President's Report 

Wayne Hughes

The 2012 – 2013 Board year is well underway. Our committees are meeting and working on a wide variety of issues. Two broad themes are apparent: reaching out to our members to meet their needs and improving our communicaton with our members. 1. Many members asked us to look at and improve the website. Over the past few months, we have been working with a web designer to improve the look and appearance of the website. By the time you are reading this, you should be able to view the “new” web site at www.rtam.mb.ca. Members should find it easier to navigate the website and chapters will now be able to make announcements of their upcoming events. 2. TRAF (the people who administer your pensions) have generously agreed to allow us access to their new bulk e-mail system. They are currently testing their new system and should be contacting us in November, if all goes well. We are quite excited by the possibilities of communicating with our members across the province as well as those in other areas of Canada and the world. 3. The Membership and Chapter Committee is putting the finishing touches on a new “Chapter Initiative Grant.” Chapters often have good ideas to better serve their members but lack some financial resources to implement the idea. Stay tuned to the website and e-mail for more information on this initiative. 4. The Benefits Committee is working hard on reviewing the many plans we have with Johnson Inc. Our office is very busy receiving calls and distributing information on the many plans. 5. The Board has approved extending our office hours. We are now open Tuesday to Thursday from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We are also looking for a person(s) to work Monday and Friday mornings. Our new office is working well and has considerable “drop–in” traffic in addition to phone calls. The positive comments of members are a tribute to our Executive Assistant’s knowledge of RTAM plans as well as her superb interpersonal skills. Thank you Carol. 6. Vice President Barbara McDole has agreed to write a summary/highlights of Board meetings. These highlights will be used in KIT, on the website and as part of the email data base. We are very pleased to have a new relationship with the Winnipeg Minor Hockey Association. Don’t worry . . . we are not forming a retired teachers’ hockey team! To accomplish all of the above projects, we have a lot of meetings. While we still use the Manitoba Teachers’ Society building and our new office area, we were not able to accommodate all the requests. In addition, MTS has recently scheduled many PD events that conflicted with many of the dates of our meetings. We were extremely pleased to make contact with the Hockey Association, since they are located in the same building as our office and they have a Board Room that is frequently available during the day. In addition, they allow us to use the room in exchange for a very low key suggestion of a donation to one of their bursary programs to help kids play hockey. Talk about a ‘win-win” situation. Thank you Winnipeg Hockey. Finally, by the time you receive your Winter Kit, we will all be thinking of the Holiday Season. Please allow me, on behalf of the RTAM Board of Directors, to wish you and your family a joyous holiday as well as a Happy New Year.

ACER-CART

By Vaughn Wadelius

At the British Columbia Retired Teachers' Association (BCRTA) annual general meeting in Vancouver, September 2012, Saskatchewan and Manitoba were among the five western region ACER-CART Directors who attended.