Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) has come and gone. It was held in Barnett House, Edmonton, on Wednesday October 26 so we are now into a new year for ARTA. The delegates voted to have seven goals dealt with during the coming year. The goals came from the retreat that was held last February in St. Paul, Alberta. The Goals Ad Hoc Committee of ARTA recommended the goals to the delegates at the AGM and they were approved.

 

The goals are:

- Allocate adequate resources to ARTA's office.
- Develop an effective communications system for ARTA.
- Create and sustain effective branches for ARTA.
- Identify and recruit new members for the branches and for ARTA.
- Generate adequate financial resources for ARTA.
- Develop a three year financial plan for ARTA.
- Develop and maintain strategic alliances with related groups (e.g. Alberta Council on Aging).

Ad Hoc Committees will be formed to study each goal and report back to the Board of Directors once their task has been accomplished.

I am pleased to announce that ARTA has moved into its new office in Barnett House. The office is still on the same floor as the old office but is much larger and affords the office staff much more room in which to conduct ARTA business. The office now has a telephone system that will allow phone-ins to talk to someone. The phones are on a rotating system which means if Gerry or Don are on-line talking to someone, a phone will ring on another person's desk and that person can answer it rather than the caller leave a message and have to wait for a return call.

The Governance model for ARTA is steadily progressing toward a more acceptable way of governing our affairs. Several by-law changes were adopted at the last AGM that brought us much closer to our goal. Further changes to the Policy and Procedures book will be presented to the Board of Directors meeting in November for ratification. Once that is done, ARTA should be able to conduct its affairs according to the governance model put forth by the Representative Committee.

Our Pension Committee has developed a manual that has been distributed to each of the branch pension contacts. The manual outlines six issues with regards to our pensions, along with pertinent data showing why each is an issue. Also the Pension Committee has established a plan to make the issues known to the MLAs. Each branch representative is asked to present the material to his/her members and to ask them to talk to their MLAs to see what can be done. I hope that each reader will attend a session presented by his/her pension representative and help do their part to try and bring about necessary changes.

Thanks, Jack

ARTA © 2005