NATIONAL ACTIVE AND RETIRED FEDERAL EMPLOYEES COLORADO COLUMBINE CHAPTER 2339 APRIL - JUNE 2010

Message from the President: The 48th Colorado Federation of Chapters Annual Convention in Longmont has just concluded so your Vice President, Mary Bleecher, and I will try to summarize the most pertinent information for you. Mary and I were the only representatives from the Chapter. Sadly, only 94 voting delegates, representing 18 of the Federations 25 chapters, attended the Convention. Under the direction of Larry Schluntz, President of the Longmont Chapter, the District VI Convention Committee members did a tremendous job of making all attendees welcome and comfortable. The hotel and convention hall facilities were very good and capable of handling a much larger group. Unfortunately, we just can not seem to convince our members that these Conventions are not only educational but also fun. I believe this years attendance was the smallest in all the years (17) that I have been attending the State Conventions. State Convention, May 14 -16, 2010 by Mary Bleecher and Bob Warren The Convention got started Friday PM, May 14th, with a two hour legislative training session conducted by Dan Adcock, Legislative Director of NARFE and Ken Bowen, Federation 2nd VP (Legislation). The attendees reported that it was an excellent presentation and very informative. That evening a social mixer, with entertainment by the Dancin Divas, concluded the first day. The next morning, following the opening ceremony including a convention welcome by the acting major of Longmont, 4th District US Representative Betsy Markey, gave a spirited presentation on her activities in Washington D.C., emphasizing that she is an "independent thinker". Having previously been a Federal employee provides her with an better understanding of what Federal employment is all about. She concluded her visit by answering a variety of questions from the delegates relative to the recently passed Health Care Reform Bill. Her main emphasis was that the "bill" protects the FEHBP as we currently know it. Her presence was definitely one of the "highlights" of the Convention. The next "highlight" was the introduction and presentation of Dan Adcock, Legislative Director of NARFE As the major speaker at the Convention, Dan highlighted the following accomplishments for the past year: *Defeated an amendment which would have cut Federal retiree benefits by $10 billion. *Fought for the $250 payment or tax credit for all Federal retirees as part of the Stimulus bill. *Permitting FERS workers to initially credit half, and in 2004 all, of their unused sick leave toward retirement. *Allowing Federal agencies to re-employ Federal retirees on a limited, part-time basis, without offset of annuity. *Adding a "Roth" option to the TSP and ensuring that surviving spouses have the same rights over their inherited accounts as any other TSP participant. *Ending the Department of Defense’s pay-for-performance personnel system. *Allowing returning FERS employees to repay a deposit to the Retirement Fund, with interest, in order to be able to combine their past and new Federal service for future annuity calculation. Dan further stressed that all Federal employees, active and retired, should be alert to actions of the bi-partisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and to contact their elected legislators to avoid possible benefit cuts. It is important for all of us to know that the Commission will need to have 14 of its 18 members approve its recommendations in order to send forth legislation that will be processed under expedited procedures - with no amendments allowed -and an "up or down" vote. Since every area of the federal budget is supposedly on the table, this may well be critical for all of us and thus the need to let our legislators aware of how we feel. Dan advised that we need to work hard at recruiting and retaining members. Numbers are going to be important when talking to our legislators. During his training session on Sunday, he advised that the total number of both active and retirees for any particular Congressional District or NARFE chapter area is available at the National Headquarters and this information should be used when conferring with legislators. In conducting his "legislative role playing" training, he emphasized the importance of pre-planning our visits to Congressional offices and the necessity of limiting the number of requests or questions put forth to these busy staffs. He strongly recommends that we write personal and individual letters to our Senators and Congressman and limit the use of "form" letters. (We are truly blessed to have Dan and his staff working for us at the National level). We were fortunate to have four of the candidates who are running for National or Regional offices present at the Convention. Each was given time to share their thoughts and aspirations for the positions they are running for. They were: Mr. Dick Strombotne from the state of Maryland and running for the office of National President Ms. Martha Leiker, currently the Region VII VP and running for the office of National 1st VP Mr. Frank Impinna, currently the Federation President of Colorado and running for the office of National Treasurer Mrs. Betty Lucero-Turner, from Colorado and running for the office of Region VII VP Biographical information on each is available in the spring and summer issues of the national magazine.

