The Red PenciL
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School
Personnel Vol.IX, No.3
December 2011_ntn1066@hotmail.com
December Meeting: Noon, Thursday, December 15,
Where: 2011 Deerfield Methodist Church
Cost per meal is $10, payable to Watauga Unit, NCRSP
Program: Music – lovely, seasonal music
To make your reservation: Just let your caller know that you will attend. IF YOUR CALLER HASN’T CALLED BY SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, PLEASE PHONE MARGARET AT 264-2036.” SHE MUST REPORT BY THE 12TH SO THAT GEORGE CAN ORDER THE FOOD FOR US.
To bring: as much non-perishable food as you can for the Hunger Coalition. Powdered milk, soup, oatmeal, pasta products, canned fruit and vegetables, ANYthing non-perishable will be acceptable. Did you know that more than 300 children receive food on Fridays to feed themselves during the weekend? PLEASE help. If you have SMALL medicine bottles, bring them, too. The Department of Social Services must stuff the larger containers with cotton after filling a prescription and the cost of the cotton stuffing offsets any saving from large donated bottles.
Bring small bottles ONLY, please.
Also to bring:
a new or gently read children’s book for distribution to the children in this county through the Santa’s Toy Box Program. DO NOT bring books that have been marked in. We’re honoring the legacy of Dr. Seuss and the Read Across America program he loved. On that subject, if you would like to volunteer to read to kids, select an appropriate volume, put the first week of March on your calendar, and call your favorite elementary school –
AND, AND, AND – all your loose change. We haven’t been making that lovely jingling noise quite so loudly at our recent meetings, and the Scholarship Fund is showing the effects. Sue Aldridge will be leading us in a group CLANK and you’ll want to participate. By the way, Sue is a dedicated change-contributor with a unique method of collecting her spare nickels and dimes for our scholarship. She keeps an old sock in the console of her car, and when she receives change from any purchase, she keeps the quarters for herself and drops everything else into the sock. Over an unbelievably brief time, she has a healthy contribution to the Scholarship Fund. Whatever method you use, please bring your collection to the meeting in December.
DON’T FORGET:
After our lunch, you will be able to purchase a second meal to take home for $5. As good as George’s food is, imagine how much you’ll enjoy sharing with a friend or spouse or having your own dinner already prepared!
President's Message
I am hoping for a mild winter and good health for each of you. For you snowbirds who travel south for the winter, I hope you have an easy journey and come back to us safely. This year, let’s all agree to pretend that steps aren’t getting steeper and sounds aren’t becoming just a little less distinguishable from noise and we aren’t just a little more tired at the end of each day. Instead, let us approach the Christmas season with a child’s heart and all the youthful enthusiasm it contains. I am grateful to each of you for being part of my life. Be blessed, loved, and protected, La Verne Franklin, President
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Health Matters:Carolyn Moore, with whom many of us taught at Watauga High School and Hardin Park Elementary School, is recovering from very serious surgery. Her current address is Brian Center, Room 310, 220 13th Ave. PL NW, Hickory NC 28601. If you know of others in our professional community who are in need of a little cheer, please send a note to Nanci, ntn@skybest.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- First Step in our Anti-Bullying Campaign
At the request of a counselor, our unit has purchased a video for use with middle school students on handling cyberbullies. It will be used first at Hardin Park and then will be available to all counselors in all our county schools. This step is our first one in our campaign to help the Watauga County Schools combat bullying.
A Christmas or Anytime Treat:
Chocolate Chess Pie
by Lera Randall
1 unbaked deep dish pie shell
1 stick margarine or butter
¼ cp cocoa
¼ cp milk
1 ½ cps sugar
3 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch salt
Melt butter on low heat and stir in cocoa and milk. Mix sugar, eggs, vanilla, and salt until well blended and add to cocoa mixture. Pour into unbaked deep dish pie shell and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until the middle doesn’t shake.
Computer Talk
ü Our fabulous and informative Watauga County NCRSP blogspot is http://wataugacountyretiredpersonnel.blogspot.com/. Lee Stroupe updates this site often with new photographs and copies of The Red Pencil and other goodies you’ll want to read.
ü For NCRSP, the website address is www.ncrsp.org. If you are trying to reach Pam or Dave Deardorff, their numbers in Raleigh are 800-662-7924, extension 244 for Pam and 242 for Dave.
