RAPS Annual Report
History Preservation Committee
NW Retirement Associations Committee
The 2005-2006 year of RAPS is rapidly coming to a close. This is
a report of the highlights of the year. The Board began with
clear objectives; we have achieved some of them, made significant
progress on others, and made little headway on others. As usual,
there is still work left for the next Board!
A core function of RAPS is publication of our monthly news letter
during the academic year. John Cooper is the editor of The RAPS Sheet
and does a fabulous job. He hasn't missed an edition, and writing
and grammar are his strengths. He not only edits submissions,
but solicits articles on travel, writes articles about active
retirees after interviewing them, and formats the newsletters.
The RAPS Sheet helps keep our members informed about RAPS events,
Board decision and activities, news about fellow retirees, and
a host of other interesting information. Other organizations have
given us positive feedback about our newsletters and we know that
our members read it!
One of the major activities of RAPS year after year is the monthly
program events. President-Elect Bruce Stern planned excellent
events this year, including extras such as free tickets to a
PSU football game and seeing an exhibit at the Portland Art Museum.
A big thanks goes to Ken Brown, President/CEO of the PSU Bookstore
for providing gift certificates for our speakers. He has agreed to
continue the practice for next year.
In my absence, it was reported to me that the luncheon for
retired faculty and staff sponsored by the President's Office
was a wonderful event. President Bernstine, Provost Roy Koch,
and others from the administration talked about the state of
the University. A highlight was honoring Barry Anderson, Brent Shauer,
and Robert Vogelsang with outstanding retired faculty and staff
awards from RAPS.
Members regularly participate in the informal small activity groups-
Bridge Group, Hiking Group, and the Book Club. We will continue
these activities, and are surveying the membership to determine
if other small groups would be of interest to our members.
Significant progress was made on encouraging the University community
to preserve and celebrate its history throughout the university
departments, programs, and offices. This effort was spearheaded by
Steve Brannan, Chair of the History Preservation/Celebration Committee.
He was ably assisted by committee members, Roger Moseley and
Gordon Solie, and other RAPS members were actively involved in
these efforts. It should be noted that headway has been made in
the Graduate School of Education and the Music Department
(led by Gordon) as well as in other academic units. RAPS is also
involved in a project to celebrate the history and culture
of Portland State through the proposed PSU Pictorial History Book.
We are coordinating the efforts for this book by chairing an
advisory committee and managing a PSU Foundation account for
the project. The Board has approved a motion to support the project
in concept and will consider providing some funding for the production
costs of the book.
The RAPS website in now in working order thanks to Robert Pearson,
an at-large Board member, who has assumed the role of Webmaster.
It continuously needs to be updated and fortunately, Bob has
volunteered to continue the management of our Website in
2006-2007 (www.raps.pdx.edu).
One of our perpetual goals is to increase RAPS membership. We are
informing new retirees about RAPS by providing free membership
for a year as an incentive to join our organization. The feedback
to us has been positive. We also have implemented a plan for retention
of members and recruitment of former members through personal contacts.
Sometimes, we lose track of retirees because of their busy lives
that often involves travel, relocation, etc., but we are working on it.
This year, we have worked on making the information in our data base
more complete and have requested more information in our membership
renewal forms.
During this year, we accomplished a revision of our by-laws. The most
significant changes were adding and modifying RAPS objectives to reflect
more accurately our mission(s), making the History Preservation/ Celebration
Committee a standing committee, and adding the Webmaster position to the
Board.
Through Robert Vogelsang's leadership, we continue our interactions with
other higher education retirement organizations. Vic and Beryl Dahl
represented RAPS at the University of Washington Fall Festival. Throughout
the year, we also worked with the President's Office, the Office of
Academic Affairs, the Library, and various academic Departments and
Programs on the PSU history preservation and PSU Pictorial History Book
projects. This year, we collaborated with OASIS to sponsor a discussion
group following the World Affairs Council Lecture series held on the
PSU campus.
No report would be complete without thanking the Board and Committees
for their efforts: Some potential projects for next year include: This has been a wonderful year for me as President of RAPS. I look
forward to another year on the Board as it is led by Bruce Sterns
as President and ably assisted by Darshana Patel our Office Manager.
