A few days ago, I sent out a letter to 500 people, Augsburg Fortress retirees, former employees who are not yet retired, and current employees, all of whom are participants in the Augsburg Fortress Defined Benefit Pension plan to inform them that “on December 18, 2009, the Board of Trustees of Augsburg Fortress accepted an administrative committee’s recommendation to terminate the Retirement Plan II for Employees of Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Publishing House of the ELCA (the “plan”) effective March 5, 2010, and to amend the plan prior to termination to provide for more equitable allocation of plan assets among plan participants.”

This was a very difficult decision for both those of us on the administrative committee and the Board, reached only after thoroughly exploring many other options. There were no good choices. It did not seem fair to us to allow 60 percent of those in the plan, including some who have worked many years here, to receive nothing, which is why we had to take this difficult step.

The ELCA News Service reported on our decisions and the notification of the Plan participants.

After reading the detailed information mailed out to them, if plan participants have specific questions, they are encouraged to send them, in writing, to Sandy Middendorf, Vice President for Human Resources at Augsburg Fortress. As noted in the letters sent out, additional information will be sent to each plan participant later this month.

We are praying for those who are affected by these decisions and would welcome your prayers for them, as well.

Blessings,
Beth

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 1:54 PM and is filed under Faith Formation Resources. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.