UC Davis Retirees' Association
October 2020 Report
Submited by: Mike Chandler, President, UC Davis Retirees' Association
Membership: Currently we have 953 paid members and more than 10,000 retirees from UCDavis. However, as we are sure most all Associations do, we advocate for all retirees by providing services to paid members as well as retirees.
Association Activities: We, as everyone else, have been hit hard by COVID. However, we continue to have Brain Food Sessions, special offerings, retiree receptions, as well as Association Executive meeting, all via Zoom and monthly newsletters.
Benefits of Membership: Member benefits include noon educations seminars (Brain Food Talks) members-only tours of campus, discounts on events and trips, and complimentary course credit equivalent to a paid OLLI membership, which is a UCDH continuing educational program.
Parking: Both members and non-members have enjoyed free parking at UCDavis for many years. Our current free parking arrangement will expire this June. However, our new Provost, Mary Croughan, has assured us that she will fund the retiree free parking program when the current period ends this June.
Status of Retirement Center: The Center is currently closed due to the COVID. However, our telephone lines and email systems are open and we continue to serve all retirees. Our Director is Kyle Urban. Kyle and his staff remain very busy supporting our Association and responding to retirees questions.
Biannual Meetings with Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor: In partnership with the Emeriti Association, we had our second, twice-yearly meeting with the Chancellor, Provost and Vice Chancellor of Development and Alumni Relations. During the meeting we provided association updates and discussed recent challenges regarding retiree benefits and other topics during the COVID period.
Picnic Day Retiree Honoree: This past April, the Davis campus was forces to cancel our annual Picnic Day Event, which typically is a campus wide open house that attracts over 50,000+ visitors. This year's honoree was Calvin Handy, Police Chief Emeritus. However, Chief Handy will be our honored guest this coming year and hopefully the event will not be cancelled.
Fall Joint Meeting with Emeriti Association: The UC Davis Retirees' Association has long enjoyed a very cooperative and supportive relationship with our Emeriti Association. We hosted our annual joint Fall Meeting on October 15th. This meeting included a presentation by Dana Allen, Assistant VC of Alumni Relations and Affiliate Relation, as well as a health benefits update provided by Guerren Solbach.
RASC and Death Benefit Processing: As many of are aware, the RASC has improved their response times. We continue to help our retirees with benefits issues by working with the retiree and RASC.
Health Benefits: We are proud of our Immediate Past President John Meyer who has served as chair of the UC System Benefits Committee to make sure that we have the very best health benefits possible.