For Retirees

Opportunities in Retirement Network

The Committee for Opportunities in Retirement Network (ESS-ORN) was formed in 2009 to learn about the interests/needs of ESS members who are retired or contemplating retirement, to represent and further their interests in the ESS, and to serve as a resource for those who are contemplating retirement.  It provides a means for maintaining and furthering professional and social connections and furthers scholarship on aging and retirement by providing a forum for the discussion of research.  From 2010 to 2016 we held informal workshops at the annual ESS meetings.  In 2017 we were recognized as a special interest committee by the ESS Council and we held our first organizing meeting at the annual ESS meetings in Philadelphia on February 22, 2017.

Direct questions to Susan Prager at [email protected].

Susan Prager, Chair, Acting Advisory Board, ESS-ORN

MINUTES ESS-ORN BUSINESS MEETING MARCH 15, 2018 PHILADELPHIA

Susan Prager, Brooklyn College, CUNY Ret. chaired the meeting.

She began by welcoming the attendees and expressing appreciation to the ESS staff, especially Emily McMahon for their support and assistance.

Next, she distributed a paper which had a brief history of ESS-ORN, as well as the mission statement which was approved by ESS Council in winter 2017 and the agenda for this meeting.

The first order of business is to discuss and approve proposed by-laws.

Bylaws were discussed and approved and can be found below.

Membership is open to all members of ESS.

Four members of executive board will take office at the annual 2020 meeting. Two will have two year terms and two three year terms.

The executive board will be responsible for organizing paper sessions, recruiting nominees for the Board, contributions to website, and working with the ESS staff.

The last item of business was the selection of an Acting Executive Board which consists of Susan Prager, Brooklyn College, Ret. Chair, Mitra Das, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Linda Lyttle Holstrom, Boston College, Ret and Ronald Taylor, University of Connecticut, Ret.

Chair reminded attendees that our paper session would follow at 3:30.

There was no other business and the meeting was adjourned.

Our paper session:
Faculty Retirement Transition Programs: An Assessment, Ronald L Taylor, University of Connecticut
Retirement: Exiting Academia, Mitra Das, University of Massachusetts Lowell
But I Need My Money Now: A Stratified Propensity Score Analysis of the Effects of Retirement Decisions made During the Great Recession on Income Mobility Dillon Kline, University of Connecticut
Susan Prager, Organizer, Presider and Discussant.

UNAPPROVED

MINUTES BUSINESS MEETING 2019 ESS-ORN

BOSTON MARCH 15 2019

Minutes of 2018 meeting were approved.

Chair announced that our paper session will be held on Friday, March 15 3:30-5:00PM Franklin. It is entitled Aspects of Caregiving: Experience and Research.

Fictive Kin: Other Mother and Ghosting in Old Age. Roberta Spalter-Roth, George Mason University
Telling My Story: Family Work and Care. Mitra Dass, University of Mass, Lowell
A Trio on Retirement: Research and Findings; Personal Experience; the Special Case of Academics, Lotte Bailyn, MIT Sloan School of Management
Susan Prager, Organizer, Presider, Discussant

NEW BUSINESS

Motion to accept recommendation of chair to amend by-laws as follows was made, seconded and approved:

Four members of executive board will take office at the annual 2021 meetings.
We discussed ways of generating interest in ESS-ORN, getting speakers, people to serve on the Board and people to attend our sessions. It was agreed that Chair will contact departments with graduate programs in gerontology to see if some of their students might want to present papers. She will try to obtain such a list from the ESS, if they don’t have one she will contact the ASA.

A few names were suggested for Chair to contact and she will follow through.

A possible topic for next year might be Aging through the Life Course.

Meeting adjourned

May 2018
REPORT ON 2018 ESS-ORN (Opportunities in Retirement Network) MEETINGS AT THE ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE ESS.

ESS-ORN held its first formal sessions at the 2018 ESS annual meetings in Baltimore February 22-25 2018.  We had two events: a paper session and a business meeting. 

