National Federation Presidents' Meeting
 

I have tried to summarized the two days of meetings that I attended with seminars and open discussions about a multitude of issues that are pertinent to NARFE and our survival as an active, viable and fully functional organization. Forgive me if I gore an ox that is your favorite or if I leave out enough background on a specific issue of interest to you. We covered a lot of ground so I will try to give you the highlights. I will provide my thoughts on any issue or subject at the end in my own summary of the meetings. No bios of the invited speakers were provided so I will give you the names only unless I know specifically who they were.

There were opening remarks by our National President, Margaret Baptiste, about the health of NARFE in general and the importance of a constructive exchange of views and ideas. She was followed by Chuck Brodigan, the Meeting Chair, who outlined the agenda that would be followed.

Darlene Freeman was the first seminar speaker. She covered a lot of ground so I will speak only to the highlights. She pointed out something that we all know but often forget, Change is inevitable. Change is constantly with us so we must expect and help NARFE to change with the times. More on this one later.
She told us that there are only two important issues for NARFE:
Legislation and Membership
She told us that we should use the term, Pensions, when referring to our annuities. If we use Annuities too many people will think that only the rich have annuities and therefor we must all be rich. Nice thought but sadly not true of course.
She also told us that we should always remember the chain of command and make sure that information goes all the way down the chain to the chapter members.
Last in my notes but certainly not least in hers was the admonition to be sure to maintain transparency within the Federation and chapters but she was particularly insistent that this be true with our DVP's.

Chuck Brodigan provided his thoughts on public relations for Federations before we moved to the next speaker. He suggests that Federations are not taking advantage of an obvious PR opportunity. He tells us that each Federation should put together a list of every type of volunteer job all across the state including community service organizations, school tutoring, hospital volunteers etc. He read off a very long list of the jobs that volunteers do and he suggested that he had only touched on the list of possibilities. This would be an idesal PR opportunity for publication in local newspapers.

Marlene Brunton then gave a seminar on training. I can summarize what she provided by saying that she urges training on Reports and reporting using supplies from National. She stressed that reports ar a necessary part of maintaining the organizational files but that there are many who do not know where or how to find or use the proper reporting technology. This was demonstrated by a couple of questions asked from the floor about specific reporting issues.

Dan Adcock, our National Director of Legislation, addressed the legislative aspects of NARFE and gave us a background review of where we are and where he thinks we may, or may not, be going legislatively.
He strongly urges those DVP's with Chapters having Congressional Representatives on committees that are key to our issues to be sure that these chapter members are aware of their significant position and are meeting on a regular basis with the Representatives office staff on our issues.
He then moved on to Social Security to let us know that those members without SS will, in fact, get the $250 rebate off the 2009 taxes filed in 2010.
He told us that the AMA President is advising the Administration and Congress to use the FEHBP as a guide for a public health option. Dan says the plan should be modeled after the FEHBP but not opened to non-feds. Instead the model should use a separate risk pool.
Will health care happen? He doesn't know and won't guess.
About Premium conversion. This a good and bad story. He tells us that, if PC is enacted we may pay taxes on our health care in the future. Without PC we will not be taxed on our health care. So - It is decision time. Do we or don't we want PC? Dan would not venture a guess on this one either but he did urge us to continue to push for PC for the time being.
Our very own Don Stewart was next on the seminar list. He spoke to something that we have all felt for some time that National is giving short shrift, Retention . Don gave his usual excellent presentation on Retention training. His particular emphasis was on Baby Boomers, who they are and what they expect of any organization they may join. He stressed the fact that we are going into the 21st century and that the BB's are more than likely to be FERS and more technically oriented than the current CSRS membership. He offered several suggestions on how to retain these BB's from the initial contact to meet and greet at the first chapter meeting to getting them involved from day one.
We next moved into an open discussion for all the members present. I will not go into any detail but will summarize in one liners.
NY: Try www.gotomeeting.com to set up on-line meetings.
(Bill Leatham is working on this for us.)
TN: Get a list 3 years back and send them each a post card inviting them back.
WA: Send a post card after 1st notice in the M-112
Open: Use Face Book and Blogs but someone needs to monitor them.
Open: NARFE needs bumper stickers and decals.
Margaret says it is already being worked on.
Open: Stop negative comments on the e-mails.
Margaret says don't respond to them.
Open: Index the Q & A in the magazine and put them on the web site.
Margaret says Already working on it. Many positive comments about this one. I am glad to say that I was one of those who started this ball rolling. It will be a great recruiting/Retention tool.
There were several other open comments but not specific enough to be included here. One of the most interesting observations: There was very minimal discussion of the Referendum. There were at least 3 or 4 members in attendance who were strongly opposed to the NEB approach to the referendum but they never got the floor and the only discussion was in the halls after the meetings.


My Own Observations and Comments
I am not going to repeat everything here but only highlight those I consider most significant.

I think the fact that change is inevitable should be a given. There was a lot of discussion about the use of all the new technology. It was as if it is expected that all members are tech savvy and have access to computers or blackberries or Ipods or ? This is not the case and we must be sure to include some means of transferring information, Transparency again, to all those members without the techy tools. Since only about 20 to 30 percent of our current members have the techy tools this becomes a real challenge that we must find an answer to.

Mr. Brodigan presented a great PR suggestion. I hope that we can find a way to implement his idea.

I couldn't agree more with Ms Brunton on Report training. This is something that the DVP's should emphasize for there chapter officers.

Dan Adcock's presentation was sobering. He was telling us what we all suspected but didn't want to hear.

I was delighted to have my suggestion for the Q & A to be put on the web site get picked up so quickly. It will be a great recruiting and retention tool. The actual Q&A will be on the Members only side of the web site but there will be a teaser on the Home Page open site. If you find a question on the teaser that you want an answer for then join NARFE and go to the Member side to get it.

I was also delighted to find that the huge majority of members were not the least bit distrubed by the NEB Referendum. In spite of all the negative comments from a small group of NIH (not invented here) members it would appear that reason will prevail and we will have one single, unified or NARFE dues structure. We would no longer have to explain to any potential member why they pay $33 the first year and then pay $29 plus chapter dues every year after the first. We may get NARFE into the 21st century yet.

Respectfully submitted
Wallace Roepke
Fl Federation President