ü NCAE now has its own, updatable app for all the information you need about our organization. Downloading it is easy. If you own an Android phone, go to the Android Market and search for NCAE. If you have an iPhone, check out the App Store; however, if you use a Blackberry, you will need to use the following links to download the app to your phone. Currently the app contains information only about NCAE, but we’re hoping that NCRSP will have its own link soon.
BlackBerry: http://www.buildanapp.com/dld/queHs1B3NSw/NCAE.jad
BlackBerry 4.5: http://www.buildanapp.com/dld/BCRjJSBNBVQ/NCAE45.jad
BlackBerry 4.7 (Storm or later models): http://www.buildanapp.com/dld/T3szcQooi8c/NCAE47.jad
Membership Matters!
Membership is a topic that just won’t go away, and it shouldn’t. We need every single member we can attract and we need new and present members to be aware of the benefits of their membership and participation. At present, we have 132 members in our unit, 85 of whom are on payroll deduction. Please remember that NEW members only, not present or past members, may join NCRSP on a pro-rated basis if they are on payroll deduction. If you have colleagues who have been thinking of joining us but did not come to the August or October meetings, please let them know that they can join now or at any time during our year by paying the pro-rated sum. Call Dot Barker, 254-3621, for specific details.
Business:
At our December meeting we will have our really good pens for sale for $2 each and our cell phone trappers for $10. Think stocking stuffers for all the folks on your list!
Community Participation
Eula Mae FoxLast year our state officers set three goals for our local units to achieve in community participation. They called their project "Gold Star Locals Program." We may be close to achieving two of the goals. A year ago, when I was tallying our volunteer hours for 2010, I was impressed by the increased number of hours done in educational activities compared to previous years. I saw that we were close to reaching the goal of 25% of our hours being in educational efforts. Bravos and Huzzas to you for these numbers!
A second goal was for each unit to have a group project in a school or community endeavor. Our officers chose to focus on the bullying in Watauga schools and on seeing what we can do to help eradicate that problem. Since our October program by Clarissa Schmal on bullying in Watauga, we have purchased a video which will be used throughout the county as needed. We will continue to focus on this problem through 2012.
A third goal is for at least 50% of our members to report their volunteer hours. Last year only about 30% of us turned in a record of our volunteer hours. I want to encourage ALL of you who did good deeds (for others, not your own family) to spend a few minutes and get that report to me by early January. I really believe our unit deserves a Gold Star! Bring your completed form to the December meeting or mail it to Eula Mae Fox, 199 Watauga Dr., Boone NC 28607, by December 31.
Book Nook:
I recently read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and then I got her Committed, which picks up where Eat, Pray ,Love ends. Now I find out that Gilbert is the same person who wrote The Last American Man , about our own Watauga citizen, Eustace Conway of Turtle Island. Now I plan to reread Last American Man so I can connect that young Elizabeth with the one in Committed. Mary Hazel Mast
Important Scheduling Notice
If our December meeting is snowed out, as it was last year, we will meet on the third Thursday in February. That’s the 16th of February. YOU WILL RECEIVE LOTS OF REMINDERS.
The Watauga County Schools are looking for After-School Group Leaders (starting at $7.50 an hour) and an After-School Site Director(beginning salary: $10.65 per hour), beginning in January 2012. If either of these positions interests you or someone you know, you can find the full advertisements on our blogspot, http://wcrsp.blogspot.com, or you can call Marshall Gasperson at the Watauga County Schools office, 828.264-7190.
CARDS, CARDS, CARDSØ Our NCAE discount cards are here and will be distributed at the December meeting. If you are interested in working with a small group to get more local businesses to participate in offering discounts to retired school personnel, please notify LaVerne Franklin.Ø Our NCRSP membership cards are being mailed to each of us by Pam Deardorff in Raleigh. Yours should arrive soon.
Looking for a unique and simple way to make a difference to education? Go to www.donorschoose.org (that’s org, not com), a site where teachers across the nation can post the needs they have in their own classroom. Donate a little or a lot. Donate in honor or in memory of a colleague, your kids’ teachers, or even one of your own mentors in education. Click through your choices, select one close to your heart, and remember how you felt when you provided your own books, pencils, bulletin board materials, videos, recordings, and on and on and on.
Click here to Reply or Forward
Nanci Tolbert Nance
ntn@skybest.com
Monday, December 5, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
WCRSP takes it to the bank in an effort to "Supports the Troops!"
