January 2026 Minutes
President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday 9 January 2026 at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room, 3rd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House
Members: Louis Bassano, Richard Borgman (Vice Chair), Gail Dyer-Martin, Michael Eckardt, Cindy Eves-Thomas (Website editor), Richard Judd (Secretary), Richard Kent, Jennifer Perry, Thomas Sandford (Chair), Claire Strickland, Althea Tibbetts. Ex Officio Member: Sarah McPartland-Good.
Minutes: Mike moved and Claire seconded approval; passed.
Membership: Tom has not heard back on an inquiry about a prospective member proposed by the Dean from Earth, Life, and Health Sciences. Tom will contact Kathleen Bell, Associate Dean of ELH. The Council discussed other possible members. Claire had several suggestions.
IT Policy for Retirees: Claire discussed the response from Kim Tram regarding IT support for retirees, and will follow up with questions about hardware support for retirees working on University projects and access to support for de-bugging a virus. (Cindy does get help from IT for the Council’s website.)
Retiree Homecoming — Tours: Tom has confirmation regarding the Astronomy Center tour. Other Homecoming tours will be the Athletic Facilities (Alfond, Track, Soccer); the Page Museum; and the Bog Boardwalk. Homecoming will be June 4 with David Hart from the Mitchell center as speaker. This will be announced on the Council website; Tom will send Cindy the Homecoming schedule. Mike has photo of David Hart and the title of his talk. The Council will send out postcard reminders for the Homecoming in April, then activate the sign-up feature on the website. Registrations can be called in as well. The Office of Student Financial Services will find a new scholarship recipient.
Newsletter: Rick is moving toward the deadline for the Newsletter and will be asking Council members for input. Louis’s Rec Center article will be included. The Newsletter will be sent as a PDF by email and will be posted on the website. The Council will decide on details of delivery once the newsletter is done. Sarah reported that there are 441 retirees who are not on our email list. They probably will receive the Newsletter by regular mail.
Hikel Award: Last year’s recipient will be featured in the Newsletter. Mike (for the Hikel Committee) will send a draft of this year’s nomination recommendation to Tom, who will pass it to the President.
Outing: the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens opens May 1. The tour is set for May 21 (a Thursday). The Council discussed renting a bus, but the $1,100 cost seems beyond our budget. Rather, attendees will meet at the University to car-pool the approximately two-hour drive or will join the car-poolers at 10:00 at the garden. Tickets are $21 (seniors on line) or $25 (at the gate). Interested parties can email Tom. We should note in the newsletter that this is a walking tour. Tom asked the Council for suggestions of other informal get-together events, such as cribbage games, square-dancing, or a walking group. These could be announced in the Newsletter.
All Maine Women Interviews: The Council is responsible for naming candidates; last year’s interviewees were Marian Driscoll, Al Bushway and Kristen Langellier. Tom will contact those we suggest for this year.
Website: Cindy indicated that the November minutes are on the site and noted that the University is launching a major re-design. Any outdated content will be taken down, possibly including old minutes and newsletters. The Council could archived them on Digital Commons.
No other business.
Althea moved to adjourn, and Mike seconded. Vote was unanimous.