Thank you for your support throughout the year!
This report is based on a Fund Balance and Income Statement,
provided by the PSU Foundation, for the period ending May 30, 2006.
For fiscal year July 1, 2005 - May 30, 2006 RAPS expenditures
exceeded income by $2,784.79. The major expense was our share
of a Graduate Assistant provided last summer to assist in the
PSU History Project. In addition, the Christmas Party expenses
exceeded income by $956.66, contributing to the deficit.
Sept. 15, 2005 - 1:30 pm Sept. 24, 2005 - 6:00 pm Oct. 20, 2005 - 1:00 pm Nov. 17, 2005 - 1:00 pm November 3, 2005 - 1:30 pm Dec. 14, 2005 - 6:00 pm Jan. 5, 2006 - 1:00 pm Feb. 16, 2006 - 1:00 pm Mar. 22, 2006 - 12:00 Noon Apr. 20, 2006 - 12:00 Noon, University Place May 18, 2006 - 1:00 pm, University Place
The RAPS Sheet, as has become traditional, was published monthly
during the academic year and distributed to all RAPS members,
more frequently than the RAPS by-laws require. In order to give
the maximum advanced notice for RAPS programs and activities, it
was mailed out as close to the beginning of each month as possible.
This policy was complicated by the announcement by the printer,
Clean Copy, that qthey needed more than the traditional two days
between getting copy and returning the printed newsletter
to the RAPS office. The Board voted therefore to have an earlier
deadline for the submission of copy. This seemed not to be
a problem for most regular contributors, though it might delay
the publishing of some obituaries.
In the past, there has been no issue between the June and
September issues. This meeting will decide if there should be a
summer issue to include year-end reports to RAPS members.
This report should acknowledge the excellent work by the
Office Manager in proofreading copy and getting The RAPS Sheet
in the mail in a timely manner.
The Awards Committee included Robert Tufts (staff
representative), Richard Brinkman (Past President of RAPS)
and Maxine Thomas, prior member of Awards Committee.
The Committee met regularly BEFORE the University President's
luncheon to accomplish the following:
-to publicize nominations for the awards through announcements
in RAPS newsletter, a separate mailing and in e-mails to
members having an e-mail address.
-to discuss the Nomination Form that asks for nominees
to have contributed in three of the four areas;
contributions to the University, contributions to the community,
contributions to the profession and/or contributions to RAPS.
We also identified deadlines that would give adequate time
for members to respond and adequate time for the committee
to have the awards engraved.
-when having the awards engraved it was important to make sure
the wording on the plaques reflected whether it is a "faculty"
award or a "staff" award and in which of the three categories
the nominee had contributed.
-to obtain letters of support which confirm the contributions
of the nominee in the three categories.
-identify & invite persons to read the accolades of the nominees
and provide them with the letters of recommendation to assist
them in their presentation.
Recommendations:
Consider changing the Nomination Form to read that letters
of recommendation be REQUIRED rather than ENCOURAGED.
A staff representative to the committee needs to be appointed
by the President since Robert Tufts is the incoming President-Elect.
The 2006-2007 committee needs to follow up with the nomination
of Judah Bierman who was nominated by Stanley Johnson.
Because the nomination was made late and there were no letters
of recommendation included, the committee informed
Stanley Johnson that he would be considered in the next year.
Elections Committee Members: After much deliberation and after viewing several other
well-qualified candidates the Committee voted, unanimously,
to nominate Roberts Tufts for the office of President Elect.
The membership of RAPS voted and concurred with our nomination.
Robert brings to the office an outstanding resume and we
look forward to his joining the RAPS Board, in his capacity
as President Elect for the year 2006-07.
Larry Sawyer agreed to again serve in his capacity as Secretary.
Given his excellent past record, the Elections Committee
had no problem in submitting his nomination to the RAPS
Membership. The membership of RAPS concurred and voted in
support of his nomination. Similarly, given his past record
as Treasurer, and his willingness to again serve in the
same capacity, the Committee also nominated Robert Lockerby
as Treasurer. The nomination was supported by the voting of
the RAPS Membership. The vote by the Committee was, of course,
unanimous for both nominees.
