Editor Note: This issue of AROHE Matters highlights ideas for new fall programming that will engage new members and welcome back long-time friends. Happy reading and best wishes for a new season of exciting RO activities.
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Issue Highlights
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Retirement Organizations and Social Connections
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Retirement Trends and Resources
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Fall is a time of new beginnings. School begins again. Our favorite collegiate athletic teams resume competition. Most people return to work after a much-deserved vacation.
Retirement organizations (ROs) follow much the same pattern. After a summer of reduced activity, it is time to start our engines again and fill our schedule with services and activities designed to engage our retirees and enrich their post-retirement life. Many ROs hold retreats at the beginning of the fall intended to plan a range of activities to appeal to our members. |
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It is critically important for ROs to remember we are constantly “re-recruiting” our members. Retirees are not obligated to attend our meetings or participate in our committees. Our members engage voluntarily. Unlike a job, they aren’t mandated or expected to participate in our planned activities. Retirement opens many options we didn’t used to have time for, and an RO has many competitors.
This means ROs must constantly seek new ways to attract the participation of retirees. We must keep our offerings fresh, worthwhile, and enjoyable. It may be important to offer some of the same programs routinely, but we must supplement these events with creative new activities that offer new perspectives or mine new subject matter we haven’t addressed before. We must remember our members are constantly changing and our organizations must too.
This issue of AROHE Matters includes some ideas for new fall programming that will engage new members and welcome back long-time friends. Happy reading and best wishes for a new season of exciting RO activities.
Best wishes,
AROHE President Roger Baldwin
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AROHE Member Meet-Up: Reaching New Retirees
Tuesday, October 17 10-11:30 a.m. PDT, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. MDT, 12-1:30 p.m. CDT, 1-2:30 p.m. EDT Is your retirement organization struggling to identify newly retired faculty and staff or to recruit the newly retired to join as members? Or do you have successful outreach strategies that you can share with others? We will hear from some retirement organization leaders about the methods they use to reach and motivate new retirees and then divide into smaller group to discuss ideas in breakout rooms.
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Retirement Organization News |
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ASURA Meet & Greet Party
Early in September the Arizona State University Retirees Association (ASURA) holds a Meet and Greet Pizza Party. The event is held around noon and is free to members and their guests. The event goals are:
- Reconnect members after the summer hiatus,
- Increase new member retention, and
- Recruit new committee members.
The event has been successful on several accounts:
- Attendance – Members like a chance to chat with old friends; free pizza is secondary. The popularity of the party has grown over the years.
- Longevity – Except for the two COVID years it has been held annually since 2011.
- Committee Recruitment – The last part of the party is a presentation by committee chairs, explaining what their committees do, hoping to recruit new committee members.
- New member retention – ASURA membership has increased over the years and exposure to the association via the pizza party plays some role in this increase.
There are event stories and pictures available on the ASURA website on the social event reports page. Enter “meet and greet” in the search box to bring up party stories and pictures.
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WSU Retiree Center Welcome Back Events and Classes
The Winona State University (WSU) Retiree Center is welcoming our retirees back to campus this fall with several fun events and classes. Each year in September, we offer retirees a casual breakfast aboard WSU’s boat and floating classroom, the Cal Fremling.
We have an interim president taking the reins for one year while we conduct a search for the permanent position. The Retiree Center has set up a one-hour retiree online conversation via Zoom with the interim president this August.
We are also offering six Senior University classes for retirees this fall, including a class on local notable architecture with a bus tour to go out and see the architecture being discussed, as well as a class entitled “The Healing Forest: An Introduction to Nature and Forest Therapy.” This course includes a field trip to a local state park to partake in forest therapy and meditation. The Retiree Center is also hosting two-day trips in early fall (one to see a Minnesota Vikings football game and another to see the touring Broadway production of Beetlejuice: The Musical). For more information, contact Jessica Kauphusman, Winona State University Retiree Center Director, (507) 457-5565, jkauphusman@winona.edu, www.winona.edu/retiree. Click to return to the Issue Highlights.
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UCSB Chancellor's Retiree Reception Opens Fall Calendar
The academic year at UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) will open with the Chancellor’s Reception for New Retirees, where we will welcome recently retired faculty and staff. The UCSB Emeriti Association is organizing an array of programs that 1) support the University mission, 2) provide intellectual enrichment, and 3) provide opportunity for social interaction.
The UCSB Emeriti Association Promise Scholarship was established three years ago, and we will be awarding an additional four-year scholarship early in fall quarter to an incoming Promise Scholar.
