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HP/AGILENT ALUMNI CLUB NEWSLETTER HP/AGILENT ALUMNI CLUB MINUTES – 5/5/2009
The May 5, 2009 meeting of the HP/Agilent Alumni Club was called to order at 1:35 pm by President Joetta Hoewisch. The minutes for the last meeting, as published in the newsletter, were approved as written and filed.
Treasurer Laura Mattison said, “Good afternoon, I am so sorry I didn’t make it to last month’s meeting. I had a wonderful Easter ensemble to show all of you. I even spent less of your $$ this year. But I will show you my fantastic Mother’s Day Hat! I think they plan to surprise me with a fishing/sandwich outing. Thanks to those who sent ‘Get Well’ cards, the many phone calls I received, and prayers for a speedy recovery. You can see it all worked! A special thanks to Lois, Joetta and Mark for filling in for me. Now to the real business at hand. We have 192 members and two new ones today. We have $138.58 in checking and $1,567.31 in our savings, for a total balance of $1,705.89.”
There were 50 attendees. They are: Jan Allen, Mary Lou and Les Bailey, Steve Balsiger, Pat Bestgen, Delphine Bieszard, George Blinn, Linda Boettcher, Claudia and Roger Christiansen, Kathy Colyer, June Fritz, Molly Gauss, Lois Green, Don Griffith, Juanita Hartman, Lela Havens, Joetta Hoewisch, Carol Kibel, Anna and Steve Kochis, Patricia Korenke, Laura and Freeland Mattison, Peggy McClellan, Wanda and Gerry McGonigle, Lorraine and John Meredith, Anne and Bob Miranda, Jerry Murphy, Ken Nichols, Barbara Parsons, Betty Rodosevich, Wanda Rogers, Velma and Ernie Rossmanith, Chuck Smart, Mark Smith, Greg Tarza, Joe Tighe, Jose Trujillo, John Tulloch, Helen Von Gunden, Evelyn Wall, Randy Walters, Niles Whalen, Gerry White, and Laura Winter.
There are currently194 members in the HP/Agilent Alumni Club.
Visitors: Linda Boettcher, a member for some time, is attending her first meeting. John Meredith, retired from the Tech Center, is attending with his wife, Lorraine.
May Birthdays: Connie Pettit, May 9 Harold Anderson, May 11 Ira Ward, May 11 Phyllis Davis-Haefner, May 12 Carole Passmore, May 14 Freeland Mattison, May 17 Marlys Blinn, May 19 Larry Ketterer, May 21 Wanda Rogers, May 24 Donald Whiteman, May 24 Harry Short, May 28 John Powell, May 29 Gerry White, May 30
Anniversaries: Linda and Keith Boettcher celebrate 37 years of marriage on May 20th.
Health Announcements: Betty Hendren says hello to everyone and mentioned that she saw Gracie Powelson who is struggling with arthritis. Gracie resides in Tucson, Arizona.
In Memoriam: Robert Sorensen, 82, passed away Monday, April 27, 2009. After retiring from the Army, Bob worked at Hewlett-Packard, as many of us remember. He was a member of our club and we send our sincere condolences to his wife of 57 years, Eva, and their three daughters.
Program: Chuck Smart, Baby Boom Fitness Vice President Mark Smith introduced the speaker, Chuck Smart, who worked for HP/Agilent for 35 years, retired in 2006, and recently joined our club. He has been a lifelong athlete and has started his personal training business, Baby Boom Fitness. Here are some of the things he covered in his presentation.
A few definitions: Metabolism: The total of all the chemical and physical processes by which the body builds and maintains itself (anabolism), and by which the body breaks down substances for the production of energy (catabolism). Osteoporosis: The thinning of bone tissue and loss of bone density over time. Osteoporosis occurs when the body fails to form enough new bone, or when too much old bone is reabsorbed by the body, or both. Disuse: Medical term referring to the lack of use, often resulting in atrophy.
Muscle Loss Studies have shown that Americans tend to lose lean body mass each decade of life, by 2-10% per decade over age 30. Frequently used muscles (i.e., long term, moderate activity) will maintain status quo, and muscle fiber pushed to its limits will grow and maintain strength.
Bone Mass Decline The age-related decline in bone mass (i.e., the decrease in mineral content) leaves older adults with a less dense skeleton, resulting in a higher risk of fractures. When this risk reaches a critical point, the condition is called osteoporosis.
