SPECIAL SPEAKER & AGM PICNIC AT THE FARM

Transcription

1 The UNB Retiree Spring 2013 Page Newsletter of the UNB Retired Employees Association Spring 2013 SPECIAL SPEAKER & AGM The speaker will be the lawyer, Matthew M. Tweedie. Matthew is a partner in the Fredericton office of the firm, Cox and Palmer. He has extensive experience advising individuals and families with respect to their legal, financial and personal affairs. More details are on page 2. Thursday, May 9, 2013 at 10:30 am Senior Commons Room, McConnel Hall, UNBF Following Mr. Tweedie s presentation there will be a brief Annual General meeting. Annual reports relating to this meeting are on pages 3 and 4. PICNIC AT THE FARM UNBREA's popular annual picnic at Oakland Lodge New Maryland Thursday, June 20, at 12 noon Directions Travel out Regent St. 3.5 km from the traffic lights by Costco, turn left at this sign. Travel along the unpaved road about 1/3 of a km. Parking close to the door. The Picnic Please bring a salad or casserole or dessert for the potluck lunch. Meat (baked ham) and beverages will be supplied by the UNBREA

2 The UNB Retiree Spring 2013 Page 2 Speaker at the AGM The AGM is May 9, 2013 in the Senior Commons Room in McConnel Hall. The speaker will be the lawyer, Matthew M. Tweedie Matthew is a partner in the Fredericton office of the firm, Cox and Palmer. He has extensive experience advising individuals and families with respect to their legal, financial and personal affairs, including business succession, estate planning, trusts and estate administration matters. He also provides advice on planning for the use of powers of attorney, for both property and personal care matters. In addition to practicing law he is a part-time instructor with the faculty of law at UNB, where he has taught the Wills and Succession Law course since Value Pack Benefits Those who want to obtain a UNB parking permit under the terms of the Value Pack program should pay their annual UNBREA dues by June 30 th each year. This will give the UNBREA treasurer time to process the dues and return your membership card to you in time to register your vehicle for the coming year. For Your Information The following is being passed along for the information of UNBREA members: Those UNB retirees who are in receipt of a pension from the Province (e.g., a PSSA pension) and who were unable to attend the information session on pensions sponsored by the UNBREA last month or who simply want more information on the Government s proposed Shared-Risk Plan can go to the following websites: Province of New Brunswick The Government website should show if any consultation sessions will be held. Pension Coalition NB The website for the coalition should show if any consultation sessions will be held. Past due Membership Fee Policy UNBREA s membership lists have the names of many members who have not paid annual dues during recent years. We are seeking to correct this situation by removing names when they are one year past due. Therefore members, who owed dues on September 1, 2012, will be removed from the UN- BREA membership lists on September 1, 2013 if still owing. The same principle will apply in future years.

