Minutes & Archives

UMRA Association General Meetings:

President's Reports

Executive Meeting Minutes


HIGHLIGHTS OF EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
December 1, 2021

  • The President, Janet Sealey, reported that there were a few privacy concerns raised by some members regarding the distribution of the UMRA membership list with the notice of meeting of the AGM. Discussions centered around our commitment to privacy.  Mark O’Riley was appointed the Privacy Officer for a three-year term as per the UMRA By-laws.
  • The President provided her thoughts on the direction of UMRA for the next two years. She hoped we could invest some effort towards increasing the profile of UMRA and ultimately the size of our membership.
  • The Treasurer reported that the new e-deposits has been very helpful for individuals wishing to pay their membership fees and it also provided UMRA with an improved ability to track members’ fees.
  • The past-president, Dan Sitar, will continue to sit on the CURAC board and is working hard to recruit someone for CURAC’s life-long learning committee.
  • Mark O’Riley and June Stewart were appointed co-chairs of the Benefits and Pension Committee. That committee continues to deal with the pension matter and examining the health and dental benefits provided by the U of M in comparison to those offered through CURAC and other academic institutions.
  • The membership years runs October 1 to September 30.  Our current membership consists of 54% of Members and 46% are Associates.
  • Our endowment funds are sufficient to award one scholarship to a graduate student and one bursary to an undergraduate student.  However, both funds still need some additional funds in order to provide a more substantial award.  Therefore, the Executive Committee approved a donation of $1000.00 to the scholarship fund and $1000.00 to the bursary fund.
  • The United Way campaign is finally underway.  Individuals making donations are reminded to ensure they indicate they are a U of M retiree.
  • The Executive Committee meetings will continue as a zoom meeting until all committee members feels comfortable about meeting in-person.  UMRA is grateful to the U of M administration for allowing UMRA to utilize their zoom license.
  • UMRA will make a donation of $500.00 for the second-place prize in the 3MT awards in keeping with our five-year commitment.
  • The committee discussed the need to show our appreciation to Janice Mann, UMRA’s webmaster, for her exceptional job in looking after the UMRA website and dealing with the migration of the website to a new platform.
  • The next Executive meeting is scheduled for Thursday February 17, 2022.