Here, Ann, is a table that you should send to your uninformed membership...something you should have sent them a long time ago.....

John Curry to ORTA Executive Director Ann Hanning, April 19, 2012

COLA chart: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxhnJxFUYdNydPAOguIY_6YizXCD3CjLi9VLNiE59o8EIBFsFD-sjyiA7osxvJFfSK5Xs0BwWxVYtap7h8jKvbS9uWy10iR2dUIe8evWP7rTZqUc8wkaCKdjha04ywhnV4r91Q/s1600/Ganz+chart.jpg 

.....something they should have been given instead of a presentation by a guest speaker telling them how to feed the birds in their back yards while they were eating meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans at one of their friendly local ORTA county chapter meetings. This chart shows what a typical older ORTA member retiree (with a pension of $25,000) will be losing thanks to one year COLA freeze followed by years of a 2% COLA vs. the current 3% COLA that they now have. 

You could have stood up at the public speaks portion of today's STRS board meeting and demanded that the lowest STRS benefits recipient retirees among us (like the chart link included here will demonstrate; link above) like many of your members in their 70s,  should have been an exception to and excluded from  to the COLA freeze/cut (like the Ohio Highway Patrol Retirement System did....BUT YOU DIDN'T. But, all is not lost, the majority of these older retirees still remain ignorant of this impending financial disaster.....ignorance is bliss, isn't it, Ann? What they don't know won't hurt them, will it.....OR WILL IT? Just keep on serving the meat loaf, mashed potatoes and green beans and maybe they won't notice it...what do you think? Silence is complicity, Ann....silence is complicity. Pass the green beans, Ann, after all....that's what is important to retirees, right? They don't have the slightest idea about the "Scenario 8" that was thrust upon them today......and probably never will. They will, however, feel the pain....for the rest of their lives. Unlike current active educators, they have neither the health nor the means to go back to work to rectify this situation. 

John