Coalition of Oak Ridge Retired Employees
Minutes of Annual Meeting
September 26, 2:00 p.m.
Heritage Fellowship Church
Oak Ridge, Tennessee
Approimately 500 people were in attendance at the meeting. Copies
of the final agenda were handed to attendees at the door.
Attached to the agenda were (1) Biosketches of current and nominated
Board members; and (2) Letter-writing information provided by Pete
Lotts. The “Members Speak” segment of
CORRE’s DVD was shown at 1:30 prior to start of the meeting at
2:00 p.m.
1. Welcome and Announcements.
Sandy Dean welcomed those present, and noted the various media centers
in the lobby as follows: Join CORRE, DVD display,
Letter-Writing Information, ATLC Medical Program, E-Mail Signup Sheets,
and Communication (website and blog). She urged retirees to try
to recruit more members for CORRE. She expressed
appreciation to Heritage Fellowship for allowing us to use their
excellent facility.
2. Report to CORRE Members.
A 9-minute DVD containing segments of the DOE meeting last year at
Pellissippi State was shown. It contained portions of the speech
by Ingrid Kolb of DOE-HQ and portions of Dave Reichle’s response,
along with the reaction of the retirees in the audience.
President Dave Reichle also welcomed retirees and emphasized that we
need more members. He stated that he wished very much that he
could bring good news to retirees, but that he could not. He
noted that Ingrid Kolb had stated more than a year ago that DOE was not
in a position to grant increases to retirees, and DOE is apparently
still firm on that position. He gave a brief review of
CORRE’s history, and told of all the things the Board has done in
the past year to try to achieve our goals. A copy of his talk
will be posted on our website.
3. Introduction of Guest Speakers.
Pete Lotts, Chairman of the Government Relations Committee, stated that
we invited Senators Alexander and Corker, and Congressmen Davis,
Duncan, and Wamp to come and speak, but they were all in Washington
since Congress is in session. Staffers who spoke briefly were
Beth Hickman of Congressman Davis’ office, and David Leverton of
Senator Corker’s office. Jonathan Griswold of Congressman
Duncan’s office had planned to be present, but suffered an injury
and could not attend. Gina Broom of Congressman Wamp’s
office was present, and Dave Reichle read a statement from Congressman
Wamp. Statements were read by Joe Setaro from Congressmen Duncan
and by Pete Lotts from Senator Alexander. All of these statements
will be posted on our website.
4. What Members Can Do.
Pete Lotts called attention to the letter-writing information that was
attached to the agenda, as well as that displayed in the lobby.
He urged retirees not to give up hope, to continue to have faith that
we will eventually be successful in our efforts, but strongly
emphasized that we will be successful only “with works” by
all our members.
5. Report of Nominating Committee.
Bob Worrell read the names of the 15 nominees chosen by the
Committee. He said that these, along with the 7 persons
continuing for a year, would make the total of 22 Board members which
are allowed by our Bylaws. The 15 are nominated for two-year
terms (2008-2009).
6. Election of New Board Members.
President Dave Reichle called for nominations from the floor, and Dick
Gammage nominated Pete Dittner. Dittner was present, is a CORRE
member, and agreed to the nomination. Since this made 16 nominees
for only 15 available slots, Reichle announced that we needed to go to
paper ballots. Ballots were distributed to members, who marked
them and left them in a ballot box as they exited the church. The
261 ballots were later counted by members of the CORRE Executive
Committee. All nominees except Pete Dittner were elected to
two-year terms, with votes as follows:
Mike
Bradshaw 250
Bob Keil
249 Pete
Peterson 250
Joyce Conner
246 Keith
Kibbe 247
Larry Pierce 242
Sandy
Dean
246 Dave
Mason 248
Dub Shults 246
Pete
Dittner
70 Ed Mee
248
Bob Worrell 252
Lou Dunlap
247
Ken Moore
242 Paula Wright
245
Marty Goolsby 245
7. Questions from Audience. Dave Reichle responded to numerous questions from the audience.
Several reporters were present for the meeting, and both the Knoxville
News Sentinel and The Oak Ridger had very good coverage the next day,
with several photos. Contributions were received for 59
DVDs, 10 new members signed up, and about 60 people signed the e-mail
list to receive Newsletters to be published by Marty Goolsby.
Mary Helen Rose,
CORRE Secretary
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