June 3, 2021: UMEEA Annual Meeting Summary
UMEEA Chair, Frank Alt, convened the annual meeting at 1:00 PM on June 3, 2021. He began his report by recounting the vision and mission of the UMEEA by listing five salient objectives: (1) to stay connected with the University and other UMEEA members; (2) to draw upon member’s experience and knowledge to support the teaching, research and outreach mission of the University; (3) to act as a focal point for social interaction, intellectual exchange, and the cultural enrichment of its members; (4) to offer a range of programs on topics of interest to the community; (5) to provide information of concern to emeritus/emerita faculty members.
Currently, there are over 880 emeritus/emerita faculty members in the UMD community and 141 members of UMEEA. Frank invited all emeritus/a faculty to join UMEEA by going to: https//go.umd.edu/UMEEAmembership. Dues are not required but donations to the association are much appreciated. To give go to: https//go.umd.edu/give2UMEEA. Frank reported that UMEEA has slightly over $2300.00 in its coffers.
UMEEA presented six programs over the past year, including today’s presentation on Managing the Quality of Aging – Decisions Around Housing, Health and Family Location. The Steering Committee also arranged for a conversation with President Pines in September of 2020 to discuss opportunities for emeriti faculty members to contribute to campus activities.
There are eight elected members serving on the UMEEA Steering Committee (SC). The continuing members for 2021/2022 are: Elaine Anderson, Maurine Beasley, Robert Dorfman, Gerald Miller, and David Segal. Three members completing their terms this spring will be leaving the SC: Frank Alt, Arthur Popper, and Carlen Ruschoff. Ex Officio members are Peter Wolfe, the University Senate Senator (re-elected to a second one-year term by the UMD Emeritus and Emerita faculty members this spring), and Laura Rosenthal, Executive Director, Office of Faculty Affairs. Michele Frazier serves as the association’s Administrator. Frank extended his utmost gratitude to Ellin Scholnick, former SC member, for serving as Program Committee Chair.
Action items:
Call for Steering Committee candidates! Frank called for interested individuals to run for the three vacant seats on the Steering Committee. Successful candidates are expected to attend monthly meetings (most virtual, in person when possible) and participate in UMEEA activities. Those interested in running for office may self-nominate or you may nominate others. To be included on the next ballot, nominations must be submitted by June 21, 2021: https//go.umd.edu/UMEEASCnominations.
Feedback needed: Help us help Campus! A topic that has been raised at previous meetings and discussed is how emeriti faculty members can contribute to the University. The SC has discussed collecting information on skills and interests from our community, but the question is, how would we make this information available to chairs, deans, administrators, and faculty? To research the question, Art Popper, David Segal and Elaine Anderson were tasked to investigate the feasibility of creating a database that could be searched to quickly match emeriti faculty members with campus needs. The SC would like to hear from retired faculty members as to whether they would participate in this endeavor and thoughts on the workability of such a project. Please send your comments to Frank Alt, falt@umd.edu by noon on June 21, 2021. We thank you for your input!
The SC members expressed their deepest appreciation to Frank Alt for leading the SC through such a difficult year.