» President's Report

As the month of February draws to a close, we can allow ourselves to dream of spring and summer, seasons during which we can experience all of nature’s beauty and witness the growth process, which yields delicious produce and beautiful flowers. As we commune with nature, we can also reminisce about our years as teachers and administrators where we helped many young people grow and mature. We remember those twinkling eyes and broad smiles as our students learned, discovered and solved many challenges that we, as teachers presented to them.

Some of my fondest memories in life date back to my years in the public school system. i still am amazed at how my grade twelve teacher, a young nun, could teach a poem and really have every student appreciate its literary beauty and message. The same teacher for all grade twelve subjects would then lead us to Brink’s textbook “A First Year of college Mathematics,” where solving Math problems was a challenge, but fun. Being extremely versatile, this same person, who was also principal of this four room high school, jumped from subject to subject forever mastering each and always making us thirst for more knowledge, learn more skills, develop our minds to enjoy and learn more. And, so it was with all my teachers, from grades one to twelve. i was fortunate to have always been entrusted to people who loved their students, vicariously shared their learning adventures and forever challenged them to surpass themselves, to prepare for the future and to become contributing members of our society. While not all students have experienced a similar positive experience, the great majority has and is very thankful for it.

We all meet former students who immediately inquire about whether we remember them in grade two or in high school chemistry. if time permits, they go on and reminisce about a certain incident very important to them, be it comical or very serious. They still remember you fondly, their teacher, and often thank you for having made such an important contribution to their life.

Readers must be wondering by now what this message is all about. The answer is simple and factual. We must shed our humility and really stop to grasp the impact that we had on so many lives and on the role we played in the transformation of young people and society in general, producing well rounded citizens and parents. These facts we must not let society forget. We have all contributed to creating better citizens of a prosperous nation.

Sometimes, we wonder about the worth of all this energy, this effort and the fortitude to carry on. Sometimes we are faced with many odds and obstacles on our pathway. We were determined to be true professionals and generally speaking we were, rising above the call of duty. As we live our retirement years, we cannot and must not stop to claim what is rightfully ours in society.

Pension-wise, retired teachers should be treated with dignity and equity as all seniors should. Moreover, we deserve justice and fairness as we compare our pension with retired civil servants who receive a better cost of living allowance (colA) than we do. Such is the case when comparing with retired teachers in other provinces. We applaud their treatment and believe they earned it. So then, why treat Manitoba retired teachers differently? Why are those who are able to help us, forgetting us? This question is of utmost importance, a principle that must be addressed.

on october 4, 2011, we will be electing MlAs who will be responsible for government direction until 2015. it behooves us to make certain that all future MlAs understand the present unjust situation and commit to long term funding regarding a proper colA. our Political Action committee is presently training RTAM members throughout our province to meet with MlAs and then with all political candidates to inform them of our plight, our unequal treatment in comparison to other similar groups. This is not an invitation to vote for a certain political party. This is responding to the challenge of providing facts to all candidates and the public at large so that they may understand that some of our members really are experiencing great difficulties in making ends meet and how all of us are faced with this unequal treatment. other political action is also planned and we will share these with our membership in kiT, on our website, by e-mail or through other media.

The election also provides us with the opportunity of advancing the plight of seniors in general. our numbers are growing and yes, we possibly contribute to the province’s heavy financial burdens in health care, but ways must be found to make wellness for senior citizens a priority or the costs will be greater yet.

Your Board is continuing its work in all areas and our standing committees are certainly not idle. Membership in any group is of crucial importance. numbers draw more attention and provide still more credibility to a group. A Power Point Presentation describing the goals, purposes, benefits and challenges of our organization has been approved by the Board and also, brochures should be available shortly. Please consult our website weekly so that you may be informed as to the date of the availability of the above. Please join us in recruiting new members by informing retirees about us and our benefits and challenges. Hopefully, all 2011 retirees will join our ranks and see us easily surpassing the 8,000 member mark.

our 2011 AgM will be held in Steinbach on May 10 and 11. Please come and enjoy the Steinbach hospitality and help choose the priorities for the coming year. Moreover, we are hoping that many of you will seriously consider letting your name stand for election. This is a great opportunity to learn and serve.

in conclusion, i wish all of you a pleasant and relaxing summer. May we all walk with pride, cognizant of our many contributions. May we walk with heads held high for we have prepared many productive citizens! May we remember that at no time are we ever a burden on society for we have helped build it and we are now passing the torch to the next generation empowering each member to leave his/her mark on society as we have during 20, 30, 40, and even 45 years of service! now we cannot rest for there are still so many experiences to enjoy and adventures to undertake.

Richard Benoit