3 The UNB Retiree Spring 2013 Page 3 President s Report Wolfgang Faig Shortly after becoming president of UNBREA, I attended the 2012 Annual Meeting of the College and University Retiree Associations of Canada (CURAC) in Victoria, BC. As reported earlier in our Newsletter, I learned a lot about many issues affecting university retirees and their interaction with their institutions. I can report to you, that we here at UNB have a very good, honest, open and mutually respectful relationship with our administration. We are generally better off than colleagues at many sister institutions across Canada. One of the topics under discussion concerned pensions, and I was rather surprised to hear that many university/government pension plans in this country apply indexing only when their fund performs well. When NB Government initiatives recently brought this issue to the fore-front here, I was not surprised, but concerned. The UNBREA Executive had already made preliminary enquiries, and planned an information session for our members as soon as feasible. Thanks to the untiring efforts of our Past President David Wiezel, who organized it, we had an extremely well attended information session with participants representing the UNB Administration, the AUNBT, and the Provincial Government. Thus, I believe that UNBREA has provided valuable information to our members to add to what is available from public media and gatherings. Other successful events were our Annual Picnic this year at a pleasant new site in New Maryland, Christmas Luncheons in Fredericton (Fredericton Inn) and Saint John (Shadow Lawn) the latter being open to all UNBSJ retirees regardless of UNBREA membership, and a very stimulating presentation by one of the PC Girls. Most of us learned a few new aspects of computer use, so as I see it we can at least try to understand what our grandchildren are doing or supposed to be doing. We have secured a prominent lawyer to speak at our Annual Meeting on issues, such as power of attorney, wills, etc. which should interest our members. In October, I attended the Atlantic Regional meeting of CURAC in Moncton, and was again confirmed in my opinion, that the UNB Administration sees its retirees as an integral part of the institution and treats them accordingly. This was re-enforced for me in meetings with President Campbell and by the cooperation that UNBREA continues to receive from the Senior Administration. I am very grateful for this, and take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you on behalf of UNBREA. Although we experienced a small drop in membership this year, our finances are in excellent shape. In fact, we were able this year to provide two one-time bursaries of $1,000. to one deserving student on each campus (Fredericton and Saint John). The main savings were achieved by switching our Newsletter and general communication from paper and mail to computer and , and I thank the membership for accepting this change. I want to thank the members of our Communications Committee for their effort on this and also for our fabulous web site. To the longtime Chair of this Committee, Orville Scott (UNBREA s first president), who is stepping down at the Annual Meeting: Thank you for your untiring efforts and dedication to UNBREA!! I also want to express our sincere gratitude to David Wiezel who completes his duties as Chair of the President s Committee on Retired Faculty and Staff. Under his leadership a number of initiatives have been implemented, which are of great value to our members, e.g. Retirees Value Pack. Last, but not least, I want to thank all of the members of our Executive for their dedication and willingness to give time, effort, talent and help beyond call.

4 The UNB Retiree Spring 2013 Page 4 Treasurer s Report STATEMENT OF REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES for the period April 1, 2012 to March 31, 2013 March 31, 2012 March 31, 2013 REVENUE Membership fees 4, , Dues in Advance Bank interest & charges reversed Reimbursement from CURAC Christmas Luncheon 1, , Total 6, , EXPENDITURES Meetings Supplies & Stationary Printing Postage 1, , Travel 2, CURAC fees Misc. Bank Charges Summer Picnic Oakland Farms Christmas luncheon 1, , Gift(s) / Gift Cards One time Bursary 2 campuses.00 2, Total 6, , Surplus (Deficit) ( ) ( ) BANK BALANCE 6, , MEMBERSHIP REPORT March 31, Total membership Full Regular Non-Active Fredericton (16 new) Saint John ( 5 new)

5 The UNB Retiree Spring 2013 Page 5 From the Editor s Desk Kirby Keyser Membership in the UNBREA and the Value Pack provide free tuition for two UNB courses per year with credit. Last fall for a variety of reasons, not least of which was to find out if the little gray cells were working, I enrolled in the first year Latin course in the Department of Classics and Ancient History. Although I still had to pay the student fee and buy the textbook, tuition was waved. While almost nothing remained from my high school Latin, the little that did convinced me that the language hadn t changed during the past half-century. Three lectures a week for 13 weeks later, I sat down with the rest of the class (who seemed like children ) and wrote a three hour exam. Being associated with a University as employees and now as retirees gives us access to tremendous intellectual resources, a library, courses, athletic facilities, even parking. The details of the Value Pack are on the UNBREA website. First year Latin may not be everyone s cup of tea but there are lots of other possibilities to keep your gray cells working. UNBREA Dates to Remember for 2013 Annual General Meeting Thursday, May 9 Picnic Thursday, June 20 Membership dues if you expect to get a Parking Pass June 30, otherwise September 1 Fall Meeting To be announced Xmas Luncheon To be announced UNB Retired Employees Association General Delivery, PO Box 4400, Fredericton, NB. E3B 5A3 President: Wolfgang Faig or wfaig@nbnet.nb.ca UNBREA Website: The UNB Retiree & Website: The UNB Retiree & Website: H. Orville Scott, or hos@unb.ca