Topics & Report

              Retirement Security for Illinois Educators
A Message from Executive Director Dick Ingram
We felt your pain.
For many of you enrolled in the Teachers’ Retire-ment Insurance Program (TRIP), May and June were inordinately stressful and frustrating because of unresolved issues regarding the health insurance options available.
At various times during the last weeks in June, all of us at TRS were at least, if not more, frustrated as you over developments that we could not control for approximately 60,000 of our members enrolled in TRIP. Those events impacted our own health care
choices, as well as yours.
TRS was not responsible for this confusion. We do not administer TRIP. Our role is limited to signing up members and collecting premi-ums. Unfortunately, many times the situation literally changed from hour to hour and we were forced to reverse instructions that we had issued earlier in the same day.
To those of you who tried reaching our Member Services Division only to
be met with the voicemail system or a busy signal, we apologize for adding to your anxiety. We have 46 toll-free phone lines and thousands of mem-bers were calling us for help. Our small, but devoted staff worked after
regular business hours and literally handled thousands of telephone calls
and email messages on a daily basis. They met with hundreds of members who came by our offices when they could not get through to us any other
way. To the best of our ability, we answered every call or message.
I am deeply grateful to the TRS staff for stepping up to the plate when our
members needed them most. In the face of a rapidly changing situation, their dedication helped guide many who were unsure about the future. Your best interest is their first concern.
TRS cannot predict what insurance changes will happen in September. I urge you to monitor our Web site, http://trs.illinois.gov, over the next several months for the latest informa-tion regarding the status of TRIP.
Our goal – now and in the future – is to make sure the wishes of our members regarding their insurance are carried out to the fullest extent possible. We are doing all that we can to make the best of what is a challenging situation.
I also would like to recognize that an extraordinary grass-roots lobbying effort by TRS members was one of the main reasons why further action on a proposed restructuring of edu-cators’ pensions was suspended. The next opportunity for action on the proposal, Senate Bill 512, will be this fall.
topics &
report
Teachers’ Retirement System of the State of Illinois
Summer 2011
Contents
Page 2
Fall Member Meetings
Page 3
Insurance Carrier Switch
Page 4 & 5
Legislative Update
Page 6
Spring Town Hall Meetings
Page 7
TRS Finances Improve
Civil Unions Recognized
Board Schedule
“Our small, but devoted staff worked after regular business hours for days and literally handled thousands of telephone calls and email messages on a daily basis.”
Director’s message
continued on page 2