Chair Talk
April 2012
On Friday, March 30, 2012, Mary Pollock and I had a telephone conference with Jim Evans and Tim Easterwood (VBS) and Richard James and John Cole (APSA/FSA) to get updates on the new SERA PLUS program. We learned that in less than a week the new recruitment program signed up over 120 new SERA members. We will be getting the March report of new SERA members in the next few days. The list of new members and the Chapters each has joined will be sent to Maria (CC Treasurer) along with a check to cover their first year’s dues. Maria will then issue a check from the CC to the Chapters (with names and addresses of each new member). We will be getting monthly reports of new members joining under the SERA PLUS program. We have also asked for a report about how many contacts/calls have been made, in-home appointments, number of specific services retirees have asked for etc. We also learned that VBS has hired Cheryl Streberger (former long-time UAW 6000 Benefits Representative) to be the new SERA PLUS Program Manager. Cheryl has retired from the State and will be a member of the Grand Rapids SERA Chapter. Cheryl will be the liaison between SERA CC, Chapter Officers and APSA — she will also be involved with future pre-retirement seminars. In the past several years I have served with Cheryl on several evaluation committees involving State health care contracts. I have invited Cheryl to attend the May CC meeting so that our officers and delegates can meet her. She can give us more detail as to her duties at that meeting.
Mary and I had hoped that the Legislative session this year would not be as devastating to public employees as the past year had. Alas, public employees are again under attack with changes to health care plans, retirement, health care premium increases etc. It seems that we are easy targets and are so well paid in wages and retirements that they think decimating our incomes/pensions should have no great impact on our existence. Mary Pollock keeps us very well informed about legislative issues on a weekly basis. If you are not on Mary’s News of the Day (NOTD) e-mail list — I would encourage you to sign up for those updates they make interesting reading.
Our website manager (Joy Ross) has been working diligently on updates/changes to our web pages. She has also been working with the web manager for APSA to add their links and other information for retirees to use.
Editor’s note: Bob Kopasz is Chair of the Michigan SERA Council. He may be reached at P.O. Box 692, Mt. Morris, MI 48458; phone 810/240-8380.