Really, who's money is it? - NARFE

OklahomaNARFE NewsVolume 3

Issue 3Jan - Mar 2018

The Official Publication of the Oklahoma National Active and Retired Federal Employees

Really, who’s money is it?

I attended two National Executive Board (NEB) Meet-ings at NARFE Headquarters in the last quarter of 2017, one in October and the other one in November. Here is a summary of what the NEB discussed and voted on during the meetings:

During the October meeting the NEB passed four reso-lutions to be forwarded to the membership for voting by ballot are as follows:

1. A resolution to change the bylaws pertaining to the Ex-ecutive Director. Presently the bylaws do not address the duties and responsibilities of the Executive Director.

2. A resolution to clean up the language in the bylaws referring to federations, defining who belongs to a fed-eration (NARFE members residing within the federation boundaries) and the purchasing of addresses labels for candidates for NARFE Office.

3. A resolution to clean up the language in the bylaws referring to the establishing of committees.

4. And a resolution to clean up the language in the bylaws to confirm with the DC Code refer-ring to Proxies for NEB Members that are unable to attend a NEB meeting. I, along with most of the board members, approved that these proposed resolutions to be pre-sented in ballot form to be voted

on by the entire NARFE membership. These are not ma-jor changes to the bylaws but need to be approved by the membership to clean up the current bylaws and to be fol-lowing the D.C. Code. As you know, NARFE is incorpo-rated in the District of Columbia and, as such, we must comply with their laws and regulations.

At the meeting we were joined by an attorney, who specializes in Non-Profit Associations, that NARFE has contracted with, and our new Parliamentarian. They are extremely knowledgeable and were very helpful. They pointed out several areas where we should make changes in the way that our NEB meetings are conducted. We will discuss these needed changes at our next NEB meeting in November and I’ll pass them on to you.

One change that some of you will be glad about, is a change to the Membership Renewal Letter. A statement has been added to the renewal letter in the text portion of the letter, in bold font which reads:

Note: “The renewal form has changed. Please indicate below whether you are renewing NARFE National Mem-bership or NARFE National and your local chapter.”

Hopefully this will clear up some of the confusion that some members have experienced when renewing their National and Chapter Dues and being dropped from their chapter in error.

During the November meeting, the NEB was presented with a budget for the calendar year 2018 The board dis-cussed the budget and ask for additional information form Secretary/Treasurer Jon Dowie and members from his staff. After long discussions, the board voted to accept the budget for 2018. The budget projects a small net increase of assets. Non-profit organizations such as ours cannot show a profit.

A lengthy discussion was held on the anticipated pro-posed bylaw amendments and resolutions that will be coming from members, chapters and federations on the

Multiple times over the past couple of years I have been asked how chapters spend their money and “legally” what can they spend it on. And as you might expect, the answer is “it depends.”

For years chapters around the United States have raised money in a variety of ways. Some

have bake sales, raffles, take donations, garage sales, and the list goes on and on. Note, none of these fund raisers involve dues and fees mon-ies from being a NARFE Member.

National NARFE Bylaws for many years have been quite explicit in any NARFE funds raised through membership fees and dues. As stated in Article I, Section 3, paragraph G, page 13 of the 2016 Na-tional NARFE Bylaws it says:

“All funds derived from membership fees and dues shall be used only to support Association objectives.”

As most chapter members know, your Chapter Treasurer receives a reimbursement from NARFE National Office, almost monthly, for the Chapter’s portion of dues and/or New Memberships. In my way of thinking, that money should only be available for chapters to use on NARFE related activities to support “Association objectives.”

RANDY FREELANDOklahoma Federation President

(See Region VI, page 4)

I am not sure about other states, but for many years Oklahoma NARFE has rotated around the state the opportunity for Chapters to “host” the State Convention. In doing so, chapters often sold ads for the Convention Program, or table space for vendors to show their wares. In the end, some chapters were able to make a considerable amount of money. So... again, in my way of thinking that money, like funds mentioned above (bake sales, raffles, etc.), could be donated to a charity, given out as scholarship money, or many other areas that most would not put in the category of “Association objectives”. You would just want to be sure it is handled at a chapter meeting with a majority approval.

If you are one of those chapters with sufficient funds to conduct your business each month and have some left over you might consider this. Fellow NARFE members in Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands were particularly hard hit, as well as Florida, Texas, and other gulf coast states. FEEA Scholarship funds and Disaster Relief funds as well are worthy causes. I realize they are not “local,” but they are worthy of consideration and support. You can find a lot of information about FEEA on the National NARFE Website.

And I will take this discussion just one step fur-ther, just to be sure we are all straight. Alzheim-er’s!!! What a wonderful charity NARFE selected many years ago for donations to be given and used for research of this terrible disease. I know many of you don’t want to have several bank accounts for your chapters and that is fine. What works for many is to just keep a monthly ledger of funds received for Alzheimer’s, and then whenever appropriate (i.e. monthly, quarterly, or yearly) send ALL of the money collected for Alzheimer’s to your Federation Alzheimer’s Coordinator. We never want anyone to think we are using their donation for Alzheimer for anything except that purpose. Not sure I have covered it sufficiently, but I hope it is pretty clear. In summary:

• Membership Dues and Fees – Only for Asso-ciation objectives. • Other moneys earned by the chapter -- What-ever the Chapter votes to use it for. • Alzheimer’s – For Alzheimer’s Only!

If you disagree, give me a call or email and let’s discuss.

Region VI Vice President reportMARSHALL RICHARDS

Region VI Vice President

More inside...State Officers / Chapter Presidents ................. pages 2- 3Federation Executive Board Highlights .......... page 9Members’ Forum............................................... pages 12-15Why Do We Hold Regional Seminars ............. page 17

Chapter News .................................................... pages 18-23America’s Government is Getting Older ........ pages 24-25Dues Withholding Application ......................... page 29 Chapter Meeting Information ......................... page 32

Oklahoma NARFE NewsPAGE 2

OKLAHOMA FEDERATION STATE OFFICERS

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Oklahoma Federation Rewards Program 2017-2018

DISTRICT OFFICERS APPOINTED OFFICERS

PRESIDENTRandy Freeland (#183)5309 West Trenton CourtStillwater, OK 74074 Phone: 405-372-5799 Email: [email protected] 1ST VICE PRESIDENTJames Gillispie (#2184)1410 West 115th StreetJenks, OK 74037Phone: 918-694-9998Email: [email protected]

2ND VICE PRESIDENTCarolyn Harris (#184)5805 Saint James PlaceOklahoma City, OK 73179Phone: 405-261-6149Email: [email protected]

3RD VICE PRESIDENTJames Crowder (#946)2606 N.W. 56th StreetOklahoma City, OK 73112Phone: 405-840-5870 Email: [email protected]

SECRETARYJean McBride-Samuels (#278)114 West 114th StreetJenks, OK 74037Phone: 918-728-9828 Email: [email protected]

TREASURERJohnny Hanlon (#2184)400 West 31st Court Sand Springs, OK 74063-2923 Phone: 918-245-8881 Email: [email protected]

DISTRICT IGary Flinchum (#2184)4915 South 24th West PLTulsa, OK 74107-7726Phone: (918) 445-1008Email: [email protected]

DISTRICT IIRon Vick (#730)108178 North 3818 Road Okemah, OK 74859-5214 Phone: 918-623-1693 Email: [email protected]

DISTRICT IIIJerry Walker (#749)1905 Ronald StreetYukon, OK 73099 Phone: 405-354-7816 Email: [email protected]

DISTRICT IVMarilyn Componation (#946)208 E. Ridgewood DriveOklahoma City, OK 73110-3957Phone: 405-317-0272

DISTRICT V Linda Resnick (#1722) P.O. 5202Edmond, OK 73083Phone: 405-340-3305Email: [email protected]

IMMEDIATE PAST PRES. ADVISORJames Olden (#184)817 NE 50th StreetOklahoma City, OK 73105 Phone: 405-424-3488 Email: [email protected] HISTORIANJoAnn Dungan (#946)728 Crescent CircleOklahoma City, OK 73110Phone: 405-732-2615Email: [email protected]

ALZHEIMER’S COORDINATORBetty Lowrey (#183)3107 South Saddle Rock LaneStillwater, OK 74074-2291Phone: 405-372-1835Email: [email protected]

EDITOR / WEBMASTERNancy Stanphill (#2351)6818 East 65th Place Tulsa, OK 74133-4009 Phone: 918-493-2486 Email: [email protected]

PARLIAMENTARIANNancy Vaughan (#2184)7440 North 420 RoadHulbert, OK 74441 Phone: 918-598-3891 Email: [email protected]

SERVICE OFFICERPamela Burnett (#167)733 SE Sullivan DriveLawton, OK 73501-6548Phone: 580-585-2027Email: [email protected]

Change of address: You will receive the Oklahoma NARFE News at the address on your current NARFE magazine from Na-tional Headquarters. If you change your ad-dress, please notify Member Records toll-free at 1-800-456-8410, send an email message to [email protected], or mail the notification to NARFE National Headquarters, 606 N. Washington Street, Alexandria, VA 22314, At-tention: Member Records. Neither the editor of this publication, nor the Oklahoma Federa-tion of Chapters, nor the publisher can handle such requests.

Contributor’s Instructions: The Oklahoma NARFE News, The Official Publication of the Oklahoma National Active and Retired Federal Employees will be in print ev-ery third month (tri-monthly). To ensure a quality prod-uct we need help and support from you, the members. Material may be edited for grammar, clarity and length. Because of the volume, they will not be acknowledged. Please use the following instructions as a guide for your article submissions. If you have questions please feel free to contact the Editor.

It is incumbent on all federation officers to submit ap-propriate articles and pictures of events occurring in their area of responsibility. Chapter officers and members are encouraged to submit brief articles and pictures of gen-eral interest about Chapter happenings.

Please identify the event and the individuals in the pic-ture and mark the Chapter number on the back of each photo. Photos cannot be returned, so you should not send originals. Articles related to legislative matters and recruiting techniques are especially encouraged. All mate-rials should be submitted to the Editor, Nancy Stanphill, 6818 E. 65th Place, Tulsa, OK 74133, or [email protected]. You are encouraged to use email as much as possible to submit your articles. Articles should be sub-mitted in MS WORD or WORKS (either by mail or email attachment) to the Editor. If you cannot submit in Word or Works, copy and paste the article in the text of an email. Typed, single-spaced material is also acceptable. In order to meet the publisher’s deadline, the editor must receive material no later than the date published in the Editor’s box on the next page.

Privacy: The Federation respects your privacy and will do everything to protect it in the Oklahoma NARFE News. The Federation Executive Board has adopted a policy to only print individual names and phone numbers, but not mail or email address (except the Federation Ex-ecutive Board). Contributors should be aware and comply with this policy when submitting your articles.

Federal Income Tax: Dues payments and gifts or contributions to NARFE are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. Member-ship dues include subscription to this newspaper.

GUIDELINES FOR PUBLICATION

REGION VI VICE PRESIDENTMarshall Richards106 East Cedar StreetHallsville, TX 75650-6134 Phone: 903-660-2784Email: [email protected]

Reward for using Dues Withholding: (A) Each retired Federal Employee and/or spouse who joins NARFE in the Oklahoma Federation from June 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018 and uses dues with-holding to pay his/her National dues (including chapter dues, if applicable), will be eligible to receive a $40 reward from the Oklahoma Federation. (B) Existing retired Oklahoma Federation NARFE members who switch to dues withholding during the period from June 1, 2017 to May 31, 2018 will be eligible to receive a $40 reward from the Oklahoma Federation. (C) The Recruiter (if identified) responsible for members signing up for dues withholding will also receive $10 from the Oklahoma Federation. (D) The Chapter of a member signing up for dues withholding will also receive $10 (if chapter membership is indicated) from the Oklahoma Federation. (E) Active Federal Employees who sign up as new members will receive a $20 reward incentive from the Oklahoma Federation. Active employees cannot be on dues withholding.

To receive the dues withholding reward incentive, the member, potential member, recruiter, or chapter president (if claiming the chapter reward) will send the Form DW-2 (white form – current members), Form DW-3 (green form – new members), or other suitable form to Johnny Hanlon, Federation Treasurer, 400 W. 31st Court, Sand Springs, OK 74063-2923. To receive the reward for Active Employees, the recruiter or potential member must submit their application for membership to Johnny Hanlon. Johnny Hanlon will forward the Form(s) to the NARFE National Office.

www.NARFEOK.org

NARFE NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS606 North Washington St • Alexandria, VA 22314

Phone: 703-838-7760 • Fax: 703-838-7785Email: [email protected] • Website: www.narfe.org

Oklahoma NARFE News published by: M.D. & Associates, LLC

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Oklahoma NARFE News PAGE 3

CHAPTER PRESIDENTS

The Oklahoma NARFE News

2018 PUBLICATION SCHEDULEArticles must be

submitted by email to the editor by: March 9 for the April 2018 issue.

Send Us Your Comments.Use our paper as your voice.

