It sure seems like we are winning the battle with the virus. Today was the third day in a row with fewer than 1,000 reported new cases reported in Arizona (first time since October), the vaccine scarcity seems to be lessening, and, most importantly, fans are permitted in to see the ASU baseball team play ball – Go Devils.

March Board meeting

• Simin Levison from the University Senate thanked Jane Carey, Board Secretary, for giving the University Senate a brief overview of ASURA and what it does. She said that ASU is advancing on all fronts with a new model that includes three enterprises:  Academic, Knowledge, and Strategic. She also mentioned that the Fulton School of Engineering is going through a reorganization with some programs moving to the Polytechnic campus.
• Jeri Meeks and Pat Schneider reported on the status of a number of bills in the legislature. There were no bills they thought required Board attention. The Arizona Board of Regents’ bill for an optional retirement plan did not pass out of the House and was currently stagnant.
• Membership continues to be strong. As of March 4^th, there were 817 members, up over fifty from last year. Thank You! It is encouraging to see the growth in the number of more recent retirees. These are the potential new Board Members, Officers, and Committee chairs.
• Jan Thompson, ASURA Immediate Past President, announced the results of the Board election – all five candidates were elected and will be introduced during the Annual Meeting.
• Larry Edmonds, ASURA VP & incoming President, submitted a list of officers for next year’s Board. The Board approved the list and starting April 13, Larry Edmunds will be President, Kathy Gunn will be Vice President, Jane Carey will continue as Secretary, Barry McNeill will be Treasurer, and Carl Cross will be Immediate Past President.

2021 annual meeting

Last year we had an Annual Report as required by the Bylaws but no Annual Meeting. This is going to change this year! Carl Cross, ASURA President, announced at the Board meeting that the Annual Meeting will be held on Monday April 13 with a full program. See the calendar of upcoming events at the end for a link to more details and the opportunity to register.

Carlton Moore and a new mineral

There was an interesting story in the February 15^th edition of ASU News about the discovery of a new mineral. Not only did I not know you could discover new minerals; I did not know what a mineral was (a mineral is a mineral was about the best I could do).

The new mineral was found in a meteorite that had fallen in Kansas in 1948 and was named carletonmooreite after ASU’s (and ASURA’s) Carleton Moore. Carleton said his full name was used since there were other Moores.

It is a fun article and I encourage you to read it. You can get a K-8 definition of a mineral on the Oxford University Museum of Natural History website.

Update membership database

As the annual membership renewal drive approaches it is important that we have current contact information. Below you will see the contact information we have for you. If this information is correct you need do nothing; however, if the information is not correct please let me know what has changed by replying to this E-News. Note – the contact information you see below is only on your copy of E-News.

• First Name:  Barry     
• Last Name:  McNeill
• Street Address:   5801 E Lafayette Blvd
• City:  Phoenix
• State: AZ
• ZIPCODE:  85018-4643
• Phone Number:  480-945-3565
• Cell Phone:   480-751-8483  
• Email address:  barry_mcneill@outlook.com