RAPS Represented in Minneapolis and Seattle The biennial conference of the Association of Retirement Organizations of Higher Education (AROHE) was held on the campus of the University of Minnesota from August 10-12, 2014, and the more informal regional annual get-together was hosted by the University of Washington on campus in Seattle on September 7th & 8th. I was the only RAPS representative at both meetings. This is a short overview of the two trips. More details will be included in the formal reports to the Board. The travel budget from the Provost Office and RAPS is limited and didn’t cover many of the expenses. I am Bob Vogelsang’s replacement on the RAPS Board as the contact person for other retirement associations of higher education. I served on the AROHE Board for 4 years followed by Brian Lewis for 2 years, and W. T. (Bill) Lemman was elected to the AROHE Board in Minneapolis for 2 years. This will make eight consecutive years a RAPS member has served on a national association with only 15 board members. I attended both conferences as a delegate, but also participated at the AROHE conference as a volunteer making audio recordings and documenting activities with photographs. The RAPS Board has already received these recordings and photographs. The AROHE conference included keynote presentations and concurrent sessions on different subjects. The major keynote was by David Durenberger, former US Republican Senator from Minnesota. Considering the atmosphere in Washington, I was pleased that he promoted a position of across-the- aisle cooperation. Presentations included special interest groups, health care, how to start a new organization, membership retention and methods of recruitment. Membership recruitment and retention seems to be a problem for all. I also sat at a breakfast table along with two others to answer questions on technology. Many of the organizations had display tables that were attended between sessions. I shared a table with OSU and displayed flyers, pictures, our Powerpoint presentation from the April President’s Luncheon, and copies of our two publications. I gave a complimentary copy of both publications to Janette Brown, the Executive Director of AROHE located on the USC campus. The Seattle conference was a more informal session. We were supposed to host this conference last year but cancelled it due to Vogie’s (the Chairman’s) death shortly before the date. The University of Washington originated this conference and they host it in alternate years. The keynote presentation was by ENCORE, also mentioned by Dr. Bloom in our own general meeting on September 18. ENCORE assists in connecting volunteers with non-profit organizations. Interns graduate and move on. Retirees are more likely to stay. This conference was just one day with a social get-together the evening before. It was shorter due to the limited number of organizations attending this year. Representatives of University of Washington, OSU, PSU, Central Washington, Simon Fraser, Washington State University and the University of British Columbia attended the meeting. I came away with some ideas to present to the Board. I also photo- and audio-documented the conference and shared them with the other delegates while stipulating that the recordings were informal. All of the delegates will begin receiving digital copies of the RAPS Sheet if they are not already on our sister organization electronic list. The final session was a discussion on the future of these meetings, since only seven organizations were represented. The consensus was that the meetings were valuable and should continue. The UW will host the AROHE conference in August of 2016. UW formally asked for co-hosts. The OSU and PSU Boards have already volunteered to do whatever we can to make the first AROHE conference in the Pacific Northwest a success. We also toured the University House retirement home where Laureen Nussbaum of PSU now lives, and I had a delightful two-hour talk with her before returning to Portland. I learned that although the University of Washington was founded in the 19th century, and its retirement association is the largest in the Pacific Northwest, they will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary either next year or the year after. PSU was founded in 1946 and celebrated the ERFOPS/REPPS/RAPS 50th Anniversary last year. --Larry Sawyer 4
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