President's report archive

This is my 2nd Annual Report as President of UMRA. Selected highlights of the past year’s activities are provided below:

Again this past year UMRA members have been among the most active users of the services provided by CURAC. The UMRA Executive in turn benefits from credits accruing to its members' participation in CURAC's services.

Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) is an annual competition where challengers (graduate students in thesis based programs) have three minutes to explain their research and its importance or relevance, using only a single static image or slide to illustrate their topic. At this year’s final competition, which was held on March 30, 2023, Vice-President, Mark O’Riley and I attended the competition to present the 2nd prize award which is sponsored by UMRA. The UMRA 2nd prize is valued at $1250.00. The Executive committee approved a further donation of $1,000.00 to both the UMRA bursary fund and the UMRA scholarship fund.

I attended the College and University Retiree Associations of Canada (CURAC) Annual General Meeting and Conference in Saskatoon on May 31 to June 2, 2023. This year is CURAC’s 20th anniversary and UMRA is one of the founding members of CURAC.

A number of updates were made to the UMRA website to include links to valuable information and workshops that might be of interest to retirees. Meetings with Johnson Insurance continue with the goal of finding or developing a viable benefits plan for retirees who have reached 75 years of age and must find another benefits plan and/or any retiree who wishes to find a plan that provides improved benefits.

The UMRA Executive Committee adopted a new Awards by-law to recognize a Member’s years of service on UMRA committees. The new Service Award, which is retroactive to the inception of UMRA in 2003, is to be conferred at five, ten and fifteen years of service. In addition, an Award of Merit was adopted to recognize an individual who has provided exemplary service to UMRA. Recipients of the Service Award and Award of Merit will receive a certificate and a monetary gift card. The awards are being presented for the first time at the 2023 Fall President’s reception. This year is also UMRA 20th anniversary. At the 2023 fall President’s Reception on September 30, 2023, a number of special activities are planned to celebrate this milestone.

Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to the members of UMRA Executive Committee and members of other UMRA committees for all their work on the respective committees this past year. A special thanks goes out to the individuals involved in planning and organizing UMRA’s 20th anniversary celebrations and presentation of the new volunteer awards.

Janet Sealey, President

This is my first Annual Report as President of UMRA. Highlights of this past year are provided below.

One of the major undertakings this past year has been the updating of our website information and move to the new Drupal platform. In November, I joined the UMRA representatives on the joint U of M committee to assist with the process. In addition to the U of M staff assigned to this project, I want to express my sincere thanks to Janice Mann and Gene Walz of the UMRA Communication Committee for leading the charge on this huge task including Mark O’Riley and Dan Sitar. While we hope to have the new website up by the end of September, further modifications may be necessary as we navigate this new and improved website.

With the help and support of the UMRA Executive Committee, we were successful in Ed Unrau’s nomination for a CURAC/ARUCC Tribute Award. Ed’s exceptional contributions to UMRA make him most deserving of this award.
On becoming the UMRA President, one of my agenda items was to raise the profile of UMRA. To date, some of the initiatives in this regard has been to have a personal letter signed by me attached to each UMRA membership application inviting retirees to join the association. In addition, both AESES and UMFA agreed to place an article in their newsletter/communication emails highlighting the benefits of joining UMRA. I am also looking to develop an awards program to recognize volunteers who have provided dedicated service to the association.

In 2016-2017, under the presidency of Ed Unrau, the UMRA Executive approved a resolution to fund the second prize in the annual Three-Minute Thesis completion which is held every spring and is organized by the Faculty of Graduate Studies for students in thesis based programs. At that time the second prize was valued at $500 and the Faculty of Graduate Studies agreed to the prize being called the University of Manitoba Retirees Association for Second Prize. This year, the Executive Committee agreed to fund the total prize which now has a value of $1250.00. Going forward, the name of the prize will remain the same and UMRA will be invited to present the award at the final competition ceremony.

Through two major fund raising initiatives by the U of M for the period of April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022, the UMRA Bursary and Scholarship funds were increased respectively by $4980.00 and $4866.00. Thank you so much to those who contributed to these funds in the recent fund raising campaigns and in past initiatives. Once again this demonstrates the continuing support that retirees are providing to the university.

Finally, I extend my sincere thanks to the members of UMRA Executive Committee and the members of other UMRA committees for all their work on the respective committees and for helping to guide me in my new role as President by offering their knowledge and expertise in the affairs of the association.

Janet Sealey, President