UIC UNITED: A Chapter of SUAA Minutes of the Board of Directors Meeting September 10, 2007

Members Present: Marsha Borders, Merrill Gassman, Richard Johnson, Irving Miller, Lawrence Poston, Charles Stanislao, and Frank Tachau

Members Absent: Carol Humble, William Jones, John McCrosky, Marilyn Ruiz, Susan Sindelar, and Jacob Starks

Guests attending: Judy Curry

The meeting was called to order by President Irving Miller at 1:30pm.

1. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the Board meeting held on July 30, 2007 were approved.

2. Programs:

• Proposed Brown Bag Seminars on Retirement (Judy Curry for John McCrosky)----The primary concern of the ad hoc committee centered on the replacement of Jacquie Berger. It was felt that, without a dedicated staff person to fill her position, it is unrealistic for the UIC administration to expect a UIC UNITED retiree to take responsibility for monitoring and developing programs. President Miller agreed to speak with John Loya in the Chancellor's Office to reinforce the need to continue the programming with appropriate staff.
  
  
• Update on September Seminar (Richard Johnson)---- The first program of the series on SURS member financial security, "Your Pension and You", is scheduled for Thursday, September 20th at Student Center West. Publicity for the event appeared in the UIC News and was distributed to the campus community through the various email listservs and via a mailing to retirees. In addition, other SUAA chapters in northeastern Illinois have been invited as well as Linda Brookhart, Executive Director of SUAA. Each presenter will address the audience, leaving about half the time for questions and answers.

  Carol Humble and Rose Kirk have assumed responsibility for organizing the series, including the scheduling speakers, publicity, room reservations, and making catering arrangements. Sue Sindelar is also providing assistance with publicity. Other members of the Board as well as those on standing committees are available to assist as necessary.

3. Membership: Susan Sindelar submitted a written report of recent membership activities. Included was a membership recuitment letter that she requested of Truman Anderson for distribution to his colleagues in the College of Medicine on September 10th. An announcement about the upcoming brown-bag program, "Your Pension and You", and an application for membership in UIC United also accompanied the mailing.

Additionally, Booker Suggs, Chair of the Academic Professional Advisory Council, and Darlene Willis, Chair, UIC Staff Advisory Council, were contacted to request time for UIC UNITED to make a presentation at one of their upcoming meetings. Sue also asked that a faculty member from the UIC United Board contact the chair of the Senate Executive Committee to request time at a Senate Executive Committee meeting to talk about UIC United.

A request to run two ads in UIC News during academic year 2007-08 to publicize programs was granted. The ad copies are not to exceed $500 and should have UIC Board approval.

4. Treasurer's Report (Chuck Stanislao):

a. Status of payroll deduction of SUAA dues for current employees: Chuck reported that, according to his source, consideration for expanding the queue to allow additional organizational participation in payroll deduction is two years away. The previous request for payroll deduction for UIC United members has been noted.

b. Audit updates: Ralph Westfall and Wayne Wolfe conducted the financial audit of the Chapter's books in August 2007; the Audit Report will be completed and ready for viewing on September 13, 2007.

An audit of dues collection by the State SUAA office uncovered discrepancies in reported disbursements to the Chapter. Chuck will review the procedure for calculation of dues with the State office to insure that the figures for the various classes of membership are correct. The State office has plans to update their technology so as to eliminate manual record keeping.

c. Financial report:

5. SUAACTION (Richard Johnson): Dick reported that a meeting of the SUAACTION committee will be scheduled to develop a plan of action for the coming year.

6. Newsletter (Lawrence Poston): Larry indicated that the most recent delay in publishing the newsletter was due to the excessive length of the current issue. The newsletter has been reduced in content and is expected to go to print in October. Meanwhile, Larry is trying to convene an Advisory Board meeting to discuss options for a revised newsletter.

7. Announcements: The fall SUAA Board of Directors Meeting will be held in Urbana on October 10, 2007. UIUC Finance Professor Jeffrey Brown will speak on the Social Security Pension Offset.

William Tongue, a member of UIC UNITED, has passed away.

8. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 2:35pm.

Respectfully submitted by Marsha Borders, Secretary

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