EDITOR:Nancy Stanphill6818 E. 65th Place

Tulsa, OK 74133Phone: 918-493-2486

Email: [email protected]

MAR

9OKLAHOMA NARFE NEWS – JAN 2018 – VOL 3 ISSUE 3

Published by Oklahoma Federation of Chapters, NARFE Four times per year: January, April, July, October

6818 E. 65th Place • Tulsa, OK 74133

TULSA’S FIRST #278Jean McBride-SamuelsPhone: 918-728-9828Email: [email protected]

TULSA DAY-LITE #2184Gary FlinchumPhone: 918-445-1008Email: [email protected]

AZALEA MUSKOGEE #22Zolla M. BrooksPhone: 918-348-1882Email: n/a

OKMULGEE & OKFUSKEE #730Ron VickPhone: 918-623-1693Email: [email protected]

TRI COUNTY MIAMI OK #1017John DalgarnPhone: 918-542-0387Email: [email protected]

MAYES COUNTY, PRYOR #1787Ronnie DonovantPhone: 918-530-5020Email: [email protected]

PAYNE COUNTY, STILLWATER #183Jim HenleyPhone: 580-336-4288Email: [email protected]

ENID #369Darrell PhillipsPhone: 580-237-3642Email: [email protected]

CHISHOLM TRAIL, EL RENO #749Jerry WalkerPhone: 405-354-7816Email: [email protected]

ALTUS #909Ida Fay WintersPhone: 580-482-8934Email: [email protected]

WEATHERFORD #1346Ed HelmPhone: 580-774-0620Email: [email protected]

CLEVELAND COUNTY #130James McCampbellPhone: 405-364-4669Email: [email protected]

GREAT PLAINS, LAWTON #167Jacquetta J. ChaneyPhone: 580-492-5068Email: [email protected]

MID/DEL, MIDWEST CITY #946Ron CannefaxPhone: 405-259-9979Email: [email protected]

CENTRAL OK, OK CITY #184John GravesPhone: 405-424-2833 Email: [email protected]

SHAWNEE #542Eleanor “Ellie” MacDonaldPhone: 405-273-5177 Email: [email protected]

EDMOND #947Randall KooncePhone: 405-348-4801Email: [email protected]

EASTERN OK CITY, CHOCTAW #1621Laquinia (Buck) LawsonPhone: 405-921-5787Email: [email protected]

NORTHWEST, OK. CITY #1722James StricklandPhone: 405-255-1923Email: [email protected]

SOONER COWBOY #2351Charles StanphillPhone: 918-493-2486Email: [email protected]

IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS AND ON-LINE CONTACTS• Taxes: Annuitant Express, Change Tax Withholding: 1-800-409-6738• Federal Long Term Care: 1-800-582-3337 • www.LTCFEDS.com• Thrift Savings Plan: 1-877-968-3778 • www.tsp.gov• Social Security: 1-800-772-1213 • www.ssa.gov• NARFE Members Records (Email or Address Change): 1-800-456-8410 • [email protected]• National Headquarters NARFE Service Officers: 1-800-456-8410• NARFE Legislative Hotline: 1-877-217-8324 • Federal Legislation - White House: 1-888-225-8418 • Direct Line to Congress: 1-866-220-0044• Congressional Voting Records: www.votesmart.org • www.issues2000.org

www.NARFEOK.org


Membership is certainly a con-tinual challenge and takes constant monitoring. Membership is critical to any organization and ours is no different. Over recent months all chapters in our state have ex-perienced a loss of membership due to members transfer-ring out and not realizing they were dropping out of their chapter. Much of problem of members dropping their chapter membership, is due to the wording on the notice for renewal from the National Office. In many cases, they (the renewing member) sent the $40 for National dues and omitted the amount for Chapter membership, and as a re-sult are now being shown as ‘National Only’ members.

There is a way to correct this issue. Of course, the first option I would suggest is to get them on “Dues With-holding.” However, for those who will not consider that option, the following process can get them back into your chapter: 1.) Have the ‘former’ member complete an F-84 (Chapter Transfer form). 2.) They will then need to send that along with a check

for the chapter dues to the NARFE National Office. This will get the member back on the Chapter rolls and then National will reimburse the Chapter.

Each Chapter President may want to take it on them-selves to have the member complete the form and give it, as well as their check, to a designated officer who will then take care of mailing everything to the National office. We want to make it as easy as possible for our members to “come back home”!!!! If you are not sure who has dropped their member-ship, then use the OAM to find members transferred out of your chapter. You can use whatever time frame (3 months, 6 months, etc.) you want to use and will be able to iden-tify those who sent their National dues but not Chapter dues, because the M-112 will show Chapter number as 0000. Obviously, this action should help to stem the loss of Chapter members. National has altered the wording on the membership renewal notice, so from this point for-ward it should, hopefully, not be an issue.

The absolute best way to recruit new members is for each one of us to “make,” yes, “make” the time to con-tact those you know who may still be working, or may be retired, and extol to those folks the need to become a member of NARFE. The Agency Health Fairs are now over. I trust that any Chapter that participated in any of the Health Fairs

had favorable results. By the time you receive this issue of our newspaper, we should know what impact Congress has had on us. If we are able to survive without any ‘hits,’ we should be

able to utilize that success to further encourage potential members of why they should become a NARFE member. As always, “Happy recruiting.” Oh, and I trust you have a Happy New Year. May you and your family enjoy God’s Blessings in the New Year.

“The absolute best way to recruit new members is for each one of us to “make,” yes, “make” the time to contact those you know who may still be working, or may be retired, and extol to those folks the need to become a member of NARFE.”

Region VI(Continued from page 1)

JAMES GILLISPIEOK 1st Vice President

Important membership information for chapters

posting of the proposed changes. It was agreed to post these proposed changes on the NARFE website after the Bylaws and Resolution committee meets and submits their recommendation. This committee is scheduled to meet in January and their final report is due in February. As in past years, all the Bylaws changes and resolutions submitted will be considered by the Bylaw and Resolution Committee. The committee will report which changes are recommended for adoption, not recommend, and the ones that were combined with similar resolutions. In addition to being posted on the NARFE Website, these resolutions will be published in the April 2018 issue of the NARFE Magazine.

All issues that need to be voted on, Bylaw changes, Resolutions and election of National Officers, (National President, National Secretary/Treasurer and the ten Re-gional Vice Presidents) will be conducted by mail or on-line. The ballot that will be used for these issues/elec-tions will be published in the June 2018 NARFE Magazine

which should arrive in your mailbox during the last two weeks of May. The cutoff date for voting is June 30, 2018. If you are wondering, the tally of these votes will be done by an outside independent contractor. NARFE members/employees will not be participating in vote counting. You will be able to vote by mail by completing your ballot and return in the special envelope (in the June magazine) by the US Postal Service or you will have the option of voting electronically (online).

The 37 members of the seven committees that were listed in the October 2017 NARFE Magazine were an-nounced in December. There were three members from Region VI selected to serve on these committees. One of these Region VI members that was selected is a Na-tional Member that resides in Texas, one from the Texas Federation Chapter 672 and one from the Oklahoma Fed-eration, Mr. James Gillispie, Oklahoma Federation’s First Vice-President. Congratulations James, and thank you for volunteering to serve.

It is not too early to start making plans for “FedCon 18” that will be held in Jacksonville, FL in August. This conference replaces our previous named National Conven-tions. As all business (voting) will have been completed prior to the start on the conference, the format of old was no longer appropriate or necessary. More information will be forth coming in future issues of the NARFE Magazine or you can log on to www.narfe.org/fedcon18 today, and get a glimpse of what you can expect at the conference.

A former Texas Federation National Legislative Chair used to say, “Stay Vigilant.” That was appropriate then and it is very appropriate now. I’ll close by saying “Stay vigilant and be proactive.” As this is being written, the president has signed legislation to continue funding the government for two more weeks. Hopefully, by the time you read this, congress has agreed to fund the government for the remainder of the fiscal year without any adverse effect on the Federal Community.


Joint Budget Resolution

The House passed a fiscal year 2018 joint budget resolution, con-curring with the Senate and ending the budget reconciliation tax reform threat to the federal community. The joint resolution DOES NOT include cuts to federal pay and benefits.

Passage of this joint budget resolution is a big win for active and retired federal employees. Instructions to cut federal benefits by $32 billion, initially in the House budget, were not included in the final resolution. Instead,

the budget resolution would allow the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committees to add $1.5 trillion to the deficit over the next 10 years as a means to achieve tax changes.

Resolution Signed to Keep Government Open

The House and Senate passed a two-week continuing resolution that keeps the government funded at the fiscal year 2017 levels through December 22, earning biparti-san SUPPORT IN BOTH CHAMBERS. The continuing resolution was quickly signed by the president in order to stave off a government shutdown.

Passage of this continuing resolution gives lawmak-ers extra time to negotiate a bipartisan budget agreement. NARFE members should remain vigilant during these ne-gotiations and contact legislators to tell them not to use

federal benefits as an offset for raising sequestration bud-get caps.

While the federal government will not shut down, the federal government is not out of the woods yet. Past bipartisan budget agreements have used federal pay and benefits to offset increases to the budget caps and NARFE members must make it clear to their legislators that cuts to feral pay and benefits should be off the table. Federal workers and retirees honorably served their country and their benefits were earned.

Make Your Voice Heard in Congress

NARFE members are encouraged to use the NARFE Legislative Action Center to quickly and easily send let-ters to members of Congress.**Source narfe.org, narfe hotline

Recently, my wife and I spent a couple of days at the Region VI Seminar in Longview, Texas. We had a few spare moments to ex-plore where we used to live, and I worked over 40 years ago. The city is about ten times larger and really unrecognizable. Over the past few months, we have visited several plac-es where we lived and worked, and many are no longer standing. This brings me to the main point.

The way NARFE does business is changing, and part of that change is the OAM. It is the website record re-porting system that NARFE is migrating to, and is real-time based, with expanded access for more officers, both

elected and appointed, both Chapter and Federation.

To utilize the system this system, follow these steps:

First, you need a computer, or be real handy with your smart phone.

Second, you need to establish an account with the NARFE website. Go to www.narfe.org and have your NARFE number ready. Click on “log in.” First, establish a standard log-in. This gives you access to members-only information. Then go back and establish a secure log-in, which is like setting up a log-in for any other website. You need an email address and a password that you chose. I am not sure if it is required, but I would use the email address on file with NARFE, if possible.Third, after you go into the secure log-in, click on Officer Resources (left side bar). This takes you to a page with OAM or ORM. If you are new user (for your own sanity’s sake) pick OAM. Eventually, the ORM will be discarded.

The real-time OAM will be more useful, comprehensive, and efficient.

Now the fun begins. Depending on the Office you hold, you will have “read only” or “full access” (a list of which officers can do what, is on the web page some-where). I used the term somewhere on purpose. Explor-ing all of the nooks and crannies is essential to learning how to you can best use the web site and what is available.

Think of the OAM and all of its information as a tool that you, as a master craftsman, can use to enhance the outreach of NARFE, and expand your confidence. If for some reason you get stuck or bogged down, don’t get dis-couraged…. get help. Remember, we only pass this way once, so Explore...Explore...Explore and ...Explore more. Have fun! It’s really child’s…. play just ask you grand-kids.

CAROLYN HARRISOK 2nd Vice President

National legislative update

NARFE’s OAM

URGENT! Please inform NARFE Headquarters when you change your e-mail or regular address by calling 1-800-456-8410 or e-mail: [email protected]

GARY FLINCHUMDistrict I Vice President


RON VICKDistrict II Vice President

• What is the NARFE Federal Benefits Institute?

It is a member only resource de-signed to help members take charge of their federal benefits and guaran-tee a secure future. Access to these resources is available through an online center of live and recorded presentations, as well as information to assist in managing and understanding your federal benefits. The website is www.narfe.org/member/federalbenefitsinstitute

The online presentations are broadcast nearly every month. Recent topics were estate planning, second ca-reers and evaluating an early retirement. Non-members pay $39.95 to register for webinar access which includes national membership for one year.

• NARFE Webinar data by users as of September 2017

Registrations 21,917 New Members 2,331 Reinstated Members 485 Current Members 18,967 Archival Views 22,685

• Membership Status and Trends

Slowing of the membership decline continues. As of December 2016, the membership declined 4%. In 2015 the decline was 5% and in 2014 the membership declined 7%. The trend in the reduction of members continued in 2017 with 209,917 members as of August 2017.

• Recruitment and Retention Resources NARFE staff supports local recruiters by providing suggestions, tips, tools and guidance to enhance the re-cruitment effort. The key to successful recruitment is to

know what NARFE offers and understand the prospect’s needs and match the NARFE benefits to meet their needs.

Through the Matching Programs Fund, local recruit-ers can request financial assistance to support chapter activities or events for recruitment and retention. By en-gaging current federal employees and /or annuitants in a one-on-one conversation about NARFE, membership will increase.

Recruitment and Retention information includes tips for a professional tabletop display to increase visibility at health fairs, events or conferences. Recruiters are encour-aged to visit the “Tips, Tools and Templates” resources in the Officers’ Resources section of the NARFE website. Other resources available include Tabletop posters, M-2 Cards, Membership Applications and Brochures.

By Ms. Bridget Boel, NARFE Marketing Director

There were seven Health Fairs scheduled in various locations around District II from October to November 2017. This year, there was an increased interest by Fed-eral employees visiting the NARFE booth requesting the benefits of joining NARFE. They were given the F-135 Membership Application and the monthly NARFE maga-zine, which were on display at the booth. I usually order about 500 copies of recruitment materials each year. At the third Health Fair held in Muskogee, Oklahoma, over 200 copies of recruitment materials were dispersed in a few hours. This almost completely depleted my inventory.

This feat was achieved by the local chapter members working the NARFE booth. They provided one-on-one attention to each person and responded to the prospective member’s questions. These individuals also made a huge difference in the recruitment process because they were active NARFE members and current on-site employees. Their familiarity of the staff, enthusiasm and commitment were a tremendous benefit to the entire NARFE recruit-ment process.

In Oklahoma we enjoy some real income tax ben-efits. If you are CSRS, you have all of your annuity tax free. If you are FERS, you can claim ten thousand off your annuity. These were granted by our Oklahoma

Legislature because of hard working NARFE legisla-tive officers from local Chapters. The people who rep-resented us in this endeavor had the ability to go to the legislative offices of Oklahoma and explain how many active chapters and members we had who vote. It gave us power in our numbers. Without these numbers we can lose this deduction benefit.

The National Office looks out for our interests in

Washington, but the Chapters and Federation keep an eye out for us locally.

So next April 15th when you fill out the Oklahoma State Income Tax form, think about who fought for that benefit and KEEP your Chapter Membership. The cost is a dollar a month or less. Spend it wisely.

Your voice counts; use it locally.

Overview of the Region VI presentation

District II Health Fairs

Less than a dollar, what can it buy?

RON VICKDistrict II Vice President


The photo shows Claudia McElvania, Debbie Sorenson, and Betty Reitz at the Muskogee Health Fair. Other mem-bers who assisted were Zolla Brooks and Ed Farris.


