WELCOME TO ALL PENSIONERS OF THE OAS RETIREMENT AND PENSION FUND:
YOU ARE ALL MEMBERS OF ASPEN

The Steering Committee of the Association of Pensioners of the OAS Retirement and Pension Fund extends a warm welcome to you and invites you to use this platform to keep track of ASPEN’s activities in support of the Fund and all its pensioners. ASPEN is unique in its kind in that the OAS Retirement and Pension Committee (“the Committee”) decided to create the position of Observers to the Committee, as established in the ASPEN Bylaws, thereby enabling the pensioners to participate, with voice, in the Committee’s meetings. By providing this opportunity, the Committee acknowledged the pensioners’ great interest in, and dependence on, the financial soundness of the Fund as well as the contribution they could make to its work.

Membership in ASPEN includes everyone who draws a pension from the Fund. Not all OAS General Secretariat retirees receive a pension, either because they are not eligible to receive one or because they choose to receive their retirement benefits in a lump-sum cash payment, thereby ending any relationship with the Fund. Membership also includes pensioners who retire from other institutions of the inter-American system affiliated with the Fund.

Since its establishment, ASPEN has endeavored to maintain close ties with the Association of Retirees of the OAS (AROAS) since, although the membership of the two bodies is different, they share many interests, such as health insurance. Collaboration between ASPEN and AROAS therefore furthers the common interests of both associations. In this regard, it should be noted that participation in ASPEN does not conflict in any way with continued participation in AROAS. On the contrary, we enthusiastically encourage all OAS pensioners to play an active role in both associations.

Keeping all members informed of ASPEN’s activities requires a minimum amount of financial resources. Members are therefore assessed annual dues, which the Association tries to keep as low as possible. The dues are now set at US$20 per year and may be deposited directly into ASPEN’s OAS Staff Federal Credit Union account.

Managing any association is difficult, especially when not all members live in the area where the work is carried out and the Committee meets, in this case Washington, D.C. That is why ASPEN has created this website and tries to make maximum use of email to keep its members duly informed with as little delay and as economically as possible. We therefore invite all members to provide us with an email address, either your own or that of a person who can pass on our messages to you.

The Steering Committee invites all pensioners to follow our activities and to participate actively in the Regular Assemblies of ASPEN, which are generally held once a year in July. Anyone unable to attend is asked to give his or her proxy to another member so as to learn about the status of the Retirement and Pension Fund and to elect members of the Steering Committee and our representatives on the Retirement and Pension Committee.

Once again, we wish you a most cordial welcome to your Association of Pensioners.