A proposal for the PSU Pictorial History Book ("Coffee Table Book")
was brought to RAPS by Charlie White in Winter, 2005.
Charlie came back in October, 2005 with a budget and plans
for publication. RAPS expressed interest in this project because
it is in line with the RAPS objective to preserve history.
RAPS agreed to open an account for the project with the
PSU Foundation. RAPS will manage the account but is
not responsible for fundraising. RAPS also agreed to manage
this advisory committee. RAPS has approved, in concept, the
contribution of $2500 but has held off the formal approval of
the contribution until the book plans have been solidified.
A group of RAPS representatives met with President Bernstine
and other PSU administrators to discuss this project.
The group agreed it was a worthwhile endeavor and that the
University Relations Office would be available to consult
on marketing and fundraising.
Fundraising is being coordinated by Charlie White. The goal is
to raise funds to cover all the expenses estimated to be
$36,000. He has raised approximately $11,000 to date. A letter
was sent to RAPS members seeking contributions.All profits
are to be distributed to the university organizations
(including RAPS and potentially, Friends of History,
Friends of the Library, and Alumni Association) that
contributed to the project.
The plan is to produce approximately 3,000 copies of a
150-page book. The author of the text is Richard Sanders
with assistance from Brent Schauer on locating and
selecting photos. The ratio of print to pictures is
to be 1:3. The layout, design, typesetting, and scans
are to be done by Ooligan Press which uses PSU students
in its productions. A marketing plan is being developed
by the committee. Ideas include selling the book to
the public through the PSU Bookstore and the Oregon
Historical Society and advertising through the RAPS Sheet
and the PSU Magazine. Target consumers include alumni,
students, parents, retired faculty and staff, and a
gift book to be used by PSU development efforts.
The committee is serving as advisors for the content
of the book. Departments across campus have been asked
for relevant photos. It is currently planned that the
PSU history be presented in the five following eras: The committee has discussed alternatives for the format
of the book , e.g., hard cover or soft cover, color plates,
duo-tone, number of pages.
The committee will continue in its advisory role with a
focus on book content, format, and marketing. It is planned
that the book will be published in 2007.
History Committee Members: The RAPS History Committee has spent considerable time
this year promoting history preservation for the university
with the administration and with various academic units
campus-wide. Committee and Board efforts have also resulted
in the creation of a RAPS History Preservation/Celebration
Committee, a standing committee which was approved earlier
by the Board and more recently by the membership.
As you will recall, in 2004, President Bernstine endorsed the
RAPS proposal to create "A Culture of Tradition" at Portland
State that would promote history preservation and celebration
activities in all units (academic and nonacademic) campus-wide.
Subsequently, Michael Reardon as Interim Provost spearheaded
the hiring of a consultant, Geoff Wexler from the Oregon
historical Society, to study the status of historical
preservation and celebration on PSU's campus in the summer
of 2005. Wexler's study produced two reports to guide PSU:
A Report on the Current Status of Historical Documentation
and A guide for Campus Offices and Academic Departments.
Overall, the Status Report indicated that "historical
documentation at PSU is fragmentary and lacking in
coordination", and archival practices need to be expanded
to establish a culture of tradition that will "assist Portland
State University in honoring its heritage and shaping its future".
These two reports were presented and discussed at the fall 2005
meeting of the Council of Academic Deans (CADS) by Helen Spalding,
Director of the Library, and Carol Mack, Interim Dean of GSE),
but no specific action was taken to implement them. As a result,
budget support to build an adequate archival program and support
the RAPS initiative was not forthcoming.
Budget support for PSU/s archival program is deemed is critically
needed, but the RAPS Board decided to move ahead on its history
preservation project regardless of these funding limitations
(which to many of us retirees always existed during our careers).
