March 2025 Minutes

President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday 7 Mar 2025 at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room, 3rd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House and Zoom

Members Present: Louis Bassano, Gail Dyer-Martin, Michael Eckardt, Cindy Eves-Thomas (Website editor), Richard Kent, Thomas Sandford (Chair), Claire Strickland, Althea Tibbetts
Ex Officio Members: Taylor Defa, Sarah McPartland-Good

PCRE welcomed President Ferrini-Mundy who spoke to the Council. The President encapsulated the present financial situation at 91±¬ÁÏ and praised the support of the State, Federal and donor funding. To address a changed 91±¬ÁÏ, the President described the Strategic Re-Envisioning (SRE) plan which the President initiated in May 2024 to streamline 91±¬ÁÏ to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Certain features are already being implemented in the upcoming 91±¬ÁÏ budget. The President wants to better incorporate retirees in helping the situation. The PCRE with more than 350 years total experience of employment at 91±¬ÁÏ of its retired members represents all areas of the University. The PCRE welcomes the opportunity to exercise our due diligence with respect to the SRE and report back to the President.

The President asked Taylor to contact Tom Drake, the IT representative to 91±¬ÁÏ to address Louis’s question concerning what IT support that retirees, who are participating in volunteer work for 91±¬ÁÏ, may have. Claire had investigated the 91±¬ÁÏ and the Maine System online pages and found no guidelines. This question had arisen to PCRE last year by retired faculty member Rod Bushway, who had heard back from IT that it was no longer aiding retirees even if the faculty member was still doing research.

The 7 Feb 2025 Minutes were approved. Thanks to Richard Judd for thorough minutes.

The PCRE Membership still has an open Professional slot. The chair asked members to ask former colleagues for recommendations for the open slot.

Oral History Project: The Oral History interviews by the All Maine Women will take place in Buchanan Alumni building on Saturday March 29 starting at 10:30 am. All PCRE members are invited. There will be coffee, bagels and fruit available for the start and breaks. It is estimated that the interviews will be complete by noon. There are three retirees who have agreed to the interviews – Fran Griffin, Kristin Langellier, and Marian Dressler. One more interviewee is anticipated.

Hikel Award: Taylor confirmed that the President’s letter had gone out to the Hikel winner. The President’s office is in the process of obtaining the clock for the Hikel winner. PCRE will be responsible for having the engraving done on the plate.

Silver Tracks Newsletter: It was proposed that the Silver Tracks newsletter be sent only in electronic form — the electronic form is less costly and will allow a greater number of pages. However, during the discussion for this change, there was agreement that we should obtain feedback from our audience for this change. Therefore, this year there will will be a printed version sent out. However, a question on the Homecoming Evaluation form will ask retirees to weigh in on a print or electronic newsletter. The components of the newsletter have by-in-large been finished and are being assembled.

Homecoming: The speaker, tours, and awardees have been determined. Now the vendors, final schedule, the title of the keynote presentation, the introducer of the keynote speaker, the introducer of the Hikel awardee, the introducer of the Scholarship recipient, the program at the lunch table, the lunch menu, and the evaluation cards still have to be prepared.

PCRE website: Cindy noted that the 2025 Homecoming is announced with known information on the website. It will be updated as more information becomes firm. Registration capability has not been activated yet. It was also noted that AMW interviews done for last year on zoom are not possible to be put on our website like previous year’s interviews. Instead a link was made to the Digital Commons site. The minutes are up-to-date.

Meeting was adjourned at 10:10 am.

Minutes by Thomas Sandford