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Happy New Year, AROHE family!
As we share our first AROHE newsletter in 2020, I would like to take a moment and convey my very best wishes for a healthy and happiest New Year ahead.
Over the last 12 months, our Board, committee members and volunteers have made significant strides in achieving goals we set to accomplish. Thanks to their diligence, this past year has been marked with noteworthy accomplishments designed to bring greater value to our members.
Travel Institute
Last fall we ran a survey to gauge your interest in travelling with AROHE members, and we’re pleased to announce that based on your feedback, AROHE’s Travel Institute will soon begin promoting our first trip with Road Scholars, “Best of Sedona/Grand Canyon.” Our first travel venture will take place October 13 – 17, 2020, right before our biennial conference. Stay tuned as more details will be coming your way soon.
October Biennial Conference
Speaking of the conference, we’re excited to share that planning efforts for AROHE’s 10th Biennial Conference, Transforming Retirement: A 360° View, at Arizona State University are well underway. To make our conference sessions most meaningful to our members, we are seeking your input to guide us with content development. If you missed our recent invite for the survey, please take a moment and share your thoughts online no later than Friday, January 31. Check out the conference website: https://www.arohe.org/Conference-2020
Awards
New this year, we have two new award categories that will be presented at this year’s conference in addition to the Innovation Award. Check out the details for the AROHE Hero Awards page and make sure to get your nominations in on time by the deadline date, Monday, April 13.
Website
Aligned with industry standards, we recently launched our redesigned website, giving our constituents ease of navigation and greater visibility of AROHE benefits and news. If you haven’t seen our newly designed website, take a moment to check it out. As we fine-tune it, we’d love to hear your feedback. Feel free to email tfarohe@gmail.com and share your website experience.
AROHE is such a great organization. Thanks for being part of it as we continue to create awareness of the great impact members like you bring to your institutions. I remain excited about the future and what we will accomplish together in the years to come.
Warm regards,
Trudy Fernandez
President, AROHE
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| AROHE's Tenth Biennial Conference |
Transforming Retirement: A 360⁰ View
October 18-20, 2020
Tempe Mission Palms, Tempe Arizona
The Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education (AROHE), ASU Emeritus College and ASU Retirees Association invite you to enjoy the opportunity to network with leaders of Retirement Organizations (ROs) and AROHE, and with administrators in higher education, researchers who study retirement, innovators in retirement and aging, and sponsors who offer support to retirees. If you missed our recent invite for the survey, please take a moment and share your thoughts online no later than Friday, January 31.
The Planning Group for the 2020 Conference is busy arranging plenary speakers and local sightseeing opportunities unique to Arizona – Frank Lloyd Wright Taliesin West, Heard Museum, Desert Botanical Garden, Musical Instruments Museum, Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park, and a pre-conference trip to Sedona and the Grand Canyon through Road Scholars.
Make your retirement organization a gateway to a future of productive endeavor, intellectual engagement, and newfound collegiality. Come join us October 18-20, 2020 in "Transforming Retirement: A 360⁰ View."
Input to Conference Agenda
Better yet, give us your VIEW by sending us your ideas for session topics, presentations, papers, roundtables, exhibits; by identifying nominees for one of three AROHE Awards – Innovation, Distinguished Leadership, Distinguished Service; or by volunteering to help with local arrangements.
More specific subject areas for proposals, and registration details will be forthcoming and posted on the AROHE website at https://www.arohe.org/Conference-2020.
Make your hotel reservations at https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/group-booking/PHXDT/G-AROH
We look forward to seeing you in Arizona!
Bill Verdini (verdini@asu.edu), President elect of AROHE
Joseph Carter (Joseph.Carter@asu.edu), Professor Emeritus of Supply Chain Management and Dean of ASU Emeritus College
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Demonstrating the Value of Academic Retirees
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AROHE’s inaugural Idea Exchange webinar, "Demonstrating the Value of Academic Retirees," was offered in the fall of 2019. Even though many retirees volunteer, donate money, and serve as ambassadors on behalf of their institutions, these activities are not always recognized. This presentation focused on the ways that retirement organizations can bring the contributions and achievements of retired faculty/staff to the attention of campus administrators. Participants in this workshop shared ideas for demonstrating retirees' value and advocating for added institutional support of retiree programs and initiatives. If you missed the webinar, click here to watch the recording.
