PASR State Convention Report

FROM: JOANN HEIMER

TO: All CCPASR MEMBERS

Report from PASR State Convention

October 10-12, 2011 King of Prussia, PA

Recently Carol Rocco & I attended the PASR State Convention held in King of Prussia from October 10-12. The absence of Pres. Dr. John Nye was felt. Pres-Elect Dr. Stephen Vak presided (will take office in Jan., 2012)

Richard Rowland - Exec. Director gave this report

-“Members fought hard to secure passage of the pension reform legislation passed in Nov. and signed into law by Gov. Rendell in Dec., 2010. While legislators failed to include the COLA we advocated, the new law does include everything PASR advocated to correct the retirement systems’ funding problems and reduce costs to PA’s taxpayers.”

-Announced the addition of Director of Communication Kimberly Taylor Carmo – an excellent job of redesigning the content & appearance of print publications & the PASR Website (www.pasr.org). It is planned that this website will be a “one stop-shopping” site for not only renewing both state and local memberships, but a resource of links for everything of importance to retirees. I recently took the time to look around the PASR Website and found many things of interest. I encourage you to check it out! During an Enrichment Seminar, Ms. Taylor Carmo showed our Clinton County PASR Website and commended us for our work. I spoke up to say that Clinton County was represented at the session but not the man who is primarily for our site, Rich Wykoff.

It is at the state level that administrative staff and elected officers direct the activities of PASR on a daily basis. It is at this level that policies are established to guide and direct the activities of the region and chapter levels. And it is from our headquarters in Mechanicsburg that significant support and assistance is given to our chapters and regions to help us better meet the needs of you, the PASR members. Locally, we are often unaware of this support. As an example, the State disbursed $14,000 in rewards to local chapters for completed activities from July 2010 to June 2011. Our chapter received $275. For 2011-2012, there are 21 activities that fall under five areas: Service to others, Social Opportunities for Members, Information to Members/Nonmembers, Economic Benefits for Members, Growing and Strengthen OUR Association. We can earn up to $625 by accomplishing all 21 activities – our goal is to accomplish as many as possible. .

We also received $268 for the work of our Social Services Memorial Honor Fund Committee. Carol Rocco will tell you about that.

PASR’s Mission – “To serve others in need and help one another enjoy retirement”

Each of our committees uses the Mission Statement and the chapter goals and activities, determined at the state level, to guide our projects throughout the year. We hope that you will volunteer with us to participate in our many activities. (Ask committees to stand).

If you are unsure about working on a year-round committee, 2012 offers a special opportunity, PASR’S 75^th Birthday Celebration. The state committee has developed a long list of ideas to facilitate our local “PASR Birthday Party”. We encourage you to become involved with our celebration by joining our planning committee.