Watauga Retired School Personnel send food items, toiletries , Medicine/First Aid, clothing, and entertainment items to the local SECU branch to support the troops.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
October Red Pencil
The Red Pencil
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XIV, No.2 October 2011 ntn1066@hotmail.com
October Meeting
When: Thursday, October 20, NOON,
$10, check made payable to Watauga County NCRSP
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
Why: To share time with each other AND to learn from Clarissa Schmal about the current state of bullying education in the Watauga County Schools. Bullying is SUCH an important topic and preventing it will be our unit focus for the next year or two.
Please come!
With: lots of travel-size items for our soldiers (SEE
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FOR DETAILS)
We need
Plastic bags of all sizes
Aluminum can-tabs (NOT the cans) for Ronald McDonald House
all the lovely, noisy, loose change you’ve been collecting
for the Scholarship Fund
NO medicine bottles!!!!! Not this time. Nope, nada. Next time, maybe.
If your caller has not reached you by October 15, phone Margaret Sigmon, 264-2036, to make your reservation. Remember that we’ll be selling take-home meals for
$5.
Please remember that we still have a few of the cell phone trappers for keeping your phone safe and handy on your dashboard. Designed with our NCRSP logo, they’re $10 each and will make terrific holiday gifts.
In Memoriam The members of the Watauga Unit of North Carolina Retired School Personnel send their deepest sympathy to Sue Aldridge on the death in August of her sister, Mary Ann Lawrence, and to Barbara Moy on the death of her sister, Margaret. This month we also note with sadness the passing of Dr. Mary Moore, former ASU faculty member and longtime member of this organization, and Roby Triplett, widower of Appalachian Elementary School and Hardin Park legend Dee Triplett. We also acknowledge with appreciation the gifts to the Scholarship Fund from Ann Winkler in memory of Jessie Pease and from Barbara Moy in memory of her sister. If you would like to remember or honor a friend or colleague in this way, please give your check to Dot Barker along with the name of the person for whom you are contributing.
Go Back to Work!!!OK, that was a cheap attempt to get your attention.
Eula Mae Fox, our Community Participation Chair, has received a request from Beth Mueller, Watauga County Literacy Association Volunteer Coordinator, for experienced teachers with a little time to spare for an important cause. Read on…. Recently the Basic Skills Department at our branch of Caldwell Community College has added a new “offering.” They are accepting Watauga Opportunity clients for work in lower-level reading and math. The Watauga County Literacy Association is seeking volunteer tutors for these clients who will patiently devote time one-on-one with them for two hours a week at the Basic Skills Building located at the college. The hours are all in the middle of the day such as 10 to 12 or 1 to 3, etc. Many of the students come every day so devising a work plan convenient to the tutor should not be difficult. If you like to travel, don’t worry. Basic Skills is accustomed to taking over when someone is away; that’s expected of volunteers just as long as Basic Skills is notified. Basic Skills runs on the regular-class snow schedule for the college, too. For more information please call Beth Mueller, WLA Volunteer Coordinator, 828-265-2963.
Eula Mae’s latest gorgeous Christmasy tablerunner will be up for RAFFLING at our October meeting. $1 per ticket or $5 for 6 tickets. Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells! The season will be here before we know it! Remember that all the money goes to our scholarship fund.
A wonderful bumper sticker says, “If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you’re free to read this, thank a soldier.” Thank you, soldiers!
La Verne Franklin
If you have not renewed your membership in the Watauga Unit of NCRSP for this year, you will find the amount of your dues in the upper right corner of the mailing label on this newsletter. Your Horace Mann Accidental Death Insurance policy will end on October 31 if you do not renew your membership by that time. If you are newly retired and have not joined yet, please make your decision now to join this vital organization. You need us, and we need you, too! In fact, we need every retired educator to be on our membership roster in order to strengthen our position as advocates for retaining and improving benefits for all retired school personnel in this state. Together, we have strength. You can pay your dues at our October meeting or mail them to Dot Barker, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone, NC 28607. If you are a new retiree, your dues are $106 and can be paid by check or you can join by Payroll Deduction and your dues will be deducted from your retirement check and will be spread out over the year. Both forms will be available at the meeting. If you have questions, please call Dot at 264-3521 or Barbara or Roland Moy at 264-8811.
This summer R.G. and Agnes Shipley and their daughter Janie attended a Sunday School class in Plains, Georgia taught by President Jimmy Carter. Mr. and Mrs. Shipley were seated on the front row and were treated to a personal visit with the former President and First Lady. The Shipleys have wonderful stories to tell. Ask, and they may also tell you about being recognized and honored at a performance of “I Do! I Do” at Lees-McRae as the longest-married couple in the audience (67 years, was it?).and desperately needed!
