2 President’s Message APS has had an eventful year. Thinking back, I realize how many accomplishments there have been. I’d like to share just a few of them. Our scholarship is perhaps our major accomplishment. We awarded the first scholarship this year to Melissa Cannon, a student in Urban Studies whose field is gerontology. The Scholarship Committee, chaired by Bob Vogelsang, has become a standing committee. Denise Harrison, a graduate assistant from the University Advancement office, has assisted the committee in its work. We have been very grateful for this help. Wine raffles at our programs have kept us all aware of the scholarship and have generated a surprising amount of money. Steve Brannan and Doug Swanson wrote (and RAPS published) a delightful little book, Creating Portland State: 1946-1955, with fascinating history and great pictures. CASE, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, presented a Silver Award to Portland State University this year in recognition of the book’s excellence. A less visible but equally important accomplishment of the year is the completion of the membership database, which Larry Sawyer has worked on for two years. A tangible product of the new database will be an updated membership directory that should be ready soon. A new Membership Committee, chaired by Marge Terdal, has been busy. Letters welcoming a long list of new members are going out as I write, to be followed soon by a flock of letters about renewals. My message is long, and I have mentioned only some of our accomplishments. I have not described the great programs—we even danced in May! We need to thank Vic Dahl for the sensitive remembrances he creates for the RAPS Sheet, and Dawn White for her work editing it. Robert Vogelsang is leading planning for our hosting of the Northwest Regional Retiree Associations in Higher Education conference. And we should note the continuing work of many members with varied tasks, as well as the continued activity of the book group, the hiking group, the writing group, and the bridge group. All these are vital to the health of RAPS. As we move into the next year, we will welcome new board members Sue Poulsen as President-elect and Brian Lewis as Member-at-large. Susan Jackson will become our treasurer. Larry Sawyer will continue to work with us as a consultant on our new database, and Priscilla Blumel will continue as a Member-at-Large to complete Susan Jackson’s term. Yes, we have had some turmoil in the RAPS office this year but we have learned more about the systems needed to keep a complex organization working and have forged good partnerships in overcoming obstacles. We renewed our friendship with former Office Manager MiMi Bernal-Graves when she came back to help us. And I hope you have all met Sara Loreno, our new and very accomplished Office Manager. Despite the challenges, the work of RAPS went on. We had a very good year. --Joan Shireman Membership Committee gives progress report he RAPS Membership Committee has worked with Human Resources to gather data on all faculty and staff who have retired since 2010. We have a list of over 100 names, all of whom will get letters this month about their one-year free membership in RAPS. Larry Sawyer has recently updated the membership database, and the Membership Committee is sending out notices to those whose membership expired over a year or more ago but who were not notified of that expiration. The board has approved the following new schedule of membership fees: one year $20, 5 years $55, 10 years $100 and lifetime $200. Free membership is granted to anyone over 85, but those individuals must inform the office when they qualify. --Marge Terdal R T
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