Friday, September 12, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The August Red Pencil
The Red Pencil
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XI, No.1 August 2008____________mailto:2008
_______________________ntn1066@hotmail.com
August Meeting
When: Thursday, 7 August 2008, 9AM
Registration, payment of dues to begin at 8AM
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
How much: $10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP
for buffet country breakfast catered by George Wellington
What: getting together on the first day of school and enjoying the music of Carla Estep and important health care information from Angie Miller
If your caller does not contact you, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 before 8 PM on Saturday, the 2nd of August or email her at margaretsigmon@goboone.net
As always, you can really help “the staff” to simplify this first meeting of the year by being ready when you arrive to:
1. pay your dues. You’ll find more about the amount later in this newsletter, but you know by now that your dues are noted on your mailing label on this issue of the RP. Bring a check in that amount made out to Watauga Unit, NCRSP. Remember to pay particular attention to the article about dues later in this newsletter;
2. contribute to the Scholarship Fund. The sum of $5 is a suggestion, but we’re happy to be the recipients of your generosity in any amount;
3. drop all the lovely, noisy, loose change you’ve been collecting into the little watering cans at your table;
4. keep up with your volunteer hours for new Community Participation chairperson, Eula Mae Fox; and
5. pile the tables just inside the door high with lots and lots of school supplies for distribution to the students in the Watauga County Schools. Remember that school supplies are tax-free on the weekend before school begins, so hit those shelves at Wal-Mart and Staples and K-Mart and anywhere else!
Please remember that at each of our meetings we give away a number of door prizes or occasionally raffle items for the benefit of our scholarship program. The folks in charge of door prizes and raffle items want you to know that these articles are ALWAYS donated, never paid for by our chapter. We appreciate the generous souls who donate, create, and bake on our behalf.
Over the summer, I read Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who to my granddaughter. I had read it many times before to my young students and had enjoyed the delightful rhyming couplets and the inventive characters of Mr. Geisel. With them I always emphasized Horton’s “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” As I read how the microscopic Whos were to be boiled in a hot, steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut oil unless they could be heard by the other animals, I realized that there were more lessons to be learned from this little book. Even though all the Whos had been yelling their lungs out to be heard, it was only when a small shirker was discovered and joined his voice to the others’ that the Whos were heard and Whoville was spared. Horton’s faithfulness and the concerted effort of the Whos illustrated the importance of having ALL members doing their part and contributing to the purposes of the group.
These thoughts have led me to declare that our motto for the year will be the power of one. I know that all of you will join your voices to each other’s in proclaiming that this will be a successful, enjoyable, powerful year.
Thank you for the honor of serving as your president – and let the year begin!
Beth Carrin
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XI, No.1 August 2008____________mailto:2008
_______________________ntn1066@hotmail.com
August Meeting
When: Thursday, 7 August 2008, 9AM
Registration, payment of dues to begin at 8AM
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
How much: $10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP
for buffet country breakfast catered by George Wellington
What: getting together on the first day of school and enjoying the music of Carla Estep and important health care information from Angie Miller
If your caller does not contact you, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 before 8 PM on Saturday, the 2nd of August or email her at margaretsigmon@goboone.net
As always, you can really help “the staff” to simplify this first meeting of the year by being ready when you arrive to:
1. pay your dues. You’ll find more about the amount later in this newsletter, but you know by now that your dues are noted on your mailing label on this issue of the RP. Bring a check in that amount made out to Watauga Unit, NCRSP. Remember to pay particular attention to the article about dues later in this newsletter;
2. contribute to the Scholarship Fund. The sum of $5 is a suggestion, but we’re happy to be the recipients of your generosity in any amount;
3. drop all the lovely, noisy, loose change you’ve been collecting into the little watering cans at your table;
4. keep up with your volunteer hours for new Community Participation chairperson, Eula Mae Fox; and
5. pile the tables just inside the door high with lots and lots of school supplies for distribution to the students in the Watauga County Schools. Remember that school supplies are tax-free on the weekend before school begins, so hit those shelves at Wal-Mart and Staples and K-Mart and anywhere else!
Please remember that at each of our meetings we give away a number of door prizes or occasionally raffle items for the benefit of our scholarship program. The folks in charge of door prizes and raffle items want you to know that these articles are ALWAYS donated, never paid for by our chapter. We appreciate the generous souls who donate, create, and bake on our behalf.
President’s Message
Another year is beginning! How well we remember the hectic days of preparing for the beginning of a school year: making lesson plans, studying new textbooks, creating bulletin boards, copying class rolls, decorating the room and arranging the furniture, and, sometimes, even changing schools or grades or subject assignments or an entire new curriculum. Whew! After all those beginnings and changes, how blessed we are to be able to take a deep breath and join with other retired school personnel to celebrate our careers and our relationships with each other on the morning that Watauga County students experience their own beginnings and changes.
As the Watauga Unit’s executive committee met this summer to plan our upcoming calendar, I pondered about our goals and a theme that would help us focus on them.
Another year is beginning! How well we remember the hectic days of preparing for the beginning of a school year: making lesson plans, studying new textbooks, creating bulletin boards, copying class rolls, decorating the room and arranging the furniture, and, sometimes, even changing schools or grades or subject assignments or an entire new curriculum. Whew! After all those beginnings and changes, how blessed we are to be able to take a deep breath and join with other retired school personnel to celebrate our careers and our relationships with each other on the morning that Watauga County students experience their own beginnings and changes.
As the Watauga Unit’s executive committee met this summer to plan our upcoming calendar, I pondered about our goals and a theme that would help us focus on them.
Over the summer, I read Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who to my granddaughter. I had read it many times before to my young students and had enjoyed the delightful rhyming couplets and the inventive characters of Mr. Geisel. With them I always emphasized Horton’s “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” As I read how the microscopic Whos were to be boiled in a hot, steaming kettle of Beezle-Nut oil unless they could be heard by the other animals, I realized that there were more lessons to be learned from this little book. Even though all the Whos had been yelling their lungs out to be heard, it was only when a small shirker was discovered and joined his voice to the others’ that the Whos were heard and Whoville was spared. Horton’s faithfulness and the concerted effort of the Whos illustrated the importance of having ALL members doing their part and contributing to the purposes of the group.
These thoughts have led me to declare that our motto for the year will be the power of one. I know that all of you will join your voices to each other’s in proclaiming that this will be a successful, enjoyable, powerful year.
Thank you for the honor of serving as your president – and let the year begin!
Beth Carrin
District III Meets in Spruce Pine
District III of NCRSP will hold its Fall Convention at Pinebridge Convention Center in Spruce Pine on Friday, October 17, beginning at 9AM. Cost of the luncheon is $12. Please let Dot Barker know by October 6 if you’re planning to attend. Those of us who have been to Spruce Pine recently know that the drive is only about an hour and the road is good and the scenery is gorgeous. Make this event one of your fall outings!
District III of NCRSP will hold its Fall Convention at Pinebridge Convention Center in Spruce Pine on Friday, October 17, beginning at 9AM. Cost of the luncheon is $12. Please let Dot Barker know by October 6 if you’re planning to attend. Those of us who have been to Spruce Pine recently know that the drive is only about an hour and the road is good and the scenery is gorgeous. Make this event one of your fall outings!
Two Additions to the Red Pencil Coming
First, do you remember the bulletin board in the teachers’ lounge? It had For Sale notices and Wanted notices and pictures of new babies and silly quotations and reminders of due dates for reports. It was a hodgepodge, and anyone in the building could post an announcement or a note of congratulations or a pretty photograph. Each month, The Red Pencil will include its own bulletin board. Send a note to ntn1066@hotmail.com or phone Nanci at 963-8892 with your news or quotation or photograph.
Second, for the coming year, each newsletter will contain a hint or two for going green and preserving our planet. This month:
First, do you remember the bulletin board in the teachers’ lounge? It had For Sale notices and Wanted notices and pictures of new babies and silly quotations and reminders of due dates for reports. It was a hodgepodge, and anyone in the building could post an announcement or a note of congratulations or a pretty photograph. Each month, The Red Pencil will include its own bulletin board. Send a note to ntn1066@hotmail.com or phone Nanci at 963-8892 with your news or quotation or photograph.
Second, for the coming year, each newsletter will contain a hint or two for going green and preserving our planet. This month:
Instead of wasting money and CO2 on paper towels for simple things like drying hands and cleaning small spills in the kitchen, keep a small pile of dish towels on the counter.
Collect vintage towels at garage sales. Save paper towels for really messy, icky spills. Add the towels to other laundry loads, and you won't spend money or carbon getting them clean for use again.
Need a Lift?
If you or anyone you know needs transportation to one of our meetings, please call our president, Beth Carrin, at 264-9227, and she will make arrangements.
Collect vintage towels at garage sales. Save paper towels for really messy, icky spills. Add the towels to other laundry loads, and you won't spend money or carbon getting them clean for use again.