With the UCSB Library, we will be co-sponsoring an on-campus event that features the work of distinguished emeriti. We have established a partnership with the newly formed interdisciplinary UCSB Center for Aging and Longevity Studies (CALS) and will be co-sponsoring the first annual lecture on retirement by Professor Patricia Gettings of the State University of New York at Albany. Planned webinars for next year will include presentations by the two UCSB recipients of the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship, Professors Joel Feigin (Music) and Nelson Lichtenstein (History). We have planned visits to two additional UC Natural Reserve System sites administered by UCSB, Coal Oil Point and the Carpinteria Salt Marsh. Also planned is a docent-led visit to the University Art Museum on campus. Our Bike to Breakfast group will keep on peddling.
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UT at Austin RFSA Meet and Greet Happy Hour
The University of Texas at Austin Retired Faculty and Staff Association (RFSA) membership team, this year for the first time, in August, arranged a Meet & Greet Happy Hour for new members, prospective members, and current members. This was done in coordination with the university and was held on campus at the University of Texas Club.
Various special interest groups meet regularly: Arts & Culture, Bridge, Exercise, Foodies, and Speaker Series. The Travel Interest group promotes RFSA group trips to both international and US destinations. A cornerstone program is to provide scholarships. This year RFSA will provide 25 $2,500 scholarships to UT students.
The RFSA provides a semi-annual magazine with articles about RFSA activities, interest group programs, UT Austin features, travel adventures, and other topics of interest. This keeps people engaged with the organization.
Additionally, there are all-member luncheons each October and April, hosted by the UT President’s Office, with a holiday event in December. The first year of membership in RFSA is free for all new retirees to encourage people to participate in the events.
Our programs and events are announced and advertised on the RFSA website, the RFSA Facebook page, and through a bi-monthly email update to all members.
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Grandparents Are In at University of Utah
In this time of COVID and post-COVID social isolation and student mental health challenges, the Professors Emeriti Club at the University of Utah plans to continue their “Grandparents Are In” engagement with the university’s students. We set up in high student traffic areas around the lunch hour, inviting an open ended, informal interaction with the passing students. Our motto is “The Advice may be BAD, But it’s FREE.”
Starting last November, more than 30 of our emeriti, in groups of 2-5, met students 31 times in two-hour sessions. We did give advice, since we all had dealt with many of the issues the students are concerned about what to major in, how to deal with long-distance relationships, the death of a parent, how to find meaning in school. But just as often, we simply got to know the students a bit—and were impressed by their seriousness, sense of direction, and desire to dialogue. They seemed to enjoy getting to know us a bit as well. The generation gap was bridged quite easily and any stereotypes of “boomers” or “Gen-Z” quickly dissipated.
Two stories about the “Grandparents” can give a sense of the interaction: Click to return to the Issue Highlights.
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Retirement Trends and Resources
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National Estate Planning Week October 16 - 22, 2023
National Estate Planning Awareness Week was adopted in 2008 to help the public understand what estate planning is and why it is such a vital component of financial wellness. National Estate Planning Week. |
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Stanford Center on Longevity Book Club
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A Conversation with Noreena Hertz, October 4, 1 p.m. ET
Economist and international best-selling author Noreena Hertz combines over a decade of research with firsthand reporting to bring us "The Lonely Century: a hopeful and empowering vision for how to heal our fractured communities and restore connection in our lives." Click here to register for free.
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A Conversation with M.T. Connolly, November 30, 2 p.m. ET
In "The Measure of Our Age," elder justice expert and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, M.T. Connolly investigates the systems we count on to protect us as we age. Click here to register for free.
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Come Join Us in Transforming Retirement |
Since 2002 AROHE has supported both institutions and individuals by transforming the experience of retirement – the preparation, the transition, and post-retirement programming – into a smooth and productive life-course change.
To renew, join or learn more, visit arohe.org or contact AROHE by emailing info@arohe.org or calling (530) 219-1049. |
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AROHE members are encouraged to submit stories that reflect activities, news and events from your retirement organization and campus that highlight the value retirees bring to their colleges and universities. The November issue will focus on how retirement organizations help retirees learn about the best life, financial, and estate planning tasks as they look forward to a New Year. Tell us about your programs and collaborations to assist retirees to be active authors of their life stories. Articles are limited to 250 words. A relevant picture (jpeg or png) and web links are valued additions to any article. Share your story for the September issue of AROHE Matters by October 20, 2023, to Patrick Cullinane, editor, at pcullinane@berkeley.edu. |
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AROHE's mantra is "Transforming Retirement."
AROHE is a nonprofit association that champions transformative practices to support all stages of faculty and staff retirement, their mutually beneficial engagement, and continuing contributions to their academic institutions. By sharing research, innovative ideas, and successful practices, AROHE emphasizes the development and enhancement of campus-based retiree organizations and programs which support this continuing engagement in higher education.
Copyright © 2020 AROHE. All rights reserved.
Contact email: info@arohe.org
Contact phone: 530-219-1049
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