As 2022 draws to a close, I want to thank all the Intel Retiree Organization (IRO) volunteers on our various committees that have done so much to make our members’ retirement experiences better. Our membership continues to grow and we now boast 6,939 retirees as members of IRO. We expect a bit of a surge with the latest actions by Intel and feel we are well prepared to bring knowledge, experience and advice to those retirees who join our ranks in 2023.

Although 2022 wasn’t filled with drastic changes, there was still much work to be done and goals to accomplish.

Early in the year, the Health & Benefits Committee worked diligently to help our members navigate the changes to Intel’s new benefits program. Another key activity was to refresh the IRO website. The team wanted to make the website easier to navigate and faster for you to find the information you needed. The website and the communications committees have been putting forth a yeoman’s effort to complete this work by year’s end. One of the outcomes is making the IRO website more user-friendly to those accessing it from smart phones. Increasingly, members don’t use personal computers to check things on the IRO website.

Of course, we also addressed the inquiries and needs of several individuals through the IRO mailbox. Approximately 250 inquiries were received and handled throughout the year.

Another channel of communications was the IRO Facebook page. On it, people could ask questions and provide opinions and receive input and guidance from fellow IRO members. The IRO Facebook page is private, so only IRO members can review and comment on it.  It was wonderful to see so many of you willing to steer retirees to answers, experts and services that had worked well for them. If you are not a member, I encourage you to consider joining this robust IRO community.

IRO members continued to be active volunteers in our communities. As a group you contributed more than 100,000 volunteer hours to various programs in our communities. Those hours earned approximately $1 million in contributions dollars from Intel to the non-profit organizations you supported. Well done. We don’t yet have the personal dollar amounts that many of you contributed to the various programs and crises that needed assistance this year (this roll up comes from Intel), but know that Intel’s retirement community is typically very active in these efforts. We thank each of you for the energy, experience, and resources you volunteer to make our communities better.

We hope you have a wonderful 2023 and we thank you for being part of IRO. We stand ready to help you on your journey through retirement.

Howard