Renew your UMRA membership
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
News
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: