REGION 1 NEB Comments – Nov 2008 

An NEB meeting was held 10-14Nov 2008.  Below are informal notes, observations and comments.

 Legislative Comments. Dan Adcock indicated his intention to write to President elect Obama to request that he exercise his authority as President to instruct OPM to apply for the Medicare employer subsidy which could be used to lower payments for the FEHB premiums. This would amount to obtaining approximately $1 Billion per year as an intra-government transfer and thereby not result in a net expenditure of funds. The National Legislative Conference will be held on March 7-10, 2009 at the Crystal City Hyatt Hotel. Details have been sent to all chapters and a registration form appears in the December NARFE magazine. A new Legislative handbook has been prepared and will be available in January.

Finance. The Finance & Investment Committee met during the NEB meeting. The poor market performance during the past few months combined with declining membership has resulted in a financial shortfall. A number of steps have been proposed and others will be implemented to make up for the shortfall in the coming months. Among the actions taken at the NEB meeting were: approval for all 14 members of the NEB to take a 10% budget cut, reduce the number of pages in the NARFE magazine lowering costs of paper and postage, cut the cost of living increase for all HQ employees, cut NRO travel to Federation Conventions to every other year instead of yearly, and step up efforts to recruit and retain members. It was noted that many two member households have been requesting delivery of only one magazine instead of two. It was pointed out that although this saves on postage and paper the net reduction in advertising dollars due to lower circulation figures ends up costing NARFE more. Members are encouraged to keep receiving multiple copies of the magazine and use the extra copy to drop off at Doctors’ offices, libraries or to agency personnel departments where federal employees may see the magazine. If members put their membership number on the application for membership in the NARFE magazine they might get credit for recruitment activity and NARFE would benefit from the extra publicity. Finally, the budget for 2009 was presented and approved.

Membership. The Membership report was presented by John Clements.  As of November 7, 2008, we have 317,894 members and 1,460 chapters. The good news is that mainly because of the OPM mailings, October was the best recruiting month of the year and we had a net gain of 130 members in October. A second OPM mailing should provide a boost in November and December. In addition there will be a League of Postmasters mailing and continuing efforts to reinstate members through lapsed member mailings. Help is needed from the members, Chapters and the Federations. Encouraging dues withholding has been found to be a good retention tool.

Regarding Chapter or Federation Presidents also holding treasurer positions or Presidents and their spouses holding Treasurer Positions, it was generally agreed that this was not desirable and that a policy should be issued that will not allow this practice.

Public Relations.

While the Public relations budget will be cut, there should still be some funds available for matching fund requests.

Alzheimer’s Association reports that as of October 31, 2008, NARFE members have contributed $7,673,801.48.

Bylaws. The 2008 bylaws approved at the National Convention in Louisville should be available for downloading from the NARFE web site after 1 December. Hard copies may be ordered on Form F-18.

There was a discussion about delegates being able to carry more than 3 proxies to the National Convention. It is anticipated that there will be a Resolution to increase the number allowed at the next Convention.

Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan was given an extensive review. Among the ideas explored were: Reinstating the Best Chapter Practices on the web, Development of Future Leaders, Addressing Apathy, Unity and Involvement within NARFE, Selling the Value of NARFE to Current and Future Members, Means to Improve Communications to be More Effective. A new slogan was adopted: “NARFE Works For You”.

Silver Circle.  Due to its success, the program will continue. New Silver Circle pins with no date will be purchased for use in the coming year. Over $65000.00 has been raised to date with 21 members donating $1000.00 or more.

Federation Presidents Meeting. There will be a Federation President’s Meeting on 20 – 23 July, 2009 at the Amway Grand Hotel in Grand Rapids, MI which is the site for the National Convention in 2010.

Miscellaneous Topics.  

The Scholarship Committee announced that the application form will be on the NARFE web site and in the February, March and April issues of the magazine.

Past and present chapter and federation officer pins may be obtained from HQ on Form F-129 which is available on the web site.

The new Question and Answer Book is now available and may be purchased from HQ for $9 per copy.

NARFE will be 90 years old in 2011. Plans are to publicize the anniversary in conjunction with the National Convention in 2010.

Augie Stratoti, Regional Vice President Region I

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