WANTED: Watauga Unit NCRSP members willing to help with tasks of the organization such as setting up and taking down room where meeting is held-no pay-little appreciation, no recognition, but a little act of kindness can go a long way. Please let La Verne (264-8596) or Margaret (264-2036) know if you can help. Heroes in the Making – Our Newest Members The Watauga Unit of NC Retired School Personnel is delighted to welcome (and welcome back) these new and nearly-new retirees. We’re happy to have you! Dian Edmisten Ardease Greene Lynn Greene, returning Candace Hall, returning Janice Hensley Thomas Jamison Martha Moretz , changing from associate to regular member Charlotte Ross
Also receiving her first Red Pencil is Wendy Nicholson, librarian at Valle Crucis and current president of WCAE, the Watauga Unit of NCAE. Wendy hasn’t retired yet, but she is our terrific new link to active members of our profession. If you know of retired school persons who would benefit from membership in our organization, and wouldn’t they all, please invite them to attend the next meeting with you. The Book Nook, a corner in which our members recommend a good book for you. Have you read Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, about a little girl in eastern North Carolina who finds herself in the foster care system when her mother dies and her father becomes abusive? Well, Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s Language of Flowers isn’t about THAT foster care system. In this one, a foster child in San Francisco learns from a foster mother all about flowers and discovers that she can express herself through them when words won’t work. The novel is beautifully written and sensitively both heartbreaking and uplifting. For a retired teacher, it’s also an education.
1. As we age, we become more and more subject to MCI, Mild Cognitive Impairment, a condition which does not prevent a person from doing what he/she normally does. Ten percent of us will develop MCI by age 65 and nearly half of us will develop it by age 85. NOT EVERYONE WITH MCI DEVELOPS DEMENTIA.
2. Dementia and delirium are often confused. Delirium is treatable/curable and is often caused by an infection, depression, or a dangerous combination of medications.
3. Diagnosis of classic dementia can be done in a number of ways, but the best first step is to make an appointment with a neurologist. The tests include a mental status exam (spelling words forwards and backwards, naming two or three recent events in the news, remembering a short list of words for 30 minutes), tests for B12 levels, imaging/scans/volumetric MRI/EEG exams, tests for electrolytes/liver/kidney function, and reports of REM sleep disturbance that leads to acting out dreams.
4. Alzheimer’s and dementia are not preventable, but the onset can be delayed.
·Vascular health – probably the most important thing we can do it to look after this one. Take a statin (Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor) if your doctor prescribes it.
·Sleep – an early indicator of a problem. If you have active dreams that involve hitting or sleepwalking, see your doctor.
·Walking – the best exercise in the world. Try to get in at least fifteen minutes a day.
·Education – probably a great way to delay the onset but not a prevention
·Social interaction – excellent. The busier you are, the better, and the wider your group of associates, the better. The theory here is that the more people with whom you interact on a regular basis, the more likely someone is to notice the very first signs of a problem and help you to get an early professional diagnosis.
·TOTAL MYTHS ABOUT THE DELAY OF ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA: brain teasers, crossword puzzles, and any and all herbal supplements. In other words, Sudoku and gingko biloba won’t help at all.
5. Alzheimer’s was first described in 1906 and now affects up to 5.6 million Americans. The ten warning signs of Alzheimer’s: ·
Memory loss that affects job skills
·Difficulty performing familiar tasks
·Problems with language
·Disorientation to time and space (What day is it? Where am I?)
·Worsened judgment
·Difficulty with abstract thought
·Misplacing things (not “Where are my keys?” but “Where is my coat?”)
·Significant changes in mood or behavior
·Changes in personality
·Loss of initiative
We will be voting to approve this budget at our October meeting. Watauga Unit of NCRSP Proposed Budget for 2011 - 2012
Income
Local dues based on 80 members @ $8.00 640.00
Local dues based on 50 members @ $10.00 500.00
Total income 1140.00
Other estimated income 400.00 1540.00
Expenses
Newsletter printing (5 @ $100.00) 500.00
Other printing 25.00 Postage for newsletter (5 @ $70.00) 350.00
Other postage & supplies 50.00
Total printing, postage, & supplies 925.00
Officers’ expenses State Convention 300.00
Workshops, etc. 100.00
Total Officers’ expenses 400.00
Miscellaneous (Memorials, gifts, TLC) 150.00
Committee Expenses 65.00
Total Expenses 1540.00
Remember to check our local blogspot, http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/, for the latest issue of The Red Pencil, photos of the most recent meeting, news of the members, and links to important information.
