Points to Ponder #04-02

POINTS TO PONDER
Issue 04-02

From CSFC President Helen Zajac

CATEGORY:  Federation       August 29, 2004

Subject: NARFE - Federation Goals for 2004/2005

TO: All CSFC Members

My theme for this year is “Communicating a Positive Attitude for Participation”.  I chose this theme after visiting many chapters throughout the state, and it became obvious to me that those chapters with a positive “can-do” attitude are the ones who prosper.  Those with a negative attitude just merely struggle to survive, and then start talking about closing down.   It also seems that NARFE will be facing some problems we have not experienced in a few years, and we need to tackle them with a positive attitude, rather than a negative one.

I’ve heard many negative comments about this recent dues increase, and the fact that NARFE hasn’t done anything for the member.  In response to my very first points to ponder, one member said that he was dropping out of NARFE because the dues were too much and wanted to know why NARFE couldn’t be more like AARP with much lower dues, plus the fact that AARP does more for their members.  After three extremely long e-mails to this member, I hope I convinced him that NARFE has one specific purpose – to protect the earned benefits of federal workers – unlike AARP
who does nothing specifically for the earned benefits of the federal retiree.   If someone has an annuity of $1500 per month – (the average is now over $1900 per month) and received a mere 2 percent COLA, just one month’s COLA would pay their NARFE dues for the entire year.  Thus protecting the COLA – by holding off budget cuts is well worth the cost of NARFE membership.

I’ve also heard  many comments about how members have written letters, made phone calls, or written e-mails to congress regarding Premium Conversion, GPO/WEP, and the drug parity bill (S-1369), yet congress has taken no action on any of them.  As Dan Adcock told us at convention, these are both definitely “hard sells.”  Premium Conversion was first estimated to cost $7.1 billion over ten years; revised cost estimates now put the cost at over $12 billion for ten years.  GPO/WEP Repeal will cost $62 billion over ten years.  With the growing deficits, Congress isn’t just going to roll over and agree to these bills.  Premium Conversion is a new bill, which was never promised to retirees; and the GPO/WEP would correct past wrongs, but due to the tremendous cost, Congress isn’t willing to sign on, given the deficit at this time.

NARFE has been successful over the years, which speaks to the strength of NARFE and its grassroots lobbying.  Cost of Living Adjustment delays were common in the 80’s & 90’s, but there has not been a reduction in our earned benefits since 1996.  We dodged a $38 billion cut in federal retirement costs in 2003, which would have required, among other things:  COLA freezes, Cuts in the government FEHBP contribution and computing retirement on High Five instead of High Three.  This year the House Budget Resolution proposed cutting federal retirement by $2.3 billion.  NARFE feels confident that we will not receive any drastic reductions, thanks to Representative Tom Davis.  But we are not out of the woods yet, because of the $477 Billion deficit in 2004.

The bottom line is that we are in a vulnerable position.  But does this mean our efforts are in vain?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  This is what advocacy organizations do, but we need to do certain things to make sure we are working at full capacity to be as effective as we can be, so we can meet the challenges in our offensive agenda, and also in our defensive agenda to retain what we already have.  In California, just this year, we’ve had two great victories with our representatives Wally Herger and Mary Bono, neither one had co-sponsored NARFE legislation, but through the efforts of our members, we persevered and got them to cosponsor premium conversion; a case in point for being patient and persistent in our efforts to contact members of congress.

Membership is down – as we all know.   The chapter membership of the federation is 31,525.  But in the Federation we are working on gaining new members.  Just since the beginning of this term, chapters have been working at county fairs giving out NARFE brochures and signing up a few members.  There has been one pre-retirement seminar in San Diego, which added new members.  There is going to be a booth at a Forest Service Event in Sacramento, and there is another presentation being prepared for the Bureau of Land Management also in Sacramento next
month.  And, as Forney Lundy always reminds us, don’t leave home without a membership application.  How many of you actually have one with you right now; the new ones, with the new dues structure?  If you don’t, make sure to obtain the new forms from your Chapter Secretary or Membership Chair.  I want to share another idea with you, in case you have difficulty trying to twist arms of potential members. 

