The BowWow Times
Official Newsletter of ARF
(Association of Retired Faculty-MSU Bozeman)
Vol. 2, Number
1, February 3, 2010
This is the third edition of
the Newsletter that we hope to send out periodically to those interested
in the activities of the Association of Retired Faculty of MSU
PRESIDENT CRUZADO: Members
of our program planning committee met with President Cruzado shortly
after she arrived on the job. We had a chance to bring her up
to speed on the history of our organization, what we have accomplished,
and what we are planning for the future. She gave us her assurance
of her definite interest in our organization and looked forward to meeting
with us on a regular basis.
SPRING LUNCHEONS: We
are continuing to have our monthly luncheons with the next one scheduled
for Thursday, March 11 at noon in room 235 of the SUB. Bring your
own brown bag lunch, or go through the cafeteria line and bring you
lunch to our meeting room. We will have as our guest, Dr. Tom
McCoy, Vice-President of Research, to speak to us about issues involving
research that would be of interest to retirees. We have tentatively
scheduled Connie Talbott, CEO of the MSU Foundation, and Bob Hawks,
local Montana legislator to speak to us later in the spring. Stay
tuned for the specific dates. Come and enjoy lunch while visiting
with fellow retirees.
MSU BENEFITS MEETINGS FOR RETIREES:
On April 14 at 8:30 am at the Wingate Inn. This will be an informational
meeting to explain the choices that retirees will have during the annual
renewal for our Choices program. Some of you chose to move to
the new MAPPS program which is a Medicare-Advantage program offered
through New West. Others of you opted to remain on the traditional
program run the Interunits Benefits Committee. Come to get
an update on all the details so that you can make the best choice for
your individual situation.
ANNUAL BANQUET: The annual
retirees banquet will be held in May, probably during the week of May
17. A specific date and time will be forthcoming to keep that
week open for another great get together. Charlie and Shirley
Rust are this year’s host couple and they will soon be announcing
who are speaker will be.
CAPSTONE LECTURES: We
are sponsoring two Capstone Lectures this spring. On Feb 24 Gary
Strobel will be giving a lecture on a topic of his choice, probably
something related to his recent work on finding unusual fungi on tropical
plants from all over the world and their usefulness to mankind.
The lecture will be in room 108 of the Plant Bioscience Building on
South 11th Ave. Later in April, Pierce
Mullen, retired historian, will be giving his capstone lecture, topic,
date, and time yet to be determined.
VOLUNTEER ACTIVITY SURVEY:
In preparation for our visit with the new President, you were asked
to participate in a survey of volunteer activities in which you are
involved. We had 31 responses, and the breadth of activities for
which you volunteer was truly amazing. On campus, these
ranged from continued teaching and advising of both undergraduate and
graduate students on their research and/or scholarly activities; continuation
of an active research program, reviewing of proposals and manuscripts;
service on a number of committees ranging from search committees to
the Benefits committee, to work with the athletics department.
Off campus, there was an even broader range of activities including
AARP, Wonderlust, Emergency Search and Rescue, etc. Thanks to
all who took the time to let us know how you are using your time as
a volunteer. In the future, we hope to develop a “clearing house”
for volunteer activities available to retirees. Stay tuned for
that development.
PROPOSED OFFICERS OF ARF:
For the past two years, we have been operating with a management team
as a “committee of the whole”. We now think it is time to
go back to a regular set of officers. To that end, a nominating
committee is presenting the following slate of potential officers for
your consideration. They are for President – Marty Hamilton;
for Vice-President – John Jutila; and for Secretary-Treasurer –
Don Mathre. If you would like to nominate anyone else for any
of these offices, please submit your nominations to Dwight Phillips
by e-mailing him at Phillips@montana.edu. We’d like to vote on this
at our next luncheon meeting scheduled for March 11 so have any nominations
in to Dwight by March 8.
PROPOSED DUES STRUCTURE: As you may know, when ARF was originally established, we collected dues from each member. For the past two years, we have opted not to collect dues since we had very few expenses. Now that our programs have increased our checking account has been drained to the point that we feel that we need to reinstitute some modest dues. The proposed dues structure will be considered at our next meeting.
Regular dues - $15/yr; Sustaining
members - $25/yr; Contributing members - $50/yr; Benefactor - $100;
Life-time membership - $200. New members would have no dues for
their first year of membership.
WEB SITE: Dwight Phillips
has worked hard to get our web site up and running. To get to
it, go to www.montana.edu/retired.
Don Mathre, BowWow Editor, e-mail upldm@montana.edu