2. Go to www.ncrsp.org for legislative updates, information about NC retirement, supplemental insurance, and lots of retirement links.
3. Send a quick note to your humble editor, Nanci Tolbert Nance, at ntn@skybest.com to insure that you receive The Red Pencil by email and save our unit more than $5 per year for your subscription.
Appalachian State University's Solar Homestead finished the national competition in Washington DC on Saturday, October 1, in 12th place and won the People's Choice Award. During the 10-day competition, the team's greatest achievements included a tie for first place in the hot water competition, second place in communications, a tie for third in home entertainment and a third place finish in architecture. The People’s Choice Award, based on 92,538 votes, shows the popular support for ASU’s Solar Homestead and reflects in large measure your participation in the voting process. Thank you, NCRSP members, and congratulations, ASU! Don’t Miss Out!!
October 20 Watauga Unit NCRSP, 12.00 Deerfield Methodist Church
October 21 District Meeting, NCRSP, 10.30A Lenoir (please attend!)
December 15 Watauga Unit, NCRSP, 12.00P Deerfield Methodist Church
March 15 Watauga Unit, NCRSP, 12.00P Deerfield Methodist Church
March 21-22 NCRSP State Convention Marriott Hotel, Winston-Salem
May 17 Watauga Unit, NCRSP, 12.00P Deerfield Methodist Church
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XIV, No.2 October 2011 ntn1066@hotmail.com
October Meeting
When: Thursday, October 20, NOON,
$10, check made payable to Watauga County NCRSP
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
Why: To share time with each other AND to learn from Clarissa Schmal about the current state of bullying education in the Watauga County Schools. Bullying is SUCH an important topic and preventing it will be our unit focus for the next year or two.
Please come!
With: lots of travel-size items for our soldiers (SEE
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FOR DETAILS)
We need
Plastic bags of all sizes
Aluminum can-tabs (NOT the cans) for Ronald McDonald House
all the lovely, noisy, loose change you’ve been collecting
for the Scholarship Fund
NO medicine bottles!!!!! Not this time. Nope, nada. Next time, maybe.
If your caller has not reached you by October 15, phone Margaret Sigmon, 264-2036, to make your reservation. Remember that we’ll be selling take-home meals for
$5.
Please remember that we still have a few of the cell phone trappers for keeping your phone safe and handy on your dashboard. Designed with our NCRSP logo, they’re $10 each and will make terrific holiday gifts.
In Memoriam The members of the Watauga Unit of North Carolina Retired School Personnel send their deepest sympathy to Sue Aldridge on the death in August of her sister, Mary Ann Lawrence, and to Barbara Moy on the death of her sister, Margaret. This month we also note with sadness the passing of Dr. Mary Moore, former ASU faculty member and longtime member of this organization, and Roby Triplett, widower of Appalachian Elementary School and Hardin Park legend Dee Triplett. We also acknowledge with appreciation the gifts to the Scholarship Fund from Ann Winkler in memory of Jessie Pease and from Barbara Moy in memory of her sister. If you would like to remember or honor a friend or colleague in this way, please give your check to Dot Barker along with the name of the person for whom you are contributing.
Go Back to Work!!!OK, that was a cheap attempt to get your attention.
Eula Mae Fox, our Community Participation Chair, has received a request from Beth Mueller, Watauga County Literacy Association Volunteer Coordinator, for experienced teachers with a little time to spare for an important cause. Read on…. Recently the Basic Skills Department at our branch of Caldwell Community College has added a new “offering.” They are accepting Watauga Opportunity clients for work in lower-level reading and math. The Watauga County Literacy Association is seeking volunteer tutors for these clients who will patiently devote time one-on-one with them for two hours a week at the Basic Skills Building located at the college. The hours are all in the middle of the day such as 10 to 12 or 1 to 3, etc. Many of the students come every day so devising a work plan convenient to the tutor should not be difficult. If you like to travel, don’t worry. Basic Skills is accustomed to taking over when someone is away; that’s expected of volunteers just as long as Basic Skills is notified. Basic Skills runs on the regular-class snow schedule for the college, too. For more information please call Beth Mueller, WLA Volunteer Coordinator, 828-265-2963.
Eula Mae’s latest gorgeous Christmasy tablerunner will be up for RAFFLING at our October meeting. $1 per ticket or $5 for 6 tickets. Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells! The season will be here before we know it! Remember that all the money goes to our scholarship fund.