How could RAPS wait? PSU's history is occurring everyday in its
schools, departments, programs, offices, etc. without a systematic
approach to historical preservation campus-wide. The obvious result
of such nonaction is the neglect, harm, and disuse of many
historical records important to the university. Consequently,
the RAPS History Committee developed an action proposal this year
and presented it for review by its Board and the ad hoc PSU History
Preservation Committee. With minor revisions, it was presented in a
meeting with Provost Roy Koch, the RAPS History Preservation
Committee, and RAPS President Mary Brannan. The proposal included
primarily three recommendations: 1. the Provost acts positively on
Geoff Wexler's reports (i.e., Status Report and Guide), asking all
academic deans campus-wide to initiate a History Preservation Project
in their respective units, 2. The administration sends along the
edited version of Wexlers "Guide For Campus Offices and Academic
Departments", plus other related resources, to all key heads
(department, program, etc.) in each major unit (school,
college, etc.), and 3. RAPS assumes the responsibility for helping
the Project by recruiting emerita and emeritus professors and
key retired staff to assist current faculty/staff with history
preservation efforts in their respective units (e.g., Music Department,
English Department, Special Education Program). Such efforts will be
directed toward helping each academic unit initiate and implement
a history preservation project.
Provost Koch endorsed the proposal, and on May 1, 2005, with minor
modifications, sent out a detailed request to all academic deans
and their associates to ....... " join with me in providing
leadership in initiating a History Preservation Project in the
academic units".......and emphasized, ........" I look forward
to your assistance and leadership in implementing this valuable
project in your academic units". In his memo, Provost Koch
requested all Deans to meet soon with a RAPS representative,
and suggested that such meetings also include the chairs and
directors in each academic unit. Additionally, the Provost
requested that a current faculty member(s) be identified to
serve as the Historical Coordinator for his/her respective
unit (e.g., department) and be a liaison to RAPS.
Although the academic year is winding down, the word about the
RAPS Project and the Provost's request is now getting out across
campus with encouraging early results from the Music Department,
and the GSE's History Committee and Special Education Program.
The RAPS History Committee and President Mary Brannan have
scheduled and will continue to hold meetings with all the
academic deans, with the goal of concluding these initial
project meetings by the end of Spring or Summer Terms.
Obviously, with the academic year coming to a close, the major
project push will begin fall term of 2006. We are encouraged!!
September '05 Maintained regular contact with Northwest
sister retirement associations. Had to abandon the idea of
assisting developing a retirement association at
Easten Oregon State University in LaGrande due the rise in
gas prices and family illness
October '05 Made contact with the assistance of
Steve Brannan with representatives of the Iowa and Purdue
retirement associations to enable the University of
Washington Retirement Association to learn about the
activities of the Big 10 retirement associations annual
get-togethers. They were very helpful to me.
We wanted the UW group to make the request for information
from them rather than us being intermediaries.
Attended the UWRA Fall Festival in Vancouver, B.C. with
Vic and Beryl Dahl. We met personally with members of eight
other sister retirement associations. Reported about RAPS at
the Northwest Regional Retirement Associations meeting during
the conference. We paid our own expenses to attend the meetings.
A member from OSU suggested having separate meetings in September
due to the expense.
November/December '05 Began communication with 6 other
associations regarding the idea of volunteerism. We heard from
UBC, OSU, WSU, EWU, WWU and UW. Enthused responses.
Several had never done any recording.
January '06 Heard from the UWRA Board that they are
cancelling the Fall Festival due to reviewing their mission and
suggested other associations were complaining about the expense
of the meeting. Talking with other groups we found one.
The committee who planned and fielded the Festival were not
informed of the meeting. I updated board members about their
internal problems.
March/April '06 Several conversations with Bruce Stern
regarding the volunteerism survey E-mailed basic ideas
to be included in a survey instrument to Bruce. Has been delayed
due to my family illness.
May '06 Drafting a response to UWRA President Bowen regarding
their decision and our and most other associations disappointment.
Will complete it by June 1.
This year, we fully implemented the policy of providing a free
one-year membership to newly retired faculty and staff. Materials
regarding RAPS were distributed to potential members through
campus mail and along with their retirement papers. Faculty and
staff who have been retired, but never became members were also
given a free membership for one year. We recruited former members
by sending a letter describing the benefits of RAPS which was
followed up with personal contacts from RAPS Board members.
