The chapter is the most familiar to our members. It is the first contact the members have with NARFE.  Most chapters hold monthly meetings which last about two hours and include either a luncheon or some type of refreshment.  Generally there is a guest speaker or a program designed to provide information to the member.  The chapter offers the opportunity for each member to become involved in the planning and operation of the chapter, by providing Committees (such as Legislation, Membership, Public Relations, Service, Telephone, Newsletter, Sunshine) where members have the chance to participate.  Many chapters offer the opportunity of an “officer elect” position where members have the opportunity to serve beside a current officer, to learn the job, with the intent to become that officer at the end of a specific training period.  This is how chapters perpetuate their continuous operation.  

The chapter issues a newsletter to each member to keep them up-to-date on legislative issues, membership matters, service issues and the current events in the chapter. Chapters initiate contact with agencies within their area to develop a rapport with them to participate in health fairs which offer an opportunity for chapters to recruit new members. 

Chapters also participate in community events, such as county fairs & local festivals, Alzheimer’s Respite Care, Food Banks, to promote the name of NARFE through local publicity and gain new members.  Some chapters provide name badges (similar to those received at convention) which list the member’s name and the agency from which they retired to allow members to get to know one another.

            DISTRICT - To effectively help the chapters, when required, the chapters have been coordinated into a “District”.  Although the initial assignment of a chapter to a District is made by the Federation Executive Vice President; any chapter can vote to be a member of a specific District.  The Chapter President need only notify the Federation President of the change requested by the Chapter members.

The members of chapters elect a member to serve as District Vice President at the State Convention.  Each year the District Vice President holds at least one “District Meeting” where all members of the chapters in the District are invited to attend and hear a prepared program which may include training, brainstorming sessions, and/or guest speakers.  The District Vice President (DVP) visits each chapter in the District, to offer training and encouragement to chapters who are experiencing difficulties with chapter operations. 

Some District Vice Presidents encourage and support the Chapter Presidents of the chapters within the District to form a “President’s  Council” whereby the Chapter President’s meet periodically to discuss problems and learn from each other how to strengthen their individual chapters.  The District Vice President is an important part of this President’s Council, and provides liaison between the Federation and the Chapters.  When chapters are in trouble, the District Vice President brings that detail to the attention of the Federation Executive Board where suggestions are gathered from the other board members and the DVP takes those suggestions back to the chapter for consideration. There are ten Districts in California and each District is comprised of between 8 to 14 chapters.

             FEDERATION – Each state is a Federation.  The California State Federation of Chapters (CSFC) is comprised of all the chapters in California who wish to work together and form the Federation.  The terms Federation and CSFC are used interchangeably.  The Federation provides services to the chapters by providing the funding for expenses necessary for the DVPs to function with the chapters on a continuing basis.

 The Federation provides a network of e-mails in which every member with e-mail who signs up can receive pertinent information regarding operation of NARFE within the State.  For ready reference the Federation maintains a Web Site, www.csfcnarfe.org.  To manage Federation business four officers, President, Executive Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, are elected at the Federation Convention, plus the ten DVPs elected by their respective district at the Federation Convention, and the Immediate Past President comprise the Federation Executive Board. 

The Federation holds Executive Board Meetings three times a year to continue the business of the Federation.  Minutes of the Executive Board Meetings are distributed to each chapter. Every member has an opportunity to run for any of these Federation Offices and their participation would be welcomed. If any member is interested in running for an office, they should contact the Federation Secretary for more information regarding the particular office or committee of interest. 

 The Federation sponsors a Membership Campaign and provides special recognition pins to those members who have recruited two or more members.  In addition, the Federation provides a cash prize for those members who have recruited 10 or more members.  The Federation provides a rebate to members and spouses who sign up for Dues Withholding.

The Federation issues a Directory of Chapters to the chapters annually for use in contacting other chapters in their local area to network on ways to improve operations.  The Federation Constitution and Bylaws is also issued to every chapter, and every chapter in the Federation has the ability to review those bylaws and submit a resolution to change those bylaws at the Federation Convention.