President’s MessageWhile in Holland one year I visited the memorial to the American and English soldiers who fought and died there during World War II. I went to some of the graves and had no idea that our country had done so much for the Dutch people during and after the war. In fact, I do not have a realistic idea of what our armed forces have done in coming to the aid of countries around the world. Since visiting that memorial, however, I have never felt the same about the sacrifices our soldiers have made and are still making. I may not agree that we need to be fighting on several fronts but I do believe soldiers are out there who would give his life for each of us. As the Dutch would say, "If you have nothing worth fighting for, you have nothing". Today I am saying thanks on behalf of our organization to all those soldiers who are putting their lives on the line for a cause. May they be blessed with good judgment and protected from harm. May our politicians have the welfare of the working people in mind when making decisions and treat our fighting men as family.This month, we’re partnering with the NC State Employees Credit Union in collecting items for our soldiers serving abroad. Look in this issue of the Red Pencil for more information.
A wonderful bumper sticker says, “If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you’re free to read this, thank a soldier.” Thank you, soldiers!
La Verne Franklin
The Importance of Membership
If you have not renewed your membership in the Watauga Unit of NCRSP for this year, you will find the amount of your dues in the upper right corner of the mailing label on this newsletter. Your Horace Mann Accidental Death Insurance policy will end on October 31 if you do not renew your membership by that time. If you are newly retired and have not joined yet, please make your decision now to join this vital organization. You need us, and we need you, too! In fact, we need every retired educator to be on our membership roster in order to strengthen our position as advocates for retaining and improving benefits for all retired school personnel in this state. Together, we have strength. You can pay your dues at our October meeting or mail them to Dot Barker, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone, NC 28607. If you are a new retiree, your dues are $106 and can be paid by check or you can join by Payroll Deduction and your dues will be deducted from your retirement check and will be spread out over the year. Both forms will be available at the meeting. If you have questions, please call Dot at 264-3521 or Barbara or Roland Moy at 264-8811.
This summer R.G. and Agnes Shipley and their daughter Janie attended a Sunday School class in Plains, Georgia taught by President Jimmy Carter. Mr. and Mrs. Shipley were seated on the front row and were treated to a personal visit with the former President and First Lady. The Shipleys have wonderful stories to tell. Ask, and they may also tell you about being recognized and honored at a performance of “I Do! I Do” at Lees-McRae as the longest-married couple in the audience (67 years, was it?).and desperately needed!
WANTED: Watauga Unit NCRSP members willing to help with tasks of the organization such as setting up and taking down room where meeting is held-no pay-little appreciation, no recognition, but a little act of kindness can go a long way. Please let La Verne (264-8596) or Margaret (264-2036) know if you can help. Heroes in the Making – Our Newest Members The Watauga Unit of NC Retired School Personnel is delighted to welcome (and welcome back) these new and nearly-new retirees. We’re happy to have you! Dian Edmisten Ardease Greene Lynn Greene, returning Candace Hall, returning Janice Hensley Thomas Jamison Martha Moretz , changing from associate to regular member Charlotte Ross
Also receiving her first Red Pencil is Wendy Nicholson, librarian at Valle Crucis and current president of WCAE, the Watauga Unit of NCAE. Wendy hasn’t retired yet, but she is our terrific new link to active members of our profession. If you know of retired school persons who would benefit from membership in our organization, and wouldn’t they all, please invite them to attend the next meeting with you. The Book Nook, a corner in which our members recommend a good book for you. Have you read Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons, about a little girl in eastern North Carolina who finds herself in the foster care system when her mother dies and her father becomes abusive? Well, Vanessa Diffenbaugh’s Language of Flowers isn’t about THAT foster care system. In this one, a foster child in San Francisco learns from a foster mother all about flowers and discovers that she can express herself through them when words won’t work. The novel is beautifully written and sensitively both heartbreaking and uplifting. For a retired teacher, it’s also an education.
For the sake of your healthDr. Lee Kennedy is a neurologist in practice with Dr. Jeffrey Crittenden in Boone. His area of expertise is Alzheimer’s and related conditions. In August, he spoke to a group at Hound Ears and what follows is a summary of his talk.
1. As we age, we become more and more subject to MCI, Mild Cognitive Impairment, a condition which does not prevent a person from doing what he/she normally does. Ten percent of us will develop MCI by age 65 and nearly half of us will develop it by age 85. NOT EVERYONE WITH MCI DEVELOPS DEMENTIA.
