The TI Alumni Association held its first Annual Membership Meeting May 18 at the Texins Center, with 160 TI retirees in attendance. The meeting saw the newly formed association electing officers and approving its by-laws and constitution, and included an outstanding presentation on TI’s business by TI Senior Vice President Steve Leven.
Members approved the appointments made by the Nominating Committee, and installed the following officers:
- President – Max Post;
- Executive Vice President – Carl Skooglund;
- Secretary – Ronnie Brandenburg;
- Treasurer – Anita Stinchcombe.
The new officers will officially assume their responsibilities on July 1 and will serve one-year terms
Those attending the meeting were given a demonstration of the TI Alumni website, which offers updated information of interest to all TI retirees. Perhaps the most exciting news of the day came with the latest update on new memberships. As of May 18, the TIAA membership head count stood at 1,041. “We had hoped that we could, possibly, have 300 members by the end of this year,” explains Max Post, who chaired the association’s Steering Committee. “We looked at what other clubs were doing in terms of membership, and what we were mailing out. If you get a two percent response on a mail-out, it’s pretty good.” However, the overwhelming response shows more than a 10 percent return. “We were astounded,” Max admits. “We’ve been very pleased with the kind of response we’ve gotten and the interest shown in what we are creating. It shows that the retirees of TI do want to get together more frequently, they do want to be involved in more activities and education.”
The Internet has gone a long way toward facilitating the association’s startup; more than 300 of the memberships have been online registrations. When a press release went out in May, and appeared on Internet business sites, including Yahoo.com, Max says there was a noticeable jump in membership applications. “One of the things we are seeing through all of this is the power of the Internet to pull retirees together,” he says. “The comments we have received from the web site have been very positive, and that is a good resource to bring people together.”
Pictures from this meeting are available here.