Month: March 2020

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS BY RENE G. RODRIGUEZ, PRESIDENT, VCCCDRA

VCCCDRA retirees were very fortunate to be able to hold their Annual General Meeting on March 11, 2020, at the Wright Event Center on the Ventura College campus, one day before the Ventura County Health Officer declared a local health emergency in Ventura County, and nine days before Governor Newsom declared a Stay Well At Home order for the entire State of California.

Those who attended, 104 of us, were unaccustomed to greeting each other in these worrisome coronavirus times without the usual shaking of hands or embracing each other, instead, inventing ways to show how glad we were to see each other with the minimum of distance and touching.  In spite of the unusual circumstances, the meeting proceeded fairly normally, resulting in fruitful and lengthy discussions on the matter at hand.

The focus of the meeting was on healthcare and the issues arising out of the District’s desire to push for a drastic change to our current health plans.

I asked Marie Soo Hoo, VCCCDRA Secretary, to give us a write up of the motions that were moved, seconded and passed near the conclusion of the meeting, that help to summarize what happened at the meeting.

Here is the information you requested. Pat confirmed that there were 104 attendees  that signed in.  MSH

Motions passed at Annual General Meeting – 3/11/2020

1. 1. Al Miller moved that the Executive Board of the Retirees’ Association be authorized to take any legal action necessary against the District to prevent them from moving to the proposed CalPERS plans. The motion was seconded by Bill Thieman.

No vote was taken and more discussion took place as there were more members who had questions or wanted to make comments regarding the issue.

Rene, you also explained that before any legal action can be taken, there must be evidence of “harm” to the group.

1. 2. Al Miller restated his first motion once again as follows (it had already been seconded) but I believe Lynn Fauth and several others said they seconded it also:

Al Miller moved to authorize the Executive Board to begin a campaign for a “war chest” of funds for the exploration of legal action against the District based on the proposed CalPERS plans and to file legal action against imposing an inferior benefits plan on the Retiree group.

Motion passed by a majority vote of the membership present.

1. 3. Ruth Hemming’s motion:

Ruth moved that the members authorize the Executive Board to act on its behalf as it sees fit regarding its benefits. Motion was seconded by Ana Maria Valle Villa.

After lengthy discussion, the motion passed by a majority vote of the membership present.

The President of Ventura College, Dr. Kim Hoffmans, attended the meeting to give retirees a very warm welcome.  She mentioned that Ventura College will be celebrating its 95th anniversary, and wanted retirees be part of it.  Anne King, Executive Director of the Ventura College Foundation will be telling us more about it.  Kim also was very gracious in wanting to welcome retirees to Ventura College in a very special way, which you can hear for yourself when you play the recording of her presentation.  Here, I must beg Kim’s pardon, and yours, for remembering to turn the digital audio recorder on while she was in the middle of her presentation.

Below you will find the materials that were handed out, or displayed as a slide, as well as the audio recordings of the presenters.

1 HANDOUT Agenda, 26th Annual General Meeting

The President of Ventura College, Dr. Kim Hoffmans, attended the meeting to give retirees a very warm welcome.  She mentioned that Ventura College will be celebrating its 95th and 100^th anniversaries, and wanted retirees be part of them.  Anne King, Executive Director of the Ventura College Foundation will be telling us more about it.  Kim also was very gracious in wanting to welcome retirees to Ventura College in a very special way, by giving gifts to the first retiree who walked in the door for this meeting (MoDean McCullough), and to the person who is having a birthday near or around her birthday, May 29, and there was one retiree (Jim Merrill).  It lightened the spirits of all present and made for a very nice welcoming to Ventura College.  Thank you, Kim!

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02-Approval of the Minutes and Treasurers Reports  (length 1:24):

02m HANDOUT Minutes of March 19, 2019, for approval

02t HANDOUT 2020 General Meeting – Treasurer’s Report

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03-Joy Kobayashi, Membership Committee Report  (length 3:21):

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04-Acknowledgement of the Exec Board Members  (length 10:25)

04 HANDOUT THE VCCCDRA BOARD and LEADERSHIP

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05-Report on the Website and the BLOG (length 1:53)

05 HANDOUT BLOG and WEBSITE Report

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06-Purpose of the Meeting today  (length 2:23)

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07-John Woolley conducts elections for Secretary and Treasurer (Length 4:29)

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08-Question regarding having two Members-at-Large on the Exec Board (length 40 seconds)

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09-Main part of the Program begins with Gary Johnson, introduced as Moderator of the Panel  (length 1:07:38)

The following two slides, “09 HANDOUT Martas Bullet Points for Annual Meeting V2” represent the absolute minimum that you should know about the proposed CalPERS health insurance plans.  The first slide is for those who have both Medicare A and B, and the second is for those who don’t have both.
09 HANDOUT Martas Bullet Points for Annual Meeting V2

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10-Al Miller makes a motion; is discussed, amended and passed  (length 13:24)

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11-Further thoughts from Gary Johnson and Marta Freixas  (length 10:58)

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12-Ruth Hemming makes a second motion; discussion ensues, passes  (length 8:49)

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HANDOUT VCCCDRA Committees Annual Sign Up Sheet