By Chuck Cullen, CMERA President
I am sometimes asked about the difference between an “active” and “associate” member of CMERA. Let me start by saying that anyone who is a retiree or beneficiary of the Cincinnati Retirement System is a member of CMERA. If you pay the annual dues, you are considered an “active” member. All others are “associate” members. The table below illustrates the benefits of being an “active” member.
| Benefit | Active | Associate |
| Attend general meetings | X | X |
| Vote for officers | X | |
| Receive newsletter | X | |
| Access to website | X | X |
| Participate in discussion groups | X | |
| Serve as Board member | X | |
| Receive e-mail message (if registered) | X | X |
The Ohio Primary Election date is Tuesday March 19th. Be sure to vote. If you live in Indiana, the date is May 7th and for those who live in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, your primary is May 21st.
We arranged to have the past two General Meetings recorded and then posted on our website. Due to some “technical difficulties”, the videos have not materialized. We are working with the Church to correct those difficulties.
Most of you have probably received a letter in the mail at some time informing you that a company you do business with has had a data breach and some of your personal information was stolen. The letter then goes on to apologize for the incident, state that they are working hard to take action to prevent any future incidents, and then offer you a one-year subscription to a credit monitoring service. The letter I received last week was from the Secure Processing Center of the company. Secure??? Just once I would like to receive a letter simply stating that 1) we f***ed up; 2) we will try not to let it happen again; 3) here is $100 for your trouble; and 4) if you become the victim of identity theft, we will correct it at no cost to you.
At the February meeting of the CMERA Executive Committee, we continued our work on the spring newsletter, finalized our plans to secure documents, approved to renew a maturing CD for seven months, and discussed plans to submit our required Federal and State annual reports in-house, saving the accountant fees.
The Retirement Board of Trustees will meet at 2:00p.m. on Thursday March 7. The meeting, at City Council Chambers, is open to the public. It will also be on CitiCable and livestreamed at www.cincinnati-oh.gov/media. The agenda for the meeting was not posted at the time this is written.
City Council apparently had an uneventful January. Most of their legislation was routine in nature. They did approve several buildings for historic designation, file their annual disclosure statements, and approved some changes regarding the creation of new surface lots in the downtown and Over-The-Rhine areas. The minutes for meetings in February were not yet posted on-line so I could not include the diverse discussions about a Motion concerning the current conflict in the Middle East.
Until next month……
Chuck Cullen, President
CMERA