Greetings, Fellow Members

Greetings, Fellow Members

Before we start, I think it is helpful to warm up your brains by pondering some important questions. In fact, some of you may be particularly adept at answering these questions – especially those of you whose first language is not English. Here are the questions:

• Why do you have to “put your two cents in”, but it’s only a “penny for your thoughts?” Where did that extra penny go?

• Why are you “in a movie” but “on TV”?

• How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

• Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

• How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Now that I have your attention, I would like to proceed to the main theme of this address, our gratitude in the Society for thosemembers who apply their initiative, efforts and skills to help their fellow members. May I add that the list below is not exhaustive by any means; in general, it does not include the many people who have led and contributed to our chapters and communities of interest, who also deserve a big thanks from the Society.

And while I say thanks, I will highlight some of the main directions taken by the Society during the past year. I will take the list roughly alphabetically, bringing in others as appropriate

Blaxall – John Blaxall, our former president, has helped us hugely by assisting John Casey with the newsletter, by working with Bank officials to assure that retirees are not too inconvenienced by tightened security, and by revising our Survivors Guidewith the help of Liviu Alston of our French Chapter.

Bracher – Annabel Bracher, who manages our office, keeps us organized and on task with tact and good humor.

Denton – Hazel Denton is a wonderful example of how using initiative can result in a tremendous service. She organized the Retirement and Assisted Living Committee, which gave two successful seminars this year on at home care and on having fun in retirement. Thanks also to Guy de Lusignan and Sandra Hadler, who assisted her.

Eccles – Stephen Eccles has continued to represent our interests brilliantly on the Pension Finance Committee.

Fogle – Catherine Fogle, our able vice-president, has been of great overall help in leading the Society and in serving on our Insurance Committee.

Goris – Hayley Goris organized our annual arboretum tour, and continues to be a source of good common sense advice.

Hall – Frona Hall, who has led the Bank’s Ski Club for over thirty years, still finds time to serve on our Board, lead events (such as our summer dinner) and help out in the office.

Halperin – Ricardo Halperin, an outgoing board member and alternate to the Pension Finance Committee, headed an ad hoc group initially started by Hans Wyss, that led to a revision of our dues and additional clarity on our Finance Policies. He also had a big hand in our proposed bylaw revisions.

Jones – Charlotte Jones, our volunteer coordinator, maintains a list of volunteers for the Society, and helps find people when specific efforts are needed

Jones – David Jones, our auditor, performed a detailed audit of our 1818 Society finances; and, along with our former treasurer, Xavier Simon, and our current treasurer, Tauheed Ahmed, assured that our financial functions are performed with professionalism and good stewardship.

Kendall – John Kendall, our secretary, also headed our all important Insurance Committee. As such, he has played a leading role in our annual meeting with the Vice President of Human Resources, Xavier Coll. May I also take this moment to thank Xavier and to his associates, including Aulikki Kuusela and Fons Marcelis, for paying such close attention to our concerns.

Keyserlingk – Alex Keyserlingk, a Board member, our webmaster, and our Alternate to the Pension Benefit Administration Committee, headed a group on membership that resulted in the recommended bylaw amendments. These bylaw changes, by the way, which we hope you will approve, go a long way toward assuring that the Society is relevant to the needs of Bank retirees in the future.

Levy – Hernan Levy started helping the Society by carrying out important but mundane tasks in our office, and has continued by overseeing our events and providing excellent advice as a Board member. He and Greg Votaw had a big hand in conceptualizing our planned wine tour next week – a tour and luncheon that Janet Damron has organized to perfection. Regarding events, may I point out that we had two well attended luncheons in the past year presided over by President Wolfowitz, and Graeme Wheeler, Managing Director. In addition to Hernan, we have a small army of volunteers helping out with events, for which the Society is very grateful.

Meigher – Eva Meigher, our representative to the PBAC, has helped us with always sensible and practical legal guidance for many years – a function that has now been taken over by David Mead.

Nordlander – Karin Nordlander stepped up to the plate to lead the Florida Circle. They are planning some marvelous activities in February, a good time for a visit with your colleagues there.

Ritchie – Dan Ritchie took over the reins as head of our Nominating Committee and found excellent candidates for an enlarged slate.

Sigurddson – Sverrir Segurdsson and Veronica Li publish our bulletin right on time every other month. This publication is packed with announcements and useful information.

Shivakumar – Jay Shivakumar has led our efforts to have the Bank better utilize the experience and wisdom of its retirees in its ongoing work. Thanks also to Ram Chopra, an outgoing board member and many others who helped on these efforts. Thus far, results include a letter from WBI management that went to all task team leaders in WBI to use retirees to teach courses in the field. We continue to explore other avenues to assure that this mighty resource is used in an organized framework.

Takahashi – MasayoshiTakahashi and Yoshi Abe organized a new 1818 Society chapter in Japan. We offer our congratulations and welcome the Japanese chapter to our family.

Vaughn – Anne Vaughn has continued to manage our database, with the help of Bob Barger, Mieko Masudaand Olive Nash and she produced the directory of names and addresses, and the online directory – both of which are so useful to our members. May I take this moment to thank Van Pulley, the chief of GSD, and Jane Bloodworth, and the staff of the printshop in continuing to support these important publications.

Votaw – Greg Votaw, a former president, has continued to be source of excellent advice provided with consummate diplomacy.

Ziegler – Last (because his name starts with Z), Chuck Ziegler organized this meeting, restored order to our photo collection, and finds way to remind us and the Bank of its history.

This list is certainly not exhaustive; I have left off a number of others who help us on a regular basis. Perhaps by calling attention to these specific individuals and some of the varied tasks that they perform, I can encourage many of you to offer your initiative and your hard work on behalf of your fellow Bank retirees.