September 1 of each year marks our Benefit Plan renewal date that runs until August 31 of the following year. By the time of this publication those of you enrolled in our education and public sector plans will have received renewal information from Johnson Inc., our Plan Administrator, outlining details of the plans as well as the premiums for this upcoming year. Our extended health and dental plans, with the exception of the travel component which is pooled and insured by Desjardins Financial, are self insured. That means that ARTA now assumes the risk for these plans and has to ensure premiums are set so that the plans do not lose money. The ARTA Benefits Committee, made up of retired-teacher volunteers most of whom are plan participants, has the responsibility of approving the plan design and, with the help of our Plan Administrator, Johnson Inc., setting the premiums to ensure that claims and administrative costs do not exceed those premiums. As a non-profit society, ARTA does not have to include a profit margin in the portion of those rates for which we assume the risk. We believe that we have a good plan at a cost lower than if it was fully insured by a private carrier. Our plans, both in the education sector and the public sector, continue to grow so that makes us better each year as we enjoy some of the advantages of economies of scale. We do have a reserve sufficient to support the plan should it lose money so plan participants can be assured that their plan is protected. Our Benefits Committee is vigilant in reviewing our plan before each renewal and our volunteer committee members need to be recognized for numerous days spent in this important role for our organization.

Online Membership Renewals

I would like to thank those members who have completed or attempted to complete their ARTA membership renewal online. As you might recall from a previous edition of ARTA News and Views, we had encouraged members in our education sector to renew their membership online by going to our website at www.albertarta.org and registering with ARTA as the first step and then renewing. When we first made this announcement, we provided instructions in our publication. Subsequent to that announcement the people developing the software program for this procedure had to make some changes and, as a result, some of the original instructions were not easy to follow. A lot of you telephoned us for assistance and I would like to thank you for your patience as we worked through the process together. In the end, we were able to help most of you and many others were able to get through this on their own. In all, over 700 were able to renew online so it has been a success and does provide a more efficient system for our members as well as save our office staff extra work. We hope to have even more of you renew online when your existing membership requires renewal. Please note that those of you in the public sector of our Benefit Plan have their ARTA memberships paid as part of their premiums and so would not be able to access the above described online renewal process.

For Your Information

Pension Deposit Dates
September 28, 2010
October 27, 2010
November 26, 2010
December 22, 2010