JOIE is up and running
UMRA’s Journal of Opinions, Ideas & Essays, newly relaunched, has published four articles so far in 2021. The most recent, “Impact of UMRA’s Professional Development Grants for Retirees Program” by Will Craig, is a more detailed version of an article featured in the August 2020 UMRA News.
The abstract says in part: This article is based on surveys of 38 individuals who received grants from 2014–20. It documents the wide range of projects they undertook and the impact those projects had on those individuals and society. Results have improved individual lives, societal understanding, environmental quality, the reputation of the University of Minnesota, and the personal satisfaction of the retired grantee.
Another article, “Poems and Photographs: Midwestern Hobbies Align,” is about the poems of my Great Aunt Mary Anderson. The abstract explains: An avid reader, I have found solace in Mary’s gentle, insightful, and soothing poems. Mary wrote these poems during the 1920s and 1930s, when the world was facing overwhelming problems, as we are today. Barely aware of her existence, I was delighted to recently find that my great-aunt had composed nearly 60 poems and I began transcribing them into a collection to be shared with my cousins. I added some of my own nature photographs, hoping an even wider audience might enjoy the piece.
Please contact Kris Bettin at [email protected] if you have an article you would like to submit for publication.
—Kristine M. Bettin, JOIE editor-in-chief
News
UMRA hosted delegates from 14 of the 18 schools in the Big Ten for the 2026 Big Ten Retirees Association conference in July. It was described as “the perfect collaboration” by two delegates we invited to share a few of their key takeaways from the conference.
Developing communication skills is the focus of two programs needing volunteers this fall: the “Reader/Writer Program,” assisting students in Minneapolis Public Schools grades 7-12 to develop literacy skills; and “Partners in English,” engaging in conversation with adults for whom English is not their first language.
After being unexpectedly sidelined at the outset of her retirement, Pam Snopl now enjoys doing many of the things retirees get to do, including reconnecting in person with family and friends, going to museums and weekday Minnesota Twins games, reading, and writing.
UMRA member George Swan retired in 2021 after 30+ years at University Libraries, but still returns to campus to visit one or another of the libraries at least twice a week in his current role as a student/retiree.
UMRA’s Professional Development Grants for Retirees program is an annual competition for grants to support projects related to retirees’ research, instructional history, new scholarly or creative interests.
UMRA needs everyone to renew their membership for the coming year. Thank you if you’ve already renewed! If you haven’t, please renew right away.