Chapter and federation officers often ask, “why do I have to keep logging into different systems at NARFE?” or “Why do I always have to enter those funny characters on the screen (captcha)?”

The answer is simple. Use Secure Login to access the NARFE website. Then, other than the first time to set up a new account for a system, such as the Online Activities Module (OAM) or an OAM subsystem such as the Online Reports Module (ORM), you don’t need to login twice.

Today several NARFE reporting and service systems with their own logins are being “glued” together using the OAM gateway until a unified login is implemented. Ulti-mately, Secure Login will work seamlessly, with no need to create sub-logins.

Go to www.narfe.org and click on “Member Log In.” Officers should always select the “Secure Login” folder on the top right, and all members are encouraged to use it.

If you have never set up Secure Login for the NARFE webpage, do it now by selecting the “click here” link just above the place to enter email and password, and follow the prompts. If you have problems, the screen has contact information.

On the Officer Resources page is a link to a collection of training tutorials. “Getting to the OAM” shows how to set up your account. There are other tutorials on how to use the NARFE reports and services.

Once you’ve logged in securely, click the “Officer Resources” button. On “Officer Resources” home screen, click the large “Enter” button for OAM at the top of the screen. Access all officer reports using the OAM. Stop using the lower button for the Online Reports Module, ac-cess them through the OAM instead. The button will be removed in the near future.

On the next screen choose “Enter Chapter Activities” if you are both a chapter and Federation officers.

OAM reports are always current and may be user-cus-tomized. These are recommended for chapter and officer rosters and activity reports.

ORM reports are batch reports run at a point in time and do not change until the next cycle, either monthly or quarterly. The chapter financial reports on dues payments (A-220) and advances (W-101), and recruiting incentives (M-130, M-131, etc.) are the primary reports for chapters. There are chapter and officers’ rosters and activity reports, but these are usually out of date, sometimes by as much as three months.

The first time you enter either system you will need to create an account.

On the OAM gateway screen for Chapter Activities, you should see buttons for the newer OAM reports and services, plus a box with a button for the Online Reports Module (ORM).

To access the ORM, click the Online Reports Module (ORM) button on the OAM screen. Even though you may have used the ORM in the past, if the ORM button shows “Create an Account” you should do so. “Chapter code” is your chapter number. Do not share your username and password with other chapter of-ficers. It is for you alone. Each officer should have their own username and password.

If you are asked to enter a “captcha” string of char-acters as part of a login at NARFE, the most common cause is you did not used Secure Login when accessing the NARFE website.

By using Secure Login to access the NARFE website www.narfe.org and setting up your OAM and ORM ac-counts, you should not need to log in multiple times or enter “captcha.”

Officer access to reports on NARFE websiteDOROTHY CRESWELLConfiguration Advisory Chair


May I take this opportunity to thank you, the members of the Okla-homa Federation, for allowing me to attend the Region VI Seminar in Longview, Texas.

Congratulations to Region IV Vice President, Mar-shall Richards; Linda Richards (the one in charge) and all of the Texas Federation leadership for a great seminar.

I will focus my comments on membership which is my principal duty as your 1st Vice President. Membership was one of the ‘focus’ items on the agenda.

Each Federation shared thoughts regarding what has and/is working for them and what doesn’t seem to work.

As we do in Oklahoma the other Federations partici-pate in the ‘open season’ health fairs conducted by Federal agencies. Success on the participation in these health fairs varies from netting no new members to several new mem-bers.

It was suggested that annual conventions of Federal organizations within each state seems to be an excellent opportunity to ‘enlist’ new members. This is an area that I had not given much thought. Perhaps this was done in the past and it may be time to revisit this possibility. With that in mind, I would suggest that if you know of a Federal group that is having a convention in your area, we contact them and set up an information table. I do know that this has been done with Postal groups in the past and, maybe, it is time to revisit this potential source.

Membership is critical to any organization and ours is no different. The absolute best way to recruit new mem-bers is for each one of us to ‘make,’ yes ‘make’ the time to

contact those you know who may still be working or may be retired and extol to those folks the need to become a member of NARFE.

Also, discussed at the Seminar was the rate of decline in current membership. If we are not able to turn the tide of our rate of loss, then we may not have a NARFE orga-nization in 30 years. Can you imagine what our benefits, both active and retired, would be if it were not for the ef-forts of NARFE in past years. I believe it is incumbent upon us to make a renewed commitment to one another to realize our obligation and ‘get with it’!

Ok, just, in case, you think I’m speaking to you, I’m speaking more directly to myself.

Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and ‘sign, sign, sign. Remember we have incentives to offer to new members and to you when you sign up a new mem-ber. Let’s get’um.

At our Federation Executive Board meeting on November 15, 2017, Federation President, Randy Freeland had a couple of archived files that had been returned by the Oklahoma Historical Society because they contained fi-nancial or other information that could not be accepted. My thoughts immediately went to Dorothy Branson, the Greatest NARFE Historian of all times. I don’t make this claim lightly or to take away anything from our current Historian, Joann Dungan. However, I think that most peo-ple who have been associated with NARFE for any length of time would agree that Dorothy Branson not only took her job very seriously, she was also very good at it.

We were all in a quandary as to what we would do with this thick file of information. It was certainly some-thing too sacred to simply destroy. One of the board members suggested that we turn it over to the Oklahoma Federal Executive Board (FEB). Being as I have some acquaintance with the FEB, I agreed to take the file. Af-ter our meeting, Gary Flinchum suggested that before I relinquished the file, I write an article for the Newspaper detailing its contents. Please note that to this point, I have not told you the subject of the file. This is not an oversight on my part, it is intentional. I wanted to arouse your curi-osity and keep you reading.

Now, let me tell you about the file. It contains infor-mation and results of donations collected for the victims

of the 1995 Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing. Perhaps you recall, more than 680 people were injured, and 168 lives were lost. In the April 1995 issue of the National NARFE Monthly Bulletin, a request was made for donations to the Oklahoma NARFE Disaster Relief Fund. At the time, Frances M. Provine was Oklahoma Federation Treasurer. Frances kept meticulous, detailed records, all contained in this file.

In summary, gen-erous NARFE chap-ters from 49 states, Panama, and Puerto Rico contributed a to-tal of $115,337.47 to the Oklahoma NARFE Disaster Relief Fund. Those 1995 contribu-tions would be equal to $186,016.27 in today’s (2017) dollars. The top three contributing states were California $21,569.16, Florida $9,018, and Oklahoma $7,971.45. The only state not contribut-ing was Wyoming. As you would expect, our Region VI Chapters were strong supporters, contributing $13,825.03. This amount was only surpassed by Regions VIII and III, who contributed $24,995.16 and $14,358.33 respectively.

There was one item in the 2-inch file that was very personal for me. It contained the names of the 168 people, mostly Federal Employees, who died in the bombing. On the list is Clarence Eugene Wilson, age 49, Chief Counsel and acting Manager, Housing and Urban Development. Clarence and I attended the University of Oklahoma to-gether and were members of the same church. I would expect that there are others who read this article will have friends and family on this list as well.

From the Daily Oklahoman, May 5, 1995

JAMES GILLISPIE1st Vice President, Membership

JAMES OLDENOK Immediate Past President

Seminar insights from Membership Chairman

An interesting historical note


On Wednesday, November 15, 2017, a Federation Executive Board Meeting was held at Arvest Bank on Lincoln Blvd. in Oklahoma City in their conference room. The main purpose of this meeting was to catch

up on what NARFE has been doing at various sites around Oklahoma and to see how the Health Fairs are progress-ing. The annual health fairs held at the many Federal agency sites around the state are the best opportunity we have for recruiting new members.

The challenges of recruiting and retaining members is an ongoing situation. The loss of membership has been dramatic over the last couple of decades, but the good news is that the rate of decline is slowing. This doesn’t mean we should relax our efforts in this area, but it might mean we can finally catch up and eventually see our num-bers start to increase again.

One recent major problem for chapters nationwide

in retaining their members, is the way the dues renewal forms which come from the National office are designed. When you receive your dues renewal application, you choose to renew National membership or National and Chapter membership. The form has proved to be confus-ing, and many members are checking the wrong block and unintentionally not renewing their membership with their chapter. They have no idea that they have dropped their chapter membership. The National office is redesigning the renewal form in hopes that it can clarify the renewal instructions for the member. If you have reason to believe you have not renewed your chapter membership and in-tended to, please notify a chapter or Federation officer. Our Region VI Vice President has promised to correct any such mistakes which might have occurred. Remem-ber…National dues are $40 yearly, and chapter dues are in addition to that. The amount varies by chapter. If you paid only $40, you are a National only member. The only exception to that rule in Oklahoma is with Chapter 2351 members. Your dues are $0, but you must check the block to remain a chapter member. You have nothing to lose to remain a chapter member in 2351, but our Federation gains by keeping you as a chapter member.

Of course, as always, the best way to insure your membership renews properly is to go on dues withhold-ing… if you are a retired member. An active employee cannot use the dues withholding feature. Changing to dues withholding will earn you a $40 reward from the Oklahoma Federation plus an approximately 15% reduc-tion in your annual dues. Please inquire in your chapter or contact a Federation officer about how to do that in order to get it processed correctly for your reward. It must pro-cess through the Oklahoma Federation to get your reward. The Oklahoma Federation treasurer will then forward your application to the national office.

Your Federation board is constantly working hard for you to help protect the many benefits you have earned through your federal service. But we need your help too. Maintain your National and chapter membership. We can’t function without your help. Refer to last quarter’s newspaper issue about the importance of chapter member-ship.

Minutes of all official executive board meetings are posted on our state website at www.narfeok.org. Look along the right- hand side of the home page for the link.

NANCY STANPHILLFederation Editor

Federation executive board meeting highlightsAre you still a chapter member?

Federation board members conferring at their recent meeting.Secretary, Jean McBride-Samuels, taking the minutes at the recent executive board meeting in Oklahoma City with other board members in the background.


BIG DONOR JOINS US IN THE FIGHT:

I’m sure all of us were very happy to hear that on Nov. 13, 2017, Bill Gates announced a $50 million investment into the Dementia Discovery Fund, motivated by personal experience of Alzheimer’s disease in his fami-ly. This is the first time Bill Gates has made a commitment to a non-communicable disease. In addition to boosting research into the underlying causes of the disease, Gates identified other priority areas that need attention, includ-ing improving dementia diagnosis and participation in clinical trials, bring new ideas and theories into the field, and using the power of big data to speed up research prog-ress. With Bill Gates joining us in the fight against Al-zheimer’s, there certainly is increased hope of advances in the care and cure of dementia.

You may be thinking “What is the Dementia Discov-ery Fund?” The Dementia Discovery Fund, is a partner-ship launched in October 2015 by the United Kingdom government and seven international drug companies to find new Alzheimer’s treatments. The company SV Life Sciences won the contract to run the fund and has already invested in nine start-up companies investigating novel ways to stop or reverse the complex biological processes that lead to dementia. The company has a 20-year track record in the US and Europe and has offices in Boston, San Francisco and London.

I wanted to know the names of some of the other organizations battling Alzheimer’s in addition to the Al-

zheimer’s Association which NARFE is partnered with. A quick google search revealed the following with the ca-veat that this is an incomplete list:United States: In addition to the Alzheimer’s Association there is the:

• Alzheimer’s Research Foundation• Auguste Deter Foundation (Deter-first person diagnosed with Alzheimer’s)• BrightFocus Foundation• Caregiver.org• National Institute on Aging (This is within the U.S. government’s NIH)Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation.

Other: Organizations were also listed specifically for Africa, Europe, Australia, International, Ireland, Nether-lands, and United Kingdom.

No organizations were listed for Russia, China, or countries in Asia.

ON THE HOME FRONT:

As of November 13, 2017, fifteen Oklahoma Federa-tion chapters have donated a total of $4313 for Alzheim-er’s research in 2017. Your support helps more than you will ever know.

I’ve noticed there have been Alzheimer’s articles in our quarterly Newsletters in addition to those I’ve submit-ted. I will mention some of those here:

The 4th quarter issue of 2017 included three addition-al articles: 1. A $5,000 donation from a chapter in the state of Dela-ware, 2. Enid Chapter 369 reported meeting with the Alzheim-er’s regional officer and participating in the “2017 Walk

to End Alzheimer’s” rally in Enid. The rally raised over $48,000, 3. Great Plains, Lawton Chapter 167 reported a guest from the Alzheimer’s Association at the August meeting and the participation of a Chapter member in the “2017 Walk to End Alzheimer’s” held at Elmer Thomas Park.

The 2nd and 3rd quarter of 2017 issues respectively had articles titled “10 Ways to Love Your Brain” and “10 Ways to Maintain Your Brain.” In the 2nd quarter 2016 issue, Central OK, OK City chapter 184 reported their do-nation of $1000 for Alzheimer’s research.

2017 ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE FACTS AND FIGURES:

The Alzheimer’s Association has released the 2017 Facts and Figures report. The report can be accessed at www.alz.org/facts/overview.asp

Here are some major highlights:

1. More than 5 million Americans are living with Al-zheimer’s. By 2050 this number could reach as high as 16 million.2. Every 66 seconds someone in the U.S. develops the disease.3. More than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care for people with Alzheimer’s or other dementia.4. 35% of dementia caregivers report their health has got-ten worse due to care responsibilities, compared to 19% of caregivers for older people without dementia.5. 1 in 3 seniors die with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. 6. 2017 marks the first time that total payments for caring for individuals with Alzheimer’s or other dementia ($259 billion) will surpass a quarter of a trillion dollars.

Gerald Ray Tomlin passed away September 11, 2017 at Spanish Cove in Yukon.

Gerald was born September 8, 1930 in Portsmouth, Ohio. He was a radar instructor in the U.S. Army retiring with 23 years of service. He was a veteran of World War II and the Korean Conflict, and was memorialized at his funeral with full military honors.

