Members approve Mutual

At the Annual Meeting of the Retailers Fund Board of Trustees, participants overwhelmingly approved conversion of Retailers Fund to a new insurance company, to be called Retailers Mutual Insurance Company. Retailers Fund officials and attorneys expect the conversion to be complete as of January 1, 2006.

In addition, nine board members were elected to the Michigan Retailers Association Board of Directors and the Retailers Fund Board of Trustees at the respective annual meetings of the Association and the Fund, held June 28 at the Park Place Hotel in Traverse City.

MRA board members re-elected to three-year terms are:

Bruce Johnson, president and co-founder of Gazelle Sports, an athletic specialty footwear and apparel retailer with stores in downtown Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids and downtown Holland. A graduate of Kalamazoo College, he opened Gazelle Sports in 1985. Johnson was first elected to the MRA board in 1996.

Jean Sarasin, MRA senior vice president. Sarasin, who oversees the Association’s finance and customer service areas, joined MRA in 1981 after working in the banking and accounting fields. Named vice president of finance in 1990, she was promoted to senior vice president in 2001. Sarasin serves on the boards of Michigan Retailers Services, Inc. and Retailers Fund.

Mark Schrag, owner of Seasons, an Okemos specialty store offering unique gifts, furniture, jewelry, gourmet foods and other personally selected merchandise. He is a graduate of Goshen College and Michigan State University and a ormer Michigan Department of Transportation planner. A past board member of Michigan Retailers Services, Inc., Schrag was first elected to the MRA board in 1996 and is past chair of the Executive Committee.

D. Larry Sherman, retired president of Sherman Shoes, Inc., Birmingham. He is a former chair of MRA, Retailers Fund and the National Shoe Retailers Association. A University of Michigan graduate, he chairs the Michigan Retailers Foundation “Links to a Legacy” campaign to increase the Foundation’s assets. Sherman was first elected to the MRA board in 1982 and currently serves as treasurer.

Winfrey Smith, eastern Michigan district manager for Sears, Roebuck & Co. A native of Virginia, Smith has worked in retail for over 30 years, both as a small business owner and as district manager for several major retailers. He joined Sears in 1996 and came to Michigan in 2003. Smith joined the Board of Directors in April 2004.

Retailers Fund trustees elected to three-year terms are:

Rod Phillips, vice chair of the Retailers Fund board and owner of Country Casuals, Petoskey, a small chain of year-round and seasonal ladies’ apparel stores located throughout northwest Michigan. He serves as a member of the Petoskey Downtown Development Authority and was first elected to the Retailers Fund board in 1999.

Peter R. Sobelton, owner/operator of Sundries Plus, Troy, sundry stores and cafeterias in office buildings in Greater Detroit. He is a former chair of Retailers Fund and past president of the Tobacconists Association of America. He also serves on the MRA Board of Directors, which he joined in 1998.

Thomas Ungrodt, president and chief executive officer of Ideation, Inc., Ann Arbor, a leading producer of marketing solutions for independent gift retailers. He also oversees three Michigan gift stores and serves on the board of the Michigan Theater Foundation. He is a former chair of the Retailers Fund board, and he joined the Michigan Retailers Services board in 2001.

In addition, Larry Meyer, chairman and chief executive officer of Michigan Retailers Association, was elected to the Retailers Fund board to fill a spot vacated by Barb Tronstein. Meyer will serve for the two years remaining in Tronstein’s term.

Two long-time members of the Retailers Fund Board of Trustees stepped down this year: Ray Rau and Ann Gail. Rau, who served as the board’s chair for the past year, was first elected in 1998. Rau is president of Oscar Rau’s of Frankenmuth, a family-owned furniture and floor covering business. Gail is owner and president of Gail’s Office Supply Co. in Detroit and was first elected to the Retailers Fund board in 1991.