May 2020 Board Minutes
Members Present: John Bernthal, Pat Crews, Dora Dill, Sue Gildersleeve, James Griesen, Kim Hachiya, Earl Hawkey, Tom Hoegemeyer, Julie Johnson, Doug Jose, Rita Kean, Jeff Keown, Linda Major, Kay Rockwell, Vi Schroeder, Alfred Stark, Don Weeks, Jane Zatechka
President, Don Weeks, called the meeting to order at 1:30 pm.
1. Memory Moments:
William “Terry” Tallon – Payroll Management
Ann (Hink) Sahs, wife of Warren Sahs – Agronomy
Ronald White – Food Services
John F. Young – 41 Years of Service
Naomi Wayne – wife of Bill Wayne
Rafael (Ralph) Francisco Grajeda – English
2. Minutes of the Meeting:
The minutes of the March 12, 2020 board meeting were presented for approval. Pat Crews moved to approve the minutes and Rita Kean seconded the motion. The Board unanimously approved the minutes. (Don thanked Sue Gildersleeve for her excellent service as secretary of the Board.)
3. Prior to the committee reports, Don Weeks commented that the April 22 meeting with Chancellor Green was successful and that the April 29 Zoom meeting of Chancellor Green with the ERA members was very informative. Also, a heartfelt thanks to the newsletter committee – Julie, Doug and Charlyne for a fantastic job on the special edition of the newsletter.
4. Committee/Activities Reports:
- Budget: Earl Hawkey reported that the updated financial status of the organization is solid.
- OLLI: Rita Kean reported that Bob Michl indicated that the OLLI Board was meeting today and that he would get back to her with updated information.
- Membership: Afred Stark – 15 Board members on line at present time. (Total of 18 today.)
- Website: No new report
- Benefits: Sue Gildersleeve indicated that we continue working with University leadership relative to email termination, etc.
- Tours: Alfred Stark and Kay Rockwell indicated that the August tour of the Johnny Carson Emerging Media Center has been cancelled due to the virus pandemic.
- Coffee chats: Don Weeks reported for Jane Zatechka – the chats will not continue until the restaurants have been cleared for doing business with large crowds.
- Newsletters: Don indicated that anew supply of ERA brochures has been received and are waiting to be distributed as soon as opportunities arise. Thanks again to the newsletter committee for a job well done.
5. New Business:
- Awards -Pat Crews led the discussion to gain approval for the awards that ERA typically presents.). (Kay Rockwell was recused from the meeting for discussion of awards and invited to return after completion of discussions and voting.) A committee, composed of Ron Case, Bob Diffendal and Lloyd Ambrosius, recommended approval of the proposal for a Research Creative Activity Grant submitted by Dan Shattil, General Manager of the Daily Nebraska for 37 years, and the Daily Nebraskan. The proposal submitted by Daniel requested $1300 for a Daily Nebraska Hall of Fame Display. The Hall of Famers would include Willa Cather, the 1950 staff of the Daily Nebraskan who were active during the McCarthy era and the 1960 staff of the Daily Nebraska who were very active in reporting on Viet Nam era protests. The committee recommended full funding to cover the costs for production and installation of this display. Pat Crews submitted the recommendation of the committee to the Board for approval.
- The 2nd award recommendation pertained to outstanding service to UNL. The selection subcommittee composed of Rita Kean and Janice Lawrence recommended Prisicilla Grew as the 2020 recipient. The Board approved unanimously.
- For the Wisherd Award for Outstanding Community Service, Vi Schroeder and Jim Griesen were the evaluation subcommittee. Several highly meritorious individuals were nominated. After careful deliberation, David Forsythe was selected as the most qualified for the award. Jim Griesen make a motion to accept David Forsythe for the award and Linda Major seconded. Discussion: David has done outstanding service for the community; has participated in OLLI; contributed many community service hours; and has worked with the International Red Cross. T motion was carried unanimously.
- As part of the discussion, it was determined that a person can simultaneously work part time for UNL and be a member of ERA – and, thus eligible for an ERA award.
- Jim Griesen made a motion to establish a new Wisherd Award for Outstanding International Service. Rita Kean seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously. Jim Griesen then made a motion to present Kay Rockwell with the Wisherd Award for Outstanding International Service. Jim mentioned that the nomination received strong support from Susan Fritz, Executive Vice President and Provost, based on Kay’s outstanding service record. The motion was seconded by Julie Johnson. It was pointed out that this new award had not been publicly announced this year and, thus, did not allow others to compete for the award. Therefore, the motion was reworded, with permission form Jim Griesen, to make the award a “special award” this year. There was no further discussion and the motion was carried by a unanimous vote. (Dora then called Kay Rockwell and asked her to rejoin the meeting.)
