UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO RETIRED FACULTY ASSOCIATION

MINUTES OF APRIL 25, 2007 MEETING

 

The annual Spring meeting of the University of Colorado Retired Faculty Association was held on Wednesday, April 25, 2006 in the University Memorial Center, Boulder Campus, room 235.

            President Johann Stoyva called the meeting to order at 10:00AM and welcomed all members and guests in attendance. He asked that the group offer a vote thanks to retiring President Chuck Howe.  He then read the names of our recently deceased colleagues and spouses and a moment of silence was observed.  The following three names were added to those listed in the agenda materials:

            Manning, Jeanne L. (Wife of Ted Manning, Administration, UCB)

            Sander, Daryl.         (Education, UCB)

            Vandenberg, Grace (Widow of Stephen Vandenberg, Psychology, UCB)

The minutes of the October 28, 2006 Fall meeting were approved.

 

            Stuart Schneck, CURFA member who serves on UBAB (University Benefits Advisory Board) gave his report. UBAB has just passed it 8th birthday.  He noted that there has been a problem in the case of people on Great West insurance who use the University Hospital….they have been billed by the hospital after Medicare paid but before reimbursement has been received by the hospital from Great West.  If you need help, contact Terri Bruch 303-724-5004. 

            The open enrollment period for plans beginning July 1 will be April 30 to May 25.  If you don’t wish to make changes you don’t have to do anything. (This point is difficult to find in the information packet.  It’s on page 9 of the Supplement). The name of the Great West supplement plan is being changed to the “Great West Medicare Eligible” plan.  For those in the AMP (Alternate Medicare Plan, it is presumed that there will be a 9.5% increase in the payments, but this is not yet finalized.  Prof. Schneck distributed to the group a chart showing  the amounts of Great West premiums and the portions paid by CU and by the retiree, for the past five years.  We have been treated well.   In answer to a question about Medicare D, Prof. Schneck said that the prescription part of Great West’s Medicare Supplement has been officially called “creditable” and is as good as or better than Medicare D.  The group gave Prof. Schneck a special vote of thanks for all the hard work he has done during the past years in his presentations to CURFA.

            The group gave a special vote of thanks to Marc Swadener  in recognition of all his excellent work on the  RFA Directory these many years.

            Past President Chuck Howe then presented the newly revised by-laws prepared for the CURFA.  It represents much work done over the past 15 months by the Executive Board.  A copy was included in the second mailing this spring.  Prof. Howe went over them briefly for the group.  They are much more adequate and complete than the old by- laws.  He explained the difference between the “Executive Committee” and the “Executive Board”.    The document now includes descriptions of the duties of the officers.  After much discussion, it was decided to delete the last two sentences of the description of the Treasurer,  ( Article IV  B3); i.e. the following two sentences were removed: “Payments of $50 or less must be approved by the President. Payments in excess of $50 must be approved by a majority of the Executive Committee.”  In other discussion it was noted retired faculty from other schools are eligible for membership and there are in fact three such members.  The by-laws (with the amendment described earlier) were then approved unanimously.

            Stew Strickler reported on the membership.  There are currently 578 names on our list, 348 of these are up-to-date as to their dues, and some dues are still coming in.  We give a free membership for the first year. In answer to a question, Prof. Strickler guessed that roughly 30% go on to become dues-paying members (the “yield”).

 

            Treasurer Gloria Main gave her budget report.  A sheet showing income and expenses for the last three years was distributed.  We’ll be switching from the regular calendar year to the academic year.  Each spring she’ll present a budget for approval to the membership, according to the new by-laws.  The last few years we’ve received a $5000 contribution each year from the president.  But with all the recent administrative changes, we haven’t received it for a while but we are pursuing this.   The Vice-President for Finance has not answered her letter.  We use a checking account at Chase Bank; the current balance is $7118.93, and there was some discussion about whether a money-market account would pay more interest and whether this would involve filing Federal forms.  Prof, Main will investigate the matter and report to the Executive Committee.

 

            Next,  Ombudsperson Robert Fink gave his report.  He has had 10 contacts from retired faculty since the last meeting. Five of these concerned the upcoming discontinuation of the modem access (dial-up).  The dial-up service for the Boulder campus of the university has been paid for out of student fees since 1997, but now very few students use it.  This does not affect our university e-mail accounts.  However those using the home dial-up service will have to find a private provider to access their accounts. One can get dial-up service for around $9.95 per month, but many will prefer to get high speed service (Qwest, Comcast etc) which is more expensive..   Dennis Maloney, Executive Director, Information Technology Services (ITS), and Ken Schuetz, Director, IT Service and Support were on hand to answer questions.  The ITS will try to be most helpful to retired faculty members making the change; we are encouraged to use the help center (“bugbusters”) at the ITS building.

 

            Next, Sandra Moriarty reported on the Graduate Awards Fund.   She had good news to report .  In October our total was $28,000 and now it is $36,000, an increase of roughly $8000.  $5,800 of that was donations and the other $2,500 came from an increase in the market value.  The Spring 2007 awards went to Katie Driscoll, UCB, PhD Candidate, $1000 and Ashley Williams, UCCS, Ph.D. candidate, $500.  The latter is a substitute for  Darah Lacer,  who dropped out to have a baby (otherwise she would have been invited to give a presentation at today’s meeting.)  We will try to have one or both of the winners give a presentation at the Fall meeting.  A detailed description of the winners was distributed to the members present.

 

            Oliver Ellsworth reported on the Faculty Council.  A new Administrative Policy Statement on retirement policies has been approved.  This extensive document includes various possible retirement relations, such as phased retirements, post-retirement research, etc.   Prof. Kisslinger said that the Retirement Guide will need to be revised once the president signs on.  Prof. Ellsworth noted that he informed the Faculty Council of the revision of our by-laws.  Finally he mentioned that there was a request from the Silver and Gold that faculty and retired faculty compile and submit their obituaries to be placed on file.

            Bill Marine reported from the Health Sciences Center.  He discussed  upcoming meetings of the HSC retired faculty association.  He also mentioned that an outside firm is being hired to look at the “branding” of the new combined campus, since “UCDHSC” doesn’t seem to be satisfactory.

 

            The meeting adjourned around 11:30 AM.. This was followed by a social hour with punch, and a buffet luncheon (“Asian express”) at 12:15 PM.  The luncheon talk was given by John Gille, adjoint professor at ATOC (Atmospheric and Oceanic Science) on the topic “45Years of Looking at the Earth from Space: What we have learned” 

            Respectively Submitted: Richard Roth, Secretary.