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. Even better, go right now to umra.umn.edu > Member Portal > Renew Membership and renew. 

UMRA is an all-volunteer organization that depends on membership dues. If we get all our renewals by the July 1 start of UMRA’s fiscal year, we’ll know what financial resources we’ll have to work with next year. 

UMRA is all about opportunities to engage and serve each other, and this past year we offered a lot of them: 

• Six in-person luncheon forums and two virtual forums with talks by prominent public figures, including Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and PBS correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro

• Eight living well workshops featuring expert advice on topics including hearing loss, knee issues, and therapeutic approaches to aging

• A well-attended summer social at Como Park, a lovely autumn boat ride on the Mississippi River, and a fun winter party with music by Twin Cities entertainers Dane Stauffer and Dan Chouinard

• Interest groups for connecting with others to read, hike, take pictures, or learn about family history, travel, and financial issues 

• Meaningful ways to volunteer through the University Retirees Volunteer Center and the Silver Gopher Service Corps

• Grants for research and professional development, with nine recipients this year 

• An eclectic eJournal full of general interest articles and videos produced primarily by UMRA members

I hope you’ll support UMRA by renewing your membership for the coming year. Your support helps to make our programs and many other member benefits possible!

—Eric Hockert, UMRA president