Heart muscle strength, elasticity of blood vessels, hardening of the arteries (arteriosclerosis) and high blood pressure are all age related maladies. Of all the age related effects, cardio vascular system decline is responsible for more death than any other system. Frequent exercise and healthy diet have been proven , over many years and many studies, to drastically improve the decline of cardio vascular health in adults.
Exercise can be divided into two big pieces: cardio and resistance training. Cardio exercise improves your heart muscle, as well as your lungs and vascular muscles. With cardio exercise, you train in an aerobic training zone based on a percentage of your maximal heart rate. Good cardio exercises include: walking, jogging, biking, swimming, working out on a treadmill, riding a stationary bike or climbing a StairMaster, rowing, jumping rope, cross-country skiing, dancing, climbing, kicking, as in Judo or Karate, etc.
Resistance training is essentially the process of breaking down atrophied, disused muscle fiber into healthy, invigorated muscle fiber. Muscle fiber falls into three categories: 1) cardiac muscle, muscle with the amazing characteristic of very low fatigue levels; 2) smooth muscle, the walls of arteries and lymphatic vessels function with this type of muscle; and 3) skeletal muscle, the muscle that provides all the forms of movement in the body. There is only one way to add lean muscle fiber, and that is to move something, using skeletal muscles that resists your movements. Methods of resistance training include weight training, calisthenics, flexible tubing, plyometrics, and isometrics, to name a few.
It has been shown that 60% of people over the age of 65 do not get enough physical activity. The American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association provide the following guidelines for the minimum amount of exercise recommended: Moderately intense cardio (like power walking) 30 minutes a day, five days a week, or vigorously intense cardio (like running) 20 minutes a day, three times a week. It’s OK to get the 30 minutes of cardio in three different 10-minute sessions. Eight to 10 different strength-training exercises (such as push-ups or stomach crunches), done 8-12 times each, twice a week, are recommended, and, if you’re over 65, try to add flexibility exercises (such as stretching) at least twice a week along with balance exercises to reduce the risk of injury from falls.
Regular physical activity reduces people’s risk for heart attack, colon cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure and may reduce the risk of stroke. It also helps to control weight, contributes to healthy bones, muscles and joints, reduces falls among older adults, helps to relieve the pain of arthritis, reduces symptoms of anxiety and depression, and is associated with fewer hospitalizations, physician visits and medication.
Physical activity need not be strenuous to be beneficial. For example, adults of all ages benefit from moderate-intensity physical activity, such as 30 minutes of brisk walking six days of the week.
Chuck concluded his presentation with the Mayo Clinic’s list of Seven Benefits of Regular Physical Activity: 1) Exercise improves your mood, 2) Exercise combats chronic diseases, 3) Exercise helps you manage your weight, 4) Exercise strengthens your heart and lungs, 5) Exercise promotes better sleep, 6) Exercise can put the spark back into your sex life, and 7) Exercise can be fun!
Chuck was asked if people come to him for training. He responded that he comes to clients’ homes, provides a health assessment which includes a blood pressure check and resting heart rate to determine the best fitness program. He can also bring fitness equipment needed to start an exercise program. He received enthusiastic applause from the audience. Chuck’s website is www.babyboomfitness.biz and his phone number is 719-660-2569 for anyone who wishes to contact him.
NEW BUSINESS Gerry McGonigle, as associate editor of our monthly newsletter, informed club members that the printing and mailing costs of the newsletter, which until recently have been covered by Agilent Technologies, will now become the responsibility of our club. Gerry reported that it costs the club about $64 a month to print and mail the 100 or so copies for members who do not receive the newsletter electronically through an email address. That $64 cost includes $24 for printing, thanks to Joetta, who found a supplier at about half the rate of most print facilities. Since it will cost $8 per recipient a year to mail the newsletters and our dues are $5, it is obvious that we will have to make changes in the future. In the meantime, a motion is needed to authorize club funds to be used to cover these printing and mailing costs.
