Tom Curtis: Our board and administration MUST understand that they work for us and that the money they handle is ours and not theirs

From Tom Curtis, December 15, 2008
Subject: Re CORE member Linda Meinelt to Michael Nehf and STRS Board re.... Thanksgiving Friday

Very nicely stated Linda. Thank you for your continued support of CORE and all STRS stakeholders by making your concerns heard by the STRS administration.

The very survival of our retirement program is based upon how these individuals perform. To date, the administration continues business as usual and should not be permitted to do so. Cuts in staff, benefits and spending are essential. Without continual pressure from the stakeholders, that will NOT happen.

We have more stakeholders such as yourself, writing to them and continually telling them to make cut-backs as has been requested for nearly 6 years now, with little progress being made because of a inept board.

Our board and administration MUST understand that they work for us and that the money they handle is ours and not theirs. They are there to do a job, not to claim ownership of our funds. Herb Dyer created an environment to this end and that has to be changed. That will take input from far more of the stakeholders then have stood up and spoken to date.

Again, thank you for being one of just a handful that is constantly being vigilant about the operation of our STRS. We, the stakeholders must continue the fight to bring about reform, as the vast majority of our board members do not have a clue about what they are doing and certainly are not willing to listen to our concerns and act on them.

I am truly convinced that the only way we are going to cause our board members to listen to their stakeholders is to fill the board room to capacity each and every month there is a board meeting. This concept has to be recognized by the stakeholders. Too few voices over the past six years have produced too few results.

Tom Curtis