Help identify UMRA’s next leaders
As UMRA’s immediate past president, it’s my job to chair the Nominating Committee to recommend candidates for our next president-elect and for open positions on the UMRA Board of Directors.
Are you interested in serving on the Nominating Committee? The commitment is modest, but important. The committee will hold two to three meetings via Zoom in January and February, and each member will contact a prospective candidate.
The primary role of the president-elect is to serve as the chair of the UMRA Program Committee, which is responsible for planning UMRA’s forums and workshops for the coming year. Board members are elected for three-year terms and may be reelected for a second term.
If you have ideas for people who might be good for these roles (including yourself), or if you are interested in serving on the Nominating Committee, please let me know by email.
—Eric Hockert, UMRA past president and 2025 Nominating Committee chair, [email protected]
News
The 2026 Nominating Committee is looking for your suggestions for candidates for UMRA board and officer positions. If you know of someone who might be willing to step up to an UMRA leadership role—and that someone could be you!—please contact Julie Sweitzer, Nominating Committee chair.
How would you like to participate in one or more informal afternoon group conversations at the Campus Club with University leaders—deans, center directors, department heads, for example—regarding their current situations and thoughts about the future?
The University Retirees Volunteer Center greets 2026 with some exciting news: its office is moving to Morrill Hall, which houses the University’s administrative offices on the Twin Cities campus. The space is being provided by the office of Chris Gade, the vice president for communications, who oversees University Marketing Communications.
Meet UMRA member Pat Tollefson, founder of the UMRA Book Club (in 2011) and shining example of how volunteering and engaging in a variety of other activities can lead to a full life in retirement.
Here’s how to make payments for UMRA events easily in the UMRA member portal, and how to use your UMRA membership card for on-campus parking and other discounts, including University Bookstores.
Marilyn Erickson has an interesting set of three family history stories that she wrote “to check out the verbal family stories and connect them to documentation and photos.”
Drawing on his training as a historian, his patience and more than a little serendipity, Jim Tracy put together an account of his family history. “This account is for our family, if not now, perhaps later, I hope it may also be of interest for others looking into the history of their families.”
Then there are the unexpected things that happen…
… like a box of family history from a cousin that was completely unexpected. Perhaps it is like an unexpected DNA match.