UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH RETIREES ASSOCIATION UGRA Winter 2019 PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE In this issue This New Year is rolling along and there are so many interesting things coming up - good P2 CURAC Conference in things to anticipate while shovelling snow – or Guelph plotting an escape from the cold! We have Recent Retirees put up the website for our very big project, the CURAC 2019 Conference in Guelph, May 22- P3 2018 Fall Forum 24, 2019. CURAC is the College and University Retiree Association of Canada, and 2019 Spring Forum UGRA is a member. The national meeting will P4 Passings be right here at the University of Guelph! To see more about CURAC and the conference William Winegard go to https://www.curac.ca/newsletters/curacarucc- UGRA China Trip nl/nl-winter2019/ Adventure Why would you be interested? Well, this is P5 United Way and Time not just a business meeting of academic retiree to be Grapeful associations, it is a celebration of the kinds of Bird full registration fee is $180 plus tax P6 Classified Ads research and work that go on at the University (before April 15). Thereafter it is $200 plus of Guelph and in the Guelph community that tax. Your full registration fee covers all the Mark Your Calendars directly relate to our lives as senior citizens. events, plus continental breakfasts, lunches We start on the evening of Wednesday, May and breaks, the banquet and shuttle from the P7 Be a Contributing 22 with a welcoming reception at the Art hotel. If you can’t come for the full Member of the UGRA Gallery of Guelph, sponsored by the conference, UGRA members may join for free P8 Contact Us University. Thursday and Friday mornings will the afternoon event at the Library Archives have presentations and discussions in on Friday, May 24 starting at 1:00 p.m. as a Rozanski Hall on a wide range of topics such form of Spring Forum (see p.3). as: Age-friendly Cities, Food and Health, Pets There’s lots more on the go - pension and Health, those Gut Microbes and Health, discussions for one thing! You’ve heard a bit and (not to forget!) Sex and Health. The already about the move to a multi-employer, conference banquet will be on Thursday, May jointly sponsored plan, the UPP. For more 23 from 5:45 to 9:30 p.m. in the OAC information than you may need or want, the Arboretum Centre, with Doug Larson telling website for the new plan is stories and playing guitar, with his son Nathan www.universitypension.ca You will receive an on drums. There will be a chance to stroll in information package in the mail in early April, the Arboretum before dinner. The last event but the key thing to note is that if the joint on Friday will be in the University Archives at A plan is approved, your pension cheque is the Library, to learn about the fabulous special unchanged! Also interesting are some future collections there: Lucy Maud Montgomery, the Culinary Collection, Scottish Studies, and R more. We hope we might persuade you to register for this conference. Go to the UGRA website www.ugra.ca to register, then come to Guelph G for a May holiday, whether from close by or beyond. Accommodations can be arranged. It will be a good chance to explore the campus of Editor: Charlotte McCallum today and meet people from across the U country who are part of CURAC. The Early www.ugra.ca travel and social opportunities: China in generous support of retirees for the October for a major travel adventure (act University of Guelph United Way Recent Retirees soon if you are interested!) and other campaign and the UGRA Scholarship future events still in the planning stage. Fund. Again, THANK YOU! November 1, 2018 We want you to be part of all this! One In other news of interest, we appreciate Mary Abbott CME Dean’s Office thing you could consider is becoming part the support of the U of G’s Alumni Affairs Ketut Bestari Toxicology Centre of the UGRA Executive group. Our and Development department as we reach Brian Dobrindt Phys Res-CUP Annual General Meeting and elections out to retirees, because, as retirees, you are Rasim Duric CCS – IT Commun come up on Thursday, June 13th from 10- ALL considered to be alumni of the 12 am at the university’s Arboretum University of Guelph. We are also happy Ian Renaud Chemistry Centre. If you are interested in some that we recently have been able to December 1, 2018 active planning and participation, we’d be enhance our UGRA website through the Charles Cunningham Comm & PubAffairs happy to talk with you. We also have Computer and Communications Services Joanne Scheuer Sch of Langs & Lit opportunities for people willing to help (CCS) at U of G. This allows us to follow January 1, 2019 with specific projects or events, so let’s best practices for making web talk! communications more accessible. In all, Elizabeth Stone Clinical Studies an interesting and exciting year for Some people who are tremendously Lilian Adviento LSD-BDO & Finance UGRA, and we hope you can find a way to important to UGRA are our Contributing Ken Andrews Phys Res – Custodial join in. Let us know your thoughts and Members. For just $25 a year (more if you ideas about how we can keep in contact, Lisa Cauley Student Finance wish!), you keep us in operation! to work – and play – together! Elaine Crawford PR/SHS Environ THANK YOU! We accept cheques, PayPal, or cash at our events – and always Roz Stevenson, President, UGRA Janet Ferguson AVP Agrifood with a smile! We also are grateful for the Rashmi Jadeja G360 Donna Kangas OVC Shared Services William King Biomed Sciences CURAC Conference Janet MacInnes Pathobiology May 22-24, 2019 Sharon Sharpe Phys Res – Custodial Bin Zeng Molecular & Cellular UGRA, or the University of Guelph Retirees Association, is proud to host the February 1, 2019 2019 Conference and AGM of the College Clifford Morrison UC Building Mgmt and University Retiree Associations of Deborah France Office of the CIO Canada/Associations de retraités des universités et collèges du Canada (CURAC/ARUCC), May 22 to 24 on the U of G’s renowned Library Archives will University of Guelph campus. also be in the spotlight at the conference, Come join us in Guelph, the Royal City, as with a session at the Library offering an retiree association members from across inside look at the famed Lucy Maud the country gather to share ideas and Montgomery Collection, as well as the information and also to participate in a highly respected Scottish Studies, Culinary series of educational sessions geared to History and Theatre collections. Titled retirement life. This year’s sessions focus Collecting the Past for the Future, it on health, a major area of research features Kathryn Harvey, Head of Archival strength at the University of Guelph. and Special Collections and can be attended as our usual Spring Forum and is Speakers will include Prof. Emma Allen- therefore free for UGRA members. Vercoe, a U of G microbiologist who is world-renowned for her research on the For more information about the microbial world inside the human gut. conference and how to register online, Other session topics include sexual health visit either the UGRA or CURAC and aging, age-friendly cities and the websites given above. Non-internet users health benefits of interacting with dogs. may use the contact information on page 8 The full program is given on the UGRA to reach the Membership executive board www.ugra.ca and CURAC www.curac.ca member, who can then give direction. websites. Winter 2019 UGRA 2 demand for visits to daycare, hospital, long-term care facilities and to schools. UGRA Fall Forum (and universities at exam time!) The teams make time-limited visits of about 1- dog hour, for a total of 60 hours a year. always needed to help with events and 2018 Fall Forum - Some child-certified therapy dogs go to administration, to cuddle cats, act as libraries to take part in PAWS for Stories , Companion Animals drivers, and more. In 2019, the Guelph as kids with reading difficulties read to a Humane Society will break ground for its and You dog! So, as Sid says, “Get a dog!” new home on Hanlon Creek Boulevard, a The weather on Thursday November facility that will be three times larger in Many thanks to all the speakers and 15th, 2018 wasn’t the nicest for a trip to size to meet increasing intakes and needs. participants for a tremendous program and the Arboretum Centre, but the folks who definitely a new look at animal Tracey Robertson from the Home Hospice did make it there were “doggone glad” companions! Association and co-founder of the Bello they did! The theme of the UGRA Fall Project was the second speaker. Many Roz Stevenson Forum, organized by Cathy Ralston and hearts were touched by stories of how pets Charlotte McCallum, was “Companion P.S. Companion dogs is one of the responded with grief at the loss of a Animals and You.” First we heard from presentation themes of the May CURAC beloved human companion and the form Deborah Lobbezoo and Alyson Reynolds Conference. Don’t miss it! those grief journeys took. The Home of the Guelph Humane Society, a Hospice Association, with branches across venerable institution founded in 1893 Canada, is not about providing hospice which provides shelter and care for about care for pets, but rather about the 3000 animals each year.