Minutes of CORE meeting March 15, 2007

From Glenna Barr, Secretary

CORE met March l5,2007, at 11:45 in the cafeteria room behind the Sublett Room. Officers present: President Dave Parshall, Vice President Mary Ellen Angeletti, Treasurer CJ Myers, and Secretary Glenna Barr. Trustees: Nancy Boomhower, Chuck Angeletti, Betty Bell, Liz Ebbing substituting for Nancy Hamant, Lloyd Knudsen substituting for Chuck Chapman. President Dave Parshall called the meeting to order. The minutes were approved by all members by a motion made by Mary Ellen Angeletti and 2nd by C.J. Myers. The treasurer's report was given by C.J. Myers.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

(A) Website-to be updated with Dennis Leone reports on it. Dave ask for suggestions for the website.

(B) Molly Janczyk was absent and no report was given on Contacts and Regional Reps.

(C) Constitution: Article III of the By-Laws passed.

OLD BUSINESS:

(A) Correction of Article 3 in the Constitution By-Laws to add the Vice President's office was passed out to members attending is to be amended to read: Access to the CORE database shall be limited to

(1) The author of the database

(2) The CORE President

(3) The CORE Vice President

(4) The CORE Secretary

(5) The CORE Treasurer
(6) The person designated by a majority vote of the Board of Trustees to send official CORE Alerts. In April this amendment will be voted on.

(B) Dave Parshall pointed out the ORTA State House Day, April 24,2007. He is going and encouraged others to attend.

(C) The goal of CORE as to getting the key facts of Health Care. By 2009, HC Fund will dip into the fund's principal and by 2021 we may not have HC. One misconception on health care is that all teachers upon retirement has medicare coverage but this is not true. Many teachers will qualtify for Part B only .

CORE is only interested in the election of STRS Board members not the Ohio political arena of candidates.

Mary Ellen Angeletti mentioned that Herman Fisher of Clinton County would like a list of talking points for retirees to go out and talk about CORE. Send your talking points to Dave Parshall, dparshall@insight.rr.com.

Chuck Angeletti suggested a statement that CORE needs to keep STRS Board members feet to the fire on Health Care issues, board behavior, and staff perks. Dave Parshall stated most of STRS staff are very helpful.

NEW BUSINESS:

(A) Chuck Angeletti and Dave Parshall attended a seminar on STRS financial structure presented by Russell Investment Group to STRS Board Members. There was a great deal of information presented. It was helpful to learn first hand how STRS financial department is structured and how Russell interacts with them.

(B) Dave Parshall,Lloyd Knudsen, and Nancy Boomhower discussed changes in the board meeting with Ms. Ramser and made suggestions to better accommodate the retirees who want to attend. Lloyd Knudsen said Ms. Ramser and board will discuss the changes for April after today's meeting. Ms. Ramser would like everything on one day. She schedules the STRS Agenda and stated this month's changes were to save money.
(C) A motion was made to send out Dennis Leone's quarterly report as a CORE Alert and was passed unanimously.

SPEAKER:

Russ Harris from OEA passed out Initiative Petitions for any Ohio registered voter to sign to put on the ballot titled "Guaranteeing High Quality Public Education". He stated this has to be a Constitutional Amendment so that every child in Ohio will be given a good education and have fair funding for every school district. This initiative and the Governor's State of the State Speech has the same theme. This initiative will empower the legislature to follow the Governor's suggestions. Mr. Harris discussed the guidelines for the petitions and a petition can be picked up at any OEA Uniserv Office, from PTAs and OFT offices, libraries, fire and police stations. Petitions were passed out to the members present. A question-and-answer discussion on benefits to senior citizens, where funding would be coming from, and that seniors' property taxes would be reduced, etc., followed.

Mary Ellen Angeletti welcomed the new members. Attending from ORTA were Lou DiOrio, Ann Hanning, and Ray Troxell, ORTA Vice President. The meeting was adjourned by a motion by Nancy Boomhower and 2nd by Marie Fetters. The next meeting is tentatively set for April 15th.

Submitted by Glenna Barr,
CORE Secretary.