IPERS IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATION MEETING MINUTES
JUNE 26, 2024 @ 11:00 A.M.
SAINTS AVENUE CAFÉ, BOONE, IA
The meeting was called to order by President Bill Maas @ 11:10 A.M.
Members present: Steve Williams, Andrew Hennesy, Bruce Hovden, John Deegan, Phil Johnson, Bill Maas, Doug Olson and Jean Keller.
APPROVAL OF AGENDA WITH FLEXIBILITY
Motion to approve: Bruce Hovden Seconded By: John Deegan
All ayes: Motion carried.
APPROVAL OF APRIL 10, 2024 BOARD MINUTES
After perusal of the minutes Doug Olson stated his name wasn’t included in the members present. Otherwise, the minutes were set for approval.
Motion to approve with correction: Steve Williams Seconded By: Andrew Hennesy
All ayes: motion carried.
TREASURERS/MEMBERSHIP REPORT
Jean Keller, Treasurer, stated there are 620 dues paying members currently. Our CD comes due on July 1. We have $9553.22 in this account and have an interest rate of 5.45%. Our checking account is $6,331.58. At this time last year we had 644 memberships, so we need to get more members.
WEBSITE UPDATE/MEMBERSHIP IDEAS
Bill Maas stated he was going to speak with someone at the Dickinson County Hospital to encourage their employees to join the association, He stated he didn’t realize they pay into IPERS. Discussion centered around whether we should raise dues. When was the last time dues were raised? No one knew the answer to this question as everyone has been paying the $12.00 for as long as they’ve been members. If we don’t have a good number of memberships, we could possibly lose our representation on the Benefits Advisory Committee. We are the only BAC representatives who solely and purely represent our members. How do we keep encouraging new people to become members. Would it be beneficial to have EFT’S available for new members. Younger people tend to pay for everything electronically. Bill Maas will discuss with Linda Linn if it’s possible to include a link on our website for this.
BAC COMMITTEE REPORT
They haven’t had a meeting, but their next meeting is to be a Zoom meeting in July.
They will be discussing enhancing the Sheriffs and Deputies benefits. They are currently funded at 100%, so they’re looking at possibly adding COLA to their benefits.
The discussion will center around what potential costs could be associated with this.
The IPERS fund is currently at $43 billion. The legislative bill which would have created a separate fund for some “windfall” state funds was defeated this legislative session.
This bill mentioned having the IPERS board manage this new fund, but it had some major pushback from taxpayers. Anyway, the IPERS fund is continuing to meet our benchmarks and is doing well financially. If it continues performing well then it should reach its goal of being 100% fully funded quicker.
ANNUAL MEETING
October 16 is the date set for the annual meeting. We have decided not to have speakers again this year as we haven’t had many members attend this meeting. If members do attend, we plan to have a question-and-answer discussion.
BOARD MEMBERSHIP
Jean Keller stated she’d received notification from Julie Conolly that she was resigning from the board. Gary Davis also represents this area, so we aren’t losing anyone. We still need a representative from the Southeast district of the state. Bill Maas is going to contact Nancy Porter or John Heronimus from this area to see if either would be
interested or if they could suggest someone from the area.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion to adjourn: John Deegan Seconded by: Bruce Hovden
All ayes: Motion carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 11:55.
Respectfully submitted by
Jean Keller, IIA Secretary/Treasurer