2022 ASURA Annual Meeting

For the second year in a row ASURA had to hold a virtual Annual Meeting. Fifty-one members registered, thirty-six showed up for the meeting which began at 9:30 am. The meeting had five parts: The Year in Review, guest speaker Dr. Amada Burke, scholarship recipient Brittany Gearhart, Handing Over Leadership, and Wrapping Up. Trudy Perez was the wonderful Master of Ceremony.

Year in Review (Barry McNeill)

Barry started by explaining that since the President had resigned, he and not last year’s President, was giving the Year in Review presentation. He addressed ten areas as follows.

1. The Annual Report
   The Annual Report was available on the ASURA website and as usual had reports from all the ASURA chairs and liaisons.

2. ASURA Office
   After introducing Nancy Lesko and Linda Van Scoy, as Office Co-coordinators, Barry reported that the Office had reopened on its pre-pandemic schedule of Monday thru Thursday. Further, the Office volunteers no longer needed to leave the Office to get ASURA mail since the University installed a mail slot on the door and now mail comes directly to the Office.
3. Government Liaisons
   The Government Liaisons, led by Jeri Meeks, were very diligent keeping the ASURA Board informed on a number of different issues among them being voting issues, University issues, regulation and licensure of senior residences and related nurses and staff. The only issue the Board took action on was to formally oppose the guns on campus bills.
4. Websites
   The website committee was very busy this past year, developing two new websites. Connie McNeill, ASURA Technology Manager, took the meeting through a quick tour of these two sites. She showed the main website menu structure and what sort of material was available under several of the main menu item. As an example she showed how to view the latest Pre-retirement Seminar. She then showed the new website:  Help for Volunteers. The site has material to help volunteers do the tasks they are expected to do as Officers or committee chairs. As an example she showed the material available for creating and publishing Obituaries.
5. Finance Committee
   Because ASURA’s financial health was good, the Board approved the Committee’s recommendation to transfer $10,000 from the Operations account to the Scholarship Endowment, where it will be earning investment growth.
   
   The used book sales continued to grow with $5,500+ being reported for calendar year 2021. These funds support the scholarship and the Video History project.
6. Obituaries
   There was a change in editor for the Obituaries. Becky Reiss, who edited and published obituaries for ASURA members for 20 years, retired in November. Tara Roesler smoothly took up the reigns.
7. Membership
   The change in total membership was modest, an increase of five over last year. What was very encouraging was the large increase (about 33% increase) in membership for those who retired within the last two years (Members of 0-2 years excluding Introductory). These are members who opted to keep their membership once the free Introductory periods ended and are an important segment of membership that reflects the long term stability of the association.
8. Luncheons and Special Events
   While the Meet and Greet Pizza Party and traditional Holiday Potluck and Bake sale were not held, Mary Stevens and her committee offered two outdoor events, one in December and one in March. The events had 30 to 40 attendees, and all agreed these outdoor events were good events – outdoor events might become an annual event.
9. Seminar Committee
   Pat Schneider’s Seminar Committee had another successful year. The seminars continued to be delivered by Zoom. This year, thanks to the work of the Tri-University group, ASURA made its seminars available to retirees from NAU and UAriizona and vice-versa. The fall Open Enrollment seminar continued to be the most popular with 144 registered; the spring seminars averaged over 50 per seminar; the March seminar had 64 attendees, 15 from NAU.
10. Pre-retirement Seminar Committee
    Liz, Trudy, and Sue pumped real life into the Pre-retirement seminars, offering a seminar each month of the year. They worked with the Office of Human Resources and were able to work out an agreement that has HR presenting two of the committee’s seminars. HR saw the benefit of these seminars and ASURA was glad to provide this service to ASU.

Guest Speaker (Dr. Amanda Burke)

At the conclusion of Barry’s review, Trudy came on with a very nice introduction of Dr. Amanda Burke, Executive Vice President of the Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA), who spoke on “How to Create the Arizona We Want and Build on What Brings Us Together?” Trudy pointed out that since Dr. Burke had earlier in her career worked at ASU, she was eligible to join ASURA when she retired.

Dr. Burke gave some background on the mission for the Center for the Future of Arizona. She then discussed some of the results from the Second Decennial Gallup Arizona Survey which is intended to provide a foundation for a ten-year action agenda. The flavor of much of what she said was that there was much more agreement on what Arizonians felt and wanted and that CFA was working in a number of different areas, e.g., Jobs, Education, Young Talent, etc. to help develop the sort of Arizona most agree they wanted.

At the conclusion of her presentation, she answered a number of questions which focused on what specific things could be done to achieve the desired goals (see the video for Q&A). Trudy returned to give another very nice thank you.

Dr. Burke's presentation slide deck

Scholarship Recipient (Brittany Gearhart)

Trudy then introduced Joy Shearman, chair of the Scholarship Committee, who then introduced this year’s (2021-2022) scholarship recipient, Brittany Gearhart, who Joy told us was a straight A student.

Brittany thanked the association and went on the give a short history of growing up in Mesa, moving to New York, became an EMT, realizing she wanted more education and returning to Mesa Community College. She told us some about her two children, the older son being autistic and the difficulties she had because of the Pandemic in getting therapy for her son. She is a member of the Choctaw Nation and the first member of her family to get a college degree. At the suggestion of Joy, is now thinking about maybe a Masters. She told us about being asked to help tutor and mentor other nursing students in the Mesa program and how much she enjoys teaching.

When Brittany finished, Trudy came back and gave her a wonderful thank you (see the video, it is one of meeting highlights).

Handing Over Leadership (Carl Cross / Bill Stasi)

Trudy then introduced Carl Cross, who explained his role as association shepherd after the President resigned. Carl thanked all the volunteers who had work during the past year and then explained that it was his duty to hand the ASURA gavel over to Bill Stasi, the incoming President. The gavel was electronically transferred from Carl to Bill and Bill became President.

Bill had a few things to say thanking the work of the volunteers and then introduced the New Officers and the New Board Members.

Wrapping Up (Trudy Perez)

Trudy returned with more thanks and ended by inviting everyone to enjoy a slice virtual carrot cake, which was quit healthful since it was made from carrots, a healthful vegetable or fruit depending on your point of view.

Written by Barry McNeill