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Ch 1664 Newsletter Oct 2020

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Ch 1664 Newsletter Oct 2020 South Jersey Shore Chapter 1664 October 2020 Newsletter Chapter 1664 Officers President – Gary Levy FEHB CHAPTER MEETING OCTOBER 21 AT 1:00 P.M.!!! (609) 822-2018 Vice President – Lawrence Stroud (609) 646-9672 With the uncertainty remaining over the safety of restaurants re-opening and Covid still with us, we are delaying in-person chapter meetings. Our next meeting on October 21 is Secretary –Vacant a Zoom and Webex meeting. Instructions and the agenda are on page 4. This is our Treasurer – Karl Clouting annual meeting to discuss recent changes in FEHB premiums and health care choices. (609) 641-0907 As of today, there is a chance that OPM might not issue their press release in time for this meeting. If that happens, we will do the best we can with our presenters but could Legislative Officer – Tom DeFiore (609) 567-8827 schedule an additional meeting in the future to discuss changes. Service Officer –; Michael Ryan (609) 625-1223 President’s Corner Chaplain – Lawrence Stroud Bsd. Gary Levy, President, Chapter 1664 (609) 646-9672 Webmaster – Michael Ryan (609) 402-1269 Newsletter Editor - Anne Harlan (609) 926-5373 Welcome to October 2020, and what an October it has already been, and what an Membership Chair – Carol Dawson, October it promises to be. We’re approaching an election that is likely to be like no (609) 652-8149 other in American history. We will all participate in this event by exercising our right to vote. Over the past few years, and in particular the past nine months, we’ve Publicity Chair - Vacant experienced happenings of extreme dimensions. As we prepare to mail in our ballots, E-mail: [email protected] or go to the polls, I’m sure we have all probably made our voting decisions. Please be assured that I’m not trying point you in any direction, but for what it’s worth, as active NARFE National Contacts and retired federal employees you should keep in mind the mission of NARFE which is Change of Address: (800) 456-8410 to support legislation and regulations beneficial to us, to promote the general welfare of Recruitment & Retention: federal civilian employees, annuitants and potential annuitants, and to represent their (800) 627-3394 Legislative Hotline (24 hours): interests before appropriate authorities. (703) 838-7780 Legislators’ Phone It is here that I implore you to closely review the Presidential Candidate Numbers Questionnaire results which were published in their entirety in the October 2020 issue Senator Cory Booker of NARFE Magazine which we all recently received in the mail. As you know, ( 973) 639-8700 or (202) 224-3224 NARFE does not endorse candidates and does not make campaign contributions. The Se nator Robert Menendez (856) 757-5353 or (202) 224-4744 questionnaire merely serves as a tool to better keep NARFE members informed. When Con gressman Donald Norcross NARFE reached out to the Trump campaign, they provided the following response: (Dist.1) “The campaign is not participating in questionnaires this cycle.” On the contrary, (856 ) 546-5100 or (202) 225-6501 Biden was quite receptive to the questions and his unedited responses appear for all to Cong ressman Jeff Van Drew (Dist. 2) (609) 625-5008 or (202( 225-6572 see. I will not attempt to regurgitate the comprehensive answers he supplied, as they Congressman Andy Kim (Dist. 3) are self-evident in the magazine. However, in case you have overlooked or haven’t had (732) 504-0490 or (202) 225-4765 (continued on page 4) Congressman Chris Smith (Dist. 4) (609) 585-7878 or (202) 225-3765 Inside This Issue 1. Contacts; Meeting Information; President’s Corner 2. Legislative Report 3. Legislative Report (continued); Service Officer Report 4. Calendar of Events; President’s Corner (continued); Directions & Agenda for October Meeting NARFE – South Jersey Shore Chapter 1664 – Oct 2020 https://www.narfe.org/site/chapter1664/index.cfm page 1 LEGISLATIVE REPORT Tom DeFiore, Legislative Officer, Chapter 1664 NJ Federation National Legislative Chair COLA: September’s recently released CPI-W value was 254.004. This index combined with the CPI-W values from July and August will result in retirees covered by CSRS, FERS and Social Security receiving a 1.3% annuity increase.in January. Legislative NARFE (Data → Information): NARFE maintains an extensive website containing a wide variety of useful data and other resources and publishes their highlights in its monthly magazine. Both references are replete with considerable facts and data, which NARFE’s members can quote in correspondence. Members are encouraged to research NARFE’s information to compose a letter to a newspaper, a letter to CongressNARFE or insert needs in any otheryou communication.as much as yo NARFEu need National works hard to produce these documents, the least