We are very fortunate that George Diehr, our
colleague from California State University, San
Marcos, will be guest speaker during the morning
session of the State Council meeting on April
28. He will speak from the perspective of Chair
of the Health Benefits Committee as well as a
leading member of the CalPERS Board. After his
customary informative presentation, he will be
available for questions and answers from Council
members. Hopefully he will be able to remain
for lunch and further discussion.
Bob Maurer of California
State University,
Chico, who was for
six years
President of
CSU-ERFA, has served as President of the
CSU-ERFA Charitable Foundation since it was
formed in 2001. In November he received notice
from the United States Internal Revenue Service
that,
having completed
its initial
trial period, the Foundation will continue to be
classified as
a
"public charity" rather
than as a "private foundation" and that the
Foundation will
therefore
continue to be
classified as an organization exempt from
federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of
the
IRS
Code..
The Foundation, which was
in large part the inspiration of Max Norton of
California
State University, Stanislaus, has for the past four years
been able to support the Grant Awards Program of
CSU-ERFA. That program funds research grants
ranging up to a few thousand dollars to CSU-ERFA
members, especially those engaged in research
with impact
on senior citizens.
The CSU-ERFA Grant Awards Committee
chaired by Max
Norton is currently reviewing grant proposals.
It is expected that our "charity status" will
eventually make possible greater amounts for
larger projects. Bob and Max have
discussed plans to expand Foundation activities
someday to gerontology projects involving
non-retired faculty and their students,
as well as retirees.
Milt Dobkin from Humboldt
State University, one of the earliest presidents
of CSU-ERFA, has since
then been
at first
co-chair
of our
Health Benefits Committee
with Wilma Krebs of CSU Sacramento and then
chair when Wilma decided to focus her efforts on
government affairs. Thus he has been
our mainstay in
monitoring and influencing health programs that
affect all faculty including, of course, retired
faculty. He was justly honored on November 14
by the Public Employees Retirement Board and its
Health Benefits Committee and staff for his
persistent and creative leadership in
maintaining an HMO option in rural counties.
Blue Shield’s expansion plan in Humboldt County was approved that day. The Blue Shield
decision reversed a trend of HMO retreats from
rural counties, with its representatives giving
Milt major credit for their welcome decision.
Of special concern to Milt and the busy Health
Benefits Committee that he chairs is CalPERS
implementation of the increases in premiums for
the Long Term Care Insurance program. This will
be a major topic of his report at the State
Council meeting in April. He will also discuss
the impact of significant staffing changes at
CalPERS.
The
California legislature is relatively
quiet at present, but this will have changed by
April 28 when the CSU-ERFA State Council meets
in Los
Angeles. The media are
currently peppered with articles about problems
in public retirement systems throughout the
country, most of them much less secure that that
from which CSU faculty benefit. Bob Bess
of California State
University, Sacramento,
and his legislative
taskforce will be busy monitoring any future
threats to CalPERS. Fortunately none have
surfaced at this point, and CalPERS is making
significant progress addressing future funding
issues and encouraging cost containment. Bob
will also quite likely
also be
reporting on bills in Congress regarding tax
implications of social security benefits and
Medicare drug prices.
At this point it appears that health
benefits will trump legislation as a topic
of interest and concern for the spring
meeting of the State Council as well as the
year ahead. This makes it especially
fortunate that we will hear from George
Diehr as well as Milt Dobkin.
Voting will be a major
activity of the April meeting. Election of
officers and at large delegates and confirmation
of committee chairs and members will assume its
usual importance in the spring meeting. Less
routine will be the review of extensive
amendments of the CSU-ERFA bylaws, submitted by
an ad hoc committee chaired by Bob Maurer and
supported
by the Executive
Committee.