6. Constitution and Bylaws-ERA Revisions: Jim Griesen noted the suggested changes to the bylaws – changes that had been provided to Board members earlier via email. Given the need to potentially hold “virtual” meeting in the future, it was suggested that Article IV be reworded to read: “The Board of Directors, at its discretion, may schedule virtual meetings.” Julie Johnson made a motion to accept the modified bylaws with the provision that anywhere the words Vice President or Vice President Elect are mentioned in the bylaws the phrase Vice President/Vice President Elect should be used. The motion was seconded by Tom Hoegemeyer. With no further discussion a vote on the motion was taken and it passed unanimously. After introduction of proposed revisions of the current ERA policy document, Jim Griesen made a motion to accept the suggested modifications to the ERA policies. This motion was seconded by Vi Schroeder. The motion was carried by unanimous vote. Jim Griesen will make the agreed upon changes/updates to the bylaws and policies and send them to the membership for review and approval or modification at a future membership meeting.
7. A thank you was given to Alfred Stark and Kim Hachiya for working with Mike Zeleny and Kim Rauscher to allow us to use the UNL Zoom license. This permission allowed us to have the present meeting and other meetings in the future without a time limit. President Weeks noted that if we to use Zoom to “broadcast” other functions (such as our luncheon meetings featuring external or UNL speakers} in the future, we will need someone to work with Alfred Stark as a back-up in case Al is not available. He asked that people with appropriate experience and interest volunteer or be nominated. On a related matter, Alfred Stark noted that Kim Hachiya did all the leg work in arranging the two meetings with Chancellor Green and should be thanked for that effort.
8. Timing of future ERA meetings. Don Weeks noted that we soon will need to make decisions regarding the resumption of various ERA meetings. Toward this end, he soon will be helping to arrange the upcoming September luncheon meeting sponsored by the University Foundation. The Foundation usually sets the meeting venue. It was suggested that the Nebraska Innovation Campus has a nice banquet room where approximately 400 people can be accommodated. Don Weeks will work with the Foundation to set an appropriate date and venue for this meeting. (September – awards presentation.) It was suggested that this meeting perhaps could be both live and online. Given that the September meeting includes presentation of ERA annual awards, it was further suggested that the awards presentations could be recorded in advance and shown during the meeting. If the meeting is broadcast via Zoom, this presentation would be available to members who are not able to attend. Don Weeks will keep us informed of progress. All coffee chats and tours are cancelled until a later date. Kay Rockwell indicated that a tour had tentatively been scheduled in August. However, that tour will not take place and the fate of the tour scheduled for fall break will be determined by how things progress. Board meetings scheduled for the early fall likely will be held via Zoom.
9. Acronym for the Emeriti and Retirees Association. Some concerns have been raised about using “ERA” as the acronym of the organization. There are numerous uses of ERA as a brand name (with associated legal protections) and for professional, social and community organizations. Suggestions for alternative acronyms were UNLERA, E&RA, NUERA, NERA. Retain ERA or make a change. Don Weeks volunteered to check on this issue with University legal counsel. Discussion of this issue will be resumed at our next meeting.
10. Modification of present List Serve names. Given uncertainties in regard to the acronym to be used for the organization, action on this issue will be delayed until a decision on the acronym is reached.
11. Sue Gildersleeve indicated that there is ongoing communication with Bruce Currin regarding termination of access to email services upon termination of employment, death of an employee or other situations. Unfavorable circumstances created by present termination policies are being discussed with the goal of eliminating them, if possible.
12. Congratulations to the newsletter committee on the special newsletter- there were many great contributions from a wide cross-section of our membership. The newsletter reached a lot of people who are unable to attend our regular meetings.
13. Comments and announcements. Vi Schroeder stated that she found it highly gratifying regarding the qualifications of the people nominated for the various ERA awards was amazingly high – and continues to grow each year. Kim Hachiya noted that she received word that the meeting of the 2020 Big 10 retirement associations has been cancelled. Thus, sending representatives to this meeting will not be an expense for ERA this year. It was suggested that we might wish to create a photo exhibition as an interesting way of sharing that keeps members engaged and interacting.
14. Meeting was adjourned by Don Weeks at 2:46 pm.