2. Dementia and delirium are often confused. Delirium is treatable/curable and is often caused by an infection, depression, or a dangerous combination of medications.
3. Diagnosis of classic dementia can be done in a number of ways, but the best first step is to make an appointment with a neurologist. The tests include a mental status exam (spelling words forwards and backwards, naming two or three recent events in the news, remembering a short list of words for 30 minutes), tests for B12 levels, imaging/scans/volumetric MRI/EEG exams, tests for electrolytes/liver/kidney function, and reports of REM sleep disturbance that leads to acting out dreams.
4. Alzheimer’s and dementia are not preventable, but the onset can be delayed.
·Vascular health – probably the most important thing we can do it to look after this one. Take a statin (Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor) if your doctor prescribes it.
·Sleep – an early indicator of a problem. If you have active dreams that involve hitting or sleepwalking, see your doctor.
·Walking – the best exercise in the world. Try to get in at least fifteen minutes a day.
·Education – probably a great way to delay the onset but not a prevention
·Social interaction – excellent. The busier you are, the better, and the wider your group of associates, the better. The theory here is that the more people with whom you interact on a regular basis, the more likely someone is to notice the very first signs of a problem and help you to get an early professional diagnosis.
·TOTAL MYTHS ABOUT THE DELAY OF ALZHEIMER’S AND DEMENTIA: brain teasers, crossword puzzles, and any and all herbal supplements. In other words, Sudoku and gingko biloba won’t help at all.
5. Alzheimer’s was first described in 1906 and now affects up to 5.6 million Americans. The ten warning signs of Alzheimer’s: ·
Memory loss that affects job skills
·Difficulty performing familiar tasks
·Problems with language
·Disorientation to time and space (What day is it? Where am I?)
·Worsened judgment
·Difficulty with abstract thought
·Misplacing things (not “Where are my keys?” but “Where is my coat?”)
·Significant changes in mood or behavior
·Changes in personality
·Loss of initiative
We will be voting to approve this budget at our October meeting. Watauga Unit of NCRSP Proposed Budget for 2011 - 2012
Income
Local dues based on 80 members @ $8.00 640.00
Local dues based on 50 members @ $10.00 500.00
Total income 1140.00
Other estimated income 400.00 1540.00
Expenses
Newsletter printing (5 @ $100.00) 500.00
Other printing 25.00 Postage for newsletter (5 @ $70.00) 350.00
Other postage & supplies 50.00
Total printing, postage, & supplies 925.00
Officers’ expenses State Convention 300.00
Workshops, etc. 100.00
Total Officers’ expenses 400.00
Miscellaneous (Memorials, gifts, TLC) 150.00
Committee Expenses 65.00
Total Expenses 1540.00
From our Community Participation Chair:First let me give you a virtual pat on the back for your biggest donation of school supplies EVER. My car would hold only half of the things you brought to our August meeting. Lottie Downie carried her car full, too, and then it took four of us making four trips each to carry all those goodies into the Margaret Gragg Board of Education Building! The school board awarded us a framed certificate of appreciation at the September meeting and the local newspaper carried a story on the award.Now let me remind you again of our goals that 50% of our members report their volunteer hours and that 25% of those hours be in some kind of educational effort. I know you are out there doing many acts of kindness and selflessness; please be diligent in recording them. Eula Mae Fox Who’s Been Where Eula Mae Fox and Lottie Downie have just returned from the grand finale of the Ain’t Done Travellin’ Club, which is now “done,” unfortunately. The group’s farewell trip was a cruise to the Maritimes in September. Barbara Moy can tell you all about being in the Kansas in the summer heat wave and attending the International Barbershop Convention, and both La Verne Franklin and Janice Burns will be happy to share the exciting details of their recent trips to exotic Hickory, but perhaps that’s news for another time. The winners of our non-existent contest for “Most Adventuresome Members” this month are Dot Barker and Mary Hazel Mast, who spent part of their summer vacation white-water rafting on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Just ask them! If you have news of trips, graduations, classes, activities, and other doings of our members, please send a note to ntn@skybest.com. Keeping Up with the Computer Age1.
Remember to check our local blogspot, http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/, for the latest issue of The Red Pencil, photos of the most recent meeting, news of the members, and links to important information.
2. Go to www.ncrsp.org for legislative updates, information about NC retirement, supplemental insurance, and lots of retirement links.
3. Send a quick note to your humble editor, Nanci Tolbert Nance, at ntn@skybest.com to insure that you receive The Red Pencil by email and save our unit more than $5 per year for your subscription.
