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Letter from the President

September 2016
I understand and wish to continue:  Perspectives and plans for RFA 2016-17
James Peacock, UNCRFA President

Jim Peacock, 2008 Massey Award winner, with his portrait which is on display at the Fedex Global Education Center on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I understand and wish to continue” is a computer command taken as a title for a superb book of poetry by Travis Venters, a UNC graduate who recentlyretired from Obirin University in Japan. The phrase suggests a key value of RFA. RFA offers opportunities for retirees who wish to continue their lives and work in fulfilling and useful ways. RFA was solidly built and well led by its founders and their colleagues and successors. Basics include a board, a president, a president-elect, and annual events.  UNC-CH retirees are invited to join and participate in activities and governance.

RFA is located at the Friday Center, a collaboration negotiated by pioneering  RFA president Don Boulton and others. Don notes that the Friday Center points past theUNC campus toward Raleigh and RDU—outward toward the state and the world. Temporally, the Friday Center like RFA champions lifelong learning and engagement. Organizationally, the Friday Center like RFA bridges many disciplines and units. These features mirror retirement, which frees us from specialized jobs and disciplines, encouraging us to join wider and deeper communities of thought and action as well as fellowship.

NOTE: I Understand and Wish to Continue  by Travis Venters is published by Main Street Rag Publishing Co., P.O. Box 690100, Charlotte, NC 28227 (www.Mainstreetrag.com)