We plan to determine what percentage of persons who received
free membership continue as dues-paying RAPS members in 2006-2007.
We began to work on compiling more complete descriptive data about
the RAPS members and have requested such information on the
dues forms. Examples of missing data include whether the retiree
was faculty or staff, in which department or office the retiree
worked, and the year of retirement.
Following are data regarding the categories of memberships:
After a five-year hiatus, the RAPS Board decided to revise
and update the RAPS BYLAWS. The revisions occupied a good
deal of time for the Committee, as well as for the
deliberations held by the RAPS Board. In deference to space
limitations of the RAPS Sheet, the specifics of the
revisions are not covered in this report. The specific
revisions that were suggested and later approved are best
covered and contained in the various Minutes of the many
meetings held by the RAPS Board. The revisions and updating
of the BYLAWS were submitted to the RAPS Membership for approval
and were accepted. The revised and updated copy of the BYLAWS
was approved by the RAPS Executive Board May 11, 2006.
In about 2002/03 the RAPS web-site was developed through a
contract with a PSU contractor, Kim Howard. The site included
2 public-domain packages for updating a calendar-of-events
page and a photo-gallery page. Arrangements for updating were
left for the RAPS office manager (sign-in and password).
Apparently during the summer of 2005 a security hole was found
in the calendar programme, so the PSU systems staff turned off
sign-in access to this page. In the late fall of '05 one of the
board members (I believe it was Larry Sawyer) noticed that the
web site was very much out of date and complained about it
at a board meeting. Since I have had some experience with web
sites; I volunteered to investigate the matter.
I found the following: Since I am not a PSU contractor, I have had to arrange special
permission from the PSU systems people in order to get access to
the site. (They require each PSU web site to be sponsored by a
paid PSU employee. This is because they want PSU web sites to be
of at least a minimum quality and with responsible content).
I have obtained this sponsorship from Jahed Sukhun, the director
of User Support Services, and an OK from PSU's webmaster.
I have corrected the current problems of the web site and am
updating it whenever new information comes up. I rewrote the
calendar page so that it is not controlled by the public-domain
programme but is a simple HTML page, which I, or the Office
Manager, can easily update with a simple editor, such as
'MS-notepad'. The 'Photo-gallery' page still functions but I
have not added any new photos. The 'hit counter' has been
repaired and moved to the bottom of the 'about RAPS' page.
There have been 2500 hits on the home page since Oct. 2005.
(I made a change to the site so that 'google' type search engines
can easily find it.)
The RAPS by-laws have been modified and approved so that the
'web-master' has become a RAPS board member. This should ensure
that in the future the web site will remain current.RAPS Annual Report, 2005-2006
Mary Gordon-Brannan, President
* President-Elect Bruce Stern
* Secretary Larry Sawyer who accurately and meticulously produced
Board minutes
* Treasurer Robert Lockerby
* Past President Richard Brinkman who also chaired the Elections
and By-Laws Revisions Committees and served on the Awards Committee
* Members-at-Large Robert Pearson (also Webmaster), Roger Moseley
(History Preservation/Celebration Committee),
Gwen Newborg (By-Laws Revisions Committee)
* Editor John Cooper
* Maxine Thomas, Chair of the Awards Committee
* Vic and Beryl Dahl, Co-chairs of the Social/Friendship Committee.
Beryl organized the potlucks, including the summer picnic.
Vic writes the obituaries for the RAPS Sheet
* Steve Brannan, Chair of History Preservation/Celebration Committee
* Robert Vogelsang, Chair, Regional Retirement Associations Committee
* Pat Squire, Alumni Association Director
* Office Manager, Darshana Patel
* Recruitment and retention of RAPS members. Determine the retention
rate of those who received the one-year free membership
* Examine the desirability of producing a Membership Directory
for RAPS member only
* Continue the history preservation/celebration project
* Continue coordination of the PSU Pictorial History Book project
and recruit interested retired faculty/staff to assist their
respective departments
* Explore ways to increase member participation in RAPS activities,
with an increased focus on staff retirees
* Continue adding descriptive information to the membership database.
