February 2026 Minutes

President’s Council of Retired Employees
Friday 6 February 2026 at 8:15 am
Foster Board Room, 3rd Floor, Buchanan Alumni House and Zoom

Members: Michael Eckardt, Cindy Eves-Thomas (Website editor), Richard Judd (Secretary), Richard Kent, Jennifer Perry, Thomas Sandford (Chair), Claire Strickland, Althea Tibbetts
Ex Officio Members: Sarah McPartland-Good, Kelly Straub

Minutes: One correction; Cindy motioned approval, Mike seconded with motion passed with unanimous approval.

Membership: Tom contacted Susan Gallant recommended by Dean Rowland and Associate Dean Kathleen Bell of ELH College for open ELH position. Susan agreed to join the Council representing ELH. Judd moved nomination and Althea seconded and motion passed unanimously. Tom will invite her to the next meeting and will prepare recommendation letter for the President.

Newsletter: Rick is waiting for the President’s piece; everything else is done. The special topics articles are on Dana Humphreys retirement and Rich Kent’s new book. Rest is well done also. Tom asked Kelly Straub about the president’s article. The final draft is complete and will return to Council later today.

Hikel Award: the President’s letter has gone out. Mike will write a thank you to the nominator. The clock is ready to go but needs to be engraved. the President must decide if one clock or two clocks are to be given.

All Maine Women (AMW) Interviews: Two weeks ago two former AMW interviewees, Kristin Langelier and Mazie Hough, authored a major op ed in the Maine Sunday Telegram. Last year Kristin Langellier, Marian Dressler and Al Bushway were interviewed. Our Maine retirees are staying engaged.

This year’s interviews are following our meeting on March 6 in Buchanan. Everybody from PCRE is invited to have refreshments and meet All Maine Women (AMW) interviewers including Katherine Poulin, the AMW Historian and organizer of the interviews and also interviewees.

This year Sue Randall, retired Asst Athletic Director for Business, has accepted. The other three are yet to be selected. This is one of AMW’s services to 91±¬ÁÏ. There will be about an hour between our meeting and theirs.

We would like to play a compilation of the interviews at the Homecoming. The last two years we have not had a compilation. This was because the interview two years ago was recorded on Zoom and last year were recorded on IPhones. It is apparently difficult to edit these forms of recordings for a compilation. the total interviews unedited went on Digital Commons. Special effort will be made this year to convince AMW to produce a compiled version. The suggestion was made that we should consult with the AMW advisor, Mikayla Reynolds, to ensure continuity.

Retiree Homecoming: Information of the Homecoming will be covered in the Newsletter including June 4 date, Wells Conference Center venue, a brief schedule including Information Tables, Hikel Award, Brown Scholarship Awardee, featured speaker David Hart and four tours.
There is a featured article on David Hart and on last year’s Hikel Award, Mary Bird.

Website: Cindy would like to reach out to Mike Kirby to give numbers on hits for PCRE website and ask for help to update home pages.

Cindy needs more information for the website on the Homecoming website speaker, schedule and information about the annual outing.

For the outing there will be something in the newsletter to contact Tom for carpool. Tom will get parking permits and meet at 8:00 at UM for carpooling or meet at 11:15 at Gardens. Each person pays own way and make their own reservations. Tom will send the newsletter info to Cindy for the website. Cindy has photos of her own for the outing.

We should mention the website at the Homecoming; especially the section on retiree benefits including Gold Card. We need to promote the website.

Other: After a number of questions and issues were raised related to services provided to retirees from IT, Claire volunteered last month to contact IT and ask. Kim Tran of IT had the following response:

First, I will say, It is wonderful to stay connected with our former colleagues, and we are happy to continue supporting retirees where and when we can. While our IT team’s scope changes once retirees transition from active service, we want to ensure they have the resources needed to stay productive. Below is a quick overview of the specific areas where we can offer a helping hand.
Hardware & Security.

Personal Hardware: UMS IT cannot provide hardware support, troubleshooting, or setup for personally owned devices. Staff are specialized to work specifically on University-owned equipment. For hardware failures, we recommend contacting the device manufacturer or a local repair service.
Virus Removal: We cannot perform “cleanup” services or malware removal on personal devices due to liability risks regarding data loss. We recommend keeping your personal antivirus up to date or seeking professional recovery services.

VPN Access: VPN access is reserved for current employees and students to access restricted internal systems. Since the University’s Gmail system is web-based, a VPN is not typically required or supported for retirees.

Software & Email

Email Migration: While IT cannot manually move your email from Outlook to Gmail for you to ensure your data privacy, we are happy to provide documentation and self-help guides for Google’s built-in migration tools.

Software Licensing: Support is limited to the University’s Gmail platform. Licenses for suites like Microsoft 365 and Adobe are contractually restricted to current faculty, staff, and students. We recommend using free alternatives like Google Docs or web-based productivity software.

If you are contracted and approved to provide services for the university, and require VPN access, guidance will be provided but we cannot perform installation or device troubleshooting as referenced previously above.

Summary of Support Boundaries (see table below)

Please let me know if you have any additional questions. 

Kim

Category	Supported for Retirees	Not Supported / Out of Scope
Email	University Gmail Access	Third-party apps like Outlook or Apple Mail
Hardware	None	Repairs, Setups, or Diagnostics
Security	None	Virus removal or VPN access
Software	Web-based Google Workspace & Microsoft 365 (web-based)	Desktop versions of Office, Adobe, or Specialized Apps

Next meeting March 6 then the AMW interview 11:00.

Adjourn: Mike motioned and Althea seconded. Unanimous approval.