Minutes Sept 2017

MONROE COUNTY RETIRED TEACHERS

OFFICERS/COMMITTEE CHAIR MEETING

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2017 – 10:00 A.M.

STONECROFT HEALTH CAMPUS

AGENDA  

MEMBERS PRESENT: Dianna Johnson, Mike Horvath, Martha Street, Linda Woods, Lucy Young, Dianne Shewmaker, Jan Ault, Lu Mercier, Benny Holt, Joanne Weddle

MEMBERS ABSENT:  Nancy Stockwell, Carol Bodnar, Debbie Shields, Shirley Pugh, Paula Griesel, Terry Daugherty

A.     WELCOME AND GREETINGS – Everyone gave a brief listing of their teaching experiences. 

B.     NAME/INFORMATION LIST

·         IRTA local chapter listing of officers, committee chairs and committee members was passed for corrections to be noted.  Jo will send this updated list to IRTA.

·         Two additional nominating committee members will be needed to start serving in early spring.  It was suggested that they be retirees from MCCSC since the other two people on this committee did not teach in this district and do not know many of our members.

C.      CONSTITUTION/BYLAWS

·         Last year, our Rules Committee met to revise the constitution and bylaws.  They did not complete this task so our intent is to complete the task this year – hopefully approving the revisions at our September meeting.  Those on the committee last year were Mike Horvath, Helen Sturbaum and Martha Street, Chair.

·         Under III Membership, I.  A question was asked if university professors were eligible for membership.  The response was that they could become associate members. 

·         Under III Membership, 2.  As stated, “Members in the association are urged to join IRTA and NRTA.”  The response was that this is not required for local membership but non-IRTA members cannot go to state meetings.  Another question asked was whether or not an IRTA member is automatically (through their membership dues) a member of NRTA.  Jo will ask the state for a response to this question. 

·         Under IV Officers, 4.  States, “The term of office shall be 2 years (officers).”  This was debated last year with some feeling the term should be 1 year.  After discussing this issue, the group voted to keep the 2-year term with an understanding that this is the ideal but we can be flexible in order to get people to serve.

·         Under IV Officers, 5.  States that, “Neither the president nor the vice-president may serve more than one full term.”  Realizing that it is often difficult to find people to serve and this needed to be flexible so the proposed new wording would be, “It is encouraged that neither the president nor the first vice-president serve more than one full term.”

·         Under VI, Board of Officers, 1. A.  This section lists committees.  A discussion was held on the following committees:

o   Telephone Tree – We have had one in the past but there is none currently.  It was decided this is helpful (though emails have made it easier to send notices) so the group decided to re-estabish this action.  Dianna Johnson volunteered to contact RBB retiree members and Dianne Shewmaker will contact Spencer-Owen retirees.  We need to find someone to contact MCCSC members.

o   Publicity – Lucy Young *(Public Relations Chair) and Paula Griesel (Historian) work together on this area.

o   Auditing – We did not have an audit this year but Martha Street took over as treasurer and reported that our finances are in order.  We currently have $1,600 in our account.  The audit should be done every June with a committee of 2-3 people.  Martha said it was helpful to have former treasurers serve on this committee.  We will form a committee for next June.

o   Committee Responsibiliies – We discussed that it would be helpful if we included descriptions of committee responsibilities in our bylaws.  Jo will work on this in the coming months.  This would be helpful to have when the Nominating Committee is asking members to serve as officers or committee chairs.

·         We will take the updated. constitution/bylaws to our September meeting for approval by the members.

D.     PROGRAM – Dianna Johnson

1.         A program listing was distributed to those in attendance.  Dianna went over each one and provided details.

2.         Some locations are not definite at this time.  No meeting spaces that we have located charge a fee.

3.         The September, October and November meetings will all begin at 1:00 pm and will include refreshments prepared by the Social Committee.

E.      MEMBERSHIP – Mike Horvath

1.         Many members paid their $5.00 dues at the picnic in June.

2.         Jo will notify members they can email Mike if they cannot recall whether or not they have paid.  A form for sending dues to Mike will be included in the upcoming newsletter which will go out the end of August.

F.      TREASURER – Martha Street

1.         Our treasury is in good shape with $1,600 in our account.

2.         This is down somewhat from the past.  Since our dues are only $5.00 we do not have a large amount of funds.

3.         We discussed possibly increasing dues to $10.  Some feel that $5.00 is really a very small amount.  We were afraid we would lose members with an increase.  It was decided we would all think about this and Jo will do some investigating (what other groups charge, whether or not they lost members if they did increase their dues, etc.).  We will discuss this more in a future meeting.  Benny reported that the Social Committee spends very little for meeting refreshments.  Cookies, etc. are baked by members. 

G.     2017 FALL LEADERSHIP WORKSHOP, AREAS 8 & 9 – WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, BEGINNING AT 8:30 A.M., GASTHOF VILLAGE RESTAURANT, MONTGOMERY, INDIANA

1.         Questions not answered on the notice Jo received from IRTA were the cost of the luncheon and whether or not there is a limit on the number of members we can send. 

2.         Those who indicated an interest in attending at this time are:  Linda Woods, Benny Holt, Lucy Young, Dianne Shewmaker, and Jo Weddle.

H.    OTHER

1.         A newsletter will go out next week.

2.         Jo said she wants to offer a challenge to our members to continue volunteer work in the community.  We have had members receive the clock award the last two years.  It would be nice if we could win this award three years in a row.  That is the goal.

3.         IRTA Foundation Active Teacher Grants – Jo is going to explore how we can encourage our teachers to apply for this $500 grant.  Applications are due September 30.

4.         Dianna said that we need to think about and decide on an on-going State Project.  Jo suggested the Teacher Warehouse as a possibility – by volunteering and also donating.  We will consider this. 

       I.    ADJOURNMENT – 11:45 AM