ࡱ> IKH'` w*bjbj"9"9 .<@S@Sw"    $@ 2h h h h h h h h $2hh h h h 000h h 000V_@#h \ 0%fH  0x| p| #| #\h j 0" h h h & h h h d   SMURA Presidents Report June 2012 Geraldine Thomas As SMURAs President I have found that I am constantly engaged with some of our ongoing events and issues. I extend my thanks to the Executive who turn up for meetings and help by taking leadership in particular areas. Special thanks to Ron Cosper, our Past President, who continues to be my chief sounding board on so many occasions, to our competent treasurer, Elaine McCullough and to our willing secretary, Tony Farrell. In Memoriam. This year we sad goodbye to four former colleagues: Vedat Baydar, Jack McCormack, Henry Lackner and Fred Dockerill. At the request of their families and of the Presidents office, SMURA assisted with a memorial service at Saint Marys for Vedat Baydar on February 19 and has been offering assistance for the memorial service of Fred Dockerill which will take place at the University on June 28. As in the past SMURA works in two directions. On the one side we suggest and plan social events for friends and former colleagues and arrange for speakers on special topics. On the other side we maintain a connection liaison with the University, usually through the Presidents Office, with SMUFU and its executive, and with other university retiree associations. Social and Cultural Events An end of summer/early fall party at Geraldine Thomas cottage in Brookside . Once again we were blessed with good weather for this fun, potluck event. (September 2011) Our annual financial seminar/party hosted by TD Waterhouse nd Mary Ellen Hallett at the Radisson Hotel. Always a popular event where good advice for financial planning in retirement combines with food and drink graciously provided by our hosts. (November 2011) Four lunches for members and their friends at different local restaurants. This year we gathered together at different times at the Bicycle Thief Restaurant, the Inn on the Lake, the Indian Lake Golf Club and the Best Western Hotel/Restaurant on Chocolate Lake. Presentations by invited guests on a number of topics. This year they included: Sandra Barry, local expert on the life and work of the Nova Scotian/New England poet Elizabeth Bishop (April 29). Ms. Barry has written and lectured extensively on Elizabeth Bishop and spread her enthusiasm for the poet to an attentive audience. Ron Foley MacDonald, Curator of Film at Dalhousie who specializes spoke to us on Halifax and Film (January 29). Mr. MacDonald illustrated his talk with film clips which now go back to the early 20th century. A return engagement has been suggested. Megan Leslie, MP for Halifax and now one of three deputy leaders for the national NDP party, addressed our members on her experiences representing this area in the Canadian House of Commons. (May 23) We have usually invited colleagues from Dalhousie to these events and are pleased that several of them regularly come to Saint Marys for our special presentations. Such events remain open to all friends of our association. We ask our members to make suggestions for other cultural and social events in the coming year. Liaison with Saint Marys and with Other Universities The Presidents Office has been constantly supportive with our social and information events, providing the use of the Unilever Lounge in the 4th floor of the Sobey building as a venue and funding the receptions which normally follow events sponsored by SMURA. It has become customary that when the Presidents office receives notice of a former colleagues death, they immediately contact SMURA and request that we notify our membership lists. SMURA and SMUFU had received requests to sponsor a second seminar on the various health plan providers for post retirement seniors. To that end SMURA contacted McLelland and Moffatt Financial to provide us with a detailed account of the various plans available and to provide some assistance in evaluating those different services. This session in June 20111 was very well attended, mostly by SMUFU members who are coming close to retirement. The presentation was first class and those attending were clearly appreciative of the effort to make this complex area both intelligible and meaningful to individuals. On October 1, 2011 SMURA and ADRP of Dalhousie co-hosted an Atlantic Provinces University Retirees conference at Saint Marys The theme was Engaging with your Community, your University and your Mind. We had about forty participants from universities in Atlantic Canada, one participant from Quebec and one from Ontario, and we were also pleased that the national CURAC President, George Brandie, was able to attend and address us. We invited special speakers to speak on their own take of the conference themes, and heard reports from each university retirees association which had members present. As much as anything else, such meetings are a chance to keep in touch with other retired university colleagues and to find out what they and their members are doing. The broad extent of their activities and the different foci of the presentations can be read on our SMURA website. Special thanks to the Steering Committee from Dalhousie and Saint Marys who planned this one day conference for university retirees. Committee members were: from Dalhousie- Randy Barkhouse, Tarun Ghose and Alisdair Sinclair and from Saint Marys- Ron Cosper and Geraldine Thomas. Financial details for the conference can be viewed in our treasurers report. It has long been a goal of the SMURA Executive that we should begin a meaningful dialogues with the SMUFU executive on a number of issues of interest and concern to our members. Contacts between the two associations remain strong. In recent years SMUFU has invited all retirees to its annual celebration of colleagues new and old. Some of our SMURA members serve on SMUFU committees. Our Past President, Ron Cosper, had written to the SMUF executive some time ago about certain SMURA concerns but received to reply. Geraldine Thomas reworked that letter, adding some new material and she sent it to the present SMUFU executive in March 2012. Very Recently (June 6, 2012) some of our executive (Ron Cosper, John Young as Vice-President and Geraldine Thomas) attended a meeting with Marc Lamoureux, the new SMUFU President. Our letter, which can be read in its entirety on our website, was discussed in detailed at that meeting. There seems to be some willingness on the part of SMUFU or at least of the current President, to move cautiously forward on items raised in Geraldines letter- e.g., the inclusion of retirees in some way in a post retirement heath plan, non voting membership on the SMUFU executive, assistance with retirees scholarly activity, right of entry for post retirement university teaching, and discussion of issues around the designation of Professor Emeritus/Senior Scholar. The SMUFU Executive and membership will be considering these items and as a SMURA membership we ourselves need to discuss how far we want to go in pursuing those issues. Clearly some of the items raised will also require discussion with the Universitys administration and they may result in some modification to the Universitys Collective Agreements. Last years List of Proposed Suggestions for SMURA Action Three of the items on that list- modifications to provisions for emeritus status, assistance with scholarly activity of retirees and reimbursement for scholarly expenses in retirement are included in the letter Geraldine Thomas sent o the present SMUFU Executive and thus part of ongoing discussion with the Faculty Union. Another item asked for a volunteer to send cards for special events in the life ( and death) of our members. We appreciate the fact that Rowland Marshall on our executive has agreed to take on this function. The last item on that list was a suggestion for some sort of association in SMURA for the spouses or partners of deceased members. The executive has discussed this item on several occasions without coming to a definitive answer. The present feeling is that all of us should indicate to such individuals that they are very welcome to attend any of our events, but not to go ahead with a defined special membership. Does our membership wish us to pursue this in another way? Other Proposed Suggestions for SMURA Action in 2012-2013 Expand the base of paid members. Hopefully this will both give larger audiences at special events and give us more cash to fund our activities. Become more involved in the activities and meetings of CURAC. We should strive to send at least one representative to the next annual CURAC conference. 3. Do more to support and promote retired faculty who are actively involved in research {- . ( ,  # 3 5 > ? @ E S X [ q   " $ ./MQr89"#7U./ h9&5 h65h*h*5H* h\/5 h@,5 h-[5 h-g5 hP5 h*5 h{5 hA"5IST   ! 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