A discussion was held with various questions and suggestions: How about going to every other month publication? Are many people getting the newsletter by email? (About half of the members receive electronic copies, and about half receive paper copies.) The club should not deplete its funds by paying costs for the rest of the year. Can we put a notice in the newsletter giving people the option to switch from paper to electronic? Why not charge for getting the newsletter, $1 extra a month? Maybe we should raise the dues before the end of the year. The process of collecting dues takes months, sometimes six or more. How long does it take the board to make this decision? Why can’t we pay for a couple of months and then have a solution? A lot of the people getting the newsletter by mail are long-time members without a computer and least likely to easily afford the extra charge. Should they be left out if only electronic newsletters are sent out? The 50/50 pot was originally meant for half to the club to help defray meeting costs. Can we return to that practice instead of having two winners each month? Who gets to see email addresses? (A concern was expressed about email addresses being made public.) Our dues are so cheap, can’t we just raise them to cover the extra costs? Could we have dues based on whether the member receives a paper newsletter? Don’t make our treasurer keep track of who pays what dues amount. Sometimes people will send in a little extra money for postage or turn back a prize to help with club costs. Following a lengthy discussion, Gerry asked if there was a motion. Niles Whalen made a motion to pay roughly $500 out of the club treasury for printing and mailing costs for the newsletter during the remainder of the 2009 year. Ken Nichols seconded the motion. Further discussion ensued. Roger Christiansen proposed that we go back to using half of the 50/50 pot to help defray printing and postage costs. Molly Gauss seconded the motion. The discussion continued. Niles then asked for his motion to come to a vote. Members were asked to vote by show of hands. There were 22 votes for the motion and 21 against. It was determined that the vote was too close to have done it by a show of hands, and even though it technically passed, the motion was tabled until the June meeting when the subject will be revisited. Board members will accept input from members and meet on May 26th to formulate a recommendation. Club members are encouraged to contact any board member or send their opinion to: HP REC, c/o Colorado Springs Senior Center, 1514 North Hancock Avenue, Colorado Springs CO 80903. Board Members: Joetta Hoewisch, President, 719-599-5292 or pres@hpagilentalumni.org Mark Smith, Vice President, 719-593-9518 or vpres@hpagilentalumni.org Laura Mattison, Treasurer, 719-598-7728 or treas@hpagilentalumni.org Lois Green, Secretary, 719-481-3921 or sec@hpagilentalumni.org
Mark Smith announced that club funds might be required if we deem it necessary to pay for a site for our August picnic. It is not known for sure if the Agilent site will be available to members again this year. The cost of renting a pavilion at one of the local parks is about $100. ANNOUNCEMENTS Gerry McGonigle mentioned that questions about life events, such as how to change medical deductions are often directed to him. Gerry frequently gets calls or emails asking for information. Not everyone knows that Fidelity administers all of Agilent’s medical and financial programs for retirees. For questions of this type, start by calling the Agilent Service Center at Fidelity, 877-989-2727. Joetta announced that Life After 50 Magazine and Ramblin’ Express are going to be doing trips for seniors. A trip to the aquarium in Denver on a Friday in the latter part of June is in the planning stages. Interested people can contact Joetta (599-5292) and she will provide details as they become available. The bus ride is expected to cost $29, and the admission to the aquarium is $8.65. Attendees can determine if they wish to bring their lunch, or purchase one at the facility. Club member Jerry Murphy announced there is a Johnny Smith Birthday Concert on Saturday, June 27, 2009 at 7:30 pm at Giuseppe's Old Depot Restaurant, 10 S. Sierra Madre Street. Tickets are $25, and seating is limited. This concert is presented by The Pikes Peak Jazz and Swing Society. Call 719-592-9541 or 719-598-8036 for information and reservations. Red Hat Club Joetta circulated a sign-up sheet for anyone interested in joining a Red Hat Ladies’ Club that Joetta is planning to establish among club members. Joetta also announced that while Gerry enjoys taking pictures of club members, volunteers to help share the photography duties with him are welcome. Regular Monthly Meeting Events
Door Prizes: Winners of the May 50/50 Drawing were Laura Winter and Joe Tighe. They each won $25.00.
Winning five Lotto tickets each were Linda Boettcher and John Meredith.
Thank You! Joetta thanked Molly Gauss for being the greeter. She also thanked Don Griffith and Niles Whalen, who provided wonderful homemade cookies, sweet breads, and rum cake. A yummy cracker snack mix was also available. Attendees had their choice of coffee or a delicious punch.
The greeter for June is Laura Winter. Mary Lou Bailey, and Pat Romero will provide the refreshments.
The meeting was adjourned at 2:55 pm.
WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MEMBER
We welcome new member Anne Miranda. Her husband, Bob, joined our club a couple months ago. Anne worked for HP from 1979 to 1991, plus off and on as a "Temp". She started in Displays, then went on to the Tech Center, Tool Engineering and lastly I.T.