we could do is to become familiarNAR withFE! them and use them to NARFE’s advantage. Examples I’ve recently researched are provided below: NJ Cong PAC Legislator Name Party Dist Distrobution 1 Donald Norcross D $2,000 2 Jeff Van Drew R - 3 Andy Kim D $5,000 4 Christopher H. Smith R $10,000 5 Josh Gottheimer D $2,000 6 Frank Pallone, Jr. D $5,000 7 Tom Malinowski D $2,000 8 Albio Sires D $1,000 9 Bill Pascrell D $5,000 10 Donald Payne D $1,000 11 Mikie Sherill D $1,000 12 Bonnie W Coleman D $1,000 NJ Robert Menendez D Senate Cory Booker D $5,000 NARFE PAC DISTRIBURION: Chapter 1664 currently does not have a NARFE PAC coordinator, thus, I’ve extracted the data on following table from NARFE’s National PAC Website. This table presents the amount of NARFE PAC funds distributed during New Jersey’s 116th Congress. Save a late summer distribution to Senator Booker, the data reflects distributions through the end of June. NARFE Support for Senator Booker: It’s unclear what criteria were used to determine these distributions. Senator Booker’s voting record hasn’t been much help to the Federal community. The voting scorecard for the 116th Congress published in NARFE’s October 2020 Magazine identified five pieces of Senate Legislation important to NARFE. Of the five, Senator Booker voted for one, against one and because he was campaigning for the Presidency, didn’t vote on the other three. In the final Senate tally, however, not voting had the same net effect as a negative vote. More importantly, Senator Booker’s voting records from NARFE’s Magazine shows that, during his career, he had the least pro-NARFE voting record of all Democratic Senators. (Continued on page 3) NARFE – South Jersey Shore Chapter 1664 – Oct 2020 https://www.narfe.org/site/chapter1664/index.cfm page 2 The article below, composed jointly by Michael Ryan and myself is not a part of my Legislative Report, but I believe is sufficiently important to be included in the Chapter’s monthly newsletter. New Jersey Federation Mini-Executive Board Meeting (EB) was conducted via ZOOM for the first time on October 8th. Chapter 1664 loaned it’s ZOOM account to Federation, and it worked so well that EB voted to purchase their own account for future meetings. Vacant Officer positions were listed as Secretary and Alzheimer’s coordinator. In order to print and mail a hard copy of the December Federation Newsletter to all Chapter and National Members, the EB voted to reprogram $3500 from 2020’s funds reserved for the cancelled National Convention. Columns for said Newsletter are due on 1 December. Federation Books need to be audited by the end of the year, so a team is being assembled. Ed Gabel, Treasurer, presented monthly financial reports. Budget planning for Fiscal Year 2021 was discussed covering major events which require significant expenditures. − Region II Conference, York, PA $400/attendee 15-16 March 2021 − Federation Biennial Conference Hazlett: Cost > $25/attendee 21 April 2021 − NARFE Centennial Ball, D.C. (TBD) 21 June 2021 − Legislative Conference in D.C. $1150/attendee 21-23 June 2021 Chapter and Federation Bi-Laws need to be ungraded, but we are waiting for direction from National. The next Full EB Meeting is tentatively scheduled on ZOOM for 10 Nov. All Chapter Presidents will be invited. Some of us tried some goggles that simulate the chaTomng DeFes iore,in your Legislative reaction Officer, Chaptertime if1664 you were intoxicated - photos are below! This was a fascinating experience! Service Officer Report Michael Ryan, Service Officer Chapter 1664 NJ Federation Membership Chair Recently Deceased: Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have passed on recently. NARFE members are in bold in the list below: John Norman Warren 77 Aug 26 EHT FAA Donald A Martin Sr 89 Sept 1 Titusville FAA Robert D. Trader 79 Sept 7 EHC USPS Paul L. Doherty 70 July 30 Absecon FAA William R. Crimbring 88 Sept 6 Margate FAA Marian Patak 81 Sept 12 Mays Landing FAA Roy W. Gibson 96 Sept 13 Northfield USPS Bernice Brunson 94 Sept 19 Cape May CH FAA Joseph A Rippman 85 Sept 23 Cape May DoD Navy Maurice W Ward Sr 89 Sept 26 Galloway FAA Edward J. McDonald 77 Sept 21 Galloway USPS Frank H. Elbertson Oct 1 EHT FAA OPM Reporting of Death: Good news/bad news. Recently, OPMs has answered their telephone promptly when have called to report a death. However, spouses have reported four to five-week long delays in receiving paperwork. Close out checks for the deceased, paperwork for direction of benefits have both been slow. I can only hope this is temporary because of the pandemic. Processing details I have learned include that close-out checks are sometimes issued hardcopy, not direct-deposit; health benefits are converted to single for the spouse automatically; widows even with joint-accounts-direct-deposit receive a white form to direct their survivor benefits.
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