President’s Message

by Gerry Schaus

Gerry Schaus

Gerry Schaus

While I sit down now and write this note to members, I remain President of WLURA for another few weeks, but I anticipate that when you get to read this, I’ll be “Past President,” and either someone else will be introducing him or herself to you as “President,” or the position will be vacant and the organization will be facing a bit of a slippery patch. At the last Executive meeting in March, I asked for volunteers for people to sit on a nominating committee to replace Joan Kilgour as Secretary and me as President. No one stepped forward just to sit on the nominating committee—forget about volunteering to stand for Secretary or President! I console myself, I suppose, by accepting that it’s the nature of the organization, during times of Covid, that retirees are just that, retiring from common activities of all kinds. Still, it’s been a pleasure and very rewarding to serve as WLURA President, and my successor, if one is found, will find the Association in good shape financially and heading in a good direction in terms of its mission. The new student bursary sponsored by WLURA to help financially strapped WLU undergrads is a sign of that good direction. Please consider making a donation to it! Some students really need you.

Thank you to all who have helped keep the Association running over the past four years, especially Frank Millerd, as Past President, whom I have relied on regularly for advice and tasks of many kinds. The Association owes him a special debt of gratitude. As for me, besides continuing to help the organization as Past President, I intend to work on several on-going research projects that were committed to years ago. I hope to finish one of them, but am not so sure about two others. The clock’s ticking and we know what that means. It would be nice to do some vacation travelling with my wife rather than always going on work-related trips. We had one stretch of 14 years without a family vacation, as I recall, and other stretches that weren’t quite that long, but still vacationless. I’d like to see the Grand Canyon some day, if it weren’t in a country I’m trying to avoid! There’s always my old stomping ground, the Maritimes, that still holds a warm place in my heart. So much to do, so little time.

Let me close by encouraging every member of the WLU Retirees’ Association to enjoy the many benefits of your membership and keep an eye open for a chance to help the Association when it needs you. Let’s hope that the WLU President’s holiday dinners begin again this year, in early December, the pandemic now waning, so we can all get together and remember our years of working for a great employer with a wonderful group of colleagues and friends. So, wishing everyone a fun and safe summer,