January 8, 2007

MINUTES OF ASEF COUNCIL MEETING January 8, 2007

•  Luis Blasco was welcomed as new chair of the Education Committee

•  We discussed the 4 committees' draft mission statements and plans for the next 2-3 years: 

Data

Regarding the mission of maintaining accurate records of current contact info and status, the committee was advised to talk with the alumni office, particularly regarding recent deaths.  Also, the Development office apparently keeps track of contact info on all retired faculty.  This needs to be checked out.  It was also agreed that we were the organization most interested in keeping this contact info current and accurate.  Meghan will check to be sure that results of Jane's faculty survey are on our website.  The committee liked the idea of our contacting each emeritus member by phone once a year, to verify contact data, to check on their welfare, and to encourage them to use our services (meetings, website, list-serv, etc).

Service 

People questioned specific strategies for the committee's ferreting out information about volunteer activities, and then for how to get the attention of ASEF members about their existence.  One idea was to send out a monthly email highlighting a volunteer opportunity – perhaps written by a faculty member who is doing that volunteering – to include good contact information for the program wanting volunteers.  Then each monthly bulletin would be archived on our website, creating a growing list of volunteer opportunities.  The group liked the plan for all departmental chairs to be surveyed for their volunteer faculty needs, and in addition, suggested that the committee ask the same question of the IRB human subjects committee, the CRC, Dean of Students, Dean for International Programs, etc.  People thought that creating links from the ASEF website to organizations needing volunteers was a great idea and asked Dave will work with Luis to do this.  John Mikuta has agreed to spearhead the effort to develop a faculty of members willing to talk about issues relevant to retirees and to offer this to area retirement communities.  Jim is also very interested in this, and Rob asked Jim, Dave, and John Mikuta to have a conference call or meeting about getting this going and to report at the next meeting.  Dave will also find out who does the pre-med advising for undergrads here at Penn.  Jim thought that it originated in the biology department.

Programs

Howard & Anna couldn't attend so we didn't discuss their plan in detail.  However, it was asked whether or not they could be a bit more explicit regarding which things they wanted to organize, and roughly when.  It was also suggested that they might advertise programs being sponsored by other parts of the university but of likely interest to our members.  Finally, a lecture from someone knowledgeable about health plans, the university's options, medicare part D, and the like – perhaps from the Leonard Davis Institute – was thought of great interest.

Education

We didn't discuss their mission statement or plan, but will do so at the next meeting.  Luis has contacted at least 4 people interested in participating and plans an organizational meeting before our February Executive Council meeting.

List-serv

Ben came from IT and said that we could start the list-serv with an email to all ASEF members for whom we have email addresses.  We would announce the intent of the list serv, and tell folks that they could opt out if they didn't want to receive mailings from this address.  Ben and Meghan will decide on a non-confusing email address and let me know.  Then I will frame a letter to go out explaining what it's all about and we will start!

Maintaining Penn email address after shift to emeritus status

Ben said that all mail.med faculty are entitled to maintain their email addresses after going emeritus.  He didn't know about uphs or departmental addresses but most people thought that members with those addresses were also entitled to continue.  The question is whether or not the administrators in each dept. know and will protect emeriti from being deleted.  Warning about this possibility should be part of our advice to seniors who are nearing retirement.  Ben will check to be sure that those other email address servers recognize their responsibility for keeping emeriti on their server unless asked to d/c.

Request for space

Rob met with Kevin Mahoney, who is in charge of space in the medical complex.  He gave us a form to fill out to request space.  We discussed requesting 1,000 sq. feet, preferably in Maloney, with space for a meeting, carrels, phone extensions, computers with internet access, wi-fi capability, a printer & copier, and access to dictation service.  The target time for this would be after completion of the CAM building.

Responses to Rob's letter to chairs of departments re:  discussing retirement issues at a departmental meeting

About 20% of chairs have responded, with several requesting a talk by Vicki or Hilary, and with one of us also present to comment.

Next Executive Council meeting will be in 6 weeks - 2/19