One chapter has a gift membership basket at each meeting, with forms available for prospective members, and the name of the person proposing that prospective member.  At each meeting, the Membership Chair asks members to complete a form with the name of a neighbor, friend, or co-worker, who is eligible to become a member.  Each quarter the Membership Chair draws a name, and that name receives a free gift membership, and the person who entered that name receives a small token of appreciation.  Then the Membership Chair goes to work on the rest of the names
entered in the drawing, and has been having some success with this effort.  Right now and until the end of this year, if YOU sign up a current federal employee – YOU receive $8 for each current federal employee YOU sign up – a good way to supplement your income and help out NARFE at the same time.

Communication is a big issue that I want to work on this year.  Seems like all the good things we are doing, or trying to do, never seem to filter down to the members. I keep remembering a quote from an old movie, “Cool Hand Luke”, when the warden tells Paul Newman, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”.   We all need to work on communication – if we know something, we need to share that information with our members.  I’ve received several requests to start the Points to Ponder,
which I have done.  Even one request asked for the Points to Ponder to be written by different members of the board, or Standing Committee Chairs, just so there would be a variety of information.  I ask that this information be forwarded to your members, either through the meeting, or if possible in your chapter newsletters.   Newsletters are so very important.  They are often the only link with your members who may be
shut in and unable to get to a meeting, or they may be current federal!  employees unable to attend your meetings.  Please don’t overlook your current federal employees.  They are the future of NARFE, without them, we will have no one to take up our advocacy with congress.  Even though they are working and cannot attend your meetings, try to get them involved with the chapter by having them work on a committee, such as membership or public relations; they are all computer literate, let them serve on the legislation committee or the newsletter committee, welcome their new ideas, and perhaps new ways of doing things.  We need to incorporate these new members now, so when they retire, they will be ready to assume a leadership position in the chapters.

In addition, the former Points to Ponder, as well as the newest one, have been organized by subject on the CSFC Web Site for ease of reference.  The Web Site also now includes the NARFE-PAC report issued from Headquarters for not only the contributions we make, but also the contributions made to the various congressmen.  The Public Relations Newsletters have also been added to the Web Site, which may give chapters ideas for public relations projects in their own chapters.   Even the Summary of the Visalia Convention is now available on the Web Site.  Thanks to
the efforts of our Federation Treasurer and Web Master, Werner Gumpert. 
Check it out at www.csfcnarfe.org.

We also need to remind our chapter members that they need to go on-line to the NARFE Web Site, www.narfe.org, and register their e-mail with headquarters, so they will receive the all important Legislation Hot Line, and any other Legislation Alerts which may be issued.  The listing from National, of members e-mail addresses, is also used by our NARFE-NET Coordinator Carl Bailey to issue information such as Points to Ponder, and information from the Standing Committee Chairs.  That’s one very effective way to get information to a great number of people at a very small cost.

This board has changed to appearance of the Chapter Directory, and issued it in a format which easily fits into a binder for ready reference.  The Federation Constitution and Bylaws has also been reformatted to binder size; both as a result of the efforts of your new Federation Secretary, Joe Bower. Your Executive Vice President has just completed a summary of the results of a comprehensive survey that was sent to every chapter in the state to determine what each chapter needs from
the federation.  Your Executive Board will be working on other changes to, hopefully, get more people interesting in what NARFE is really doing, and allow them to become an active part of the chapters and federation.

At this National Convention, the delegates will be voting on many things which could drastically change the way we do business:  National officers; a name change; a split in the organization to focus on retiree and current federal employee needs; elimination of Honorary Life Membership; allowing retired military to become members; allowing spouses to join for a nominal fee, or free; eliminating “delegate” voting at national conventions by implementing a “referendum” type vote from every
single member issued through the magazine; and establishing a stronger PR campaign to better market NARFE.  These, among many other ideas comprise the 101 resolutions on which the delegates will be voting upon in Reno, just a few days away.  If you have not voiced your opinion on these issues, please contact your chapter president, or voting representative to let them know how you feel about these all important issues.

As a younger member, I look at things just a bit differently than my predecessors, and I am looking forward to your help in making some positive changes in how the Federation operates.  I am hoping that your District Vice Presidents will become more active with the chapters, and provide any assistance necessary.   You see, communication is a two way street.  If there is something the federation is doing, or not doing that we should be doing, I would appreciate hearing from you.  I cannot
serve you until you tell me what you expect.  I look forward to hearing from each and every one of you.  Together we can make California the most active and the best federation in NARFE.

Helen Zajac
CSFC President