Minutes of the March 19, 2009 C.O.R.E. Meeting
March 25, 2009
Twenty-five Concerned Ohio Retired Educator (CORE) members were in attendance at the March 19th meeting in the Sublet Room on the second floor of the
Cards were circulated for members to sign for Donna Thorp and Ruby Fisher, who are both recovering from surgeries. Due to Ruby’s surgery, Treasurer Herman Fisher was unable to attend the meeting. However, he did send word via President Dave that our account is in the black.
There were no committee reports, but President Parshall reminded everyone that membership is still encouraged. In fact, currently CORE has over 1700 e-mail addresses. It was stressed that those e-mail addresses are very important.)
The new business part of the meeting revolved around the upcoming STRS election. CORE is endorsing Jim Stoll, active teacher, and Bob Stein and Jim McGreevy, retirees. A CORE flyer highlighting the three CORE-endorsed candidates will be sent out as soon as Jim McGreevy’s photo is added to the flyer. Once the flyers are completed and available, members are encouraged to run more off and to distribute them to teachers, retired and active.
Dave read the letter CORE received from candidate Jim McGreevy: What follows is the body of that letter:
“I would like to extend my thanks to the membership of CORE for their endorsement of my candidacy for the position on the STRS Board representing retired members. Over the past several years I have worked hard to educate myself on the issues that are important to our members, and if elected I will continue to work diligently to represent those members to the best of my ability as a fiduciary under ORC 3307.15.
CORE’s endorsement of me represents an expansive “big tent” approach to the issues confronting all of us at STRS. Frankly, I see a lot of very tough issues ahead that will require some difficult solutions. Please be assured that if I am entrusted with this position I will always be open to your advice and the counsel of your leadership. It is probably unrealistic to believe that we will always agree on every detail, but I have faith that all of the stakeholders, working together at STRS, can achieve our goal of providing financial security to our members.”
Following the explanation of the flyers, a discussion of health care ensued. It was commented upon that even though Medicare Advantage programs were cheap up front, the administrative costs are up. (There is a profit from running it.) Most members seemed to agree that it would be hard to pass even a revised H.B. 315 in the current economic climate. It was generally agreed that a long term “fix” is needed. We need to get the message out about health care and our pension. We must support each other. A national healthcare solution my be our only hope. Start to get involved. See the letter writing suggestion below. Dave Parshall will be attending a Single Payer grassroots meeting soon and will report back.
The topic of the meeting then turned to our pension fund…and the use of the word “safe” as opposed to “guaranteed.” In an effort to answer this, President Dave read a letter from a CORE lawyer, who had tried to address the matter for us. He directed members to Chapter 3307 of the Ohio Revised Code. The legal expert stated, “The sections on contributions are found starting at Section 3307.26.Benefits begin at Section 3307.50. The regulations that do detail policy are generally found at Ohio Administrative Code Section 3307:1-3-01. There are also a lot of sections to read.”
The lawyer continued, “You should be able to find the codes on line. I believe that Ohio Legislature maintains a site with the Revised code. This will keep you busy for a while…”
Plenty of discussion followed the reading of the letter. AIG, local pension systems, Warren Buffett, the top eight corporations being in fiscal trouble, single-payer health care possibilities, and the power of grass roots’ efforts were all roundly discussed. One suggestion that came out of the group’s conversation was that members need to be writing letters. To this end Alice Faryna will e-mail a model letter so that members will have a guide, if they need one. It was also suggested that concise, legible, hand-written letters were the most effective. Legislators, the governor, and newspapers should hear from us In fact, in order to help us get the word out, there is a link to editors of any papers on Bob Stein’s site.
The meeting closed at 1:30 after a reminder that people need to be attending the STRS Board Meetings. We need to have a presence so that we have an impact. For those who can’t attend a meeting, call and ask STRS to send a CD of that month’s meeting!
Respectfully submitted,
Marie M. Fetters
CORE Secretary
Labels: Bob Stein, Jim McGreevy, Jim Stoll
posted by Kathie Bracy at 5:57 PM
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