As Bob Dylan told us in 1964, the times they are a-changin’ This morning the outside temperature was below 70 degrees for the first time in months; the ASU football team has won three games, and the UofA is no longer the premiere university in the state.

Board meeting snippets

• Kendra Burton, our University Liaison, gave a brief overview of the Regent’s funding request to the legislature for this year’s budget. The request includes money to replace the funds removed from last year’s approved request due to the large deficit in the state coffers. It also includes requests for the health care initiative, i.e., ASU’s medical school.
• Jeff Bush, our Treasurer, presented a budget for review and approval. He mentioned that every two years we pay the license fee for the app used for our membership and events and this is the year the piper is due. The total budgeted operation expenses are just over $16,000. Note:  there are additional expenses ($7,000) that are covered by Human Resources, our official connection with the University. The Budget was approved. The ASURA budget includes $3,000 for the Adopt-A-Family program which adopts two families each year. The budget also included enough money to continue supporting our $10,000 scholarship to a returning student. Note: over a third of the scholarship is now paid from the scholarship endowment earnings. The endowment is currently just over $116,000 thanks in a large part to the generous donations of you all.
• Karen Moses, our new Seminar chair, laid out a very ambitious program for the year, including the Open Enrollment seminars in the fall and spring offerings covering AI, healthy living, and elder law and financial planning. You will want to keep your eye out for the seminar announcements.
• Maria Hesse, our President, discussed the need to fill some important positions: Vice President, Membership Committee Chair, Membership Operations Manager, and Legislative Liaison. For information on what these positions do checkout the Help for Members webpage (click on Duties menu choice).  If you are interested in any of these openings please contact Maria at Maria Hesse. Since the meeting one of these positions has been tentatively filled, so you better hurry to contact Maria before all the opportunities are gone.

AROHE Travel Institute

I asked the Board to consider a request from the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE) to join their new Travel Institute. This could add opportunity for us to offer tours of various regions in the United States.

The Board seemed interested but reluctant to just say yes or no and decided to ask Jeff Bush, a member of the Travel Committee, and Richard Knopf, a new Board member, to look into what might be involved in this partnership so the Board could better decide if this is a good thing for us to do.

AROHE webinar

AROHE is offering a webinar next Wednesday titled Social Relationships:  Key to a Happy and Successful Retirement.

In May 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued an advisory titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation”, shedding light on the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connections in our country. Even predating the COVID-19 pandemic, around half of U.S. adults reported experiencing measurable levels of loneliness.

Coincidentally, Jan Thompson mentioned that the new University Senate President, Dr. Elisa Kawam, a faculty member of the School of Social Work, posted on the University Senate Dashboard, a similar statement:

I think this is a very important topic and plan to attend. I have come to believe that facilitating social interaction may be the most important thing ASURA does.

Webinar details:

• Date: Wednesday, September 18
• Time: 10-11:30 MST
• Keynote Speaker: Professor Julianne Holt-Lumstad (BYU)Panel – Dr. Kaye Manson Jeter (Central State University), Valerie Ventre-Hutton (Cal Berkeley), and Dr. Louise Nasmith (University of British Columbia)
• Register

Meet and Greet

This year’s Meet and Greet (thank you Barbara Eschbach for inventing this event) was held last Wednesday to great success. Kay Faris and her committee put on a wonderful show. They moved the event back to the cozy confines of the Community Services Building and changed the menu from pizza to salad and sandwiches. The third-floor classroom was elegantly decorated. Each table had four placemats and an orange crepe paper swag spreading across the length of the table – very festive. When we sat down to eat all the tables were full, a very heartening sight. 

Barry McNeill
E-News Editor