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The Retirees' Newsletter
The Faculty and Librarian Retirees' Association, University of Windsor, Windsor, Canada
Issue #20 -- December, 1996
FROM THE EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
I HOPE OUR MEMBERS LIKE THE MEMBERSHIP CARDS included with this issue. They are easy to do with a laser printer. You just buy the sheets of blank cards at Business Depot or similar business outlet and make a template, and fill in the names. My daughter Mary Jo gave me indispensable (free) help in that job. I also hope the cards will encourage people who may have neglected their dues payment, to take care of that little matter soon.
IT WAS CERTAINLY NICE TO SEE AN ARTICLE FROM OUR NEWSLETTER reprinted in full in the Winter 1995/96 issue of Life After Retirement, the publication of the University of Calgary's Retirees' Association. It had to do with our Bursary Fund, which at that time was just over $10,000. The Fund has zoomed a long way since then, and should do better still, under the current impetus of dollar-for-dollar matching by the Ontario Government.
JOSEPH HABOWSKY TOLD ME RECENTLY he would like to contribute a regular column on fitness and health for retirees to The Newsletter, and I strongly encouraged him. Wouldn't hurt any of us , I'm sure. At the moment, Joseph and Joyce are in Germany, visiting his sister . Maybe Joseph's new series will start in the February issue.
HOW I WOULD LOVE TO SEE MORE OFFERS OF THAT KIND! We are all of us specialists in something. So much that is interesting and worth-while could be produced by a group like ours. No big deals, indeed. Just bits and pieces, vignettes...We are retirees, after all, and for most of us our days of magnum opuses (opi? opera?...help, latin scholars!) are over.! Indeed a little coming out now and then can be fun-- a little foray into something, a few interesting thoughts, a little showing of the flag...
FROM TIME TO TIME I HAVE MENTIONED IN THIS COLUMN the LARGE PRINT books that are available at the Windsor Public libraries. I have found the selection surprisingly good, including at least some of the enduring literary works in English literature. Recently I've been reading the first two volumes of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga (the Man of Property, and In Chancery). How prone we are to forget the power of really good literature! Reading Galsworthy again, takes me back to my days in Eng Lang and Lit at the good old U of T.
EVENTS IN CENTRAL AFRICA IN RECENT MONTHS are bound to evoke an enormous sadness in anyone who sympathizes deeply with that part of the world -- and I count myself among such persons. I say sadness, because Africa is capable of so much more than it delivers. Someone asked me recently how I would sum up Africa's future. To my chagrin, despite having been closely involved for 26 years at the highest levels of economic decision-making in one Central African country, I had no coherent answer to offer, except to say "totally unpredictable". ON THAT OCCASION, the best I could do was to trot out a fable of sorts, that has been around Africa for years. A FROG AND A SCORPION were standing on the bank of the Zambezi River, surrounded by a bush fire which was closing in. The scorpion said, "I can't swim; but you can. Let me ride on you and you can get us both to safety, and on the other side I'll protect you." The frog agreed and they set off. Mid way across, the scorpion suddenly slashed at the frog with its lethal stinger. The frog expired almost instantly. As he was about to sink, he gasped in exasperation, "Why in God's name did you do that? We were nearly saved, and now we'll both perish". The scorpion, equally exasperated as he sank into the water, merely blurted, "WELL, BABY, THAT'S AFRICA!" Bill Phillips
The Association
The Faculty/Librarian Retirees' Association at Windsor was formed in 1990, to give a unified voice to retirees; to provide a bridge for communication with the University; to encourage social contact among the retirees; and to open a few doors through which retirees could continue to contribute to the University of Windsor.
Thus the Association is meant to fill what could otherwise be a void in the lives of retirees possible isolation from the University and from their former colleagues; and possible lack of understanding of vital pension and health issues that affect them directly.
There are only two meetings of the full membership per year: in the spring and the fall. An informal social committee arranges several other events per year dinners, plays, picnics, and so on all of which are paid for by those who take part. The Association encourages smaller special interest groups to form as occasion and their interests warrant. Because of extreme economy of operation, dues have been kept at the level of $10 per year. This includes five issues of The Retirees' Newsletter .
Officers of the Association are:
President: Edwin Habib
Secretary: (Temporarily vacant)
Treas'r & Membership: Bill Phillips
Elected Members of the Executive Committee:Bob Chandler; Idalia Rappé
Ex Officio Members of the Executive Committee: (Founding Pres.) Shklov; and (Newsletter
Editor) Phillips.
The Association's Address is:
Faculty/Librarian Retireess' Association,
University of Windsor Post Office,
Windsor, ON. N9B 3P4
Email: habib@server.uwindsor.ca
Home Page: http://www.uwindsor.ca/newsstnd/uwflra/index.html
Newsletter online: http://www.uwindsor.ca/newsstnd/uwflra/news.htm
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