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| L to R: President, Dottie Stevens; WSSRA Executive Director, Dr. Mike Boring; Sharon Boring; Vice President/Program Chair, Helen Bakshas |
Dr. Boring reported the legislators successfully protected our benefits this session; however the COLA lost to Plan I retirees a few years ago is still to be approved for reinstatement. The upswing in that regard, he said, was that the members have done a good job of keeping this issue before lawmakers, and there is a growing number of them who understand and support our plight in this regard. He also said that WSSRA does a good job of keeping relations with the legislators positive, which fosters good working relationships: he said it doesn't work as well with other groups. Good for us!
There will 150 seats up for re-election next November. We must remain vigilant to find and support those who give good cause to our issues. There will likely be the need to re-tread as we re-train new members, as he said there well could be a "less friendly" reception by the legislature once all the new lawmakers are in place.
WSSRA now entertains just over 18,000 members (25% of which are actives), from a potential of 50,000 retirees. Those numbers lend clout in Olympia. He would like to see us grow to 20,000 in the next few years. "The larger we grow, the more successful we will accomplishing our goals." Amen.
Dr. Boring also noted that our (WSSRA's) emphasis on scholarships, active members, and teacher grants put us ahead of the rest of the country, as an association. He talked about how important it is for us to lend support to students pursuing education as a career, and to continue to provide teacher grants which gets us into the schools and in front of today's school employees. We couldn't agree more.
IN OTHER NEWS:
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| Marlys Mayer and Jim Bumgarner, Award Nominees |
Due to her participation "beyond the programs of WSSRA in her community, developing a better life for community members, and improving the image of retired school employees in this community," Marlys has been nominated for the prestigious, state-level, award. In addition to her commitment as our Treasurer for the last 14 years, she is devoted to volunteering at Kadlec Hospital for 15 years and more than 5.000 hours. She orients and trains over 100 high school students who volunteer more than 11,000 hours at the hospital; and this is just one example of her fine community service in the Tri-Cities.
Jim Bumgarner - Hoban Meritorious Award Nominee
Jim has "performed beyond the norm to accomplish his assigned duty within the association." He served twice as President of Unit 29 and has committed to being our regional E-8 District Rep next year. He also chairs the very successful Pre-Retirement Seminar where over the past three years, over 300 future retirees have attended. Jim is tech savvy; he is the guy running the "blogspot" and the Facebook group page for BFSRA. Jim is very artistic. He drew and donated the new header for our newsletter.
Rohn Rutledge - AMBA Representative was with us today. Rohn shared the benefits of membership in AMBA, and - made sure we know he is not a salesman, but rather someone who makes sure we have good information upon which to base some important decisions affecting our retirement status.
Don Parks - Membership Chair, reported we have 745 members. I think Don has personally signed up over half of them. Nice work, Don. Click here to send Don an email.
Alice Allison - Scholarship Chair, reported that WSU has chosen our Scholarship winners and they will be announced at the next luncheon. You might remember the Executive Board has decided to award scholarships to local college students already enrolled in schools of education. In that pursuit, the colleges choose the recipients for us. Whew!
See you next month.
