NYC Board of Education Retirement System

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In 2024, 2,800 men and 310,720 women will be diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Today at BERS, we support our brothers and sisters by wearing pink to honor those who are fighting, the survivors, and the fallen. #breastcancerawareness #thinkpink #pinkoctober #fightbreastcancer

We don't mean to brag, but BERS wants to celebrate this win with you! BERS has earned the 2024 America Saves Savings Champion award, an honor reserved for organizations who effectively and actively promote saving strategies during the annual America Saves Week campaign. BERS is one of 18 organizations honored with this distinction out of more than 4,600 participating organizations of America Saves Week, which took place April 8-12, 2024 as part of Financial Capability Month. We hope you continue to trust BERS with your retirement. As always, we are here to secure your financial future today. #nycbers #bers #americasaves #americasavesweek #asw2024 #award

Looking for a new career opportunity? Come join BERS as a Director of Contracts and Procurement! 📄💼✍️ The Director of Contracts Procurement, reporting to the Executive Office, will plan, oversee, review and execute procurement activities of BERS. Works closely with the BERS Fiscal Operations, BERS Legal Department, BERS leadership team, the Office of the Comptroller, and the Mayor’s Office of Contracts Services, procurement staff, the Office of General Services of the State of New York, vendors, and other stakeholders.   *Responsibilities: -Advises executives and staff as needed on all procurement matters, local laws, City administrative requirements, and other policies and procedures regarding purchasing operations; disseminates alerts and updates as to developments in procurement-related law; recommends and oversees training for procurement staff. -Drafts, negotiates, and reviews agency contracts. -Implements best practices for increasing contracting opportunities for Women and Minority-owned Business Enterprises (M/WBE) and provides guidance on the Comptroller’s internal supplier diversity initiative; reviews data for and prepares M/WBE Annual Reports. -Develops procedures for the administration of procurement activities, such as solicitation, awarding and processing of bids and contracts. -Oversees the coordination, planning and implementation of contract and procurement activities from pre-solicitation to award and registration, including drafting and/or reviewing RFIs, RFPs, PSRs, RFQs, RFAs, responsibility/responsiveness determinations, performance evaluations, and other procurement-related documents. -Provides guidance to BERS regarding procurement rules, purchasing; provides oversight to evaluation committees; oversees vetting related to vendor responsibility and performance, and represents BERS at pre-proposal conferences. -Performs pricing analysis for proposed contracts, ensuring cost-effectiveness of agency purchases. -Serves as the primary contact for procurement-related questions for all BERS managers and staff. -Guides, supervises and/or reviews work of procurement staff to ensure completeness and compliance with agency’s procurement policy and professional standards. -Acts as procurement liaison with other City agencies. -Oversees procurement workflows, ensuring deliverables and timelines are met. -Prepares memoranda, reports and summaries regarding procurements and purchases, as needed. -Reports to the Board of Trustees regarding procurement activities. -Ensures the agency's compliance with all applicable procurement-related laws, policies and regulations. *Qualification Requirements: -Baccalaureate degree and 4 years of full-time satisfactory professional experience in purchasing, procurement, contract administration or a related field with at least 18 months of experience in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity or supervising professional personnel performing duties *Salary: $126,054 - $195,000 Good luck!

For Fiscal Year 2023, BERS placed 4th in the top ten retirement systems based on their funded ratio rating. What's Funded Ratio? The funded ratio measures the ratio of dollars in the pension fund compared to the value of promised lifetime income benefits. BERS Funded Ratio rank is 98.8%. This means your pension funds are secure. BERS is committed to the members and will keep focused on helping you secure your financial future today. Music Credit: Positive Corporate by Mixaund (mixaund.bandcamp.com) Music promoted by: free-stock-music.com

Yesterday was Take Your Kid to Work Day! We ate, we played, we conquered. The children became BERS employees for the day and discovered the importance of the retirement system. Their 9-5 shifts consisted of taking professional headshots, learning about S.M.A.R.T. goals, and hunting down "pension checks" throughout the halls. Our Executive Director Sanford Rich passed by to talk about how kids can save and invest at an early age as well. Other activities included painting piggy banks, interviewing them for our "BERS Youth Ambassador" role and touring the building. We finished the day with a movie and they happily left with their pretend "paychecks" at the end of a long day of work. #takeyourkidtoworkday #bringyourkidtoworkday

It's never too early or too late to start investing in your retirement! What are your key tips for retirement savings?

We’re proud to announce a new law that automatically enrolls NYC Board of Education Employees into the Board of Education Retirement System! This bill affects over 23,000 of our members servicing the NYC Public School System, who previously needed to opt-in to receive their retirement benefits.   We are thankful to Governor Kathy Hochul for signing this bill into law to protect our members after they conclude their years of service to the city.

Congratulations to the winners of NCPERS' inaugural Public Pension Communicator of the Year Award! https://lnkd.in/e-q98yqv Alison Taylor-Thevenin, Deputy Director, Member Communications for the New York City Board of Education Retirement System (less than $10 billion AUM winner); Taneda Larios, Chief Benefits Analyst for the LACERS ($10-50 billion AUM winner); Patrick von Keyserling, MPA, SHRM-SCP, Prosci, Senior Director of Communications for Colorado PERA (greater than $50 billion AUM winner); and Michelle Holleman, Director, Communications and Stakeholder Relations for the Chicago Teachers' Pension Fund (honorable mention). The newly-created award honors the communications staff person at a public pension who has demonstrated exceptional leadership skills; shown superior innovation and creativity; and created an impact with their communications endeavors in the preceding year.

Congratulations to our very own Alison Taylor-Thevenin, Deputy Director of Member Communications, who won the 2023 Public Pension Communicator of the Year Award in the less than $10 billion AUM (assets under management) category. She has helped BERS exercise Plain Language Guidelines as well as keeping the fund’s communications accessible, relatable, and representative of the diversity of its members and the city. We sincerely appreciate your hard work and efforts over the past 14 years. Thank you for your many wonderful years of service! 🎉 To read more about the National Conference on Public Employee Retirement Systems and the rest of the winners at the 2024 Pension Communications Summit, check out the following link: https://lnkd.in/eRFNZmFq.