Christian Schools International

CSI is holding meetings in March to discuss the CSI Pension Plan - and potential changes - with plan participants, school board members and school administrators. The plan is facing important challenges. Essentially, we’re promising more in future benefits than we’re receiving in contributions to the plan. We want to ensure that schools and participants understand why we’re facing these challenges, the potential solutions, and the new choices schools may need to make regarding their contribution levels.
The purpose of this announcement is to provide you advance notice of the meetings so you can prepare your school for the meeting. We’d like each school to attend as a group whenever possible, because the presentation will raise some questions that we’d like your participants to discuss together. If you have any questions about the meetings, please contact Howard Van Mersbergen at 877-274-8796, ext 226 or 616-284-3226.
Meetings will be conducted via the web. Meeting participants will view a PowerPoint presentation and listen to the presenters, live. (While planning these meetings we discussed sending a representative from CSI to visit each school separately - but after considering time and expense constraints we concluded that web meetings make the most sense in this situation. Plus, participants in our focus groups responded well to this suggestion.) After the presentation, participants will have an opportunity to ask questions of the presenters. The meeting will close with participants completing a feedback form as a group.
We ask you to please do the following in preparation for the meetings:

Choose a meeting time - Four meeting options are listed at the right, so you can choose a time and date that work for your school.
Announce the meeting date and time at your school - Every Pension Plan participant will receive an invitation the week of February 23. This invitation will describe how the CSI Pension Plan works, the reasons for exploring changes and the potential solutions to be discussed during meetings. You may announce the meeting to your school when you feel it is appropriate - we want participants to have enough advance notice so they can plan to attend. If you choose to announce the meeting date and time before invitations are sent, please let your employees know that the invitation will follow shortly.

Meeting Dates and Times:

March 15, 2004: 5:00 - 7:00 pm Eastern

March 15, 2004: 8:00 - 10:00 pm Eastern

March 16, 2004: 4:00 - 6:00 pm Eastern

March 16, 2004: 7:00 - 9:00 pm Eastern

Respond to CSI with your chosen meeting date and time - To ensure that you receive the appropriate information for the meetings, please respond to this email and let us know the date and time you plan for your school to attend. If you choose to organize more than one meeting location at your school, please provide that information so we adequately prepare the phone and web system.

Set up the logistics for your meeting CSI will hold the meetings via the web. To hold the meeting at your school you’ll need to choose a location and have on hand the appropriate equipment, as described below.
Complete a feedback form and return it to CSI We want to know what you liked about the meeting format and content - and what you would change for the next time we conduct a meeting like this. A feedback form will be provided to you in advance of the meeting dates.

Full Issue: No. 160 - February 20, 2004

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