Gerald also worked at FCI, retiring with 17 years of service. He was a member of 1st Baptist Church, NARFE, and was a County Community service officer for 10 years. On May 9, 1953, Gerald married Mary Taylor in

Portsmouth. She preceded him in death on September 25, 2004. They had three children, eight grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Jerry Lee Wood passed away November 8, 2017 at his home in El Reno. He was 85 years old.

Jerry was born on February 7, 1932 in Union City where he graduated from Union City High School. He was the oldest of eight siblings and blessed by a large fam-ily. He loved sports and had a joke for every situation. Jerry’s wit and laughter will be missed.

Marjorie Moss passed away on November 27, 2017 in Oklahoma City. She was born November 10, 1931in Bridgeton, Indiana. Marge was a graduate of Wiley High

School and attended Brown Business School, both in Terre Haute, Indiana.

She worked at the Canadian County Clerk’s Office for 17 years. She enjoyed making crafts, sewing, knitting and crocheting. She was a huge OKC Thunder fan.

Marge was a member of the Sooner Chapter of Fed-eral Bureaus of Prison Retirees Association where she served as secretary and treasurer. She also volunteered as a Pink Lady for the Mercy El Reno Auxiliary for 20 years, where she served as secretary.

Each of these people were long-time members of NARFE Chapter 749 in El Reno and will be missed by all.

Alzheimer’s report

El Reno chapter remembers recently deceased members

BETTY LOWREYAlzheimer’s Coordinator

WANDA WALKERMembership Chair, Chapter 749


We are pleased to have three photos from the past to enjoy this quarter. As always, if you think you know who they are, email me with your guesses and I will let you know if you are correct. Send to Nancy Stanphill at [email protected].

Who Is It? Number 1—This person is 3 years old in the photo wearing her favorite red velvet dress. I think it looks just like her! Hint: She is a Federation Officer and member of Chapter 946. That should give it away!

Who Is It? Number 2—The subject person is on the right with his friend. He says--Taken on July 1971, Basic Training at Fort Lewis, Washington. Drafted in the first lottery (My number was 71). He is also a Federation Officer and a member of Chapter 2184.

Who Is It? Number 3—Husband and wife are both NARFE members, and members of Chapter 749 in El Reno.

WHO IS IT?


From Tahlequah Daily PressAugust 31, 2006 OKLAHOMA CITY - Thousands of retired federal workers – including a number from Cherokee County – will see their benefits increase, thanks to recent changes in Oklahoma tax law.

“We had a situation where two retirees with essen-tially the same benefits were treated differently,” said state Rep. Gary Banz, R-Midwest City. “That’s not right. Fortu-nately, we finally remedied that inequity.”

In 1983, federal workers were allowed to opt out of the Social Security System and receive all their retirement income from the Civil Service Retirement System, which provided better benefits than Social Security. Many work-ers chose that option, but a loophole in Oklahoma law has dramatically reduced their retirement income.

While Social Security benefits are exempt from state income tax, annuity payments from the CSRS are not.

That glitch in Oklahoma’s tax law meant reduced retire-ment income for approximately 35,500 federal workers in the state.

Banz and state Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, fought to end the inequity for the past two years.

“This issue has been out there at the capitol for at least a decade,” Banz said. “We constantly say we are for our retirees, especially those who have given so much in ser-vice to our nation, but our tax code did not reflect those values. Fortunately, the Legislature finally did the right thing this year.”

The final result of their efforts was House Bill 1174X, which passed on the final day of this year’s special leg-islative session. Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, federal retirees in the CSRS will have 20 percent of benefits exempted from state income tax, and the exemption will increase each year for five years until 100 percent of annuities are exempt.

Banz, Leftwich and representatives of National Active and Retired Federal Employees – including Jeff Vaughn of Hulbert – met with Oklahoma Tax Commission officials this week to make certain the new law would be applied in

a way that maximizes the benefits to Oklahoma’s retired federal workers.

Tax Commission officials have agreed to apply the 20 percent exemption on the full annuity before adding on a $10,000 exemption given to all retirees. That process will result in significant savings for retired workers, Banz said. For example, a federal retiree with a $20,000 annuity will now have $14,000 exempted from state taxation during the first year of implementation.

“That retiree will pay tax on only $6,000, which is a huge improvement,” Banz said.

Banz and Leftwich worked with state Rep. Kevin Calvey, R-Del City, and state Sen. Jay Paul Gumm, D-Durant, who chair the House Revenue and Taxation and Senate Finance committees, to ensure the proposal was included in a special session bill.

“We stand on the shoulders of a lot of people who have tried to remedy this inequity,” Banz said. “We just happened to be the ones who carried the bill when it fi-nally made it through the process and the governor signed it.”

My husband and I attended the Region VI Seminar in Longview, Texas on September 20-21, 2017. We left from my family’s home town of Porum, Oklahoma and decided to drive the scenic tour through the Ouachita Mountains. The forest encompasses 1,784,457 acres of beautiful mountains and foliage. It was a very beauti-ful and relaxing trip.

As you probably know, our Region VI encompass-es Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and Pana-ma. While there we met many friendly and interesting people.

During the Conference, we had a slide presenta-tion given by a representative from NARFE Headquar-

ters. It was very informative about the changes coming to NARFE on the National level. On the slide marked “NARFE Next” was included the following:

— Business model innovation through simplification — Project will run through September 2018 — Involve a cross section of the federal community — Outcome will be recommendations about what NARFE needs to be doing, how it should be done and what needs to happen to get the organization there.

This will be done in three phases:

1. Discovery and Design (August 2017 - February 2018) 2. Development and Experimentation (February - May 2018) 3. Execution (June - September 2018)

At the end of the slide show, the question was

asked by the presenter about how many out of the Conference had been contacted by phone regarding the phase of “INVOLVE A CROSS SECTION OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNITY.” The show of hands in-dicated that only two out of Region VI had been con-tacted!

That means only two people had a say in the “IN-VOLVE A CROSS SECTION OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNITY.” If that holds true with all the other nine Regions, that would mean only 20 people had an input into the new innovation of NARFE. There are only two months left to have a say. How many will get the opportunity?

It just seemed funny to me that all the large print info they were showing really had nothing to do with US ... the members of NARFE.

A look back at what NARFE did for OK retired Feds

Who has input?

AL HONGMember, Chapter 2184

JOYCE FLINCHUMMember, Chapter 2184

Members' Forum


I was born in the 1950’s in Muskogee, Oklahoma and I am the second of eight children (still living). You would not know it now, but I was painfully shy and introverted. I remember crying because I was asked to recite my Christ-mas speech after reciting it over and over again to learn it. Of those days, all I can say is that being shy is a way the Devil cheats you out of life.

When I was in high school, I attended Custer High in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I made friends fast. They thought I had a southern accent, so I guess I was special to them. I loved it there. I was not used to so much winter! In their high school, we had to buy our books every semester, and I had to learn to ride a public bus to get there. We are

spoiled here in Oklahoma!

After high school, I moved to Wichita, Kansas and lived there until my mother was murdered in 1976. That was a stinky town be-cause of so many packing houses! Years later I would learn I had a nest full of relatives there, but while I lived there, I knew none of them.

After going to school to learn office skills, I started working for Travelers Insurance. Then I moved back to Oklahoma and worked for Aetna Insurance in Tulsa. In 1980 I started working for the Bankruptcy Court in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The included pictures are some of the women I worked for and I am proud to say that three of them are NARFE members. I worked for the court for 28 years.

Now, I still work but no one wants to pay me! I work at the senior center in Jenks, and at two of the local churches (because one is just not enough). God told me to do Ombudsmen work, so I do it for Grace Living Center in Jenks. I believe I will receive my “Well done, thou good and faithful servant,” from this job because I like it least, and it breaks my heart most. I’m in Seminary now, so that those degrees will qualify me to work in universities under Re-ligious Studies. I am in my 6th class.

I am a member of the Oil Capital unit of parliamen-tarians in Tulsa (Jeff and Nancy Vaughan talked me into that). Then, of course, there is NARFE and what I do in the Federation and my chapter. I love trying most any-thing, going to Israel every year, and getting to know peo-ple. God bless all of you!

In September a large contingent of your Federation officers and chapter members traveled to Longview,

Texas for a seminar on NARFE growth and the new tools involved. Included as part of the activities, an Alzheimer Challenge was presented. A cash prize of half of what was collected was offered to the winner.

One of the Oklahoma delegation, a member of Chapter 2184 and Federation Treasurer, Johnny Han-

lon, won that prize of several hundred dollars. He then promptly donated it all back to the NARFE Alzheim-er’s Research Fund.

Thanks Johnny, and I can still hear the applause for Johnny’s generous gift.

Our busy secretary

Thanks go to a local member!

JEAN MCBRIDE-SAMUELSFederation Secretary



Shortly after retiring in 2009, I decided it would be a good idea to get the Shingles vaccine and all I had to do was go to the local drug-store. It was as easy as pie, no line, and out in less than 20 minutes. I had no idea if I ever had chickenpox as a child and there was no one I could ask.

Fast forward to late October 2017 when I developed severe left rib pain that was so painful I could not even lay on my left side. I would get up and walk with no relief.

I also began to notice I had pain and swelling in my right foot. I waited a couple of days and called for a doc-tor appointment, but it was another week before I could be

seen by my Primary Care Provider. I, then, felt a burning pain under my ribcage and a rash. By the time my appoint-ment arrived, I was very uncomfortable. I told the intake nurse I thought it was possible I had shingles and gout. I also informed her that I had the Shingles vaccine in 2009.

The doctor arrived shortly and confirmed that I indeed had Shingles and Gout. Now my rash was nothing as se-vere as the Shingles that I had seen on television when they are advertising the Shingles Vaccine. I contribute that to taking the vaccine in 2009. But the nerve pain was still extremely painful, and I was told it could possibly last for months or longer. I asked my doctor how did I end up with both of them at the same time? She informed me that increased stress is a large factor.

I am still unable to sleep on my left side, but the rash has cleared up, with the exception of the scar it left. And I thank God every day that I took the Shingles vaccine. Things could have been much worse.

When a person approaches his 90th birthday, he sometimes looks back over those 90 years to see just what he did and what was accom-plished. Since my birthdate is De-cember 23, 1927, that puts me in the Big Nine-O category.

Actually, my 29-year affiliation with NARFE comes to mind at the top of the list. And, since a significant part of that affiliation involved NARFE’s successful campaign to be granted a 100% Oklahoma income tax exemption of our CSRS retirement annuities, I will mention that first. Beginning in 1990 and finally being resolved in the 2006 legislative session, this was a 15-year effort by all our Oklahoma NARFE members to provide Oklahoma federal retirees the same type of relief from state income tax enjoyed by Social Security retirees. It was a pleasure and an honor to lead this campaign over the years. The effort involved calling on state representatives and sena-tors year after year, explaining the inequity, and educating our own members about the situation, coaching them on how to present our case to those at the capitol. Slowly, but

surely, we began to see results. Then, at the 2006 NARFE state convention we presented a petition to be signed by all the attendees. Not only did the petition show each signature, it also indicated each home town and zip code, showing that this was indeed a statewide plea from every area of the state.

This was the year that HB 1174 passed both houses and went on to be signed by the governor! It provided that, beginning in 2007 with a 20% exemption, and in-creasing 20% more each year until 2011 with a 100% ex-emption, we were finally on a par with those retiring on Social Security. All CSRS retirees still enjoy this benefit. FERS retirees also receive it on the retirement income portion of their FERS plan.

This was possibly our most well-known NARFE vic-tory advocating for seniors in Oklahoma. Government has always been of interest to me, but as a soldier in the U. S. Army during the Korean War, then as a student of OCU, I had little time to devote to causes that interested me. After spending 13½ years in the private sector and upon graduating from OCU with a degree in accounting, I had the good fortune to be employed by Tinker AFB, retir-ing in 1988 from Tinker as an accounting supervisor and section chief. Again, there had been little time to advocate for any of the causes that called out for my attention.

But, when Thelma, my dear wife of 26 years, passed away that same year in 1988, I began to consider how I might make a difference in the lives of seniors and retired people. That’s when I joined NARFE, then AARP, and very soon accepted leadership positions advocating for the causes of seniors. I soon added the State Council on Aging as the NARFE representative, and then joined the Silver-Haired Legislature, the Alliance on Aging, and the Oklahoma Aging Partnership. I am still active in all these organizations, and hold or have held various leadership positions in each of them, nearly all connected with advo-cacy for seniors.

I attend the Legislative sessions and the Legislative Committee meetings at the Capitol four days a week while they are in session, and report to the six organizations mentioned above regularly on the progress of the bills we are interested in. I speak to my AARP chapter and NARFE chapter every month, and write regular columns for three newsletters.

My wife Evelyn says she enjoys assisting me in these many activities, and I couldn’t do it without her. We were married October 26, 2002. Billie Ripple said at the time that I was smart to marry somebody who was not in NARFE, because NARFE gained a new member that way!

JACQUETTA CHANEYPresident, Chapter 167

Do you think you need the Shingles shot?

A little bit about James CrowderJAMES CROWDEROK 3rd Vice President


By the time you read this, the federal tax reform bill may be a done deal because Congress expects to have it passed and on the Presi-dent’s desk before Christmas. But as of this writing, there are several issues of concern in the proposed House and Senate versions.

The House version repeals the medical expense deduction used by millions of seniors to reduce out-of-pocket expenses for costly medical procedures and nurs-ing home care. Although the Senate bill doesn’t repeal the deduction, it could still be eliminated or reduced during negotiations.

Neither the House nor Senate bills cut federal retire-

ment or health benefits, but both would cause the federal deficit to rise $1.5 trillion in future years which could trig-ger automatic spending cuts in programs such as Medi-care and put pressure on congress to cut a variety of other programs including Social Security and federal retirement and health benefits.

The added standard deduction for people age 65 and over would be eliminated in the House plan.

The Senate Bill eliminates the deduction of state and local income taxes on the Federal return and caps the prop-erty tax deduction at $10,000. The property tax cap would negatively impact millions of homeowners throughout the country, especially those living in states with higher tax rates and property values. Both versions eliminate the in-terest deduction on home equity loans.

In order to exempt capital gains tax on the sale of a primary residence, sellers are currently required to live in

the home for two of the last five years. Both bills would change this to five of the last eight years. Tax provisions indexed annually for inflation would be indexed using a chained consumer price index (CPI). Compared to the current measure of inflation, chained CPI would subject more income to higher tax rates through bracket creep.

Some of the tax credits initially favorable to seniors and the middle class such as the “Family Tax Credit” would expire in future years.

Most or all of these proposals will probably make it to the final bill in one form or another, so watch closely in the coming months for ways they affect you and the people you care about. Although “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” it’s probably too late to prevent many of these provisions from becoming law. But it’s never too late to work for change to laws that prove to be harmful.

James Gillispie, 1st Vice President of the Federation and Chaplain of 2184, has been chosen to serve on the National Financial Advisory Committee. James has been active in several organizations holding a variety of positions, and he has served on the Federation Audit Committee many times. He also served as President of Chapter 2184 for many years. Congratulations James; we, in Chapter 2184, are proud of you!

130 LANGLEY DALTON C130 ROBERTS RUBY P167 SVEC ALBERT167 EMERSON JOSEPH R184 BROWN LOTTIE F184 COOPER OPAL O278 REED DONNA J278 SYPERT DONNA F278 HENSON JAMES L542 HILEMAN RAYMOND J749 WOOD JERRY

946 THAYER CURTIS T946 KARNER ALFRED F946 POPE EDWARD L946 KING MERLE A946 CALDWELL KATHRYN E947 MILLAR ELLA MAE947 WRIGHT LOUISE A947 VEITCH ELSIE1017 ROSE ANNA V1017 ROSE W J1722 SPIVEY JOSEPHINE H

1722 FRANTZ ELLEN L2184 DEFFENBAUH JANICE2184 PARKER FRANK W2184 PARKER PATRICIA A2184 ACHTERBERG MOLLIE M2351 WILLIAMS KELSO L2351 PERRYMAN FRED A2351 FERGUSON LEN H2351 RENFROW ERNEST M2351 JOHNSON JANE J2351 OLIVER M VIRGINIA

The following members of NARFE from Oklahoma chapters have passed away during the period September 1, 2017 through November 30, 2017 as reported to Headquarters. If you know of a name that is missing, please call Headquarters at (703) 838-7760. Don’t assume NARFE knows.

Chapter Last Name First Name Chapter Last Name First Name Chapter Last Name First Name

In Memory of Our Fallen Members

So, what about the Tax Reform Bill?

“James goes to Washington” (Well actually, Virginia)

LINDA AGEEMember, Chapter 542

End of Members' Forum


How must NARFE change?

NARFE must change to a Rela-tionship model rather than a Mem-bership model. NARFE must meet the evolving needs of its members. The organization must establish what NARFE values, and how to ensure the sustainability of NARFE.

NARFE must Simplify, Simplify, and Simplify some more. The more complex the organization is the more likely for waste of resources. There are several ways in which NARFE is too complicated: Our Dues Model, our Web site, our Governance and bylaws, and our Database.

Change is already underway to reduce waste. NARFE is in the process of implementing the following: Professional management Bylaws changes Federal Benefit Institute National Conference CDLs Digital communications Business model innovation project

NARFE will be involved in the Simpler Value Project which will run through September 2018. The Project will involve a cross-section of the federal community. The Project will make recommendations about what NARFE needs to be doing, how it should be done and what needs to happen to get the organization there.

What will it take to change? NARFE will have to keep what works but embrace change. We must play to the strengths of chapters, federations and national best prac-tices. We must focus on the future as we celebrate the past.

We know that NARFE members are not opposed to change, but there has been no clear path to change. Our current situation is not sustainable. There is a demand for change and hard decisions will have to be made. This is not a Headquarters effort, we are all in this process to-gether.

If you have questions or comments Barbara Sido wants to hear from you: [email protected].

Barbara Sido, NARFE Executive Director, was un-able to attend the Region Six Conference in Longview Texas. Jessica Klement delivered the speech in her ab-sence.

WHAT IS NARFE-PAC?

NARFE-PAC protects NARFE member’s pay and benefits by raising and spending money to elect members of Congress who support the Federal community.

WHY DOES NARFE HAVE A PAC? NARFE is able to access information through the PAC. NARFE-PAC is the third leg of the advocacy stool. NARFE-PAC builds and strengthens relationships.

NARFE-PAC supports those who support us.

WHAT NARFE-PAC IS NOT• NOT Partisan• NOT used to elect a president• NOT a connected fund of NARFE• NOT General funds• NOT Membership dues• NOT Notecard Campaigns• NOT Calendar Campaigns

Factors Considered When Providing Funds• Support of NARFE issues• Federation recommendations• Influence of legislators• Competitiveness of race• Overall NARFE-PAC budget

2017-2018 GOALS• Raise 1.5 million• Disburse 1 million for political purposes• Send NARFE members to 100 local fundraisers• Increase Sustainers by 50%

Region VI Seminar highlightsCAROLYN HARRISFederation 2nd Vice President

Ronnie Harris of Chapter 184 listening to NARFE NEXT presented by Jessica Klement on behalf of Execu-tive Director Barbara Sido.

Wally Sheldon NARFE-PAC State Chairperson from Arkansas providing PAC information.

Jessica Klement, Director of NARFE Legislative Depart-ment, and Region VI Vice President Marshall Richards.

Jessica Klement, NARFE Legislative Director, sharing with members how they can be involved in NARFE-PAC.


Have you ever attended a NARFE Regional Seminar? From my perspective they differ from Conventions (State and National) as there is more sharing and train-ing, and not so much “business.” Although business is necessary in some cases, it sure is fun to talk with other NARFE Members from the region and learn from their successes and failures in everything from membership to getting Chapter Officers. You also get to see some new country and if you do as we did in Oklahoma this year, we carpooled a couple of minivans to cut expenses and share in the fellowship in NARFE as we went down the road.

The Region VI Seminar this year was hosted by Tex-as (Chapter 801) in Longview, TX. Marshall and Linda Richards and their crews made for a delightful experience at very reasonable expenses, especially considering all meals were part of the registration fee or provided by the motel at no extra charge. They produced a nice Seminar booklet financed by ads purchased by some of our Okla-homa Chapters. Thanks to Chapter 184 (Central Okla-homa, Oklahoma City), Chapter 1722 (Northwest Okla-homa City), Chapter 2184 (Tulsa Day-lite) and one from the Oklahoma Federation.

I gave a Federation President’s report and it mostly covered things you have heard from me before, especial-ly if you attended this year’s State Convention in Tulsa. Others from Oklahoma made presentations or attended sessions you will hear about elsewhere in this edition of Oklahoma NARFE News.

What I learned from other states is they are all suf-

fering from a decreased membership by today’s retirees just not being “joiners.” Non-mandatory chapter mem-bership has probably helped this some as all states’ list of members without chapter affiliation is still growing. (In Oklahoma we are sitting at 903 national only members as of the date of this writing). Some states are upset that this

number is growing partially due to the less than perfect re-newal process (forms) that seems to lead renewing mem-bers into not associating with a Chapter. NARFE National

Headquarters promises revised forms to better clarify this process. Also, I think you will find an article elsewhere in this issue of Oklahoma NARFE News on how to get some of those members back into Chapters, if they desire.

I also learned that one state was thinking of offering a fi-nancial incentive to retirees who are NARFE Members but

not affiliated with any chapter and want to go on dues withholding. Guess what, Oklahoma already does that. If you are a NARFE Member with an Oklahoma Zip Code, not affiliated with a Chapter, retired from Federal Service, and want to go on Dues Withholding to pay your NARFE dues, our Okla-homa Federation will send you a $40 check for doing so. We offer the same benefit to new joining members that are retired. As I have said before, a National NARFE Member is just as much a mem-ber as a NARFE Member affiliated with a Chapter. Look at Oklaho-ma Federation Rewards Program 2017-2018 section inside this issue of Oklahoma NARFE News for more information on this subject.

So next time (2019) a Region VI Seminar comes up, you might want to take a look at this oppor-tunity to learn and fellowship with some of America’s finest.

Oklahoma members at the recent Region VI Seminar. From left Ron Vick, Gary Flinchum, Joyce Flinchum, Melba Gillispie, James Gillispie, Johnny Hanlon; and Randy Freeland, Oklahoma Federation President.

From left, seated: Dorothy Branson, Marilyn Componation, Joann Dungan, Kenneth Dungan, Norma Baxter. Standing is Ron Vick.

Why do we hold regional seminars?RANDY FREELANDOklahoma Federation President


Due to the confusion in the pro-cess of renewing chapter member-ship on the dues renewal form from Headquarters, it appears some mem-bers of Statewide Chapter 2351 may have dropped their chapter member-ship without realizing they have done so. Please refer to other articles in this publication from Nancy Stanphill and James Gillispie about the problems many are having with the dues renewal form.

Since Chapter 2351 members pay $0 in chapter dues, you may ask yourself, “Why does it matter if I renew my chapter membership?” Let me reiterate some of what was published last quarter about the importance of chapter membership. As a chapter member you have the support of your chapter and Federation officers in matters which are of importance to you as a NARFE member. NARFE is a national organization, but we also have important lo-cal influence with our state and national legislators. Do not forget the great benefit the Oklahoma Federation won which treats CSRS retirement income the same as Social Security retirement income. Local NARFE members worked for 10 plus years to get the state legislators to treat CSRS retirement and SS retirement equally. Beginning in 2007 the Oklahoma Tax Commission began the five-

year phase-in of CSRS retirement income as an exclusion. In 2011, 100 percent of CSRS income was tax free. Your chapter membership helps fund activities such as this.

Our chapter, in fact, all chapters in Oklahoma, pay per capita dues, $2 per member, to our Federation to help fund the actions which are necessary to support our activities locally and nationally. Lower chapter numbers mean less money to the Federation. When the money dries up, the

Federation can no longer function. Our Federation offi-cers are not paid, but they are reimbursed for their expens-es in carrying out their duties. It would not be reasonable to expect them to pay out of their own pocket for expenses incurred for what they do to help YOU retain your earned benefits. They already donate hours of their personal time to the NARFE cause.

So, you, the member of Chapter 2351, have nothing to lose to continue your chapter membership. But, since the

dues renewal form has proved to be confusing to many, you may not be a chapter member and don’t realize it. If you have recently renewed your membership in NARFE and think you did not check the block to include chapter membership, please contact me at [email protected] or 918-493-2486. I can check member records and see if you have been dropped from chapter membership, and if so, we can work to get you reinstated.

To correct this problem and keep it from happening again, I suggest all current and former members of Chap-ter 2351 who are retired and not on dues withholding, complete the dues withholding form, either in this news-paper or the NARFE Magazine, and send to me, at 6818 E. 65th PL, Tulsa, OK 74133. I will arrange to have a $40 check sent to you from our Federation. If both husband and wife are NARFE members and both go on dues with-holding, that’s $80. It’s easy to get this pot of gold. Send me that completed form! It must be processed through the Oklahoma Federation in order to receive the award.

The above message also pertains to any member who may have inadvertently dropped their chapter member-ship. Contact your chapter officers, or a Federation of-ficer, for help. Even those members who wish to become a new chapter member, may do the same.

Each year the Stillwater Chapter attends the Health Fair at the USDA State Offices in Stillwater Oklahoma. We have been ‘raffling’ a NARFE chapter membership using Prospect Cards that federal employees and retirees attending the health fair can fill out and place in a basket for a drawing at the end of the Health Fair. This year’s winner was Andrea Lane, a NRCS employee.

This has been a great way to help NARFE contact prospective members as well as introducing federal em-ployees to NARFE. Congratulations to Andrea and we hope for a long relationship with NARFE.

Stillwater Chapter 183 attends USDA Health FairJIM HENLEYPresident, Chapter 183 Andrea Lane won the NARFE free

membership drawing at Stillwater’s USDA Health Fair.

Health Fair

CHARLES STANPHILLPresident, Chapter 2351

Important information for Chapter 2351 members

As a chapter member you have the sup-port of your chapter and Federation officers in matters which are of impor-tance to you as a NARFE member.


A long-time member of Chapter 1722 was honored at the 2017 Vet-erans Day Ceremony at Oklahoma City Community College in Oklaho-ma City. Pearl Harbor Survivor and World War II Pilot, Lt. Colonel William Patrick Bonelli, was Guest of Honor at the November 10th event.

Mr. Bonelli has vivid memories of Pearl Harbor. He was driving towards Hickam Field for breakfast on Sun-day morning, December 7th as the Japanese Zeros began

the attack. He went to a large barracks to secure a rifle and ammunition and then the barracks was attacked. Many in the barracks were killed and wounded. He fired his rifle at several Japanese Zeros. He witnessed much destruction on that Day of Infamy. After spending that first night as an “inducted member” of the coast artillery, he returned to his unit where his skills as an aircraft mechanic were badly needed. He was stationed in Honolulu and later on Fiji.

Mr. Bonelli served as an aircraft mechanic, aerial en-gineer, crew chief, gunner, electrical, engine and propeller specialist on the B-17 aircraft in the Pacific. He then was accepted into flying cadet school, and after training in the U. S. Army Air Corp stateside, flew B-17s in the European

theater.

After his military service, Mr. Bonelli continued to serve his country as a civilian government employee. He joined NARFE in 1988. After living many years in Okla-homa City, Mr. Bonelli relocated this past fall to Pennsyl-vania to live near his daughter. He maintains his member-ship in Chapter 1722.

Members of 1722 offer their thanks and gratitude to William for his lifetime of service to our country. Leanna Eversmeyer attended the ceremony and provided the re-search for this article. She and William were neighbors and members of 1722.

State Senator Adam Pugh took time out from the re-cent Special Session on November 14th to speak to the Edmond NARFE Chapter 947 meeting at Oklahoma Christian University. We were concerned that he could be recalled to the Capital any moment.

Senator Pugh represents District 41, where most of the members in this chapter live. He is one of the young-est members of the Oklahoma Senate. Prior to 2007, he was an Air Force officer assigned to AWACS at Tinker AFB. He and his family had Tinker roots for most of his

Air Force career while he was deployed overseas and in the Middle East. Senator Pugh spoke about his childhood in Pennsylvania where he and his sister were raised by their single mom, who ran a small bakery. They were not a family of privilege or wide opportunities. He told about the ROTC scholarship that allowed him to complete col-lege. Pugh holds a bachelor’s degree in History, Political Science, and Economics from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in International Relations and Na-tional Security. He met his wife, Sarah, in Edmond and they have two daughters, and a brand-new baby boy. They attend Life Church in Edmond. He works for Boeing on AWACS systems and participates in the Edmond Veterans of Foreign Wars. He has been a substitute teacher in Deer

Creek and Edmond Public Schools. Edmond Chapter’s Second Vice Presi-dent Richard Prawdzienski, who was the Libertarian Party candidate in the same campaign for the District 41 Senate Seat, introduced Senator Adams. During the campaign they debated issues in several open forums. The ever-optimistic Lib-ertarian, Richard said he was surprised just how much they agreed on issues. Senator Pugh jokingly countered that he didn’t recall that much agreement.

Senator Adam was warmly received by the membership. In the following days, Senator Adam Pugh stood his ground and was one of just a handful that did not support the Republican House bill that our governor vetoed. For a rookie, he has character.

Guest speaker Senator Adam Pugh, on right, pictured with Randy Koonce, President of Chapter 947.

Senator Adam Pugh spoke to Chapter 947.

Honoring a Pearl Harbor survivor

State Senator Adam Pugh speaks to Edmond chapter

LINDA RESNICKProgram Chair, Chapter 1722

DAN O’NEILVice President, Chapter 947


The following dates indicate the confirmed speakers for the first quarter of 2018: January 11, 2018 -Elizabeth Inman, Federal Employ-ees Benefits Retirement Specialists, February 8, 2018-Morgan Dumond, Principal of Henryetta High School, March 8, 2018-Jan Muhsmann, Reverse Mortgage Specialist with Home-Bridge Finance in Okmulgee, Oklahoma.

We concluded the year with a presentation by the 1st Vice President of Oklahoma NARFE Federation Mr. James Gillispie on December 14, 2017. He emphasized the importance of recruiting and maintaining members.

Members Bill and Fern Wilburn informed us that their granddaughter, Mallorie Wilburn was selected as the All State Softball Middle East #1 Catcher. She received her All State Jacket at a banquet on December 7, 2017 and will play in the Annual Oklahoma High School All State Softball Game in the Spring of 2018 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Member Sue Beets advised us that her granddaughter, Cassidy Sue Gierhart, was honored recently at a banquet in Stillwater, Oklahoma as a Senior of Significance. To qualify for this award, you must be in the top 1% of the OSU Senior graduating class. Seniors of Significance is sponsored by the OSU Alumni Association. Cassidy re-ceived a $1,000.00 NARFE Scholarship in 2013 and is majored in Engineering. She will be employed by Phillips 66 upon her graduation from Oklahoma State University.Congratulations to each of these young ladies on their ac-complishments!

Chapter 730 announces programs for first quarter 2018RON VICKPresident, Chapter 730

RECENT LEGISLATIVE ACCOMPLISHMENTS• Federal retirees have not paid for deficit reduc-tion• Prevention of 52%increase in Medicare Part B premiums 2016• Two-year budget deal did not impact Feds• Flawed Postal bills have not passed• Chained CPI no longer an imminent threat • Extended identity theft protection for those impacted by OPM data breaches

THE 115TH CONGRESS (2017-18)• Administration proposed reorganizing and downsizing of Workforce• Administration proposed severe cuts to Federal benefits• Maintaining current benefits should be considered a VICTORY!!!

THE 115TH CONGRESS – THREATS• Trumps FY18 Budget• Eliminate COLA for FERS retirees• Reduce Cola by 0.5 percent for CSRS retirees• Eliminate the FERS annuity supplement• High 3 to High 5 for future retirees• Turning FEHBP into a Voucher program • Decrease the rate of return on the TSP’s G Fund

GRASSROOTS ENGAGEMENTWhy is Grassroots Important?• NARFE members are their own best advocate• Constituents voices resonate with Congress• Congress can change your benefits AT ANY TIMEMAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD…STAY INFORMED…COORDINATE ACTIONSILENCE = ACCEPTANCESEND MESSAGES TO CONGRESS* * Highlights from keynote speaker Jessica Klement, Legislative Di-rector of NARFE at Region 6 Seminar Longview Texas.

NARFE Legislative accomplishmentsCAROLYN HARRISFederation 2nd Vice President

Jessica Klement and Carolyn Harris, 2nd Vice-President NARFEOK discussing Legislative Accomplishments.

District II Officer Ron Vick addressing current NARFE issues with Jessica Klement.


Visit narfe.org often. You’ll find the latest information on issues critical to the federal community.

To obtain additional information about NARFE, please complete the card to the left, cut out and mail to:

NARFE Membership606 North Washington St.

Alexandria, Virgina 22314-9705


Tulsa Chapter 2184 has had a busy quarter with a full slate of programs each month. We are very happy to have the help of President Gary Flinchum in arranging most of these programs.

The October meeting brought to us the expertise of Kerin Barngrover from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. She al-ways has an abundance of worthwhile information for us from the Federal Employees Health Benefits plans. There are always new changes to the plans each year, which she spoke about. While there at the meeting, the newly re-leased premium rates became available online, so she was able to tell us first-hand what they were. Even though the rates had increased, she noted the increases were modest.

The November meeting was held at Golden Corral Buffet where all chapter members enjoyed a luncheon courtesy of the chapter. Guests were invited to participate at $10 each. All enjoyed a good meal of their own choos-ing, good fellowship, and good fun through the games of Bingo. Monetary prizes were won by those winning the three rounds of Bingo.

Door prize entries are saved through the year and are awarded by a drawing at this meeting. Three winners re-ceived monetary prizes.

Our December meeting hosted a Mini Health Fair Program. Representatives from the major health insur-ance providers for FEHB were invited to participate. We were pleased to have three providers accept our invitation to speak about their services offered and to answer our questions. The photos included show the participants who

came. We are always grateful to get first-hand informa-tion from the representatives of these companies.

At the December meeting, we also voted in our slate

of chapter officers who will lead us for the next two years. All present officers were reelected, and include President Gary Flinchum, Vice President Doug Martin, Secretary Al Hong, and Treasurer Johnny Hanlon.

NANCY STANPHILLFederation Editor

Chapter 2184 hosts mini health fair

Federation 1st Vice President, James Gillispie, installing officers at Chapter 2184 December meeting. L to R: is Vice President Doug Martin, President Gary Flinchum, and Secretary Al Hong. Missing is Treasurer Johnny Hanlon.

Mini Health Fair at Chapter 2184 December meeting. Participants included Elizabeth Fonseca from GEHA, Abbe Belcher from Global Health, and Kerin Barngrover from Blue Cross/Blue Shield.


Mrs. Steinig spoke to Chapter 167 about her experiences with her husband’s dementia.

Bingo Fundraiser for Chapter 167. Terry Chaney manned the booth at the Ft. Sill Retiree Open House.

September was a very busy month for Lawton 167. On Sep-tember 11th, instead of a tradition-al meeting, we took a break and had our second Bingo fundraiser. All the members in attendance had a great time and I think everyone there took home a prize.

On September 21st, our booth was set up for Retiree Open House at Fort Sill. Thanks to Mrs. Helen Lindsay, Mrs. Juanita Ruiz and Terry Chaney, we added two new members to our roster. We talked to 20-30 visitors who

came to our booth from 8am-2pm.

Everyone always looks forward to the October meet-ing when Kim Troy, Blue Cross/Blue Shield Field Rep, comes. We had 19 members in attendance. Medication in Tier 1 and Tier 2 have no increase in cost to us. Tier 3 has an increase in co-pays. Kim provided an abundance of information and pamphlets. Those included are 2018 Rate Information plan, Quick Reference-2018 Benefit Changes, 2018 FEP Blue Vision and Legislative Hotline.

For our November meeting, Mrs. Ron Steinig spoke about Alzheimer’s. Mrs. Steinig’s husband had two tours in Vietnam and 13 years as administrative officer. Mrs. Steinig volunteered at the Fort Sill Pharmacy. Little did she know that her husband would be diagnosed with “Vascular Dementia” after developing memory problems.

She spoke about the details of her husband’s behavior. Be aware that there are different kinds of dementia and it presents itself differently with each and every person. Some are combative, and others are not. Some are more verbally abusive. From a caretaker’s view, it is very dif-ficult for the family. Her husband fell three times while at the VA. These patients feel very alone and helpless.

We also have held our officer elections for the coming year. Mrs. Helen Lindsay volunteered to conduct the elec-tion procedure.

The officers elected for 2018 are President Mrs. Jac-quetta Chaney, 1stVice Mrs. Pam Burnett, 2nd Vice Mrs. Pat Cameron, Secretary Mrs. Dorothy Woodruff, Treasur-er Mrs. Rosemary Bazor.

JACQUETTA CHANEYPresident, Chapter 167

Lawton Chapter 167 activities


By Danny VinikSeptember 27, 2017

A POLITICO analysis finds that the federal workforce is older than it’s ever been, and younger workers aren’t coming in. What happened?

It’s no secret that American workers are getting older. Even as millennials become the biggest cohort in the labor force, the median age of all U.S. employees has crept up from 30 to 42 over the past 30 years. But when it comes to getting older, a POLITICO analysis finds, the private sector has nothing on the U.S. government. The U.S. just elected the oldest new president in history, and Congress, too, has been getting consistently older, with its average age now up around 60. But the vast majority of the government consists of the 2 million-strong federal civilian workforce. And thanks to slow-moving hiring practices and a huge cohort of baby boomers who haven’t retired at the predicted rates, it has grown significantly older than the American workforce overall.

Today, just 17 percent of federal workers are under 35 years old. (In the private sector, almost 40 percent are.) And more than a quarter of federal employees are now older than 55. In some agencies, the upward age shift is even starker. Sixty nine percent of NASA’s workforce is over 45 years old. At the Department of Housing and Urban Devel-opment, it’s 70 percent. At the tiny Government Printing Office, it’s even more extreme—80 percent. In principle, there’s nothing wrong with older workers: They have more experience than younger ones and employers often report that they are more attentive at work. Age discrimination is not just illegal, but strips companies of experience and judg-ment; it’s fair to say that plenty of Silicon Valley companies might benefit from the perspective of a more experienced cohort of employees.

But workplaces that shift too far in any direction can suffer. There is evidence that offices with more older work-ers are less productive and, due to their workers’ age, more expensive; health care costs are especially high, and a wave of retirements would leave the government on the hook for a major increase in pension spending. And broadly speak-ing, if the government is supposed to reflect America accu-rately—making small and large policy decisions that affect every aspect of the country—it’s only reasonable to expect that the federal workforce should reflect the generational makeup of the country.

Given the stereotypes about government employees, it’s easy to assume that federal worker protections have led to a vast army of aging-in-place bureaucrats who simply can’t be removed. But organizational experts and former federal human resource managers say the problem is more complicated than that, and more troubling for good gover-nance. They see an ineffective hiring system that is decades out of date. They have spent years warning policymakers that rules and laws were inhibiting their ability to hire and train new employees. The aging of the federal workforce, they say, is a symptom of Washington’s inability to keep up

with modern-day management practices and to plan for the future—as well as a system hamstrung by rigid federal em-ployment directives, some of which, ironically, were aimed at freshening up the workforce. “It’s not so much a matter that old people are stupid and young people are smart,” said Don Kettl, a professor at the University of Maryland who has written extensively on government management. “It’s that smart agencies develop a plan for a pipeline. The fed-eral government’s biggest problem is it’s not very good at pipeline planning.”

IT WASN’T SUPPOSED to happen this way—or at least, for years, government analysts were worried they’d be facing the opposite problem. In 1988, the Hudson in-stitute published an influential report called “Civil Service 2000” on the future of the federal workforce, warning that a glut of workers in their mid-careers would start leaving in 2002. That warning was supported by a raft of research suggesting a large block of middle-aged workers would all be entering their retirement years at the same time, wiping out huge amounts of institutional knowledge and swamping the government in a “retirement tsunami.” But nearly 30 years later, that tsunami hasn’t arrived—and many experts think it never will. Instead, baby boomers have simply hung onto their jobs. “What we’ve really seen is the impact of better health and longer lives and people wanting to work together,” said Myra Howze Shiplett, who served in vari-ous personnel positions across the federal government and also authored a report in 1999 warning of a retirement cri-sis. Said another expert: “It’s been the coming crisis for 25 years.”

What happened instead is that the government work-force has simply shifted older and older. Over the past 20 years, the percentage of full-time federal workers younger than 45 has gone down, while the percentage over 55 has grown dramatically, up 83 percent, according to a POLITI-CO analysis of data from the Office of Personnel Manage-ment. Workers at the very youngest end, under the age of 24, represent just 1.2 percent of federal employees, com-pared with 13 percent in the private sector. In part, that’s because federal workers are much more likely than private sector workers to have a graduate level degree (29 percent vs. 11 percent), but it still is a remarkably small fraction of the overall federal workforce. Most government agencies don’t have a mandatory retirement age, so with an economy that provides less and less job security for workers, it’s not exactly a surprise that many government employees have decided to continue working late into their careers.

Specialists on human resources interviewed for this story say this does have consequences. When I asked them about the effects of an aging workforce, many mentioned technology: A federal government operating in a time of smartphones and social media is staffed largely by people who grew up before the Web was invented, and many be-fore computers arrived in homes. “A lot of the cyber crooks out there are themselves younger, and having people who are part of the video game culture improves your ability to be able to figure out how the other side is going to come at you,” said Kettl, adding, “Of course it’s ageist, but it’s also

a fact.” This belief isn’t universal, and there isn’t actually much evidence either way on whether younger people are more technologically savvy than older people. But younger people use technology more, and have grown up with high expectations in areas where government often falls short, such as customer service, user experience and response time.

