OSURA Board Meeting Minutes
Friday, June 4, 2010
Refer to the end of these minutes for the Minutes of the May 12 Annual Meeting.
The following minutes are for the Meeting/Retreat held June 4 at the Poole residence.
Distributed at this meeting were: “OSURA Officer Timeline,” a “History and Mission”
statement, “OSURA Bylaws, “ and several “Empowered-by-Orange” items.
Present: John Block, Carroll DeKock (new member), Erin Haynes, Kathy Heath
(Membership Chair, invited), Carol Kronstad, Jim Krueger, Tom McClintock (new
member), Gerry Olson (new member), Helen Polensek, Susan Poole, Terri Tower, Jo
Anne Trow.
Absent: Gideon Alegado (on a six-month leave), Kate Sanders, Gary Tiedeman.
Meeting called to order at 11:17 A.M. by President Susan Poole.
Approval of minutes: The April meeting minutes were approved as distributed and
revised via email.
Treasurer’s report: Carol Kronstad reported that a current OSU Foundation report was
currently not available. [A updated version was distributed to the Board on June 6, as
follows: For the OSU Foundation account: July 1, 2009 beginning balance, $21065.36;
Income to date, $8088.00; Expenses to date, $4651.50; Ending balance, $24515.86.]
For the OSU account (XURA): July 1, 2009 beginning balance, $9000.00; Expenses to
date, $ 4942.45; Ending balance, $ 4057.55.
As a special order of business, President Susan Poole presented outgoing president Jo
Anne Trow with both a spoken and tangible expression of the Board’s appreciation for
her outstanding service to OSURA as President.
Committee Reports
Golf Comm: Jo Anne Trow reported that the annual tournament is scheduled for
September 15, 2010, with Gary Meddaugh again in charge. Terri Tower suggested that
the committee consider a river float for the non-golfers.
Member Services Comm: Jo Anne Trow reported that two meetings continue to be in the
planning stages: “Prepare to Care” program in October and the “Financial Storm”
program in November. Gordon Reistad is chairing this committee.
Program Comm: Chair Helen Polensek reported that the tour of the Oregon Gardens in
Silverton on May 20 worked out well, with twenty in attendance. The committee felt that
this is a good event to repeat in 2011.
Membership Comm: Kathy Heath, Chair, said there was no activity on which to report
now, but the committee will be active this year.
Scholarship Comm: John Block, Chair. No report; however, refer to the Annual Meeting
minutes at the end of these minutes. There was a call for clarifying the eligibility of
students regarding undergraduate versus graduate status prior to the 2011 search.
Newsletter/Directory: Gary Tiedeman, Chair. No report. The Spring Newsletter was
distributed prior to the Annual Meeting. It looked very good. Tom McClintock will be
assisting Gary on this committee.
Volunteer Comm: Chair Terri Tower reported that requests for volunteers to carry out a
“campus cleanup” on Friday June 11 have gone out. This is a special OSURA service
effort and is distinct from other volunteer duties during Commencement.
Old Business
President Poole began with the good news that Helen Polensek has volunteered to be the
new Chair of the Program Committee. Former chair, Curt McCann plans to continue to
contribute as a committee member.
Annual Meeting. It was generally agreed that the May 12 meeting went very well,
especially the order and timing of events. Changes to make for next year: make sure
everything needed is there in advance (we were missing utensils at first), order less food,
announce that leftover boxes are available before people leave so that unused food is
utilized.
Northwest Retirees Annual Meeting. Jo Anne Trow and Kathy Heath gave a quick recap
of the 2009 meeting at the University of Washington. Terri Tower, our representative at
the recent 2010 meeting at Western Washington, summarized results from that meeting,
which she said was very useful. She distributed a list of “Topics for Discussion” from
that meeting. Some points made:
 Event is a business/discussion meeting (although the first meeting historically was
focused mainly on entertainment.)
 There is broad representation from NW schools, Montana through Oregon.(UBC,
though invited, was not represented.) UW has the oldest and strongest program.
OSURA is probably the newest, yet one of the strongest programs represented.
 PSU has undertaken a written history of its campus.
 UW does an annual survey taken among all retirees on “What do you do for your
campus now that you have retired?”
 Montana State (following a program that began at Arizona State) offers courses
for emeritus faculty. [It was noted that OSURA was doing this several years ago,
and this successful effort was spun-off to form what is now ALL.]
 Several schools reported that they have benefited from being in AROPE.
There was general discussion of things that OSURA might want to do: co-host a new
retirees coffee, offer complimentary first-year memberships to some, or all new retirees,
initiate interest groups (for example, as Folk Club does) perhaps, involving hiking or
traveling abroad, and take on a role as providing assistance in International-student
mentoring (the PSU group has been asked to do this).
Golf tournament. See committee reports.
New Business
Following an exchange of opinions among Board members via email in May, the Board
decided not to go forward this summer with an OSURA Board reception at President
Ray’s home.
NW Retirees meeting in 2011. OSURA has committed to hosting this meeting on May
18-20, 2011. Room reservations at Hilton Garden Inn were mentioned. Reservation of a
block of rooms at Hilton or elsewhere will need to be made soon. ACTION
REQUIRED. Susan Poole asked for volunteers to serve on a committee for this 2011
event. Jo Anne Trow, Terrri Tower, and Erin Haynes volunteered. Susan will name a
chair. ACTION REQUIRED.
OSURA Officer Timeline. Susan distributed a two page document outlining by month,
the tasks and events that we need to take action on. The list had been updated and
prepared by Past-President Jo Anne Trow.
Program for New Retirees. There was continued discussion about kinds of things we
might do. Kathy Heath, as liaison to Member Services, led the effort to examine the
question of what, if anything, we should initiate. ACTION.