The Federation has seven Standing Committees which work throughout the state to get more information to the chapters regarding specific issues in National Legislation, State Legislation, Public Relations (who issues a quarterly newsletter to all chapters and is posted on the Web Site), Service (who issues a quarterly newsletter to all chapters and is posted on the Web Site), Nominating, Constitution & Bylaws, and Audit.  Every member has an opportunity to serve on these committees, as the Federation would prefer to have a member from each District serving on these committees.

The Federation also provides Special Assistants – NARFE-PAC Coordinator, Alzheimer’s Coordinator and FEEA Coordinator, Historian (who has issued a book on the history of the Federation and collects stories from those members 90 years and older), Convention Recording Secretary (who transcribes the convention proceedings and issues them to each chapter and is posted on the Web Site), the Convention Daily Summary Reporter (who sends daily summaries of the convention to the NARFE-NET members), the Executive Board Recording Secretary (who transcribes the meeting minutes and issues them to each chapter.

The Federation used to issue a publication periodically through the year which was distributed to every member; which was subsidized by a major insurance company.  Many members would like to have a publication issued once again to every member; however, unless another major sponsor can be located, the cost of issuing such a publication is prohibitive.  Other attempts to issue this publication have met encountered similar problems with cost prohibitions.

            For the Federation Convention, the federation invites the speakers from the National Office and other speakers who may be of interest to our members.  Most importantly, the Federation pays the travel and lodging expenses for the National Legislation Director, Judy Park,  to attend our convention.  During the convention the Federation issues the Resolution Book – which contains all the resolutions submitted by chapters to improve the operations of the Federation; and the Roster Book which identifies each member attending the convention.  With the upcoming convention, the Federation will not only conduct the convention, but also will do all the planning for the convention, since no Chapter, or District placed a bid to host the convention.  The Federation will also be attempting to locate a venue for the 2009 convention, which will be voted upon by the delegates at the 2007 convention.  So the Federation has taken on additional responsibilities to support the chapters and the members in California and to give them the opportunity to choose their leaders, and to make any changes in the operating procedures of the Federation and to renew their interest and enthusiasm for NARFE.  There are 54 Federations in NARFE; every state plus District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Panama and Philippines.

            REGION – There are 10 Regions in NARFE.  The Region exists to effectively help, when necessary, the Federations and provide liaison between National and the Federations. The liaison for the Region is the National Field Vice President, who is elected at the National Convention. The National Field Vice President attends each Federation Executive Board meeting.  Any member may run for this position.

California is a member of Region VIII, which also consists of Nevada, Hawaii, Republic of the Philippines and Okinawa.  The National Field Vice President is available to visit chapters, when invited, and attends National Executive Board Meetings at NARFE headquarters four times a year.

NATIONAL – The Headquarters of NARFE is located in Alexandria, VA.  The National Executive Board (NEB) consists of fourteen members who are elected at the biennial National Convention; President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer and 10 National Field Vice Presidents.  The NEB implements the policy established by the members approving resolutions at the National Convention.  There is also a staff of about 60 to manage the administrative details, membership records, issue the monthly NARFE magazine, provide Public Relations, Pre-Retirement Services, Retirement Benefit Services and prepare and publish informational and educational materials for use by all members.

 Most importantly there are five professional lobbyists on staff who maintain constant contact with Congress to follow developments in the pending bills which may affect our earned benefits.  When necessary, the National Legislation Director will issue a Legislative Alert to encourage our members to contact their members of Congress to take a particular action.   The National Office offers an e-mail network which can update members through the Global Electronic Messaging System (GEMS).  Members can sign up with GEMS by going to the Web Site (www.narfe.org).  As a member of GEMS you will receive the all important Legislative Hot Line which is issued each Friday.

 National maintains a Web Site for use by all members which includes updates on legislative issues, prepared messages which you can send to your Congressman with the click of a mouse, Position Papers for you to download and provide to your Congressman when you visit or write to them, Chapter and Federation Development (great ideas for you to implement in your chapter), Scholarship information, and much other information too numerous to mention here.  More importantly the Web Site offers the opportunity for chapters to update their Officer Roster, F-7; on-line and not only order supplies, but also download some of the most used forms and the new NARFE logos.