Help wanted: UMRA historian
Are you curious about UMRA’s past or are you someone who simply enjoys working with others to put together innovative projects? If so, UMRA needs you.
In February 2021, the UMRA Board of Directors created a new committee to identify, recommend, and support “processes and structures that will promote UMRA's organizational continuity."
The Organizational Continuity Committee’s membership is to include a historian who "encourages and supports efforts to update UMRA’s history and facilitates publishing of occasional articles (e.g., for the UMRA News or JOIE) on the organization’s past." We seek an UMRA member to take on this role.
At present, our written history covers only the first seven years of UMRA’s existence, from 1976 to 1983. Please consider helping UMRA begin filling in the nearly four decades since then, whether in the role of historian or as part of a team working with him or her. (New special interest group, anyone?)
If the project becomes a team effort, there would be many pieces a volunteer might take on, such as collecting photos or researching a particular time period or UMRA project. Someone with an entrepreneurial bent might put together a proposal for a Professional Development Grant for Retirees to hire a student to scan old newsletters, board minutes, and other key documents from our archives and add them to our online collections (which currently go back only to 2004).
Although experience is helpful, interest is far more crucial; the volunteer(s) we seek need not have any academic background in history. If you would like to learn more, or if you know someone we should contact, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected].
—Jerry Rinehart and Chip Peterson, co-chairs, UMRA Organizational Continuity Committee
News
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The election of UMRA officers and new board members for 2024–25 will be conducted via an online poll from May 13 to 19, with the results to be announced at our annual meeting on May 21. Look for the ballot in your email inbox on May 13. Diane Young has been nominated to be president-elect.
“I convinced myself I could handle this problem without support groups or doing additional research, but that’s only because I didn’t want to make it any more real than it already was. Denial comes in many forms, and one is to avoid thinking about the problem any more than need be.” —Alice A. Larson
Meet UMRA member Peter Moe. He retired in 2023 after a career that spanned nearly half a century at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, and is credited with developing the “Arb” into one of the few in the U.S. with world-class fruit and landscape breeding programs.
The University Retirees Volunteer Center (URVC) has welcomed two new members with valuable skills and experience to the URVC Leadership Council: Lynn Slifer and Jeanne Jacobson.
The University plans to remove retirees from the @umn.edu internet identity domain on December 7. UMRA has advocated for ensuring continued access to this identity (including email, Google Workspace, and associated services), citing University retirees’ enduring contributions to and engagement with the University. Thus far, our efforts have not prompted any change of plans.
Leading the online Journal of Opinions, Ideas & Essays has been a labor of love for Kris Bettin. Alas, a change in family needs has necessitated her retirement. So, JOIE is seeking a new leader to join a savvy editorial committee of five and bring fresh ideas for continued development of the UMRA-sponsored journal.
If you’re looking for an opportunity to explore your photographic interests, hone your photographic skills, and hear what other retirees are up to, the UMRA Photo Club is a great place to be. We have fun! And whatever your skill level, there is room for everybody.
Soon you will receive an email or letter inviting you to renew your UMRA membership for the 2024–25 year. Please renew before you get busy with your summer activities. Your support helps to make our programs and many other member benefits possible!
This will be a new regular column where you can find organizational tasks that need your help! We are currently looking for help researching a new UMRA Membership Database and URVC volunteer database, and a co-producer for UMRA's Zoom webinars. See more details: