President Sandy Holcombe welcomed everyone, especially our speaker/guest Linda Beaver and Darlene Rezicka. Invocation was led by Karen Butt; buffet lunch followed.
Program:
Following lunch Sandy thanked the cooks for another great lunch, and also introduced our officers and committee chairs to everyone before calling up our speakers for the day.
*Darlene spoke first, thanking Eileen for all she does for the organization as Public Relations Chair, web-master, etc! She reminded us that Lifetime Membership to ORTA is $500, which can be done in payments over a year. ORTA can help us to have the “bigger voice” we need to have with the legislation in Ohio. She shared that she has visited 45 out of her 48 designated counties! It has been a major goal to provide information for the future generation of retirees to be knowledgeable of up-coming changes. The organized Technology committee is so important to help all chapters develop websites and be an organization that is “current” for our future retirees.
*Linda Beaver spoke next. She is representative to over 30,000 retired teachers! She thanked us for being a chapter that does a lot to keep up with what needs to be done to keep members informed. Even with all the changes of benefits, Ohio STRS is one of the best retirement systems across our nation, with a guaranteed % of our earned salary going in to a more secure system. Established and doing well before our nation’s Social Security System was in place, we did not then, and do not now want STRS to become a part of the SS system, even though the topic continually comes up…and we must continue to voice our opposition to this. One significant subject concerns our COLA benefits-left out this year and continuing next year at 2% instead of 3%, there is a lot of discussion on how this will be handled in the future-hoping that it could possibly go back to 3% at some time. She advises to pay attention and ask questions about all that is going on with the legislature & STRS.
Meeting called to order by President Sandy Holcombe:
Secretary’s Report Sandy asked if minutes had been read on website, they were approved by group. Members are reminded to continue to look at our website for complete current minutes, and send any corrections to Eileen or Linda.
Treasurer’s Report was given by Treasurer Sharon Koppert.
Treasury Balances as of end of September:
Checking: $ 1185.18 Scholarship: $1359.38
Savings: $4077.41 CD: $1655.98 TOTALS: $
*Over $60 for our “Baby Pantry” donation was also collected today!
ORTA Standing Committee Reports
Community Services:
Nothing to report—please mark down volunteer hours in our log.
Informative & Protective Services: (nothing else to report)
Legislative: (nothing else to report)
Membership:
We are disappointed that luncheon attendance is down—need to work on improving this. It was suggested that members contact other retirees who have not been coming, as well as newly retired, and encourage them to attend our meetings.
Public Relations: Look for updates on our website and items sent out by Eileen.
Pre-Retirement Planning:
Eileen announced that due to other similar programs taking place over the next year, LCRTA will NOT be hosting our annual pre-retirement seminar (usually held in April) .
LCRTA Local Committees
Auditing Committee: (Nothing to report)
In Memorium: (Nothing to report)
Luncheon Committee:
Scholarship Committee:
Mary Ellinger shared we now know the names of the Letha Headlee Scholarship for 2013, and this time there were 6 recipients!
Lauren French (Lakewood), Emily Harrington (Licking Valley), Marissa Klein (Licking Valley), Hannah Mapes (Watkins Mem.), Abigail McGonagle (Granville), and Olivia Palm (Newark HS). Olivia was also this year’s recipient of our F. Alspach Scholarship!
Social Committee:
Our next luncheon meeting will be Wednesday, December 11th, 12 PM, at Central Christian Church, Mt. Vernon Rd. at Rugg Ave. Music teacher Ann Robinson will present holiday music. VP Janet has been diligently working on next year’s calendar and has it almost complete!
Old/Unfinished Business:
All of our ORTA Cookbooks have been sold!
Glenna Brooks was the winner of a One-Year membership given by ORTA at our August meeting, and another One-Year membership to be given from our own treasury was chosen today—Judy Patterson. Congratulations on winning this little membership perk!
New Business: (nothing else to report)
Announcements: (nothing else to report)
Our next meeting is Wed. Dec. 11th, Central Christian Church
President Sandy adjourned the meeting at 1:25 PM.
Respectfully Submitted,
Linda Leffel, Secretary, LCRTA