President’s Report

Last year, I reported around the themes of 1) communication with members; 2) services for members and 3) the evolving maturity of our organization. It is interesting that these themes have continued for the past year.

I will briefly outline our activities under these headings:

1) Communications with Members

a. Website: We have continued to work with our webmaster to make

the website interesting, responsive and easy to use. b. KIT: Our KIT has seen major changes in appearance by going to a full color presentation and using a different printing company. All these changes were accomplished at the same price as we were previously paying. c. RTAM’s 25th Anniversary: This year we are celebrating the 25th year of our formation. We have evolved from the original 116 members attending the inaugural meeting to now approaching 9000 members. In celebration of our 25th we are mailing out two small momentos to each member with the Summer KIT. We have also invited all Past Presidents

Wayne Hughes

to attend this AGM to help us celebrate our 25th year.

2) Services for Members

a. Our Administrative Assistant, Carol Gillis, has obtained her licence as a Commissioner for Oaths within the province of Manitoba. This free service is available, by appointment, for all RTAM members.

b. We welcome Grace Reimer to our office staff. We are now open five days a week from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. c. Renewal of Benefit Plans: All our benefit plans require annual review by our Benefits Committee to ensure that we receive good value for our premium dollars. This involves extensive consultations with Johnson Inc., who serve us very well. Although we were able to maintain all our plans with no premium increases last year, it probably comes as no surprise that we have some modest premium increases this year. (see Benefit Committee report) d. Our Chapter Initiative Grant continues to be very popular with our membership. We are planning to continue this initiative. e. Post-Secondary Awards: The Educational Advocacy Committee started their year very early after last year’s AGM. They began their meetings in July and August in order to be ready to give the awards in September. The response was very encouraging which resulted in moving forward with the establishment of an Endowment Fund with the Winnipeg Foundation f. Eldercare Pilot Project:We were able to finalize a 15-month pilot project with First Health Care for all RTAM members participating in the Extended Health Care Plan. The costs for the project are being covered by Johnson Inc. While EHC Plan members are receiving these services with no increase in premium, they are being asked for extensive feedback so we

can evaluate the program and determine if it should be offered to some

or all our plan members. We are looking forward to the evaluation of this service.

3) Evolving Maturity as an Organization a. Office Facilities:Our office has followed the “Build It and They Will Come” approach. The office became too small for the many meetings and activities with