Mahoning Retired Teachers Trustee Report to Membership November 9, 2016 Meeting
Information for you: The ORTA Fall Board Meeting was held October 20, 2016 at the ORTA office in Worthington, OH, 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The meeting began with a welcome from ORTA President, Carol Remington. Eveln Massey, the new office manager, lead the Pledge of Allegiance.
Item 1 - Officers: New officers, the Eastern Vice President, and District Directors were installed. Beginning January, 2017, Randy Overbeck will be the new ORTA President. Some districts use co-directors due to the size of schedules. Our district is District XI and our director is Carol Kinsey who has visited with us before(last March). She will visit us again at our December meeting.
Item 2 - ORTA newsletter is now online. It is now a monthly publication instead of quarterly. If you have not received it, you can go to orta.org to see it - On the right side of the page you will see November ORTA News Bulletin. Click on that and it will take you to it. You can also click on their facebook link about halfway down the page. There you will see some of your MRTA members at the Habitat for Humanity Project on Oct. 29. If you do not have email or access to a computer, you may contact ORTA by letter or phone to request a paper copy in the future. They are still in the process of organizing this. Next month, we will have paper copies here for those without access to a computer. If you go to the library, you can use one of their computers to access the website: www.orta.org. The newsletter will be out the second Tuesday of the month. Please know that these are for ORTA members. If you are not a member, it is now time to sign up for the 2017 membership year. You can sign up for both MRTA and ORTA through our organization or through ORTA. I f you're a new member and paid your dues in September, you are already signed up for 2017. If you only joined one organization, you can join the other now for 2017.
Information for you: INSPIRE , which does the newsletter can do 3 times more work and it costs the same as having 1 editor for the quarterly. You also get information that is current.
Information for you:
The executive committee has met through teleconferencing. It is free through Natonal Retired Teachers or AARP. This saves money for travel as well as members' time.
ORTA has changed from using a lawyer to a law firm - Perez and Morris. Lindsay Sestile spoke at the October board meeting and
ORTA retained the UBS Group as investors. They will send updates by email for members interested in investments. Hamilton Co. RTA uses UBS. What does ORTA do? It gives you financial advice through UBS. Due to the efforts of our director, John Cavanaugh, our 2017 budget is 2% lower than 2016. Who is in the office? John Cavanaugh, Evelyn Massey, office manager, and Mia McLean, office assistant. Other names that you see, president, etc. are not paid positions. We have 3 staff who serve 80,000 retired teachers.
Replace the answering machine that was not working and as of 10/20 had received 2,000 calls from members who had questions or concerns.
ORTA's John Cavanaugh interacts with STRS to get answersfor members.
A Coalitin of retiree organzations meets 1 week prior to STRS meetings to organize and present issues.
INSPIRE GROUP, Diane Hurd and Katie Sabatino, do the communicatin for us. We can use them to help promote our scholarships. They support us on Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. They give updated informatin on AMBA(Association Member Benefits Advisor) and details. They communicate STRS updates.
ORTA is working on obtaining 501(c)3 status to qualify as a charitable organization. There are 2 chapters in Ohio that have the status. We are currently a 501(c)4.
Reminder: POP5 does not represent ORTA. If you choose to join, that is up to you, but please investigate this organization as you would any other organization.
MRTA provided lunch for workers and Tamisha Elliott, homeowner, and also a worker. Mary Grace Fowler put together the items for the lunch through Cornersburg Italian Specialties. The workers put together their own sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, and had pie for dessert. Mary Ann Tavolario brought water and she and June Logan picked up the food and took it to the site. Peggy Bennett joined them there and they set up the lunch for the workers. The groups helping were students from YSU and a combined Women's group from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and St. Joseph's Church. We were able to meet the new homewner,. She gave us a tour of the home and invited us back when it is finished at the end of November. The next project being discussed will be in Boardman in December. We can possible do a gift basket or are open for other ideas. Remember the Habitat ReStores in Struthers and Salem for donations or to take a walk-through.