By Gerry Smith

Honourable Lois Hole:
One of the nicest duties I have had to perform on behalf of the ARTA, was to represent our President at a function hosted by the University of Alberta at the MacDonald Hotel in Edmonton. This is when I was the receiver of one of the famous "hugs" from the then Chancellor, Lois Hole. The ARTA was being thanked for one of the three University Awards we had created.
The Honourable Lois Hole personified the old term
"Noblesse Oblige", as Paula Simons noted in the Edmonton Journal on the 8th of January, 2005. As Lieutenant Governor, this lady went above and beyond the call of duty in standing up for the children of Alberta and their education.
It is to my everlasting regret that we did not honour this lady with an Honourary Life Membership in 1999. She always championed the cause of those without power in a truly aristocratic way.

Governance Model:
At our Annual General Meeting in October 2004, the delegates approved changes to the way in which the ARTA governs itself. The Representative Committee & others met in Calgary in January to start the process of implementing these changes. I hope to give the members an update on the progress of this in our May issue of News & Views.

Travel:
We are cautiously attempting to offer ARTA members some travel opportunities and we would encourage readers to read elsewhere in this issue for more information.

Reminder:
Premiums for Johnson Inc. and ARTA members' fees are tax deductible.

ARTA Benefits Plan:
Service/Claims: 1-877-989-2600
or 1-877-413-6599
In Edmonton: 1-780-413-6536
Home/Auto: 1-888-656-9600
In Edmonton: 1-780-415-4392

Regular Membership Fees:
$15.00 for 1 year.
Affiliate Membership Fees:
$30.00 for 1 year.

ARTA © 2005

 

Aberta Retired Teachers Association
President: Jack Fulwiler
Vice-President: Paul Boisvert
Past-President: Gordon Lowe
Secretary: Edwin Olsen
Treasurer: John Takahashi
Exec. Sec.: Gerry Smith

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ARTA Benefits:
Since I have had this job beginning June 1996, I have spoken to many hundreds of our members about our Benefits Plan, and I always left it up to the members to make their choice of plans - Blue Cross Plus, ARTA/Johnson, etc.. In the past six months, I have had occasion to compare Plans and I can say unequivocally that our Plan offers the best benefits and coverage of any Plan for our age group.
The ARTA Benefits Plan has NEVER terminated any of the Plan's participants. This is not true of the other Plans I have compared. The Travel portion of our Plan is particularly beneficial to those who venture outside of our Province. I have had acquaintances call and thank the ARTA for the Plan. We have had two very large settlements of close to a million dollars for members who had emergency medical aid, and one letter of thanks from a lady who was flown from Sudbury, Ontario, to Grande Prairie in a private jet for health reasons.
Retirees who are close to 65 and coming off their School Board Plans owe it to themselves and their partners to study ARTA's Plan and its benefits.

Phil Cox:
Phil died in December 2004 and a Memorial in his honour was held at Barnett House on January 13th. Phil, along with Joe Durand, helped establish the ARTA in the 1970's.

Computers!!
Compaq is considering changing the command "Press Any Key" to "Press Return Key" because of the flood of calls asking where the "Any" key is.
A Dell customer called to complain that his keyboard no longer worked. He had cleaned it by filling up his bathtub with soap and water and soaking the keyboard for a day.

ARTA Endowment Award Contributions
Donations have been made to the ARTA Endowment Award: University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge.

Phone: (780) 447-9474
1-800-232-7208 ext.474
Fax: (780) 447-0613

email: info@albertarta.com
Web: www.albertarta.com