Since retiring, her interests are fishing and camping. She says they are blessed to spend two days per week caring for and enjoying their granddaughter. They have four pups that they spend time playing with. Another interest is getting more in touch with our Native American culture and learning and doing more traditional arts and crafts. We were glad to have Bob join and are thrilled to have Anne join as well.
GREETER & REFRESHMENT LIST
GREETER REFRESHMENTS JUN Laura Winter Mary Lou Bailey & Pat Romero JUL Joe Trujillo Lois Green AUG --------------- Annual Picnic----------------- SEP John Meredith Marianne Mallon OCT Steve Kochis Anna Kochis NOV Gary Roberson June Fritz DEC --------------- Holiday Luncheon-----------------
Our roster is now complete for 2009. Thank you to those who stepped forward. For those of you who have never participated, please give some thought to being among the first to volunteer when we pass around the sign-up list for 2010.
FREE NETFLIX TRIAL FROM LES BAILEY If you'd like to have a free trial month of Netflix please email me, and I will send you the information. I get nothing out of this, but as a customer they are making this offer to my friends and family. If you’ve thought about trying it, now's a good time. The offer expires on 6/15. A FEW PUZZLERS (Answers on Page 6) This is a quiz for people who know everything! I found out in a hurry that I didn't. These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers 1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends. 2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward? 3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables? 4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside? 5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle? 6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters ' dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them. 7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them? 8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh. 9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter 'S.' JUST FOR LAUGHS Quickies I dialed a number and got the following recording: "I am not available right now, but thank you for caring enough to call. I am making some changes in my life. Please leave a message after the beep. If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes." Aspire to inspire before you expire. My wife and I had words, but I didn't get to use mine. Frustration is trying to find your glasses without your glasses. Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. The irony of life is that, by the time you're old enough to know your way around, you're not going anywhere. God made man before woman so as to give him time to think of an answer for her first question. I was always taught to respect my elders, but it keeps getting harder to find one. Every morning is the dawn of a new error. A Sure Sign of Life An older couple is lying in bed one morning. They had just awakened from a good night's sleep. He takes her hand and she responds, "Don't touch me." "Why not?" he asked. She answered, "Because I'm dead." The husband asked, "What are you talking about? We're both lying here in bed together and talking to one another!" She said, "No, I'm definitely dead." He insisted, "You are not dead. What in the world makes you think you're dead?" "Because I woke up this morning and nothing hurts." Do People Now Take Life Too Seriously? You could hardly see for all the snow, Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go. Pull a chair up to the TV set, "Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet." My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning. She also used to defrost hamburger on the counter. And I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system. We all took gym, not PE, and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym. Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and having to stay in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything. I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself. I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations … but, we must have been. Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed! We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a ten-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because, if we did, we got our butt spanked there, and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home. I recall the boy from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck. To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive? It Was In The Papers. It Must Be True!
We've all seen newspaper headlines that made us do a double-take. Here are a few you may not have encountered.
Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says No, really?
Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers Now that's taking things a bit far!
Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over What a guy!
Miners Refuse to Work after Death No-good-for- nothing' lazy so-and-sos!
Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant See if that works any better than a fair trial!
War Dims Hope for Peace I can see where it might have that effect!
If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile Ya think?!
Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures Who would have thought!
Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide They may be on to something!
Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?!
Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge He probably IS the battery charge.
New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group Weren't they fat enough?!
Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft That's what he gets for eating those beans!
Kids Make Nutritious Snacks Do they taste like chicken?
Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half Chainsaw Massacre all over again!
Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors Boy, are they tall!
And the winner is....
Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead Did I read that right? Counseling ….. Southern Style Earl and Bubba are quietly sitting in a boat fishing, chewing and drinking beer when suddenly Bubba says, "I think I'm gonna divorce my wife - she ain't spoke to me in over 2 months." Earl spits, sips his beer and says, "Better think it over... ........women like that are hard to find." QUIZ ANSWERS 1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends: Boxing 2. North American landmark constantly moving backward: Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.) 3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons: Asparagus and rhubarb. 4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: Strawberry.
5. How did the pear get inside the brandy
bottle? 6. Three English words beginning with dw: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle. 7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar: Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses. 8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: Lettuce 9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with 'S': Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.
SEE YOU AT OUR NEXT MEETING TUESDAY, JUNE 2nd |