UC San Diego Retirement Association Report
April 2021 Report
Submitted by Mae Brown, UCSD Retirement Association President and Representative to CUCRA
The UC San Diego Retirement Association continues its active roles, both as a stand-alone organization and in close partnership with the UC San Diego Emeriti Association. The two organizations share facilities in the UCSD Retirement Resource Center under the able direction of Suzan Cioffi. All events have continued online since March 2020, due to the pandemic.
Membership of the UC San Diego Retirement Association decreased this year to 2,400, but it remains by far the largest in the UC system. Dues for annual and life memberships remain at $30 and $300, respectively.
The Retirement Association Gazette, the organization's newsletter, is published nine times each year and is a 12-page, full-color newsletter format, with the Fall issue including a six-page section of year-long programs. The Gazette contents include details about upcoming activities, requests for volunteers, a Presiden's Message, and a calendar of events. The UCSD Retirement Association Gazette moved entirely online this year. The RA also publishes a weekly events calendar email "Next Week/+ at the UCSD Retirement Association", listing all RA Zoom events for the coming two weeks, with relevant time/RSVP details. Members are required to RSVP online to receive the Zoom event link.
The Retirement Association offers three list-serv choices; one for all campus flyers plus RA and benefits news, one for UCSD-RA and benefits news, and the third limited to the electronic distribution of the Gazette and Next Week.
The UC San Diego RA has a large group of active volunteers who typically contribute more than 1,000 hours so far this year. This year we offered several virtual volunteer events: CSP Networking nights, mentoring opportunities, drive-by food drives, a Marine Holiday Toy Drive and knitting of NICU Preemie caps. The volunteer Board and Committee members provide approximately 2,000 hours of volunteer service time to various meetings throughout the year. Total RA volunteer hours exceed 5,000 this past year.
The Membership Committee has hosted two virtual Meet the RA Board events, one in fall and one in spring.
The Program Committee organizes numerous activities annually which this year have all gone virtual, including community and campus tours, educational seminars (aging and financial topics, distinguished lecture series, healthy living and eating lectures and food demos. In addition, there are several annual events that members look forward to which are all now being reimagined in the virtual world). Program offerings still range from 15 to 20 each month! An online RSVP system generates a confirmation email to each registrant, and a roster of event attendees for check in and for sending the Zoom link. It has greatly streamlined our event administration.
The amount that the UCSD Retirement Association contributes to the Chancellor's Scholarship fund is $7500 annually and it makes a $1,000 award to Nursing / Health Sciences, and an additional $900 sponsorship to the UCSD International Center to support study-abroad scholarships. The recipients of these funds attend virtual luncheons to accept the awards.
Several UCSD Retirement Association members are actively involved as mentors with the Emeriti Mentor Program. This program provides mentoring to some 80 freshmen and sophomore Chancellor's Scholars, and 80 upper division scholars. Mentoring is continuing via Zoom.