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RAPS Treasurer's Report
Bob Lockerby, Treasurer
Beginning Fund Balance
$12,281.06
Net Income/Loss
($2,784.79)
Fund Balance
$9,496.27
Expenses
Salaries & Wages
1,780.77
Professional Services
200.00
Supplies
206.94
Meals and Entertainment
2,939.50
Dues/Fees/Publications
395.25
Gift Admin. Fee
25.83
Transfers to University
50.00
-----------
TOTAL
$5,598.29
Revenue
Contributions and Grants
964.00
Events Gross Revenue
1,579.50
Dues/Fees
50.00
Sales
220.00
-----------
TOTAL
$2,813.50
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Program Committee Report
Bruce Stern, Chair.
Guided tour of Holocaust Memorial, Washington Park.
PSU Football vs. N. Colorado at PGE Park.
32 RAPS members were given comp tickets near midfield.
Marc Feldesman provided an update on PERS actions that might affect
existing and soon-to-be retirees.
Ken Brown, President of the PSU Bookstore, provided lunch and an
overview of the PSU Bookstore, which culminated in a tour of the
facility.
Toured the exhibit at the Portland Art Museum - Hesse: A Princely
German Collection. Group rates were arranged.
Holiday Dinner at MAC Club. Entertainment by Youth and Ages,
a barbershop quartet.
PSU's David Ervin spoke on the topic of Sustainability and
what PSU is doing to further green the campus.
Detective Bill Johnston spoke on the scope and significance of
Identity Theft. He also provided ideas on how to avoid being
a victim of it.
We began with a potluck lunch and then listened to Ladis Kristof
talk about his brave adventure which allowed him to escape
Communism and Come to the free land of America.
President Bernstine hosted this Luncheon for retired staff and
faculty. He and Provost Roy Koch discussed university initiatives.
Cassie McVeety and Mary Anne Rees talked about the university's
development efforts.
Outstanding faculty and staff awards were presented by Maxine Thomas
to Brent Schauer, Barry Anderson, and Robert Vogelsang.
We began with an ice cream social and then settled back to hear
Jewel Lansing talk about the history of Portland and it's city
government.
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RAPS Sheet Report
John R. Cooper,
The RAPS Sheet editor
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Awards Committee
Maxine Thomas, Chair.
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Elections Committee Report
Richard Brinkman, Chair.
Mary Brannan,
Marge Terdal
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PSU Pictorial History Book Project Committee Report
Mary Brannan, Chair
1. The River that Helped Give Birth to a University, 1946-1954
2. Growing Pains, 1955-1968
3. Coming of Age, 1969-1990
4. Emerging Urban University, 1990-1997
5. Growing into the World and Out to the Future, 1997-
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RAPS History Preservation/Celebration Committee
Steve Brannan, Chr.
Roger Moseley
Gordon Solie
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Northwest Regional Retirement Associations Committee
Robert W. Vogelsang, Chair.
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Membership Committee Report
Mary Gorden-Brannan, Chair.
CURRENT MEMBERS:
352
PAST MEMBERS
64
FACULTY/STAFF
Faculty
258
Staff
51
Retiree Spouses
13
Non-Designated
30
----
TOTAL
352
FREE/PAID
Free First Year Memberships
125
Paid/Honorary Memberships
227
----
TOTAL
352
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Ad Hoc Committee Report on the Revision of RAPS BYLAWS
Committee Members:
Richard Brinkman, Chair,
Mary Brannan
Gwen Newborg
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RAPS Web Site
Robert Pearson, Webmaster
Several links were broken (linked sites had changed URLs or
disappeared).
Board membership photo-page was out of date.
Recent RAPS newsletters were not posted.
Current-events page could not be updated.
The 'hit-counter' did not function.
Additionally, some board members thought the site should be
reworked (i.e. laid out differently).
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Contact Us: Email: raps@pdx.edu
Phone: 503-725-3447