Need a Lift?
If you or anyone you know needs transportation to one of our meetings, please call our president, Beth Carrin, at 264-9227, and she will make arrangements.
Contributions/Suggestions/Email Edition of The Red Pencil, Anyone?
ntn1066@hotmail.com or snail mail to
Nanci Tolbert Nance, P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605
ntn1066@hotmail.com or snail mail to
Nanci Tolbert Nance, P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605
Tis a Puzzlement (2008)
See if you can figure out what these words have in common.
See if you can figure out what these words have in common.
1. Banana 2. Dresser 3. Grammar 4. Potato 5. Revive 6. Uneven 7. Assess
Are you peeking or have you already given up? Give it another try. Look at each word carefully. Look later in this edition of the newsletter for the answer
In Memoriam
NCRSP member Reba Trivette Hodges Austin died June 25, 2008. We send our sympathy to the members of her family.
NCRSP member Reba Trivette Hodges Austin died June 25, 2008. We send our sympathy to the members of her family.
We all lead busy lives and have full calendars. To help simplify your calendar for the coming school year we offer this listing of NCRSP meeting dates and ask that you write them down in your pocket calendar immediately to prevent conflicts with doctors’ appointments or dentists’ visits or other demands on your time. Take a moment now, please, to make sure that you can join us all year for our informative and interesting meetings.
For Your Calendar:
The 2008-2009 Watauga Unit NCRSP Meeting Schedule:
7 August 2007 9AM Deerfield Methodist Church breakfast/entertainment
16 October 2007 noon “ Dr. Marty Hemric, WCS Superintendent
18 December 2007 noon “
seasonal entertainment
19 March 2008 noon “ tba
21 May 2008 noon “ scholarship presentation/necrology
7 August 2007 9AM Deerfield Methodist Church breakfast/entertainment
16 October 2007 noon “ Dr. Marty Hemric, WCS Superintendent
18 December 2007 noon “
seasonal entertainment
19 March 2008 noon “ tba
21 May 2008 noon “ scholarship presentation/necrology
MONEY MATTERS: paying dues the efficient way
As always, your dues amount is printed in the upper right corner of your mailing label this month. If you receive your newsletter by email, you may check with Dot Barker, dot24@bellsouth.net on your amount. Please bring this amount to the August meeting, with your check made payable to Watauga Unit of NCRSP. If you are unable to attend the meeting, you may mail your check to Dot Barker, Treasurer, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone NC 28607. If your label has PR printed on it, you have chosen to have your dues deducted from your retirement check through the Payroll Deduction Plan. DO NOT WRITE a check for your dues if you see PR on your label. You certainly will, however, want to write a check for the Scholarship Fund. If you are not on the Payroll Deduction Plan and will be writing a check for your dues, you may include your donation to the Scholarship Fund in your check if you wish.
As always, your dues amount is printed in the upper right corner of your mailing label this month. If you receive your newsletter by email, you may check with Dot Barker, dot24@bellsouth.net on your amount. Please bring this amount to the August meeting, with your check made payable to Watauga Unit of NCRSP. If you are unable to attend the meeting, you may mail your check to Dot Barker, Treasurer, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone NC 28607. If your label has PR printed on it, you have chosen to have your dues deducted from your retirement check through the Payroll Deduction Plan. DO NOT WRITE a check for your dues if you see PR on your label. You certainly will, however, want to write a check for the Scholarship Fund. If you are not on the Payroll Deduction Plan and will be writing a check for your dues, you may include your donation to the Scholarship Fund in your check if you wish.
If you are a new retiree or a membership prospect, you will find no dues amount on your label. If you retired after July1, 1999, your annual dues are $106. If you retired between July 1, 1985 and July 1. 1999, your annual dues are $60.
Please consider paying your dues this year through the Payroll Deduction Plan, whether you are a new retiree or a current member. With this plan your dues are deducted from your retirement check each month, so they are spread over the year rather than in one check. You have no check to write at the beginning of the year. Also, even though we all hope that we won’t have to use it, the amount of the Accidental Death and Dismemberment Policy that comes with your membership is $7,500 for those members on the Payroll Deduction Plan and only $2,500 for cash-paying members. The forms for both types of membership will be available at our August meeting. Again, PLEASE consider paying through Payroll Deduction, for your benefit and our chapter’s.
Again, you may include a contribution to the Scholarship Fund in your dues check. If you mail your dues to the treasurer, you may include both dues and Scholarship Fund donation in the same check.
