
3. Newsletter: Rick indicated the newsletter is out as an email (as of this week) but it is not out in hard copy. The hard-copy newsletter went to print last week and should be in the mail soon. Rick will send out email reminders on May 13 and 28.
4. 2024 Retiree Homecoming — Status, Discussion, Action: The Homecoming is June 14; PCRE will meet one more time, June 7, before the Homecoming.
a. Parking: Althea has 70 parking passes that can be used in all legal parking spaces. Tom has reserved the parking lot opposite Wells, which will accommodate about 110 cars. Attendees going to Hilltop for the Littlefield or Astronomy tours will need parking passes, as will all vendors. PCRE will have signs pointing out the Wells lot. Passes will be distributed at the registration table in the swag bags.
b. Registration: We will need a sign at top of stairs pointing to the “Check-In” table. Sign should point out that the table has meeting materials and parking passes. Even PCRE members will need to register. The swag bags will come from Aetna. Richard, Claire, and Louis will stuff the bags. They should be at Wells at least by 8:00. The bags will have bookstore discounts and materials from the Credit Union and the Page Museum (which will be hosting an open house on the same day). Tom will check on where the boxes of swag will be delivered. Sarah will check on name tags.
c. Information Tables: We will have 23-25 tables. Tom inquired about the “table tents.” Sarah will check on this. Tom will check with the vendors by email. The table will have evaluation forms and programs.
d. Hikel Clock: The clock is at the engravers. The student scholarship winner will be at the homecoming.
e. Dean of Earth, Life and Health Sciences Diane Rowland: The Dean will introduce our speaker, Jacquelyn Gill.
f. Lunch: Lunch will be in the same room as last year, with the same menu and a non-dairy dessert option.
g. Prize Drawing: Jeff Mills will announce the door prizes.
h. Tours — Garden, Rogers Farm, Astronomy Ctr, Hotel Ursa: PCRE will know later if the tours are all filled. Tom will have a one-page map for every tour. Visitors will use their own cars, and there will be a van for anyone unable to walk to the tour site. The van will need to pick up visitors at the end of the tour.
i. Evaluations from Last Year: Sarah listed the suggestions from last years’ Homecoming evaluation forms. Attendees suggested projecting speakers onto the screens around the room; providing drinks before the morning session; providing better signs directing attendees to the location; a dessert for lactose-intolerant diners; proper use of the microphone (David points out this is hard to do); a printed agenda with times at the registration table; specifying a time to “gather for the tours” on the program; and sending out the agenda (including times) in an email. These matters have been addressed. We will need tickets for the tours, to be picked up at registration. In the next email we can indicate which tours are still available. (The Ursa tour is already full.)
5. Website: Cindy will add the homecoming agenda to the website, along with the newsletter. She will update the council members’ page, and will add meeting minutes. Cindy received a message from the web office that they plan to update word processing to the Guttenberg system.
6. Outing — Puffin Watch: The tour will be announced in the newsletter. The tour will be on July 12, and those interested can sign up at the homecoming. PCRE discussed a sign-up sheet and tour brochures at the registration table.
7. Other: PCRE discussed emeriti access to IT.
8. Motion to adjourn: David moved adjournment; Althea seconded, and the vote was unanimous.