MCREA

September, 2012

    Hello summer survivors.  I hope you were able to get away from our sauna-like weather for at least a short trip to cooler places.  Although, I think I should stop complaining since many of those areas were pretty darn hot this summer as well.  It used to be when we would escape to Northern Maine we could expect only a few days of 80 and above weather.  This year they had many more.  It is important to remember that when it gets hot up there, in most cases, there is no air conditioner to turn on, and the windows, at least in Maine, are super small to hold in the heat in the winter.  

   

    The Georgia peaches were juicier and sweeter this summer.  I heard a grower lamenting the drought but saying his crop, although smaller, was much tastier. Regardless of whether you believe in global warming or not, something is happening to alter the climate.  I will not mention the "h" word for extreme storms that we have dodged so far.  I think the weather predictors and the media in general have done all they can to jinx us on that. Lucky for us, they hexed Louisiana instead.

    Now the important stuff.  Our New Member Reception will  take place on Thursday, Sept. 6 (this week!) at the Central Branch Library in Bradenton, at 10 a.m.  If you know someone who is a retired educator( any retired employee of the county schools or another school system, college, private or parochial school) please encourage him or her to attend. You can come along too to support a new member.  We will have refreshments featuring Judy Shostrom's punch, a real treat, information about MCREA, and conversation.

    Our first meeting will be at Renaissance on 9th, at 11:30 a.m, on September 20.  Our first meeting will give you an opportunity to get caught up with everyone's adventures and an overview of the coming year.  The Board is planning a 50th Birthday Celebration of MCREA to be held November.  Lunch is $15.  Wear your name tag.  The following are the meeting dates for 2011-12. Please note the Oct. and Nov. meetings are on Wednesday.

Sept 20

Wednesday, Oct. 17

Wednesday, Nov. 14

 Dec. 20

 Jan. 17

 Feb. 21

  March 21

April 18

May 16

    Our donations to FELT (Feeding Empty Little Tummies) will continue each month.  Remember children's books and foods that can be used to stuff the Friday backpacks of children who need the nourishment for the weekend are our contribution.  I read that 50 percent of Americans now are below the poverty line and that 75 percent of those receiving aid have children.  Those grim statistics tell us how important it is to pitch in and help.

    This summer, we have all been reading about the empty shelves at the community food bank.  I didn't realize that the food banks at most churches and in the community in general are partially or entirely supplied with food from the community food bank.  The MCREA Board is requesting that we bring a dry food stuff and a can of food to our meetings.  Of course, if this would be a hardship for you, please feel free to abstain from any of our collections.

    I am looking forward to our first meeting.  I hope you will be able too.  As usual, at the beginning of the year, there may be some glitches in our calling procedure, so if you are not called before Sunday, Sept. 16, please call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 or Deborah Thomas at 752-6895.

    See you soon,

    Ellen

      

   Here is our scholarship recipient, Jacob Kargauer, at FSU.

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June 1, 2012

We returned yesterday afternoon from the FREA Assembly which was held in Orlando.  The official MCREA Delegates to the Assembly were Deborah Thomas and Judy Shostrom.  Mildred Owens and I tagged along with them.  David Brown was there in his position as FREA Trustee with his wife Carolyn.  They both worked hard setting up the Country Store and the Chinese Auction.  Ed Ethridge was there in his role as FREA Public Relations Chair.  Fay Murphy also attended.  She is Unit 7 Director and has been appointed Director of all the FREA Units.  So, as you can see,  MCREA was well represented at the state level.

The annual FREA Banquet was themed "Forging Florida Frontiers". In keeping with the theme, attendees were encouraged to dress up as Florida tourists with some comical results.  Ed Ethridge won second place in the men's costume contest and a huge blown-up pink flamingo which he will probably place in a dark closet when he gets home.  Judy, Deborah, Mildred, and I also dressed up in our version of tourists.  Sadly, I realized that I always looked like a tourist in my regular clothes. Judy was clashing in her plaid shorts and flowered shirt, flamingo sunglsses, straw hat, and 1960's camera.  Deborah was decked out in an Indian print maxi, sandals with socks, and a straw hat.  Mildred had a Hawaiian shirt and straw hat.

Judy and Deborah

Mildred joins them.

Oh Ed, what have you become?

On a more serious note, Esther Twitchell, FREA President, presented the check that will be given to Governor Rick Scott which represents the volunteer hours logged by FREA members, and their approximate monetary value to the people of Florida.
The worth of 507,482 hours is $11,058,032.78. 

Fay and Howard at the Assembly.  Fay chaired the Unit 7 meeting, participated

in the Memorial Service for membes who have died during the year, and delivered the  Thought for the Evening and the Blessing at the Banquet on Thursday.

Highlights of the Assembly were the remarks of Sarabeth Snuggs, Director of the Florida Division of Retirement and Ash Williams, Executive Director of the State Board of Administration.   Snuggs warned of changes to the retirement plans.  She said that new teachers are asked to choose between the regular retirement plan and an investment plan.  In previous years, teachers who did not choose would be in the  regular retirement plan which was the default plan.  However, legislators are planning to change the investment plan to the default position.  It is important that new hires understand that change.  Later, when Ash Williams was asked about the investiment plan, he said that the average investment accrued so far under that plan was about $50,254 total.  Imagine retiring with only that much money.

