Hello all CMERA Members!!
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Remembering Paul Smith
The CMERA Governing Board and all members were saddened to learn of the death of Paul H. Smith. After his retirement from the City in 1993, he joined CMERA and remained an active member. He served in several positions within the organization utilizing his wisdom and experience to enhance our services to members. Paul was a plaintiff in the legal action that resulted in the Collaborative Settlement Agreement. He helped ensure a judicious pension and health care coverage for retirees and future retirees. Just last fall, he was honored for his 30 years of service to CMERA. He will be missed.
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Website
CMERA’s website (www.cmera.org) is being renovated and updated. So far, the layout and information on the website has been reviewed and changes were presented to the Executive Committee for approval. The Committee approved the changes to the layout. During this month, the NEWS section will be re-organized into sub-sections to enable members to more quicky locate the information they seek. The CMERA Chronicles will be in one sub-section. Information about the Kroger Community Rewards Program will also stand alone. Instructions on joining the CMERA chatroom will also have their own sub-section. Once we establish a credit card acceptance account, that feature will be added to the website to allow active membership renewals as well as new membership application payments. The Executive Committee also approved a series of edits to the text currently found on the website. The text updates will be made over the next several months.
If you have any experience with website design and/or management, sending bulk e-mails, or working with computers in general, and want to volunteer your skills, please reach out to us. Contact: [email protected]
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Zoom Service
Several years ago, when Covid-19 restricted many in-person meetings, the Executive Committee of CMERA turned to on-line meetings using Zoom. Even now, some meetings are conducted on-line due to vacations, weather conditions, etc. For the past years, CMERA has been using a Zoom account belonging to an Officer of the organization. We are now in the process of applying for Zoom service designed for not-for-profit organizations. This will result in another cost savings.
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Futures Commission Update
On June 18, the City Manager and City Solicitor made a verbal presentation to the Equitable Growth and Housing Committee concerning the City’s Administration’s review of the Futures Commission Report. Their report divided the recommendations into those that the City has completed or are in the process and those that require additional evaluation.
The recommendation of transferring the City Retirement System (CRS) to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) is one that the City Manager indicated required more study. She used the term “deep due diligence” to describe the amount of evaluation required. The City Solicitor then informed the Committee members that the City is only one party to the Collaborative Settlement Agreement (CSA) and that the other parties which were part of the CSA will also need to be included.
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Until next month.