Board Liaisons. Susan Poole will serve as liaison to the Membership Comm. and Helen
Polensek to the Member Services Comm.
Past President Jo Anne Trow distributed a two-page copy of the most recent OSURA bylaws and took the Board through the highlights.
Preparation for University Day, September September 13th. We will again have a booth at
this event and volunteers will be needed. We need to identify items now that we will
distribute on that day. Susan shared with us several catalogs of potential items. There was
general agreement that we would purchase: (1) post-it type note pads with an appropriate
OSURA identifier and (2) click-type pens, also with OSURA identifier. These items
could also be used at other times, including giving them to members paying dues for
2010-11. Kathy Heath was authorized to make the purchases through Kate prior to June
30. ACTION REQUIRED.
Lunch break. Action was centered on enjoying a “Powered by Orange” type lunch (thank
you Susan!!)
Retreat
Mission. Susan distributed a History, Mission, and Objectives sheet. She suggested that it
would be a good idea to have one or more Board members make recommendations to
update these statements.
Expanding membership. Ways to increase membership were discussed. Some ideas: ask
new members, “why did you decide to join?”, make a concerted effort to reach retirees
who declined membership upon retirement, create interest groups, initiate focus groups
with a facilitator, attract members into a mentoring type program for international
students. Carroll DeKock pointed out that we must keep our focus on interesting and
involving activities for our members. Few people will join just to belong to OSURA.
Volunteer opportunities. We have a tradition of providing volunteer opportunities, but
there are probably different kinds of things we could do. The suggestion was made to ask
Member Services Committee assist with this. ACTION.
Visibility and net-working. There was some discussion of this. Net-working with other
universities in-state, and the Northwest should be considered.
There was some discussion about creating a survey of all OSU retirees (not limited to
OSURA members) asking the question “In what ways do you contribute to and enhance
OSU as a retiree?” The University of Washington has done this, as noted in the
discussion of the Northwest Regional Meeting.
OSU Foundation. It was agreed that we should maintain a close relationship with one or
more representatives of OSUF. Since Tom McLennan was our most recent contact, we
should stay in touch with him, including inviting him to a Board meeting. ACTION. We
should also consider that the Foundation may appreciate an opportunity to be in touch
with our members about gifts to OSU.
University Advancement. Jim Krueger suggested that the Board should consider hosting
Luanne Lawrence and Ed and Beth Ray, possibly as invitees to a Board meeting,
followed by a Board-hosted lunch.
Meeting adjourned at 3:00 P.M. No meeting in July. Next meeting: Friday, August 6,
10:00 A.M., Cascade Hall, 2nd Floor Conference Room.
Susan announced the subsequent meeting schedule: September 10, October 1, November
5, December 3, January 7, February 4, March 4, April 1, (all Fridays at 10:00 A.M.) and
the Annual Meeting on May 11.
Minutes for the OSURA Annual Business Meeting, May 12, 2010.
Refreshments served beginning at 2:30 P.M. Approximatly seventy members were
present for socializing and for the Annual Meeting.
At 3:00 P.M., President Jo Anne Trow called the group to order for a brief business
meeting. Treasurer Carol Kronstad distributed and explained the 2009-2010 Treasurer’s
report for the OSURA account with the OSU Foundation. In summary, the figures were:
Beginning balance, $21065.36; Income, $7858.00; Expenses, $4612.70; End balance,
$24310.66.
Election of New Board Members. Nominations Chairman, Bill Smart, distributed a ballot
sheet with the names of the following nominees for three-year terms: Carroll DeKock,
Tom McClintock, and Gerry Olson. After a call for additional nominations from the
floor, it was moved by John Landers and seconded by several members that nominations
be closed and that these three nominees be declared elected. Motion approved by
unanimous voice vote.
Terri Tower, Chair of the Volunteer Committee, next took the floor to report that fortyfour members have served at one or more events for which OSURA provided assistance.
To honor outstanding contributions, Terri recognized Jerry and Sue Borden for
exceptional service to OSURA and OSU. Roy Arnold was named recipient of the
OSURA Volunteer of the Year Award.
Susan Poole, Chair of the OSURA Scholarship Committee, reported that a total of fortynine applications were received in competition for this year’s scholarship awards. Susan
introduced the two winners, each to receive a $1000 scholarship. They are Christopher
Betzing (majoring in Radiation Health Physics and also Biochemistry/Biophysics) and
Ben Kong (majoring in Pre-Pharmacy). Both students are members of the University
Honors College. Each awardee spoke for several minutes, highlighting their goals in
health studies here at OSU.
President Jo Anne Trow recognized and thanked our two retiring Board members, Bill
Smart (retiring Past-President) and Curt McCann (retiring Program Chair), as well as Roy
Arnold (retiring Member Services Chair) for outstanding service to OSURA.
Administrative Assistant Kate Sanders was also recognized for her invaluable efforts in
making OSURA run.
President Trow then passed the gavel to our new President, Susan Poole and the formal
meeting was adjourned.
Luanne Lawrence, Vice President for University Advancement, addressed the group
about “Empowered by Orange,” and provided striking visual portrayals of OSU
accomplishments to illustrate what the term means.
University President Ed Ray spoke about his views on the current conditions in the
economy and then on the amazing success of the Campaign for OSU.
Thanks to each of our special guest speakers.
Susan announced the subsequent meeting schedule: September 10, October 1, November
5, December 3, January 7, February 4, March 4, April 1, (all Fridays at 10:00 A.M.) and
the Annual Meeting on May 11.
Minutes submitted by Jim Krueger, Secretary.