OCRA’s 18th General Meeting at Niagara College on June 26 was a huge success. Beautiful venue, fantastic food, great speakers, fun wine tours and lots of visiting with old friends. We had registrants from nine colleges and it’s always interesting to hear what each college is up to. Big thanks to Lindsey Hendriks, Niagara’s event planner extraordinaire, who stayed onsite throughout the meeting to make sure everything ran smoothly.

I love that we had the opportunity to hear directly from our key partners. Evan Howard and Mike Dawson from CAAT Pension Plan provided an engaging talk that updated us on the state of our retirement plan. It’s comforting to note that our pension is 124% funded and that they’ve seen a 9.3% growth over the past 10 years, even given the uncertainties of the markets. Mike Vannelli and Stephen Lee Kam, our contacts at the College Employer Council (CEC), had not attended a GM for a few years but were back to give a great presentation that covered the history of the Sun Life benefits plan and to explain some recent coverage decisions. We had many questions from the floor and have sent these along for further clarification. Stay tuned for their responses. CEC will be starting a review of their current Sun Life benefits plan this fall and OCRA has been invited to participate. We look forward to this opportunity.

Yvonne Brady from belairdirect (formerly Johnson Insurance) was a hit with attendees. She provided lots of tips and tricks around comparing travel plans and making sure you have the right one for your needs. I strongly recommend that you check out the Medoc product from belairdirect. As an OCRA member, you can purchase as part of a group plan and that makes things more affordable. On a personal note, my husband and I had reason to use emergency medical this past spring when travelling to Mallorca. The service and support we received was outstanding.

Our keynote speaker was David DiPietro who handles business development for the Research and Innovation division of Niagara College. David’s engaging presentation certainly opened my eyes to the importance of applied research in the College sector to the local economy as well as to the student learning experience.

I’m also very pleased to report that we now have a full complement of members on our Board. Susan Alcorn-MacKay from Cambrian College and Stu Black from Niagara College were elected as new Board members for OCRA. Welcome aboard Susan and Stu!

Finally, thanks to the all the members of the OCRA Board, especially Yvonne Glenville, Doug Willford and Marilyn McDermott, who worked tirelessly to ensure that the GM ran smoothly.

Barb Watts
OCRA President