RAPS MEMBERS can always count on Tom Potiowsky, PSU professor emeritus of economics, to provide an illuminating and entertaining look at the economic situation statewide and nationally. They can also count on him to come up with a quirky title. His talk to RAPS on Thursday, October 19, is no exception. It’s entitled “‘The Recession is Coming! The Recession is Coming!’ Or Is It ‘Waiting for the Godot Recession’? What’s a Forecaster To Do?” Now a lifetime member of RAPS, Potiowsky retired in 2017 as professor and chair of the Economics Department at Portland State. He also served as the state economist from 1999 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2011. He serves as senior adviser and former director of the Northwest Economic Research Center (NERC). Housed at Portland State, NERC focuses on economic research activities to support public policy and private objectives in the greater metropolitan area and the Pacific Northwest. Potiowsky brings decades of experience Retirement Association of Portland State Portland State University—RAPS Post Office Box 751 Portland OR 97207-0751 Campus Public Safety Building Second Floor, Room 212 SW Montgomery at Broadway Office Manager To be announced Telephone: 503-725-3447 Email: rapsmail@pdx.edu Office hours: To be announced Campus mail: RAPS Web: psu-raps.org Board Members Co-Presidents Janine Allen & Bruce Stern Secretary Brian Lewis Treasurer Ansel Johnson Members-at-Large Alan Cabelly, Rick Hardt, Kris Kern RAPS Sheet Editor Doug Swanson Website Editor Steve Brennan RAPS Representative to Regional & National Retirement Associations Larry Sawyer Committees Awards Steve Brennan, Chair History Preservation Eileen Brennan, Chair Membership Dave Krug, Chair Program Pat Squire & Dawn White, Co-Chairs Scholarship Sherwin Davidson, Chair Social Nancy Eriksson, Chair The RAPS Sheet The newsletter of the Retirement Association of Portland State OCTOBER 2023 taking complicated economic analysis and turning it into meaningful, understandable presentations for economists and non-economists alike. He has shared his expertise with RAPS on numerous occasions. In April RAPS recognized him with the Outstanding PSU Retiree Award, presented at the President’s Annual Luncheon for Retired Faculty and Staff. When Potiowsky spoke to RAPS in February 2021, his topic was “The Economic Consequences of COVID-19 and Hereafter (the Adverb, Not the Noun).” On that occasion, his presentation came over the videoconferencing platform Zoom. This time he speaks to RAPS members in person. The RAPS meeting begins at noon Thursday, October 19, in 298 SMSU with a light deli lunch, followed by Potiowsky’s presentation at about 12:35 p.m. Tom Potiowsky The recession is coming! The recession is coming! Or not. Economist Tom Potiowsky tells RAPS all about it on October 19 Potiowsky takes complicated economic analysis and turns it into meaningful, understandable presentations.
2 LAST MONTH the RAPS Office received an email from a retired PSU faculty member who was trying to reconnect with other retired colleagues from her department. Unfortunately, of the three retirees she was seeking contact information for, only one was a member of RAPS. But we were very happy to be able to facilitate a reunion between at least two PSU retirees. This experience reminded me that RAPS membership is one of the few ways retirees have of connecting with each other. Indeed, one of RAPS’ missions is to connect retirees with each other. In an effort to fulfill this mission, RAPS has published and distributed to its members a membership directory. The most recent directory is from 2020-2021, and many of us still use that edition. One reason we have not published a membership directory since 2020 is the cost of printing it and mailing it to members. RAPS Board members have heard from many of you saying how much you appreciated the directory and asking that we distribute a new edition. During its most recent meeting, the Board discussed RAPS SHEET n OCTOBER 2023 CO-PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE We need your help to produce a new member directory compiling a new membership directory and distributing it to members via email. Using email to distribute the directory would eliminate the printing and postage costs. Plus, if members wanted a hard copy of the directory, it could be designed in a format that could be printed easily by members themselves. The first step in creating a new directory is making sure we have correct contact information on our members. While she was chair of the Membership Committee, Pati Sluys did a terrific job of updating the membership list. However, we know that addresses change, and to make sure we have your correct contact information before we compile the new directory, in a few weeks we will send you an email asking you to provide us with your current contact information. At this time, you will also have an opportunity to opt out of having your name and contact information in the new directory. Helping you stay connected to your colleagues is just one of the many benefits of membership in RAPS. This fall the list of benefits just got longer! Learn the details by reading the story on page 3. —Janine Allen SEPTEMBER 8 TOUR AT THE SCHNITZER MUSEUM—Anna Kienberger (far right), of the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at PSU, guided 16 RAPS members on a tour of “A Question of Hu: The Narrative Art of Hung Liu.” Hung Liu’s work mingles Chinese and Western artistic traditions, and the exhibit runs through December 2. The Schnitzer Museum is in Maseeh Hall, 1855 SW Broadway.