There isn’t much academic research on how an aging workforce affects an organization more broadly, either. Sur-veys of employers have found that older workers are more experienced and focused on their work. But a study from last year found that an older labor force is less productive—and even makes young workers less productive as well, though it’s unclear why. There’s also evidence that older people are less able to learn new skills. And from a budget-ary perspective, studies have found that older workers are more expensive, due to their greater use of health care ser-vices. These costs fall directly on the federal government, which self-insures its workforce.

Organizational experts say that the experience and talents of older workers make them a critical piece of any organization, but having a workforce with balanced ages is important for other reasons, including ensuring that the government—the entity that creates, implements and en-forces policies—has a steady influx of new perspectives and fairly represents the interests of all Americans. Private sector companies put huge resources into recruiting and training younger workers under the belief that those work-ers will have a different viewpoint and new ideas. Said Sean Morris, who leads Deloitte’s federal human capital office: “The iconic companies, the ones most able to innovate and change to the ever-increasing number of missions, are those that have a much more balanced number of generations.”

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is well aware that its workforce is getting older, and it’s trying to address the issue. Human capital officers—the people who manage agency personnel—have carefully tracked the numbers, attempting to recruit younger workers and replenish their ranks. But according to many former chief human capi-tal officers, these efforts have been stymied, running into a thicket of bureaucratic rules and well-intentioned but poorly designed policies. To experts, the problem is simple: The government simply isn’t designed to recruit and hire a modern workforce. The classification system for federal workers, for instance, dates back to 1949, and despite real progress in updating it, the rules still create huge challenges for agencies by forcing them to fit workers into certain pre-scribed categories rather than giving them the flexibility to hire and pay workers as they see fit. There’s no exact gov-ernmentwide hiring policy. It is filled with exemptions and carve-outs, and thick with paperwork; the closest thing to an official manual is a 351-page handbook published by the Office of Personnel Management.

One rule that has especially bedeviled hiring manag-ers is the veteran’s preference. The rule, which dates back to a law passed in 1944, was intended to force agencies, if faced with two similarly qualified candidates, to hire a mili-

America’s government is getting older

(See Government, page 25)


tary veteran over a non-vet. But numerous human resource experts said that in practice it creates almost a lock for vet-erans in many jobs: Because the hiring process effectively re-defines “similarly qualified” to encompass candidates with very different skill levels, veterans often get chosen by rule over considerably more qualified competitors. “The veteran’s preference, it started in a good way. Right thing to do,” said Rebecca Contreras, former chief human capital officer at the Treasury Department, who is now president of AvantGarde, a consulting firm on human capital manage-ment. “But it’s taken over and inhibited a lot of agencies, and has locked down the opportunity to take anyone who is not a veteran.”

Congress also makes the job harder: Federal hiring is highly dependent on the federal budget, and Washington’s dragged-out budget battles can be huge obstacles to hiring. Lawmakers rarely complete the budget process on time, often passing a stopgap measure when they can’t agree on spending levels. These so-called “continuing resolutions” appear—after all, the government stays open—but within agencies, they cause confusion and impose a de facto hiring freeze on most offices. Hiring officers have no idea how many workers they can hire. Often, they have to delay even planning their staffing levels, never mind actually recruit-ing and hiring candidates, until Congress reaches a more permanent deal.

According to former human resource officers, former President Barack Obama inadvertently made the problem worse with his own initiative to recruit younger workers— a new program that created more problems than it solved. This was part of Obama’s attempt to make government “cool” again and bring in a younger, more diverse work-force. Jeri Buchholz, formerly NASA’s chief human capi-tal officer, remembered getting strict orders from Obama’s OPM on whom to recruit: “Early career people, veterans and Hispanics.” In 2010, Obama issued an executive order cre-ating something called the Pathways Program, which both streamlined existing internships and fellowships, and made it harder for agencies to use such programs to circumvent the veteran’s preference. Obama officials didn’t see these goals as contradictory, believing that agencies shouldn’t have trouble complying with the preference. “It should be seen as an opportunity,” said Shelley Metzenbaum, who had a top position overseeing personnel in Obama’s budget of-fice. On the latter goal, Pathways succeeded—OPM found that the percentage of veteran hires rose from 24 percent in fiscal 2009 to 33 percent in fiscal 2014. Overall, nearly a quarter of federal workers are veterans, compared to just 5 percent of the private sector workforce. But former hu-man capital officers said it created huge hiring challenges, and the data show that many agencies nearly stopped hiring

through Pathways altogether.

In another critical way, Pathways hasn’t worked: Though the reforms were supposed to help bring younger people into government, the average age of people in the Pathways program was 27.1, up from 25.4 under previous programs. These trends are worrisome for the age of the federal workforce—and that is evident in the data. The per-centage of new hires younger than 30 fell from 37 percent in fiscal 2011 to 35 percent in fiscal 2016, according to OPM data. It’s unfair to blame that entirely on Obama or Path-ways. After all, the government went through sequestration, and agencies faced intermittent hiring freezes during those years. That made workforce planning exceptionally hard and especially limited the government’s ability to recruit younger workers. But despite Obama’s efforts to recruit younger workers, nothing much has changed, and in fact new government workers now skew slightly older. “They need to do targeted outreach, targeted sourcing, targeted marketing,” said Contreras. “It all goes back to having the right people on the right seat on the right bus. How is the government going to do that if they don’t make a compre-hensive effort across the board?”

NONE OF THIS means that there haven’t been some smaller successes. Obama, for instance, implemented new programs to bring young tech workers into the government, including 18F, an agency created in 2013 to help govern-ment agencies improve their digital products, and the U.S. Digital Service, both of which brought workers from com-panies like Google and Amazon into the government for short stints. The goal was to infuse private sector tech ex-pertise into the workforce without tying down workers for years. It’s widely seen as a big success, reducing the time between interview and offer letter to 30 days, compared with around six months for most agencies. If there is one agency that has succeeded in trying new hiring practices and recruiting a younger workforce in recent years, it is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, created in 2011 under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. Fifty seven percent of CFPB workers are younger than 45—a number roughly in line with private-sector norms and higher than any other federal agency. But the CFPB’s success is also an indictment of the current hiring system: The CFPB has the distinct advantage of being a new agency, without a legacy workforce. In addition, the agency was accused of ageism in the hiring process. Three people sued the CFPB after its applications were rejected saying they were denied employ-ment “because of their age.” The agency denied the accusa-tion and the case was settled out of court.

Can President Donald Trump turn around the federal behemoth? He’s promised to run the government like a

private-sector company and tasked his son-in-law, senior adviser Jared Kushner, with modernizing government through the newly created Office of American Innovation. But there are a lot of reasons for skepticism that an influx of younger workers will enter the government anytime soon. One of Trump’s first moves was a hiring freeze, and though it has since been lifted, it sent an immediate bad signal to potential candidates considering government careers, ex-perts said. More importantly, Trump is very unpopular with young people: One recent poll found that 62 percent of mil-lennials disapprove of his job performance, compared to just 22 percent who approved. (He’s more popular among older Americans—but not with federal employees, who overwhelmingly disapprove of his performance.) And if the economy continues to improve, workers will have other job options instead of working for Uncle Sam. In addition, Trump doesn’t have the personnel in place to undertake a major overhaul of federal hiring practices. His nominee to head OPM, the most important personnel office, hasn’t yet been confirmed—his initial nominee withdrew in August, and he named a new candidate in September. That means he’ll go nearly a year in office without his top adviser on personnel issues.

Analysts say there’s a small but real chance the imbal-ance could solve itself in a way that becomes a crisis of its own. Thirteen percent of the federal workforce—more than 100,000 workers—are now over the age of 60. At the de-partments of Education, Labor and Treasury, around 6 per-cent of the workforce is already over 65; at HUD, that figure is almost 9 percent. There’s only one possible conclusion to these trends: At some point, these workers really are going to retire. When they do, the agencies will lose decades of institutional knowledge across programs and jurisdictions, forcing them to compete for replacements in a tight labor market with a government more unpopular than at almost any point in its history.

After decades of predictions that haven’t come true, most experts are reluctant to continue forecasting a retire-ment tsunami, but they are worried. One former Obama of-ficial described it to me as “more like termites in the base-ment as opposed to a wolf at the door”; Dan Blair, who was director of OPM during the George W. Bush administration, had a different metaphor. “I liken it to osteoporosis,” he said. “It may not affect day-to-day operations until some-thing really breaks down.” Washington has had decades to prepare for this moment, but despite real efforts by mul-tiple administrations, nothing much has changed. When that tsunami hits, or the termites finally reach the foundation, Congress may finally start paying attention—but by then it might already be too late.

Government(Continued from page 24)


From www.narfe.orgSeptember 14, 2017

Alexandria, VA – Federal retirees are once again be-ing asked to step up and serve their country in a time of need. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, the level and degree of federal government recovery and relief efforts will be extraordinary and will often require additional staff for the federal government agencies in-volved.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is seeking qualified individuals, particularly those with fed-eral government experience or federal retirees who would not require extensive training. At the request of SBA, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Associa-tion (NARFE) is distributing its call for help to its mem-bers and networks.

SBA issued the following statement on the recruit-

ment effort:

“As recovery efforts begin in Texas and Louisiana, it is clear the damage and devastation from Hurricane Harvey will certainly reach historic levels. Homes, busi-nesses, and lives have been uprooted by the sheer force of nature, affecting millions of people. Right behind Har-vey, we will be facing the aftermath related to Irma. The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is one of the key Federal government agency sources of money to help homeowners, renters, businesses, and non-profit organiza-tions recover from disasters.

“While help has poured in from across the country, the road to recovery is going to be long. SBA is preparing to process an extraordinary number of disaster loan appli-cations, and we have already hired hundreds of additional staff to help process these loans. However, demand for SBA assistance is expected to escalate quickly.

“To augment our reserves, SBA is reaching out to individuals and businesses who can support our staff if needed, including the following roles – lawyers, parale-gals and legal assistants, damage verifiers, loan special-ists, program support assistants and call center specialists, public information officers, customer service representa-tives, IT specialists, construction analysts, and adminis-trative support assistants. The Position Descriptions for these roles and links to apply are available on our website at www.sba.gov/disaster-assistance/hurricane-response-jobs-sba.”

SBA is expected to use its waiver authority to allow for dual receipt of federal pay and annuities for federal retirees who go back to work. Federal retirees should note that they may request such a waiver in their applications. NARFE encourages federal retirees and employees to se-riously consider responding to this call for help.

From www.narfe.orgOctober 4, 2017

Alexandria, VA – The Office of Personnel Manage-ment (OPM) today announced the average Federal Em-ployees Health Benefits (FEHB) Program premium for America’s retired and active federal workers will increase 4.0 percent in 2018, with the average enrollee’s share ris-ing 6.1 percent. In response, Richard G. Thissen, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees As-sociation (NARFE), released the following statement:

“While the increases in FEHB premiums for 2018 are modest, they continue to cut into federal employees and retirees’ take-home pay, annuity and purchasing power.”

“This is another year in which the federal commu-nity is reminded of the all-too-familiar cycle of low or no pay raises, small or nonexistent cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) and rising medical bills. Like most Americans, federal employees and retirees are middle-class taxpayers, continuing to feel the pinch on their wallets every day. Years of no or low COLAs and pay raises that lag behind the private sector have created a financial burden on the federal community, increasing the need for meaningful re-form.

“The latest rise in FEHB premiums demands that Congress pursue a new formula to calculate COLAs, one

that accurately reflects the health care costs of our nation’s

seniors, such as the CPI-E (Consumer Price Index for the elderly). This simple solution, rooted in common sense, is just one step in the right direction to help account for the rising cost of FEHB, and all health care premiums.

“Over the last several years, federal workers have en-dured a three-year pay freeze and insufficient pay raises that have widened the gap between public- and private-sector pay. During this time, FEHB premiums have steadi-ly increased, as we are witnessing with the 6.1 percent average increase for enrollees in 2018. Decreasing the purchasing power of America’s 5 million strong federal family not only impacts their quality of life, but also has an economic impact on their communities across the country.”

Open Season, the annual period when eligible federal employees, retirees and survivors can make changes to their health benefits coverage for the following year, will be held November 13 through December 11, 2017.

FEHBP premiums increased 3.8 percent in 2012, 3.4 percent in 2013, 3.7 percent in 2014, 3.2 percent in 2015, 6.4 percent in 2016 and 4.4 percent in 2017. To view FE-HBP premiums by plan for 2018, check the NARFE Na-tional website.

Federal retiree expertise needed for hurricane recovery and relief efforts

FEHB Program premium increase highlights need for adequate federal pay raise and COLA reform

“While the increases in FEHB premiums for 2018 are modest, they continue to cut into federal employ-ees and retirees’ take-home pay, annuity and purchas-ing power.”


The National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association is the only organi-zation solely dedicated to protecting and preserving the pay and benefits of all federal workers and retirees.

NARFE Is Your Legislative Voice NARFE’S national legislative program is advanced in Congress by a team of influ-ential lobbyists, backed by an informed network of grass-roots activists in every state and congressional district, and a member-supported Political Action Committee. Your membership strengthens our collective voice on Capitol Hill and fortifies our national outreach.

With dwindling budgets, many agencies are forced to consolidate and share human resource management. Timely and reliable answers to complex questions have become harder and harder to find. NARFE encourages your queries and answers them. Those most frequently asked appear in narfe magazine and are periodically published in a compendium. You’ll find answers to questions you haven’t even thought of yet! Here’s a sampling.

Q I’m nearing retirement and am a CSRS-Offset employee. How will this affect my retirement?

Q Is it worth it in terms of annuity payout to pay my military deposit before I retire from federal service?

Q I’m in the middle of a divorce. What do I need to know about how my future federal retirement benefits will be affected?

Q Can I cover my grandchild as an eligible dependent under my FEHBP plan?