The next Idea Exchange webinar, which is scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, 9 a.m. Pacific, will focus on the effective use of retiree surveys to advocate for increased support for retiree programs and services. Click here for more information and registration details.
AROHE’s Idea Exchange webinars, developed by the Research and Education committee, offer AROHE members the opportunity to hear about successful retiree programs and practices and share resources with other members. These interactive webinars are conducted using the Zoom meeting platform.
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| A Retirement-Planning Seminar For Faculty Approaching Retirement-- A Holistic Life-Approach |
Retired faculty recognize that planning for a successful retirement goes well beyond asking: “Can I afford financially to retire?” Retirement spills into multiple components or arenas of a retiree’s life such as personal and professional identity, family and social relationships, health and lifestyle, intellectual stimulation, and having a life of meaningful purpose. One goal of our committee is to assist professors (and their spouses) to make an optimal transition to retirement. In partnership with UBC Human Resources, we have created a highly praised retirement-planning seminar. Using a holistic life framework and incorporating evidence-based research on retirement, invited speakers address the ingredients of making a positive transition prior to and after retirement, pre-retirement work-reduction options, financial planning for retirement, considerations when choosing health and travel insurance plans, three personal stories of life in retirement and the role of the Emeritus College. All of this occurs in one 5 1/2-hour session and includes opportunities to ask questions and talk informally with the speakers and among themselves during a catered lunch with designated- or open-topic tables. Participants are also encouraged to attend a separate UBC Faculty Pension Plan seminar on the retirement income options available to them.
We have developed a series of retirement-planning materials that are included in the seminar participants’ folders and are also available at other events and online. Notable are the comprehensive Checklist for Faculty, Keeping Connected to your Department and UBC after Retirement and Privileges Afforded to Faculty Retirees by UBC and/or the College.
For more information, contact Linda G. Leonard, Co-chair, admin@emerituscollege.ubc.ca, Transitions to Retirement Committee, University of British Columbia Emeritus College www.emerituscollege.ubc.ca |
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2nd Annual Pathways to a Successful Retirement
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Are you or a friend or former colleague approaching retirement? Or perhaps you’ve retired and are finding this new stage of life to have some unexpected challenges. If either of these situations resonate with you, please know that you, your friend, or both of you are invited to attend “Pathways to a Successful Retirement,” a workshop being led by a panel of current TCU (Texas Christian University) retirees. Rather than focusing on the financial aspects of retirement, the workshop will addresses the social, emotional and practical challenges that often accompany the transition from full-time employment to this new stage of life—a stage that can last for twenty or thirty years or, in some cases, even longer.
The 90 minute session, led by four panelists (2 staff, 2 faculty/administrator), focuses both on the concerns or often worries of retirement and also on the value and enriched living of retirement. Excluding financial matters, the session features social psychological aspects and shared concerns of retiring and post-career life. The program is designed for all TCU faculty and staff members who are considering or beginning retirement.
Goal of the Session: The session can help attendees realize that retirement is not a diminishing of a faculty or staff member’s life but rather a transition to a new, enriched phase of life that can be not only successful but truly meaningful.
To learn more, contact Linda Moore (President, TCU Retirees Association), Emeritus Professor of Social Work at l.moore@tcu.edu.
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Inspired Retirement
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The Next Chapter program sponsored by St. Louis University’s Office of Mission and Identity is currently in its third year. This program is a guided journey designed to assist near-retirees and recent retirees to discern who they want to be and what they want to do in their next chapters of life. The core elements of the program are daily prayer, increased self-knowledge via reflection questions and assessments, Ignatian discernment, a written next chapter plan, and encouragement and accountability on implementing one’s plan.
