Dave Jacobsen thought maybe a dozen people would attend the first meeting of an IBEW Local 48 retirees club he hoped to relaunch. Instead more than 90 retirees and spouses showed up to the union hall Feb. 26, and an hour and a half after the meeting ended, groups of old coworkers and friends were still catching up and exchanging phone numbers in and outside the hall.
“To be honest, I was overwhelmed with the response,” Jacobsen told the Labor Press.
Jacobsen served six years as Local 48’s vice president and nine years as president. Now semi-retired (he still does the occasional safety training), he decided he had the time to help get a retirees group restarted. To get the word out, Local 48 mailed postcards to about 1,700 retired members.
At the group’s first meeting, Jacobsen walked around with a mic soliciting ideas for what the group could do while Local 48 communications assistant Kevin Clover took notes that appeared on a screen. Ideas poured forth.
They could meet for crafting, bowling, hiking, or wine-tasting excursions, classic car outings, maybe even a cruise, retired members suggested. Westside, Eastside, or Vancouver retirees could have regular meetups for meals at local diners. Retirees could run the bingo event at the annual union picnic. Group meetings could be a safe space to talk about politics, one member suggested. Retirees could volunteer for Rebuilding Together or help out at the upcoming Klineline fishing event for kids. They could donate tools and work clothes in good condition to new apprentices, and maybe set up a food pantry for active members who are out of work. They could organize visits to older retirees who might be isolated and in poor health.
“We had close to 50 ideas come in,” Jacobsen said. Now the goal will be to refine those ideas and delegate, finding people to take charge of organizing activities.
In previous decades, Local 48 had a retirees group. It was led by Vera Larsen in the 1980s, and later by Glenn Hodgkinson. The group organized regular bus trips to casinos and held monthly lunches at diners that rotated around the metro area. Every summer they held an annual potluck picnic at the home of Mel and Marge Stearns next to Glendoveer Golf Course, and every December they gathered for a holiday luncheon. But the group appears to have run out of steam and it stopped meeting in 2016.
“To my knowledge, it just faded away because no one stepped forward to run it,” Jacobsen said.
Now, after a decade hiatus, a retirees group appears to be back with a strong start, fueled by a thirst for fellowship by members who spent their working lives as part of a brotherhood.
“Older people sometimes don’t do the activities they used to with their friends,” Jacobsen said. “This gives them a chance to interact with other retirees, do the things that they want to do, make new friends and stay active.”
The IBEW Local 48 Retiree Group will next meet at 2 p.m., Thursday, March 26.
