President's Message by Greg Walia It has been a bit hectic at RELAC the past couple of months. Arranging the horse racing event at Hollywood Park, Dodgers fireworks night, golf tournament at Los Verdes Course, regional meeting in San Diego, interviewing nominees for RELAC Board, general membership meeting in Canoga Park, etc. has kept us quite busy in serving our members (with pleasure). In addition, planning for future events such as horse racing at Santa Anita, regional meeting in Ventura, general membership meeting in West Covina and RELAC’s annual picnic in September are but a few examples of what keeps your Board and volunteers on committees busy. Board of Directors: Since RELAC had no volunteers who submitted a petition for a seat on its Board of Directors by the July 31 deadline, the slate of five nominees (mentioned in the last issue of the Newsletter) is now considered duly elected to serve their three-year terms on the Board beginning January 2011. Four of the five nominees are incumbent Directors. They are: • William de la Garza • Martin Golds • George Hernandez • Marianne Reich All four continue to do a fantastic job as chairs of various committees. We heartily welcome them back to serve you for another term. The fifth nominee and the new Director is David Muir. Dave retired in July 2009 from his position as LACERA’s Chief Counsel. In this capacity, Dave developed a high level of expertise in legislative matters. He was responsible for reviewing and analyzing all bills affecting LACERA and for assisting the Board of Retirement and/or Board of Investments in taking positions on bills that could have an impact on LACERA. He currently serves RELAC on its Bylaws/Nominations/Elections and Legislative committees. Dave’s expertise on issues affecting our retirees will be greatly welcomed. Congratulations Dave on your election to the RELAC Board. Budget and Membership: I’m pleased to report that at RELAC we continue to live within our budgetary limits without sacrificing quality service to our members. This has been possible through greater use of latest technology in office operations and making necessary budgetary adjustments and cuts as appropriate. Credit for this goes to various committee chairs for organizing and planning their activities with prudence and greater efficiency. As I’ve indicated in the past, enrolling new members continues to be a challenge for us. Good news is that concerted efforts by the Membership/Recruitment Committee have resulted in a slight increase in new member enrollments this year over the same period last year. Let us see if we can continue this trend. Your help in this effort is always welcome and much appreciated. Communicating and Volunteering: We continue to receive positive comments from our members about our Newsletter. Members also send us “thank you” for pocket calendars, Valentine day drawings and for birthday cards from those who are over ninety years young. We very much appreciate that. Also, we encourage you to send us your thoughts about how we can better serve you. You can do that via e-mail, by writing to us or by calling us at our toll free number, and please do consider volunteering your service on any of our several committees and helping your fellow retirees. A final thought: If you ever find yourself down or in a depressed mood, remember these four magical words: “THIS TOO SHALL PASS”. Stay Happy and Healthy.