Martha Leiker, Region VII Vice President, gave two presentations, one covering the National Office and the second covering her Region which is the five states consisting of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. On the national level, the overall membership continues to decline although not as fast as during past few years. However, the net lose of 11,000 last year is creating financial problems for the National Office and a increase in yearly dues is a possibility. Only six states, including Colorado, thanks to the recruiting efforts of the Mory Lewis Chapter, had net gains in membership last year! With regards to the happenings in Region VII, all are struggling to maintain their chapters as most members do not want to be officers and in many cases members have quit going to the scheduled (monthly) meetings. There is currently 86 chapters with 16,143 voting members in the Region. Mr. Steve Bauer, Executive Director of the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund (FEEA), was a guest speaker on Saturday afternoon. Steve gave a very interesting presentation on the history of his parents, his childhood, Federal Service, how and why FEEA was created in 1986, and how NARFE and FEEA became cooperatives in 1995. His office manages both the National and Federation Scholarship Programs which are funded by the two NARFE offices. FEEA also manages the NARFE Emergency Assistance Program.. On May 16 and 17 your President along with Eva Heller and Hank Kaplan from the Capitol City Chapter opened and checked for completeness, the 540 scholarship applications received. This number is down from previous years but Steve has said that the number of applications for their FEEA Scholarship Program is also down. With the high cost of getting a higher education, a person wonders why fewer high school seniors are applying. Ms. Chris Wright, an authority on identity theft, gave a good presentation on how to avoid being conned into providing personal information to those that intend on misusing it. She recommended that using cash instead of credit cards is a good idea, particularly in places that you are not familiar with. She also said that everyone should get a credit report at least once a year and review it very carefully. If you suspect that someone has your ID, you should report it to the police and then get a copy of the police report as proof that you did it. Unfortunately, identity theft is a growing business and the advent of the computer has sped up the process. The delegates approved four amendments to the Federation Bylaws but none are significant nor affect this Chapter. A highlight of this year’s Convention was the 2010 Hall of Fame Award to Don Harvey, Columbine’s Charter President. Cited for his numerous NARFE accomplishments, Don is known as one of Colorado’s NARFE leaders and a pioneer in innovation. Accepting the award for Don, who was too ill to attend, was President, Bob Warren. District IV will host next years Convention at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Loveland, from May 13 thru 15. Mark your 2011 calendar.   NARFE-PAC - What is it and why is it important? NARFE-PAC is our Political Action Committee - otherwise known as our lobbying group for our own special interests - our hard-earned benefits. It was established to distribute contributions received from NARFE members to candidates whose actions support NARFE issues. It is especially important this election year as the Federal budget deficit is under attack. As previously mentioned, a bipartisan commission has been established to look at all possible areas where cutbacks can be made. Out National office assures us that the CSRS is fully funded and we should keep reminding current legislators and potential future ones about this. Dan Adcock announced that over 1 million dollars had been contributed to NARFE-PAC during the month of March, but more can be used. For more detailed information about contributing, read the March 2010 issue of the national magazine.  2010 National Convention This years National Convention will be held in Grand Rapids, Michigan from August 29 - September 2. The Columbine Chapter is authorized to send 7 delegates so if you are interested, contact either Bob Warren at 303-985-8436 or Mary Bleecher at 303-750-3703. We must notify our National HQ of our delegate list by June 30th. The recent monthly magazine’s have provided details on registration, hotel reservations and general information about the site and program. Important Information We suggest that you make a copy of the following information and post it for easy reference. These are all toll-free telephone numbers you can use for NARFE, OPM, TSP and Social Security: If you have questions regarding your NARFE membership, call the toll-free number for membership records at: 1-800-456-8410. Have your NARFE membership number ready when you call (it is on your magazine label). For questions about your OPM annuity, call 1-888767-6738 between 7:30 am and 7:45 pm ET. Have your CSA number available. For information regarding your TSP annuity, call 1-877-968-3778 and you will need your TSP account number. For those of you also on Social Security, contact them at 1-800-772-1213. Have your Social Security Number available when you call. If you do not have a copy of BE PREPARED FOR LIFE’S EVENTS, NARFE Form F-100, for your estate planning purposes, contact WWW.narfe.org   Sign onto the website as a member and click "forms". The Form F-100 is listed and you can print it out. If you cannot get it online, let us know and we will get you a copy. Those who do not have internet capability will receive a copy in the mail. NARFE 9491 W. Tenn. Ave. Lakewood, CO 80226-4104