Q Should I enroll in Medicare when I am eligible?

NARFE Is Your Information Resource The award-winning narfe magazine provides in-depth coverage of issues affecting the federal community; timely accurate and understandable information on changes or your benefits; insight on how new legislation will affect you; answers to federal benefits FAQ’s updates on NARFE’s legislative agenda; financial planning tips; and much more.

A team of Federal Benefits Service specialists unravel regulations and provide both active and retired federal employees with clear guidance on complex issues.

Powerful representation and advocacy before Congress, the Office of Personnel Management and the White House.

Award-winning narfe magazine, the prime source of information and guidance on critical legislation and benefit issues.

Members-only section of the NARFE website with up-to-the-minute information and a Legislative Action Center.

Access to a team of Federal Benefits Service specialists for answers to complex questions.

Legislative e-Alerts on congressional business directly impacting the federal community.

Scholarship and disaster-relief grant qualification.

Members-only eligibility for special discounts on products and services.

Membership is open to civilians who are or will be eligible to receive an annuity or survivor annuity from the federal retirement programs of any agency of the United States government including:

• Retirees• Active employees• Spouses and surviving spouses of those eligible to join NARFE• Former employees• A former spouse who is legally entitled to federal survivor annuity

Visit narfe.org often. You’ll find the latest information on issues critical to the federal community.

Earned-Benefit Protection. Vital Information. Answers to Critical Questions.

Tireless Advocacy. Trusted Advice.

NARFE provides clear information and trusted guidance on complex issues.

What is NARFE?

Can I Get My Benefits Questions Answered?

What Are the Benefits of NARFE Membership?

Who Can Join NARFE?

Stay Informed!

NARFE protects your federal benefits on Capitol Hill.


From www.narfe.orgNovember 20, 2017

On November 17, President Trump signed into law the TSP Modernization Act, H.R. 3031, which provides more flexible withdrawal options for Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) participants. The legislation was endorsed by NARFE and we applaud this action.

Specifically, the legislation allows multiple, par-tial post-separation withdrawals, which participants can time to their individual needs, and provides mul-

tiple, age-based withdrawals for participants who are still working and are older than age 59-1/2. The TSP Modernization Act also provides greater flexibility by allowing the election of quarterly or annual pay-ments and permitting periodic withdrawals that can be changed at any point during the year. Payments could be stopped while leaving the account balance in the TSP. Finally, the bill eliminates the withdrawal elec-tion deadline.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the TSP, has two years to issue regu-

lations necessary to implement the expanded with-drawal options. While TSP participants will welcome the changes, they may need to wait up to two years to enjoy the expanded options.

The TSP provides individual retirement accounts for federal employees and retirees, as well as members of the military. It is the federal workforce equivalent of private-sector 401(k) and Roth 401(k) plans.

NARFE thanks all its members who took action to secure final passage of this bill.

TSP Modernization Act

By Eric Katz, GovExec.comDecember 12, 2017

The Treasury Department has suspended investments into federal employees’ pensions, as the government butts up against its statutory borrowing limit.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the step as part of the measures he is permitted to take to delay the government defaulting on its debt. In addition to the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, Mnuchin said in his letter to congressional leadership that Treasury will also suspend investments in the Postal Service Re-tiree Health Benefits Fund.

Mnuchin’s predecessors have increasingly in recent years relied upon “extraordinary measures” to avoid ex-ceeding the debt ceiling. Treasury has typically suspended investments into the Thrift Savings Plan’s government se-

curities (G) fund to buy the government some additional financial wiggle room. On Tuesday, Mnuchin announced he will also “be unable to invest fully” in the G Fund, which is the most stable offering in the federal work-force’s 401(k) equivalent.

Treasury last suspended payments to the pension funds in July. Both the pension funds and the G Fund will be made whole upon Congress raising the debt limit.

“Federal retirees and employees will be unaffected by these actions,” Mnuchin said.

He estimated the “debt issuance suspension period” will continue through Jan. 31, 2018.

“I respectfully urge Congress to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting to increase the statutory debt limit as soon as possible,” Mnuchin wrote.

The Congressional Budget Office recently estimated

that if the debt limit remains unchanged, “the ability to borrow using extraordinary measures will be exhausted and the Treasury will most likely run out of cash by late March or early April 2018.” Surpassing the borrowing limit would require the government to delay paying for activities, default on its debt obligations or both.The current debt ceiling is $20.5 trillion, the amount to which it was raised after the temporary suspension of the borrowing limit that went into place in September expired. As the new extraordinary measures take effect, Congress will now have a few months to decide how to avoid a default.In 2011, Congress and the Obama administration had con-tentious fights over raising the debt limit, leading to the 2011 Budget Control Act. That law created the automatic, governmentwide budget cuts known as sequestration, which began in 2013 and will return to full force this year unless Congress agrees to raise the spending caps.

Treasury taps federal pensions, TSP G Fund investments to avoid debt default

Are you taking advantage of all of NARFE’s channels of communica-tion? Every member of NARFE receives a copy of narfe magazine in the mail, of course.

But did you know that NARFE is on Facebook and Twitter? On Face-book, our username is NARFE National Headquarters. Our Twitter handle is @narfehq. Don’t miss out. Like us on Facebook @narfeok and follow us on Twitter to keep informed every day.

NARFE’s on social media: Join the conversation

Stay Informed!


Ian Smith, FedSmith.comDecember 14, 2017

Reports have surfaced that the Trump administration intends to propose a pay freeze for federal civilian em-ployees in 2019. The news surfaced based on reports that were released by minority staff on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

The Senate Committee’s reports are based on infor-mation provided by a whistleblower last month to the Committee that leaked a nonpublic “passback” document from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The “passback” process is part of the typical back and forth budget formulation process between agencies and the White House – agencies submit their budget requests to OMB, OMB reviews it and ensures it aligns with the President’s priorities, and then communicates its funding decisions to the agency (the “passback”), sometimes pro-viding less funding than requested, other times more.

In this case, the leaked “passback” document is titled

the Department of Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2019 Budget and Policy Guidance and details OMB guidance from the President to the Department of Homeland Secu-rity regarding its FY 2019 budget proposal.

One of the two reports released summarized OMB’s overruling of DHS’ budget requests on border security personnel. A copy of the report is included at the end of this article.The important part for federal employees lies in this quote from the report:

OMB rejected the Department’s request for a 2019 pay raise for Border Patrol Agents, ICE Agents, CBP Of-ficers, and other DHS employees, and refused an increase for CBP health benefits. The President’s FY 2019 bud-get proposal will seek a government-wide pay freeze for all civilian federal employees, potentially impacting the Department’s ability to recruit and retain qualified em-ployees.

The report goes on to offer more detail: OMB has instructed DHS: “Per government-wide

guidance, no civilian pay raise is included in the recom-mended level for the FY 2019 Budget.” This pay freeze includes individuals serving in law enforcement positions throughout DHS, with the exception of those in non-civil-ian positions with the Coast Guard.

And lastly, health benefits would be impacted:

In addition to issuing a pay freeze for federal civilian employees, OMB rejected DHS’s proposed increases for CBP civilian employee health benefits. The report goes on to state that a pay freeze, if enacted, may impact reten-tion of employees and the ability of DHS to meet its hiring goals.

This is not the first time that rumors of a pay freeze in 2019 have surfaced. We reported previously on a leaked document that made mention of a pay freeze. That docu-ment said that a pay freeze was the “most important” of several proposals aimed at federal employee compensa-tion forecasted to save $300 billion over a 10 -year period.

Pay freeze for federal employees in 2019?

NARFE IS WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY

AND PROSPEROUS 2018!


By Erich Wagner, GovExec.comDecember 14, 2017

Lawmakers and federal employee groups on Thurs-day blasted reports that the Trump administration would institute a pay freeze for all civilian federal employees in 2019 as a “foolish” idea that could decimate participation in public service.

Documents from the Office of Management and Bud-get and the Homeland Security Department provided to Senate Democrats by a whistleblower outlined discus-sions over the department’s upcoming funding request for fiscal 2019. Among other revelations, OMB rejected DHS’ request for a pay raise for a variety of subcompo-nent employees and officials also refused an increase for Customs and Border Protection health benefits.

Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., said Thursday that insti-tuting a pay freeze would place an undue burden on public servants, and make it harder to recruit the next generation of federal employees. Upwards of 40 percent of current feds will become eligible for retirement in the next several years, he said. “Given the huge retirement bubble of the baby boom generation in federal service, the timing couldn’t be worse,” he said. “To be proposing yet another pay freeze will make federal careers less and less attractive, espe-cially to the millennials we need to be recruiting and re-taining.”

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., echoed that sentiment, and noted that a pay freeze could actually cost money, if the expenses associated with increased employee turnover are taken into account.

“If there isn’t a reward system in place, it’s going to be extraordinarily difficult to recruit,” she said. “We’re already seeing disinterest in federal service . . . It’s pen-nywise and pound foolish, if we’re constantly spending money on recruiting and training for new employees.”

Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., expressed his dismay at the proposal in a series of tweets Thursday afternoon, high-lighting the high concentration of national defense work-ers who live in his state.

“Many of Virginia’s federal employees are on the front lines of keeping America safe,” he wrote. “[If] peo-ple in the White House want to freeze people’s salaries, they should start with their own, or members of Con-gress’s. But leave these hardworking Virginians out of it.”

Jeff Marschner, a spokesman for Rep. Barbara Com-stock, R-Va., said the congresswoman would not support a pay freeze for federal workers, and Congress should act to ensure employees receive a raise.

“As the congresswoman has said before, the federal budget cannot be balanced on the backs of our federal workforce,” Marschner said. “She does not support this type of across-the-board freeze. As is the usual course with these proposals, Congress addresses these issues in a different way and has provided the needed pay adjust-ments.”

Unions and other groups representing federal em-ployees also denounced the possibility of a pay freeze. Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union, said in a statement that after three con-secutive years of pay freezes during the Obama admin-istration, feds don’t deserve to be responsible for deficit reduction.

“Refusing to give our nation’s civil servants a mod-est increase, again, would cause them to fall even further behind their counterparts in the private sector,” he said. “It would make it harder for the government to recruit and re-tain the highly skilled professionals needed to protect our security, our economy and our public health. A pay freeze would be a callous attack on middle-class Americans who have chosen to serve their country and their fellow citi-zens.”

J. David Cox, national president of the American Fed-eration of Government Employees, agreed it is time for politicians to stop penalizing federal workers for choosing to serve their country.

“For the administration to say they are going to freeze government employees’ pay next year is insulting to these hardworking civil servants and the sacrifices they make for our country,” Cox said in a statement. “They know they’ll never get rich working for the federal government, but they believe in the mission and are willing to accept a lighter paycheck for the privilege of serving their coun-try.”

National Active and Retired Federal Employees As-sociation President Richard Thissen said there is no rea-son to institute a pay freeze when the economy is on the up-swing and private sector pay is increasing.

It “is nothing more than an attack on the civil ser-vice,” he said. “This pay freeze proposal, along with pro-posed cuts to federal retirement benefits, aims to under-mine the value this country places on public service by targeting the income security of those who carry it out. Whether caring for our veterans, responding to disasters or just ensuring the day-to-day operation of democratic government, the work these individuals do is vital to our country, and it should be rewarded, not devalued.”Connolly said he believes it is time for Congress to stop abdicating its ability to set civilian federal employee pay to the executive branch and begin legislatively mandat-ing raises, as it did for military service members when it approved the National Defense Authorization Act last month.

“Every year, I’m the main author of the FAIR Act, which provides a pay raise for the civilian workforce, and I’m going to continue to do that,” he said. “Congress needs to take the lead and it needs to protect the federal workforce from this kind of dunderheaded thinking.”

Proposal for a 2019 pay freeze called “Dunderheaded” and “Pennywise and Pound Foolish”

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Chapter 278 • Tulsa’s First• Meeting place, Kaiser Library, 5202 S. Hudson, 1st Tuesday each month except June, July and August, at 5:00pm. Luncheon months in May and December. Chapter 2184 • Tulsa Day-Lite • Meeting place, Martin East Library, E. 26th St and S. Garnett Rd, 1st Wednesday each month, 10:30am.

Chapter 22 • Azalea / Muskogee• Meeting place, Kiwanis Sr. Center, 2nd Thursday each month, 1:30pm. Except Christmas dinner.

Chapter 730 • Okmulgee / Okfuskee Counties• Meeting place, Shack Restaurant, 509 West Main, Henryetta, OK. 11:00am, 2nd Thursday each month, May meets at OSU IT in Okmulgee. Chapter 1017 • Tri-County / Miami, OK• Meeting place, Montana Mike’s, 840 N. Main St, Miami, OK, 3rd Tuesday each month, 11:30am, except June & December.

Chapter 1787 • Mayes County / Pryor• Meeting place, Mid American Grill, 3rd Thursday each month, 11:30am, Except July & August. Chapter 183 • Payne County / Stillwater• Meeting place, New China Restaurant, 3rd Friday each month at 11:00am, except August. Chapter 369 • Enid• Meeting place, Golden Corral, 4629 W. Owen K Garriott, Enid, 2nd Monday each month at 11:30am.

Chapter 749 • Chisholm Trail / El Reno• Meeting place, Swadley’s, 1629 E. Highway 66, El Reno, 3rd Monday each month 11:30, except March, April, June and August at 6:30pm.

Chapter 909 • Altus• Meeting place varies. Contact President for meetings.

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Chapter 130 • Cleveland County• Meeting place, Interurban, Norman, OK, 3rd Wednesday in Feb, Apr, June, Sept, Oct & Dec at 11:15am. Chapter 167 • Great Plains / Lawton• Meeting place, Brookridge Retirement Center, 7802 NW Quanah Parker Trailway, Lawton, 2nd Monday at 11:00am, except July.

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Chapter 1722 • Northwest / OK City• Meeting place, Golden Corral, 5702 N.W. Expressway, OKC, 3rd Tuesday of each month at 11:00am, except December.

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Really, who's money is it? - NARFE

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