UIC Chapter of SUAA Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting October 17, 2005

Members Present: Mary Bartucci, Marsha Borders, Kathleen Crittenden, Merrill Gassman, Nancy Hirsch, Dick Johnson, William Jones, Irving Miller, Gerry Piorkowski, Larry Poston, Jacob Starks, and Frank Tachau

Members Absent: Wally Wadycki

The meeting was called to order at 10:05am by President Miller.

1. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the meeting held on August 2, 2005 were approved.

2. Membership report (Gerry Piorkowski): As of October 2005, the current membership stands at 1,239, which is 22 less than the total from last year. There were 44 non-renewals and 147 new members. A listing of members who have died will be requested from the State office in order to remove their names from the mailing list. Responses from a recruitment e-mailing that was sent to all UIC employees in July are slowly trickling in. A request will be made to SUAA to see if currently employed faculty and staff may pay their dues by payroll deduction.

3. Update of calendar for 2005-2006 (Nancy Hirsch): Nancy reminded the Board of upcoming SUAA events:

October 27: Brown bag event: "A Full-time Career after Academic Retirement and After 65" by Edward Suntrup
December 13: SUAA Annual Holiday Party at Costa's in Greek Town
Febr/March: Brown bag event: Presentation of the History of Chicago Circle Campus by William Jones
April 25: Spring Annual Meeting. Tentative speaker: Norman Farnsworth on "Pharmaceuticals From Nature"

A reminder will be sent out next week for the upcoming brown bag discussion. In addition, a flyer and an e-mail notification announcing the time and place of the holiday party will go out in the first week of November.

4. Report from the Statewide SUAA meeting: Kathleen Crittenden reported on the proceedings. Three Board members attended the State meeting held at UIUC on October 12, 2005. A draft proposal updating the current SUAA Strategic Plan was distributed to the delegates for review and feedback. There was extensive discussion with respect to the mission of the organization, its guiding principles, and long term objectives. A number of recommendations were made for improvement. The document will go back to the subcommittee for revision.

Dan Slack, Interim Executive Director of SURS, delivered the keynote address. Dan has been responsible for decision-making for the organization since Jim Hacking's departure on August 23, 2005. He has been with SURS since 1998 as General Counsel and is a candidate for the permanent position of Executive Director. Appointment of the new SURS Director is expected in December. Dan has been recommended for the position by the State SUAA Executive Committee.

Slack reported that a new State Advisory Commission on Pensions, chaired by Roland Burris, has been established. Among those serving include six organizational leaders and three pension fund representatives. They agreed to consider three main topics on pensions, as presented in Public Act 94-14: normal retirement age, cost-of-living increases, and level of employee contributions, as well as other issues related to these areas. A final report is due to the Governor and Board of Trustees by November 1, 2005.

The terms of three members of the SURS Board of Trustees expired on June 30, 2005. The members were Mark Donovan, Fred Giertz, and Stan Rives. Mark Donovan has been reappointed, and Fred Giertz is seeking a second term. Dr. Alice Palmer was appointed as an annuitant member to replace Stan Rives. Dr. Palmer retired from the UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. She also served as an Illinois State Senator from 1991 to 1995.

Kathleen pointed out that UIC-SUAA does not have a representative on the State Executive Committee since Judy Curry's term expired earlier this year. President Miller agreed that the position should be filled by someone from our Chapter; he will invite Judy Curry to meet with the Board to talk about the process for naming a replacement.

5. Update on Political Involvement Committee (PIC): Dick Johnson reported that there is a push for greater advocacy by SUAA at the state and local levels. He spoke about the need to establish and maintain a relationship with local legislators in order to have our concerns and issues heard. It is hoped that, through the local PIC structure, participants will become motivated to advocate on issues that are important to SUAA.

Four Board members attended a PIC training session at Moraine Valley College that provided useful information on developing a local PIC. Additional sessions are being set up to offer training opportunities for other state universities and colleges. Local chapters may request up to $300 from the State organization to support a political information project. A proposal for these funds will be submitted soon to cover a UIC-SUAA PIC startup initiative.

The Board was informed that the State organization is in the process of sorting out some issues. It is still unclear what the relationship is between the PIC and the Legislative Committee

The UIC-SUAA Chapter will take a leading role in organizing a regional planning meeting with other chapters to develop strategies to help the organization gain political clout.

6. Planning for Joint SUAA/Faculty Senate meeting: Dick Johnson and President Miller are working to set up a town hall meeting with the UIC Senate on October 27. The primary goals of the meeting are to (a) raise consciousness on retirement issues, (b) inform constituents of UIC's position on pension reform, (c) discuss recent changes in SURS, and (d) urge the Senate to place pension issues on their agenda.

7. Chapter name change: Following discussion, the Board approved a new name for the chapter - UIC United. The recommendation will be placed on the agenda for the annual Spring Chapter meeting.

8. Newsletter issues ( Larry Poston): Estimates were given for using UIC Publication Services for production of the newsletter. Larry pointed out that the advantage of using the campus service is that we have greater control for altering the copy and can communicate directly with the mailroom. Three mock-ups of possible formats for the newsletter were distributed to the group. Only one was found acceptable, and the Board asked for more options from which to choose. A request was also made to include a mock-up with at least one color added despite the additional cost. The editor is awaiting feedback from Roz Hoffman regarding postage charges. A mailing of the revised newsletter is planned for the month of December.

9. Family dues membership structure: The Board voted to amend the Family membership dues structure by increasing the rate from $50 to $55 so that the Chapter does not lose money for each new pair of members in this category. The newly proposed rate of $55 will be presented to the membership for a vote at the Spring meeting.

10. Update on constitution and bylaws revision: President Miller reported that Treasurer and Parliamentarian Wally Wadycki is expected to return to his Board duties in October, following resolution of some health issues. Wally will continue work on the Constitution and Bylaws revisions and begin work on the annual audit.

11. New Business: President Miller announced that Senators Durbin and Obama have signed on as supporters of legislation to repeal the Social Security WEP. The Board was asked to send letters acknowledging their support and to urge the senators to continue.

Dick Johnson stated that he will begin moving forward on establishing a UIC PIC.

12. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 11:55am.

Respectfully submitted by Marsha Borders, Secretary

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