UMRA members are energetic and resourceful people. They have founded interest groups including the UMRA Book Club, Photo Club, Financial & Legal Issues Group, and Armchair Traveler. Even now (or perhaps especially now), they’re finding ways to connect with others.

Lynn C. Anderson and Craig Swan discovered a shared interest in researching family history. Wondering how many others might be interested, they hosted a session on Zoom in October and invited UMRA members to join them. So many participated and with such great interest, Craig and Lynn gave a second presentation in December, and are planning to offer more.  

Virgil Larson invited UMRA members to a Zoom interest group, and within a few days had 45+ people of all experience levels ready to join him. Dorothy Marden and Maggie Catambay organized a second book club after learning that the original, long-standing UMRA Book Club is fully subscribed.

In response to all this activity, the UMRA Board asked me to draft a policy for recognizing new, member-initiated interest groups.  

New Policy
Under the new policy, approved by the Board in November, the organizer(s) of a new group are asked to submit an application with the following information to the chair of the UMRA Program Committee:

• name and nature of the activity or group
• contact information for the proposers
• expected duration of the activity or group, and meeting times if known
• potential conflicts of interest for the proposers
• need for promotion through UMRA’s communication channels, if any
• need for financial support from UMRA, if any

The chair of the Program Committee will share the proposal with other UMRA committee and interest group leaders for comment, and then forward it to the UMRA Executive Committee for approval—unless the proposed activity requires a financial commitment or presents potential significant liability for UMRA, in which case the proposal will be considered by the full Board.

The new policy doesn’t apply to the activities of UMRA’s standing committees or to ad hoc gatherings of members that don’t require promotion in UMRA communications.

Is there an interest group you’re thinking of organizing with other UMRA members? I would be happy to hear from you. Please get in touch with me at [email protected].

—Jan Morlock, UMRA president-elect and Program Committee chair