PAPER SESSION

The paper session was held on February  24th.  Three papers were presented, two of which are directly relevant to academics.  The first Faculty Retirement Transition Programs: An Assessment by Ronald L Taylor, University of Connecticut, discusses two pieces of research, one by A.C.E. (American Academy of Education) and the other by the presenter.  Both of these look at best practices of universities for supporting faculty first as they prepare for retirement and then after retirement. The second Retirement: Exiting Academia by Mitra Das, University of Massachusetts Lowell focuses on the decline of faculty power as a corporate model of management becomes more dominant in universities.  For senior faculty this frequently results in high levels of stress and retirement as soon as possible.

The last But I Need My Money Now: A Stratified Propensity Score Analysis of the Effects of Retirement Decisions made During the Great Recession on Income Mobility Zachary Dillon Kline, University of Connecticut discusses the circumstances under which people decide to withdraw money from their pensions prior to retirement.

The session was organized and presided over by Susan Prager, who also served as discussant. 

BUSINESS MEETING

The business meeting was held after the paper session. Susan Prager, Brooklyn College, CUNY Ret. chaired the meeting.  She began the meeting by welcoming the attendees and expressing appreciation to the ESS staff, especially Emily Mahon for their support and assistance.  Next, she distributed a paper which had a brief history of ESS-ORN as well as the mission statement which was approved by ESS Council in spring 2017. (These can be found at the end of this report). 

She then pointed out that we had two pieces of business.  One is to discuss and  approve proposed by-laws and the other is to appoint an Acting Advisory Board.  This group would organize the paper session for the 2019 ESS meetings in Boston and plan for the election of officers who will to take office at the 2020 meetings. The proposed By-Laws (below) were discussed and approved.

By-Laws:

Membership is open to all members of ESS

Four members of executive board will take office at the annual 2020 meetings. Two will have two year terms and two three year terms. 

The executive board will be responsible for organizing paper session, recruiting nominees for the Board, contributions to website, and working with the ESS staff

The last item of business was the selection of an Acting Executive Board which consisted of Susan Prager, Chair, as well as Linda Lyttle Holstrom, Boston College, ret; Ronald Taylor, University of Connecticut, ret  and Mitra Das, University of Massachusetts Lowell

There was no other business and the meeting was adjourned.

Report written by Susan B Prager Brooklyn College, CUNY ret.

BRIEF HISTORY

ESS – ORN (Opportunities in Retirement Network) was formed in 2009 by a group of retirees (Jon Darling, Roz Darling, Linda Lyttle Holstrom, Natalie Sokoloff and Peter Stein).  Their goal was to learn about the interests/needs of ESS members who are retired or contemplating retirement, to represent them and to provide a means for maintaining and furthering professional and social connections.   In addition, ESS -ORN was to be an arena for informal discussions of issues people faced in retirement and how they dealt with them, as well as a forum for a discussion of research on retirement. I joined in 2010.

From 2010 until 2016, we held informal meetings during the ESS annual meetings.  In 2016, it was proposed that ESS-ORN be recognized as a Special Interest Committee under Article 111 section 3 of the ESS constitution.  In 2017 Council agreed.  This provides us with a formal structure to ensure continuity as well as a mechanism for planning sessions at meetings.  We held an organizing meeting in Philadelphia at the 2017 meetings, at which Susan Prager agreed to organize the paper session for 2018 and draft By-Laws to be submitted at the 2018 business meeting. 

MISSION STATEMENT APPROVED BY ESS COUNCIL 2017  

The purpose of the committee to be called Committee for Opportunities in Retirement Network is to learn about the interests/needs of ESS members who are retired or contemplating retirement, to represent and further their interests in the ESS, and to serve as a resource for those who are contemplating retirement.  It will provide a means for maintaining and furthering professional and social connections and will further scholarship on aging and retirement by providing a forum for the discussion of research.   It will be a special committee formed under Article III section 3 of constitution.

Members will be recruited by an annual email blast to those paying at the retirees level as well those paying at the full rate in order to attract those who are contemplating retirement.

Please contact me if you have any questions or comments 

Susan Prager at [email protected]