Post date: Jan 11, 2010 10:11:57 PM
IBM Tampa Bay Retiree Club
Steering Council Meeting
January 11, 2009 Meeting Minutes
Presiding: Hari Arora
Attendees: Donna Fryza, Susan Gryzbowski, Dianne Hartt, Jim Hughes, Mary Ann McCoy
New Assignments
Hari assumed the Presidency for 2010. Other assignments for 2010 are:
Donna - IBM Coordinator, IBM Club, Golf Outings
Susan - Seminars
Dianne - Golf Outings
Jim - Vice President, Secretary, Mass Emails
Mary Ann - Volunteer Council, Retiree Data Base
Norm - Treasurer
Harry - Website
Membership Report - Hari
Judy Manowitz has stepped down as a member of the Steering Council but will be available to help with activities. We appreciate Judy's valuable contributions, especially coordinating social activities such as the annual Fall Picnic and Day at the Races events, and plan to take her up on her offer to help in the future.
We will be seeking to add 2 new Council members including a new member to help Susan with Seminars. Hari will contact Elaine Masullu and Susan will contact Ellen Rasmussen to explore interest. The cover letter for the upcoming mailing will also address this.
Treasurer's Report - Hari for Norm
The current account balance is $2047.17. The Fall Golf Outing was subsidized by $1 per golfer.
Retiree Database and Membership Registration Report – Mary Ann McCoy
The Retiree Data Base has 771 entries. The mass emailing in September had 550 valid email addresses. New registrations are being added to both the Retiree Data Base and the mass email data base on Vertical Response. The upcoming cover letter will remind members that they can change their email address and other information using the website.
Website Report - Jim for Harry
Access of the website jumped to 300, 331, and 305 visits for September, October, and November as a result of the Seminars and Golf Outing in October and November. Visits for the 3 months before September were 195, 207 and 207, dropping back to 199 in December.
Seminars Report - Susan
The Medical Benefits Seminars were again a big success with 120 attendees and ratings of 4.8 out of 5.0.The attendees liked the breakout session format. Improvements for next year include:
1. Making it more clear that single Medicare eligible retirees should attend the Medicare eligible session.
2. Using a microphone for attendees asking questions.
3. Extending the Medicare eligible session to 2 hours to allow for more questions.
4. Inviting attendees to submit questions ahead of time using the website where the answers can be posted and others can comment.
Plans for 2010:
Annual Tax Seminar - tentative date Tuesday, March 2. Doug House is unavailable to give the seminar this year. Susan will contact Paul Houser.
Retirement Financial Planning Seminar - early May. Possible combination with an Elder Law Seminar. Susan will contact Susan Haubenstock who did an excellent job giving the Elder Law seminar in the past.
Other potential seminars for the Fall are: Personal Technology for Seniors and Home Theater. Hari will discuss the technology seminar possibility with Eseteban Peynado.
Volunteer Council Report - Mary Ann McCoy
Year end events included: Sincerely Santa, Metropolitan Ministries, and Child Abuse Center.
Ongoing programs include:
IBM Mentors - 32 active and retired IBMers are working with 4th and some carry over 5th graders at Tinker elementary school. It continues to be a great program. The kids are responsive and the school is very cooperative.
Teaching Tools for Hillsborough Schools - Since 2002, $7,700,668 worth of supplies have been provided to teachers. 87 schools and over 2000 teachers were helped in 2008 and 2009. Active and retired IBMers contributed to the 3867 volunteer hours expended in 2009.
The first 2010 Volunteer Council Meeting is next week.
Golf Outings Report- Dianne
The Fall Outing in October was very successful. The Spring Outing will be held May 7 at Plantation Palms again. Participants in last year's Spring Outing were very happy with Plantation Palms. Dianne will be looking into handicapping the scrambles to give everyone a better chance at winning
IBM Family Day Picnic - Donna
The event was highly successful with about 300 participants including 20 retirees. It was funded with Spirit funding not by the IBM Club and it's not certain whether it will be held again in 2010. If it is held again this year, with better notice, the Club will aggressively market it with an expectation of a much greater number of retirees attending.
Social Events Discussion
Dianne recommended we have the Day at the Races event again this year after skipping last year. Hari will discuss with Judy Manowitz.
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Mailing
A mailing is targeted for January 29 to include the cover letter from Hari and flyer and registration form for the Tax Seminar. The documents will be provided to Lee by January 20 and the stuffing will be done from 2 - 3 PM on Wednesday, the 27th. A mass emailing will be done on February 16.
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Next Meeting: Monday, March 22 from 11 AM to 1 PM at IBM Harborview. Material for the May events need to be completed for a mailing in early April.