CUPA/ARUC serves to bring together retirees of Concordia University, both for social gatherings and to promote our interests as Concordia retirees, pensioners and golden-agers in general.

Latest News

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• A Message From Our President - April 30
  

  Dear Members,
  
  Following the message we sent out earlier this month regarding the postponement of the Spring Annual General Meeting and other matters, we received several responses, including about the general state of our pension plan. With respect to the latter and considering the impact on the economy of the Covid-19 pandemic, we felt a brief update concerning our pension plan would be appreciated.
  A University Pension Committee meeting was held on April 22. Our Executive Committee members Bryan Campbell and Hal Proppe report that the pandemic impact on the Concordia pension portfolio has been pronounced, with a decrease in its hedged value of 10.75%. But this drop should be seen in the context of overall market impact, which has been considerably higher (albeit with some reversals in the last two weeks).
  Comfort should be taken in the reality that the Plan has held up well under extreme circumstances. Moreover, we do not have (and are not close to having) a liquidity problem, which would force the sale of plan assets to meet liabilities. It should be emphasized that the number just quoted above reflects the performance of the Plan's publicly traded assets as of March 31. The results for the private equity components won't be known for another month or two. In the current climate it is best not to speculate about their direction.
  Finally, until these results are known, the Plan’s Pension Committee has delayed the usual announcement on whether there will be indexation this year. No date has been set for the announcement.
  We wish everyone the best and hope you are all doing well and staying safe.
  
  Warmest regards,
  Garry Milton

• A Message From Our President - April 5
  

  Dear members,
  
  In this difficult time, we hope that you, your family members and friends are well and staying safe.
  Normally at this time of year we would be preparing for our Spring Annual General Meeting and finalizing the Spring Newsletter package for mailing, which includes the membership renewal forms.
  Considering the current state of affairs, however, the Spring Annual General Meeting will be postponed until later in the year and our regular activities have been put on hold for the time being.
  The Executive Committee has been discussing Association matters, both amongst us and with various University offices, through email and by telephone. We will be in contact with you over the coming months with respect to the resumption of regular Association activities and any other information related to the CUPARUC community.
  On a reassuring note, Bryan Campbell and Hal Proppe, our two representatives on the University's Pension Committee, report that the losses of the publicly traded assets in the Plan's portfolio (i.e., some three quarters) amounted to 10% over the first three months of the year, which compares more than favourably with market declines of around 30% during this period. As well, the Plan's liquidity profile remains more than adequate to meet the Plan's obligations.
  On behalf of all the members of the Executive Committee, I want you to know that we are thinking of you and hope that all will be well for you, your family and friends.
  
  Warmest regards,
  Garry Milton, President, CUPARUC
  April 2, 2020

• Fall General Meeting + Holiday Luncheon
  
  Our Annual Fall General Meeting and Holiday Luncheon held on Wednesday, December 18, 2019 was a great success! We had a larger turnout than ever before!. The minutes of the meeting will be available in draft form soon. (They are not official until accepted at the next meeting.

• New Newsletter
  The November issue of the Newsletter (vol 29, no 2 - full version) is now available online. This newsletter contains information about our upcoming general meeting (Dec 18) and Holiday Luncheon, as well as ongoing updates about our pension plan and health benefits, our scholarships and our upcoming social activities, and the electronic payment option for membership dues, among many other topics. Included are pages 5-7 of the Newsletter.
  

• New! Electronic Payment of Dues (Via Interac)
  The Join/Renew link at the left has been completely updated! You may now download and send in the memberhip form in order to join, while sending in your dues electronically. To simply renew your membership and/or update your information, download the renewal form and follow the instructions. It is as simple as doing and Interac payment through your bank!
  

  CUPA Membership Form
  Annual Dues
  Souscription annuelle

• New Online Tools Coming Soon
  The Cuparuc Executive have been exploring ways to share individual, personal information with members. The first project will be a tool whereby members can see whether their annual dues are up to date. We will also add a secure documents page where we can share with members documents that we could not put out on the open Internet. These projects will require a “sign-in” section of the website, where members will have to put in their username and password. We plan on creating initial passwords for most members by using a combination of information we have on file for them. Members will be invited (with instructions on the site) to change their password to something more personal and secure as soon as they first gain access. Those for whom we cannot automatically create a password will be advised of their username and password individually. If anyone does not wish to participate in this project and does not wish to have a personal account on our website, please inform your webmaster, Roger Kenner, of this desire at roger@rogerkenner.ca Once members are comfortable with password-controlled section of the website, we hope to roll out other projects, such as on-line payment of dues and an online forum or bulletin board. More information will follow.

• NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS
  New security measures adopted by the University in January of 2016 made it impossible for us to continue to maintain our pensioners website on a Concordia server. The decision has been made to move our website to another server. Please note NEW ADDRESS below:

  http://CuparucConcordia.ca

  Please change all your links and shortcuts. The address is very much like the old one, except there is no period between cuparuc and concordia. Please note that there are two 'c' s together, in the middle of this address. The capital letters are optional and are provided only for clarity.

  Please note that, until we can place a re-direct page at the old address, you will continue to see a Cuparuc web page there, but it no longer be updated. (If you are unsure which you are looking at, check the date at the bottom of the opening page: It should read Feburary 19, 2016 or later.

• CUPARUC Scholarsips and Awards: A photo of some of this year's award recipients has been placed on the page at the left. There is no longer a specific box to check off to contribute to our award; you must check off "other" and then write in the name of our award in full: Concordia Retired Faculty and Staff Awards Endowment Fund.

• Scholarships and Awards
  Did you know your Association funds numerous graduate and undergraduate awards? Check out the new Awards page at the left for more information.

• Did you know that the Newsletter and Annual Minutes pages at the left include the entire collection, from the very first meeting? (There may remain a few gaps, as we cannot be sure of the number of newsletters published each year. Please help us if you have any of the missing material.

• Have we got your latest email address? Check the colour of your name on the Membership List to see if we have an email address on file for you. If you fear that we may not have your most up-to-date email address, send a note to Roger@RogerKenner.ca with your latest email address.