The program consists of six sessions with an overnight retreat between sessions four and five. It starts in October and meets in November, January, February, March and April. During the program participants are exposed to local, national and international volunteer activities by a panel of people whose work involves helping people find suitable volunteer activities. After the April session, participants are encouraged to meet monthly in small groups of two or three to check in on progress and encourage one another on the implementation of their plans. The program concludes with an optional check in meeting in June and a celebratory dinner for participants and spouses in September.
The program has drawn good numbers in all three years, thirty-six people broken in two cohorts of eighteen. Because of the amount of discussion throughout the program, eighteen is a good size for the cohort. Very often the discussions take place in small groups of six. The program creator and director is Tom Auffenberg, a recent retiree and an alum of St. Louis University. Tom engages three co-facilitators to lead the small group discussions.
The program has been very well received by those who have participated. At this point in the program’s history most of the new participants come from the referrals of former participants. The program is intentionally kept very affordable; it costs $750. For more information, contact Tom Auffenbrg, SJ, Next Chapter Program, St. Louis University, tauffenberg@contemplativeleaders.org. |
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Retirement Planning Workshop: Oregon State University Planning Assn.
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The Oregon State University Retirement Association (OSURA) assists our members and those about to retire with advice on dealing with retirement. Membership includes about equal proportions of retired faculty and staff. About once a year we offer workshops to folks approaching retirement. These workshops are normally a week after our university offers a workshop for faculty and staff considering retirement on how to apply for retirement health and income benefits.
The program consists of short talks by (typically) two retired faculty and two retired classified staff members. Topics are generally how each of us has dealt with our own retirement (travel, starting new companies, volunteering, staying fit, and having valued next chapter lives). Retirees, especially those retired for a decade or more, provide insight into how what one does during the first decade is often somewhat different than what occurs in subsequent decades…as things evolve. Future workshops by OSURA will focus on staying fit, entitled “How Long Do You Want to Live?” and safety on the web.
To learn more, contact Michael Schuyler, OSURA president, at OSURA@Oregonstate.edu, and/or visit the website https://osura.oregonstate.edu/.
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50th Anniversary: UCLA Emeriti-Retiree Relations Center
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The Emeriti-Retiree Relations Center, ERRC, celebrated its golden anniversary in wonderful fashion at a lively luncheon on December 5, 2019 at the UCLA Faculty Center. Nearly 300 retirees and emeriti came together to celebrate the Center’s 50th anniversary. Also in attendance were visitors from other campuses, former ERRC directors Sue Barnes and Eddie Murphy, distinguished leaders of campus organizations and UCLA administration. Emily Carter, Executive Vice-Chancellor and Provost gave an expansive and optimistic vision of UCLA’s role in the future. Michael Levine, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs recounted the importance of the ERRC in the University’s mission. Distinguished professor of Law, Carole Goldberg detailed about her tenure at UCLA and the creation of post-retirement initiatives and programs, including appointment of Retirement Faculty Liaison, David Lopez.
The featured speaker, Adrian Harris Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of planning recounted his memories of the ERRC and the campus over his more than 60 years of engagement. Adrian’s speech emphasized the excellence of the University and the key role that the Center has played in serving Emeriti and Retirees.
Future initiatives for the center include joining the Age Friendly University global network with a shared challenge to promote an inclusive approach to healthy and active aging through research and enhanced learning opportunities for people across generations.
Another promising program is the Health Campus Initiative, which explores the dimensions of wellness, addressing ageism and age-equity for all. This program will utilize existing frameworks to examine human development and aging and promote integrated approaches to encourage older persons to engage in life- long learning opportunities and ensure age-friendly policies and programs in research, teaching and practice.
The event was capped off with the presentation of well-deserved framed proclamations to the ERRC from the City and County of LA, and council district assembly members. The event was an enormous success and add our congratulations to the ERRC and its stellar staff on this milestone occasion, Director Ayesha Dixon, Retirees Resources Specialist, Maria Lubrano and Eric Wang.
To learn more about the Center, go to https://www.errc.ucla.edu/.