3 RAPS SHEET n OCTOBER 2023 Book Group THE BOOK GROUP met on September 19 and discussed The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. This is the well-told story of a large Mexican family. It takes place over one day as they celebrate a funeral and a birthday. The central character, holding the story and the family together, is Big Angel. There is Little Angel, his brother, and many family members who play a part in the confusion and the joy of a large family gathering. The book has been praised by reviewers and was identified as one of the best books of 2018. We thought it a joyful book, in places extremely funny. And overall a tribute to family life. Next month we plan to read Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott. It also is well reviewed, and won a Pulitzer prize. It is a journalist’s report of the struggles of a poor family, and a devastating account of the minimalist nature and the racism of our child welfare system—and of the importance of family. The Book Group meets at 1:30 p.m. on the third Tuesday of every month. We are currently meeting over Zoom. Any RAPS member is welcome. —Joan Shireman Bridge Group THE BRIDGE GROUP needs additional players. Why would anyone join our group? Our players are friendly and enjoy the social aspect of playing bridge together. We benefit from the mental challenges (e.g., remembering what the trump suit is, tracking which important cards have already been played, figuring out whose turn it is to deal the next hand, and more). I would like to hear from any interested RAPS members, or others you know who might want to play in our group. The RAPS Bridge Group does not require RAPS membership. Your friends and relatives are welcome to join us. Please rattle your social and family networks to see if you might be able to shake loose a bridge player or two. Please contact Steve Brennan, 503-889-0146. My email address is: the.steve.brennan@gmail.com. —Steve Brennan Hiking Group THE OCTOBER 18 hike will be along the Wilson River Trail in the Coast Range off Highway 6, the segment to be determined. The November 15 hike will be in Oregon City at RAPS Group Reports Newall Creek Canyon. December is the hike planning month. If you have suggestions for the hiking group, please let Tom Dieterich know at tgdieterich@earthlink.net. On Wednesday, September 20, six people hiked the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge outside Washougal, Washington. The refuge was closed for renovation in the past few years but has reopened. Our hike was around 6.5 miles along the Refuge River Trail and the Gibbons Creek Wildlife Art Trail; this latter trail closes October 1 for wintering birds. We had a brief smattering of rain, for which we all put on our rain jackets, but that ended with sun and clouds. The river was calm. We saw deer, egrets, herons, and two eagles plus other birds and ducks we didn’t identify, and there were a number of wildflowers. —Tom Dieterich RAPS members now eligible for PSU Alumni Card, a ticket to discounts on lots of goodies STARTING THIS MONTH, your membership in RAPS carries even more benefits! Thanks to the efforts of our liaison to the PSU Foundation, Claire Michie, senior director of Alumni Engagement and Annual Giving for the PSU Foundation, many of the benefits enjoyed by PSU alumni have been extended to members of RAPS. These benefits include discounts on many products and services, such as invitations to shop at the employee stores of Adidas, Columbia Sportswear, and Nike; discounts on Dell computers and AAA membership; and more. To learn more about the benefits now available to you as a RAPS member, visit https://www.pdx.edu/ alumni/discounts. To take advantage of these benefits, you will need to request an Alumni Card. This is a digital card that you will receive by email. You can request your card by filling out an Alumni Card Request form found at Portland State University Alumni Association - Alumni Card Request Form – Digital Alumni Card Request Form (portland state alumni.org).
Photo by Tom Dieterich Photo by Fran Davidson 4 RAPS SHEET n OCTOBER 2023 Upcoming RAPS events OCTOBER 8TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 Book Group: Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott. Contact Joan Shireman at joanshireman@gmail.com 8WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 Hiking Group: Wilson River Trail off Highway 6 in the Oregon Coast Range. Contact: Tom Dieterich/Cilla Murray, tgdieterich@earthlink.net 8THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 Presentation by Tom Potiowsky, professor emeritus of economics: “‘The Recession is Coming! The Recession is Coming!’ Or Is It ‘Waiting for the Godot Recession’? What’s a Forecaster To Do?” Noon, 298 SMSU. NOVEMBER 8WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 Hiking Group: Newall Creek Canyon (Oregon City). Contact: Tom Dieterich/Cilla Murray, tgdieterich@earthlink.net 8THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30 Presentation by Ann Cudd, Portland State’s new president. 333 SMSU. Note: President Cudd speaks to RAPS at 11 a.m., with lunch to follow. 8TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21 Book Group: The Music of Bees: A Novel by Eileen Garvin. Contact Joan Shireman at joanshireman@gmail.com. DECEMBER 8THURSDAY, DECEMBER 14 Annual Holiday Brunch, held at Augustana Lutheran Church. JANUARY 8THURSDAY, JANUARY 18 “Divest Oregon: Confronting Climate Risks to PERS and the Planet,” presentation by Rory Cowal, instructor in the PSU School of Music and volunteer with Divest Oregon, a statewide grassroots coalition of individuals and organizations seeking to have the Oregon State Treasury divest pension funds of fossil fuel holdings. Room TBA. RAPS HIKING GROUP—The September hike venue was the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which was established in 1987 to offset lowland habitat loss caused by construction of the Bonneville Dam. The hikers included (left to right) Mary Lane Stevens, Karin Waller, Cilla Murray, Tom Hard, and Tom Dieterich, as well as photographer Fran Davidson.
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