Retirees Club Minutes for Saturday, June 6, 2015
The 20th Annual Retiree Dinner and Recognition Ceremony was held in the Bluebonnet Ballroom of the E. H. Hereford University Center on Saturday, June 6, 2015. A 5pm reception was followed by dinner at 5:30pm.
Rita Thompson, president of the UTA Retirees club, welcomed everyone and introduced the officers. All of the current officers were re-elected at the May meetingfor 20015-20016. Officers include Rita Thompson, president; Bob Wegner, VP for programs; Larry Barcroft, VP for membership; Joyce Palmer, treasurer; Rosanne Minyard, secretary; Harley Courtney and Jerry Tees, program committee.
University President Vistasp Karbhari spoke about the strides being made by the university to achieve tier one status. Among other statistics, he noted that 10,000 degrees were recently awarded at the end of the spring term. He introduced Dr. Carolyn L. Cason from the College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Her presentation was titled “1984 is Coming, but Orwell had it All Wrong: Ubiquitous HealthMonitoring for Living Longer Independently”. Dr. Cason spoke about a collaboration between the College of Nursing, College of Engineering and Christian Care Senior Community to establish a smart apartment that can monitor an individual for changes which may effect that person’s health. The first smart apartment opened May 7, 2015. The apartment has two bedrooms, living room, kitchen and two bathrooms. The objective is to alert the participant to health changes before they become a problem. Some of the innovations include floors with sensors, keyless entry which opens with a finger print, coffee table which acts like an iPod, smart appliances in the kitchen, mattress with sensors and even sensors in the bathroom. The program is concerned with safety as well as privacy. The resident determines who will view the data (family member, doctor, etc.). There is a flat screen TV in every room, the second bedroom is a gym and the second bathroom contains the controls and can be entered from the outside if maintenance is required. After her presentation, Dr. Cason answered questions.
Rita Thompson presented two awards: Frank Gault was given the “Elwood Preiss Distinguished Retiree Service Award” and Harley Courtney was given the “Retirees Club Roll of Honor Award”. Rita then introduced Eunice Currie who recognized the new retirees for 2014-2015; Rita presented each with a token of appreciation and their pictures were taken.
Submitted by Rosanne Minyard, secretary