Please consider paying your dues this year through the Payroll Deduction Plan, whether you are a new retiree or a current member. With this plan your dues are deducted from your retirement check each month, so they are spread over the year rather than in one check. You have no check to write at the beginning of the year. Also, even though we all hope that we won’t have to use it, the amount of the Accidental Death and Dismemberment Policy that comes with your membership is $7,500 for those members on the Payroll Deduction Plan and only $2,500 for cash-paying members. The forms for both types of membership will be available at our August meeting. Again, PLEASE consider paying through Payroll Deduction, for your benefit and our chapter’s.
Again, you may include a contribution to the Scholarship Fund in your dues check. If you mail your dues to the treasurer, you may include both dues and Scholarship Fund donation in the same check.
If you have any questions about dues, please call Dot Barker at 264-3621 or email her at dot24@bellsouth.net.
Don’t forget to keep up with your volunteer hours!
Answer to the puzzle: In each of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.
Don’t forget to keep up with your volunteer hours!
Answer to the puzzle: In each of the words listed, if you take the first letter, place it at the end of the word, and then spell the word backwards, it will be the same word.
2008-2009 Officers
Watauga Unit
North Carolina Retired School Personnel
President Beth Carrin 264-9227 bethiemae@charter.net
Vice Pres/Pres Elect La Verne Franklin 964-3337 franklin16054@bellsouth.net
Sec./Treas. Dot Barker 264-3621 dot24@bellsouth.net
Parliamentarian Robert G. Shipley 297-2832
Legislative Comm. Chr. Ben Strickland 264-2320 benstrickland@bellsouth.net
Membership Comm. Chrs. Roland, Barbara Moy 264-8811
moyrf@appstate.edu
Necrology June Mann 264-8626 junemannwhs@aol.com
Community Participation Eula Mae Fox 264-3066 emfox5429@bellsouth.net
Scholarship La Verne Franklin 964-3337 franklin16054@bellsouth.net
Decorations Linda and Roger Harwood 264-3974 rlharwood@bellsouth.net
Meeting Arrangements Margaret Sigmon 264-2036 margaretsigmon@goboone.net
Remembrance Lera Randall 264-3979 lerarandall@earthlink.net
Historian Sue Aldridge 963-4793 lilsusie@apptechnc.net
with Janice Burns and Marsha Fletcher
Red Pencil Editor Nanci Tolbert Nance 963-8892 ntn@skybest.com
ntn1066@hotmail.com
Webmaster Lee Stroupe 264-1276 lstroupe@gmail.com
Watauga Unit
North Carolina Retired School Personnel
President Beth Carrin 264-9227 bethiemae@charter.net
Vice Pres/Pres Elect La Verne Franklin 964-3337 franklin16054@bellsouth.net
Sec./Treas. Dot Barker 264-3621 dot24@bellsouth.net
Parliamentarian Robert G. Shipley 297-2832
Legislative Comm. Chr. Ben Strickland 264-2320 benstrickland@bellsouth.net
Membership Comm. Chrs. Roland, Barbara Moy 264-8811
moyrf@appstate.edu
Necrology June Mann 264-8626 junemannwhs@aol.com
Community Participation Eula Mae Fox 264-3066 emfox5429@bellsouth.net
Scholarship La Verne Franklin 964-3337 franklin16054@bellsouth.net
Decorations Linda and Roger Harwood 264-3974 rlharwood@bellsouth.net
Meeting Arrangements Margaret Sigmon 264-2036 margaretsigmon@goboone.net
Remembrance Lera Randall 264-3979 lerarandall@earthlink.net
Historian Sue Aldridge 963-4793 lilsusie@apptechnc.net
with Janice Burns and Marsha Fletcher
Red Pencil Editor Nanci Tolbert Nance 963-8892 ntn@skybest.com
ntn1066@hotmail.com
Webmaster Lee Stroupe 264-1276 lstroupe@gmail.com
No virus found in this outgoing message.Checked by AVG.Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.5.5/1571 - Release Date: 7/24/2008 5:42 PM
Monday, September 8, 2008
Friday, September 5, 2008
Video Clips of the Mountainaires Quartet
Several members of the quartet are part of our own Watauga County Retired Personnel Organization.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
The new Officers
Our new officers: left- Dot Barker(Treasurer) LaVerne Franklin(Vice President) & Beth Carrin(President). Ben Strickland, moderating the installation of officers.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
2008-2009 Elected Officers
Beth Carrin (left) - our newly elected President gives out-going 2007-2008 President, Eula Mae Fox, a service gift
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)