Feb. 15 2022

MCRTA ZOOM

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

1:30 p.m.

MEETING NOTES

IN ATTENDANCE:  Joanne Weddle, Janis Stockhouse Mike Horvath, Dianne Shewmaker, Nancy Stockwell, Martha Street, Linda Woods, Shirley Pugh

1.   Welcome – Introductions.  All were welcomed who were able to join this meeting.  Thanks were extended to Janis for arranging today’s meeting.

2.   Officer/Chair Discussion – for this upcoming year – need for secretary.  Thanks were extended to all officers and chairpersons who have “held onto” their positions over the last couple of years during the pandemic.  So far the only person who will not be able to continue serving in their current capacity is Nancy Stockwell, our secretary.  Nancy has done an excellent job taking notes and writing up a report of all meetings.  Family obligations are keeping her from continuing in this position.  We are looking for someone to serve as secretary for next year. If you are willing/interested in serving, be sure to let me know.  Any officer or committee chair who is not able to continue in their current position should also let me know right away.  Let me know if you are willing to serve our organization in any capacity.  We would welcome your help.

3.   Officer/Chair Reports

a.   Membership – Mike Horvath – Mike said that we have 261 people on our records with email addresses.  65 people paid their $5 dues for this year.  We had 21 new members this year who were retired as of last May – those members do not pay dues for the first year they are retired.  Our Excel spreadsheet of retirees in our area show over 500 names – many of whom we have not heard from in a long time.  Our best way to contact retirees is through email.  A discussion was held and these were the recommendations.

o  a newsletter will be sent by U. S. Mail in early spring – ahead of a meeting we are scheduling for Thursday, April 21, at Tri North Middle School.  Included in that email:

·   A form retirees can send to Mike along with their $5 membership dues for next year

·   A request that email addresses be sent to Mike to add to our Excel spreadsheet.  Also a letter will be sent to all retirees on our spreadsheet with no email listed.  We are hopeful the addresses we have for all of those people will be current.  Mike’s contact is horvath3@comcast.net. His address is 2444 E. Rock Creek, 47401 in case you wish to send in your $5 membership.

·   Information about two meetings scheduled for this spring – Tri North April 21st and a June 9 picnic at Karst Park.

·   A request that our members enroll as IRTA members. 

·   Other important information that needs sharing.

b.   Legislature – Linda Woods – Linda gave a report on legislative action taking place this year.  Following our meeting, Linda sent an email to all of our members with a legislative update and a copy of a letter she received in November from Nancy Tolson, IRTA Legislative Chair.  One item of note is that this is not a budget year so there will be no action on a 13th check.  If you have legislative questions, contact Linda at lawoods4330@gmail.com or 812-336-1673.

c.    Volunteer Hours – Dianna Johnson – Dianna was not present at this meeting.  However, she reported that 19 of our members sent their total volunteer hours for 2021, which she has reported to IRTA.  The 2020 total was 5027.  Nominations for volunteer awards will be sent at a later date.  In light of this past year being a pandemic year, it is interesting to note that almost as many hours were reported for 2021 as the total in 2020.  Thanks go out to our members who are continuing to “give back” to our community through volunteer service.

d.   IRTA Virtually Connecting Workshop –  Barbara Judah and I took part in the workshop held on January 19 from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.  I gave a lengthy report on this meeting and a copy of my notes will be sent in a separate mailing.  Though a long day, this was a most interesting, organized, informative meeting and I highly recommend that, should IRTA hold another meeting of this type others will participate.  It was well- worth the time.

4.   Upcoming MCRTA Programs

a.   Tour of Tri North Middle School – Thursday, April 21, 3:30 p.m. – Janis Stockhouse has made the arrangements with Chris Finley, Tri North Principal.  We will need to report to Chris prior to the April 21st date telling how many people are coming.  If you plan to attend, will you send your name to Janis Stockhouse at jazz.stockhouse@gmail.com or all her at 727-267-0794.  Be sure she receives this information by Thursday, April 14th.

b.   Karst Farm Picnic – Thursday, June 9, 11:30 box lunches – Dianne Shewmaker has reserved Shelter House # 3 for this meeting.  We will be ordering box lunches from Subway as we did when we held a meeting at Karst last fall.  An order blank will be sent at a later date.

c.    Other Program Suggestions – Someone recommended the new Bloomington Hospital. Dianne contacted them and they said they are not currently giving tours and do not have plans to do so in the future.  The sock factory in Martinsville was mentioned. We will check into this as a possibility.  Also Switchyard Park was suggested as another place to hold an outside meeting.  If you have other ideas/thoughts send them to me at jweddle2@comcast.net.

5.    CASA Awards – For the past three years we have nominated one of our area CASA workers for an IRTA award.  Those we nominated and chosen as winners for our area and were Sheila Henry, Kathleen Boggess, and Karen Adams.  We will be sending in another recommendation this year.

6.    IRTA Foundation – If you know a college student majoring in education who might be interested in applying for a scholarship through the IRTA Foundation, applications are due in March.  Go to: retiredteacher.org to find out about these and other Foundation offerings.

7.   Technology – Terry Daugherty – Terry keeps up our website.   If you have any photos taken during any of our meetings that would be good for our website, send them to Terry at tdaughter2001@gmail.com. 

Most important of all, we hope you are staying safe and well.  If you know any of our retirees who you know are not receiving our emails, please send me their name and email address.  We had good turnouts at our meetings last fall at Karst Park and Story Inn.  We are hoping to see a large number of you at Tri North in April and Karst in June.

                                                                                                                          Jo Weddle, President, MCRTA