Snuggs also reported that the retirement account is funded at 87.5% at the present time.  This is after years of Legislative funding of 100% or more.  She asked that we keep pressure on our Legislators to increase the funding to its former level.  New plans for retirement have been suggested, such as a cash balance plan which would guarantee a level of interest on individual contributions and that balance would be a retiree's payment.  Of course, with the fluctuation of the stock market, that idea could be a disaster to retirees.  Another plan is some sort of hybrid plan which would incorporate the existing plan with a 1.0 interest credit rather than the 1.6 which we now have.  Snuggs says the Florida Retirement System has always been a great recruitment and retention tool. (It seems to me that we as retirees now are probably safe from the Draconian plans of some members of the Legislature, but knowledge about their proposals will always be helpful.  And who knows what they may do to us as well?)

She said that FREA's fight to keep the health insurance subsidy was instrumental in saving it.  She ended her remarks by announcing that she is retiring herself this year.  She assured us that the person who succeeds her will be drawn from the group who worked with her and that we will be in good hands.

Esther Twitchell, President, encouraged looking at The FREA website, http://www.frea.org/ which will keep you abreast of how your legislators voted on issues that concern us.  Write, email, or call them to make your thoughts on legislation known.  If they vote correctly, thank them.  If they don't, chastise them.  We are a huge voting blog and we vote.

Ash Williams discussed the investments that have been made in the stock market, in businesses, and buildings. The attempt is made to diversify the funds.  The sum of the account as on Friday, June 1, was $121.6 billion.  Each month, $500 million is paid out in retirement checks to members.  The fund is affected by global economic growth and the lack thereof.  When employer contributions were reduced in 2008, the funding level dropped.When the Legislature does not fully fund the pension plan, as if hasn't in the last three years, the interest which accrues compounds further, cutting into the account.  The 2011 reduction in benefits should have reduced costs but it did not.

William said that he has had several productive conversations with the governor who, he says, wants to put the pension plan on good footing. 

He also says that changes to the retirement plan for currently vested and retired employees are not likely.  He said we should be on the lookout for changes in non-vested employees' retirement options.

This will be my last blog until September, so I wish you a lovely summer.  Check out the new FREA website, at http://www.frea.org/  I think you will enjoy reading it.  Anne Fagan of the FREA staff has done a great job making it interesting and readable.

Ellen



May, 20012

Blog Gone Wild


    For some reason, my blog program has decided to take on a life of its own.  So, you may find some pictures floating around which were meant to be in this blog, but got separated from it.  Sadly, FREF has just asked me to present my blog making techniques at the Assembly in May.  I hope I can find the gremlin before then.


Scholarship Committee
    Those of you who attended the April meeting had an opportunity to see Tayler Liles, from Palmetto High School, one of our MCREA Scholarship winners this year.  She also won the FREF Scholarship which means she will receive more money from them in her next years in college if she keeps up her grades and stays in education.  Her mother, who is a guidance counselor at Lincoln Middle School,  was able to attend with Tayler. Julia Forkgen will be presenting Tayler's scholarship certificate at the Palmetto H.S. Awards ceremony.
 Our other scholarship recipient, Jacob Kargauer from Braden River High School, will attend our May meeting.  Since I worked with his mother to get him there, I invited her too.  I saw Jacob's picture in the newspaper for winning the Democratic Women's Club Scholarship as well.  He will need lots of help because his father in ill, and his mother, with the help of Jacob, is the bread-winner of the family which includes another son.  Terrence McDonald will present Jacob's certificate at the Braden River Awards ceremony.
    The Scholarship Committee brought a new scholarship presentation plan to the MCREA Board.  While all the details have not been worked out, the plan of distribution of scholarships will follow more closely the FREA method of presentation.  Since most students receive funds in their first year of college, money gets tighter later on in the junior and senior years. The committee felt that we could encourage students to stay with education as a goal with some extra funding.  So, beginning next year, we plan to offer two $500 scholarships to high school seniors, but we will encourage them to apply later for a scholarship from MCREA for $500 or $1000 more to help them in those "crunch" years.  Being able to follow through on this plan, however, depends on our ability to raise enough money to keep the enterprise afloat.  That means getting donations from our members as we always have, with perhaps a renewed effort to build up a scholarship fund.  This year we raised a bit over $3000, but we kept $1000 of that in our treasury to help us along in offering later funding to students in education programs.

FELT
     Feeding Empty Little Tummies still needs food.  This will be the last month of packing those backpacks for children to take home on the weekends.  Now we have to hope that some other community agencies will pick up on the needs of these kids to help them through the summer months.
  Jane Evers thanks us for our support and especially for all the great books which she was able to send home with each child at Christmas and will send on the last backpack day.  But, she would love to have some more books in the fall to begin again.  We have been the biggest source of books, so we need to keep up the good work.  She still needs food of course.  If everyone would just throw something in his or her shopping basket at the supermarket, it adds up fast.  I will see that the items get to Jane.  Think small packages of cereal , pudding, soup, crackers, etc.  All should be non-perishable and small enough so that they will not tip a little kid over backward.

Membership
   You may pay your membership dues to FREA and MCREA at our next meeting.  Remember, that probably FREA dues will go up in June, so it will save you money to pay now.  Dues are $50.  Those members who became lifetime members before that program ended pay $20 which are the local dues.

May Meeting
    We will meet on 11:30, May 17, at Renaissance on 9th.  Since this will be our last meeting until September, we hope you will make a big effort to get there.  We have no planned program except for socializing (which we are very good at), games, and an ice cream social.  I think that means we will have a make- your- own sundae bar.  Reservations should be made with your caller, but should you not hear from that person, call Mary Ann Jensen at 756-7603 before Sunday, May 13, to make one.


See you there,
Ellen
 
    


    

Manatee County Retired Educators Association

May, 2012 Manatee County Retired Educators Association