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Retirees - OLLI at ASU - Peace Corps Collaboration
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OLLI Corps, an affiliate of OLLI at ASU, is a joint partnership with the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA) and Discover Corps (DC) – a Peace Corps-inspired travel company founded by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (RPCV). Through OLLI Corps, we reinvigorate our members to find a sense of purpose through service, connection, and community.
In October 2019, OLLI at ASU members embarked on their inaugural OLLI Corps trip to San Ignacio, Belize for a week-long exploration of the local communities and to identify ways they could serve the unique needs of those communities. OLLI Corps connects older adults to a global classroom and to local and global communities in transformative ways. In Belize, OLLI Corps members met with a panel of Peace Corps staff from Nicaragua and Guatemala and a Peace Corps Response Volunteer currently serving in Belize, served in a local elementary school, visited the Cornerstone Foundation (a local community-led social service organization with youth- and woman-empowerment programs), and made lifelong connections with local hosts and travel companions alike.
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Arizona State University (OLLI at ASU) offers non-credit, university-quality learning opportunities for adults ages 50+. The program currently serves over 2,400 members across the Greater Phoenix Area – offering over 350 short classes and over 10 member-led Learning Enrichment Groups annually – and is one of 124 OLLIs across the nation.
If you have any questions or comments, or would like clarification about anything, feel free to reach out to Abby Baker, OLLI at ASU, albaker6@asu.edu or 602.543.6440.
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Trends
Grieving the Loss of a Work Identity
When we step out of the workplace, we lose more than a job. The combination of losses — the job, work friends, the daily flow of conversation — can do a number on your psyche.
Jill Smolowe, author of Four Funerals and a Wedding: Resilience in a Time of Grief, discusses the following issues:
The Silence After Leaving a Workplace
What My Former Colleague and I Miss
Finding Meaning in a New Chapter of Life
The Challenge of Life After a Layoff
Advice for the Transition
Grieve the Loss of Your Work Identity
To read more, go to https://tinyurl.com/u9ru7rc.
How to Get Through the Fog of Grief
The inability to think clearly for some time is common with significant loss
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell, a freelance writer, shared this grief experience.
When my 57-year-old husband, Dale, suddenly died of a massive heart attack on Nov. 20, 2018, two days before Thanksgiving, to say I was in shock was an understatement. More than a month later, I realized just how much my mental capacity was affected by this life-changing trauma.
On Christmas Day, the next holiday without him, I was distraught and thought of a pin Dale had given me when we were still dating as teenagers. I wanted to hold on to the pin for comfort. I knew it was in an old jewelry box stored in our basement and I didn’t think I’d have a problem finding it.
Two hours after my search began, I finally gave up on the jewelry box and retreated back to bed. I knew the box had to be there, I had just spotted it when Dale and I pulled out the Christmas décor two days before he died. I was confused as to why I could not find it. Two months later, I went in search of something else in the basement and there on a shelf, in plain view, sat the jewelry box. In it, my prized pin.
By that time, I knew I wasn’t crazy — I was suffering from what my grief counselor and people in my online support group called “widow’s fog.”
Griever’s Fog
Components of Griever’s Fog
How to Move Forward
A New Path
To read further, go to https://tinyurl.com/utqkw6v
Finding Wisdom in the Arts
At this point in our lives, many of us are still physically active, intellectually curious, emotionally stable and yearning for meaningful ways to spend our time. But how? What strategies exist for cultivating creativity and brain sharpness in later years?
Francine Toder, Ph.D., an emeritus faculty member of California State University, Sacramento, explores the question.
Through interviews with more than 20 artists who had not begun to explore their passion until later in life, she found some significant similarities between them.
One striking phenomenon was their ability to focus with laser sharpness while they were engaged in their art. Whether writing a poem, sculpting or playing the violin, many described being in an altered state of consciousness: alert and aware but without distraction, in a cocoon where nothing else seemed to matter at that moment. They were learning entirely for its own sake and were much less worried about lack of talent, or what others might think, than they might have been earlier in life.
