The Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS) oversees retirement and health benefits for State of Texas employees to provide for, protect, and enhance the economic well-being of members, retirees, and their beneficiaries through effectively managing benefit programs, using sound actuarial principles and available resources consistent with applicable laws. The programs offered by ERS include benefit payments for both service-related and disability-related retirements and benefits for survivors of active and retired members. These records document the interests, activities, and functions of ERS and consist of correspondence, memoranda, memorandums of understanding, contracts, statements, meeting files, copies of legislation, action plans, proposed resolutions, notes, drafts, printed materials, studies, reports, clippings, statistics, plans, financial records, speeches, presentations, calendars, publications, agreements, newsletters, press releases, pamphlets, and questionnaires, dating 1942, 1947-2007, and undated. The first three series consist of meeting files and correspondence of the ERS Board of Trustees and its advisory committees: Board of Trustees minutes and exhibits, Advisory Committee records, and Board of Trustees correspondence. These records document work accomplished at each meeting, including administrative items, fiduciary responsibilities, payment of benefits, and legal issues; and written discussion of matters between Board members, the Executive Director of ERS, advisory committee members, and legislators. Committees represented are the Group Insurance/Benefits Advisory Committee of the Texas Employees Uniform Group Insurance Program, the Joint Coordinating Committee of State of Texas Investment Funds, and the Investment Advisory Committee. The next three series document the Executive Division of ERS and the agency's division directors. Agency correspondence among ERS Executive Office and division office staff members and between ERS and other agencies, officials, state employees, and the general public cover policies, procedures, and operations of ERS and its benefit programs, as well as administrative issues regarding staffing and employees. Executive Director speeches and presentations concerning ERS programs and budget considerations were given at Board of Trustees workshops; to ERS executive and legislative staff briefings; to legislative committees concerned with health insurance, investment policies and practices, and appropriations; to state employee associations; and to personnel administrators of state employers. Calendars of the ERS Executive Director, division directors, and General Counsel document the daily schedules of those positions. The results of research and studies by the agency, both for publication and for the development of the agency's programs, are maintained in two series. Reports illustrate the agency's interests in researching and studying issues such as pension and retirement plans around the country, the attitudes of Texas workers (both public and private) toward their retirement and insurance programs, the standards for HMOs (health maintenance organizations) and investment prospects, and the performance of the agency itself. Project files include materials on the examination and selection of insurance companies, particularly Blue Cross/Blue Shield; the development of responses to the agency's sunset review; and the development of insurance policy coverages and a police pension program. A number of files concern the creation and design of the statewide uniform group insurance program, authorized by the Texas Legislature during the 64th Legislative Session (1975). Legislative files document studies of state legislation affecting ERS and legislation the agency wished to propose. The materials include correspondence and action plans regarding and in response to federal laws and legislation, and presidential orders. Major subjects include the expansion of the ERS system to include judges, law enforcement officers, district attorneys, and university professors; retirement credit for military service; inclusion of certain coverages in insurance contracts, such as for alcoholism, drug dependency, and mental illness; definitions of disability; and issues regarding taxes, contributions, and the payment of benefits. Several smaller series complete this group of agency records. Financial records document the agency's budget development process as well as the development of its strategic plans. Organization charts display graphically the administrative organization of the entire agency, documenting both the titles of positions and the number of individuals employed within each division. Rules and regulations includes information on constitutional and statutory laws, descriptions and provisions of group insurance plans, ERS rules, and amendments and reforms to insurance plans and rules. Press releases and publications were intended for state agency benefit coordinators, computer users within ERS, and the employees of the State of Texas; these materials provide information regarding health insurance benefits, retirement benefits and annuities, new programs, and relevant changes in rules, policies, and laws. Surveys were completed for the National Council on Governmental Accounting (Financial Accounting Standards Board), the U.S. Postal Service, national corporations and research institutions, other Texas state agencies, the U.S. Congress, and the states of Wisconsin, Louisiana, and others. To prepare this inventory, the described materials were cursorily reviewed to delineate series, to confirm the accuracy of contents lists, to provide an estimate of dates covered, and to determine record types.