The artists I wrote about have a lifetime accumulation of knowledge and experience, with the added bonus of a calmer more focused brain. This leads to wisdom, a fitting compensation for aging!
To read further, go to https://tinyurl.com/y8vp8dsg.
6 common, costly retirement mistakes—and the one simple solution to all of them
One of the biggest retirement mistakes you can make is not realizing what you don’t know.
Unfortunately, retirement is complicated, and your decisions can have irreversible consequences. Talking with a professional — ideally a fee-only financial planner — could save you from a costly mistake, including any of the following:
Thinking you’ll die young (or at least early)
Ignoring your spouse
Carrying debt into retirement
Failing to plan for long-term care
Assuming you can work longer
Putting off retirement too long
To read more by Liz Weston, a writer at NerdWallet, go to https://tinyurl.com/wkejb68. |
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Every May, the Administration for Community Living (ACL) leads our nation’s observance of Older Americans Month. We are pleased to announce the 2020 theme: Make Your Mark.
ACL selected this theme to encourage and celebrate countless contributions that older adults make to our communities. Their time, experience, and talents benefit family, peers, and neighbors every day. Communities, organizations, and individuals of all ages are also making their marks. This year’s theme highlights the difference everyone can make – in the lives of older adults, in support of caregivers, and to strengthen communities.
We invite you to celebrate Older Americans Month and make your mark in May! Leading up to the observance, ACL will release artwork, activity suggestions, and other materials you can use online and at events. Announcements will be sent when new resources are posted to the official website, https://acl.gov/oam/2020/older-americans-month-2020.
Higher Education and Aging: The AgeFriendly Movement Building a Case for Age Inclusivity
Adults are living longer and healthier lives around the globe. This changing demographic creates new opportunities for societies to leverage the advantages of an aging population, producing improvements for all. After reaching retirement age, many individuals continue to have more years of high functional capacity and can fulfill diverse roles that are valuable for society, resulting in changes to formal and informal workforces.
These trends call for institutions of higher education to embrace opportunities to become more “age friendly” through new approaches to educational access, teaching, research, and community engagement. These institutions can support efforts for older adults to participate in educational, career, wellness, and related activities on campus.
Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/u6obdz8
Noticing Changes in Memory and Function
If you do not see an aging friend or relative often, changes in his or her health may seem dramatic. In contrast, the primary caregiver might not notice such changes or realize that more help, medical treatment, or supervision is needed. Or, the primary caregiver might not want to accept the fact that the health of his or her spouse or parent is failing. Sometimes a geriatric care manager or other professional is the first to notice changes.
Here are some examples of a few good questions to help you start the conversation with the primary caregiver:
· If you thought there might be a change in Aunt Joan’s condition, whose opinion would you seek?
· I didn’t notice Dad repeating himself so much the last time I was here. Do you remember when it started?
If you have visited relatives or dear friends for the holidays, you may have noticed changes in their memory or health. Get information about what to do if you see significant changes: https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/assessing-changes-memory-and-function.
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| Come Join Us In Transforming Retirement |
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Since 2001 AROHE has supported both institutions and individuals by transforming the experience of retirement – the preparation, the actual transition, and post-retirement programming – into a smooth and productive life-course change.
To renew, join or learn more visit arohe.org or contact AROHE by emailing info@arohe.org or calling (213) 740-5037.
| Tell Us Your Story |
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Share News, Activities, and Events of Your Retirement Organization
Please send us a note about the activities, events, and news of your retirement organization for inclusion in AROHE Matters. Send your information to our newsletter editor at pcullinane@berkeley.edu by February 14th for the March 2020 newsletter.
| About AROHE |
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AROHE's mantra is "Transforming Retirement."
AROHE is a nonprofit association that champions transformative practices to support all stages of faculty and staff retirement, their mutually beneficial engagement, and continuing contributions to their academic institutions. By sharing research, innovative ideas, and successful practices, AROHE emphasizes the development and enhancement of campus-based retiree organizations and programs which support this continuing engagement in higher education.
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