Appalachian State University's Solar Homestead finished the national competition in Washington DC on Saturday, October 1, in 12th place and won the People's Choice Award. During the 10-day competition, the team's greatest achievements included a tie for first place in the hot water competition, second place in communications, a tie for third in home entertainment and a third place finish in architecture. The People’s Choice Award, based on 92,538 votes, shows the popular support for ASU’s Solar Homestead and reflects in large measure your participation in the voting process. Thank you, NCRSP members, and congratulations, ASU! Don’t Miss Out!!
Mark your calendar now for upcoming important events:
October 20 Watauga Unit NCRSP, 12.00 Deerfield Methodist Church
October 21 District Meeting, NCRSP, 10.30A Lenoir (please attend!)
December 15 Watauga Unit, NCRSP, 12.00P Deerfield Methodist Church
March 15 Watauga Unit, NCRSP, 12.00P Deerfield Methodist Church
March 21-22 NCRSP State Convention Marriott Hotel, Winston-Salem
May 17 Watauga Unit, NCRSP, 12.00P Deerfield Methodist Church
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
La Verne & Eula Mae received the "Education Partnership Award"
This award is given to the WCRSP for our partnership with the local elementary schools through our contributions of school supplies. These school supplies are used by students with financial needs.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
The Red Pencil
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel Vol.IX, No.1 August 2011_ntn1066@hotmail.com___
August Meeting
When: WEDNESDAY, 10 August 2011, 9AM Registration, payment of dues to begin at 8AM
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
How much: $10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP, for a buffet country breakfast catered by George Wellington
What: getting together on the first day of school, welcoming new retirees, and enjoying the pleasure of each other’s company, with musical entertainment If your caller does not contact you, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 before 8 PM on Saturday, the 6th of August or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.
NOTE NOTE NOTE that school begins on WEDNESDAY! Don’t forget to put your golden apple pin on your lapel, either! Every year we say the same thing about our first meeting, but it still matters and you can really help “the staff” 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. turn in your first form for volunteer hours for Community Participation chairperson Eula Mae Fox; and
5. pile the tables just inside the door high with school supplies for distribution to the students in the Watauga County Schools. Please make a point to purchase 1 ½” - 3” three-ring binders if you can, instead of spiral notebooks. Students are also in need of backpacks of all sizes. Because the backpacks usually cost between $15 and $20, perhaps you’d like to team up with another member or two and hit Wal-mart!
Remember that school supplies are tax-free on the weekend before school begins. BIG RAFFLE COMING: At our August meeting, we will raffle one of Janice Burns’ world-famous coconut pound cakes. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. As always, proceeds benefit the scholarship fund. Heads Up!!!!! At the beginning of a year, we have lots of information on lots of subjects to share. Please, please, please read this issue of The Red Pencil carefully; you never know when something extremely important might sneak up on you. Look for the walking exclamation point for facts, hints, and pointers.
A REALLY IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MARGARET SIGMON The members of Watauga County North Carolina Retired School Personnel receive a call before each of the five annual meetings reminding them of the meetings and confirming their attendance. Our volunteers make many phone calls and leave many messages on answering machines. If you find a message on your machine, returning that call is EXTREMELY important so that the callers can get their lists to Margaret Sigmon by Sunday before the meeting day. A total number must be given to George Wellington on Monday so he can do his grocery order. If you do not receive a call about the meeting, please phone Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036. Our really important callers for the 2011-2012 year are Jackie Adams, Sue Aldridge, Wanda Bentley,Beth Carrin, Nancy Cooke, Eula Mae Fox, Mary Moretz, June Mann, Hazel Mast, Susan McKay,Ann Millsaps, Gay Murphy, Rebecca Robinson, Joyce Sherrill, and Deane Shuford. We thank them for taking their time to make sure we know about meetings and have other timely information.
Electronics = Savings Each electronic issue of The Red Pencil saves our unit roughly $5 per year per member. That’s slightly more than $500 we’re putting to use for scholarships and community projects instead of on paper, ink, postage, and printing. If you have an email address, please notify Nanci Tolbert Nance at ntn@skybest.com and begin helping our unit to help others.
President’s Message
For most of July, Mother Nature has seemed to be paying us back for all the times we said, "It's too cold" during the past winter. I don't know if our weather is getting worse or our bones don't like the weather extremes as much!
Thanks to your executive board, we are off to a good start for this year. This past year we qualified for a silver award from NCRSP and we weren't even trying. This year, let’s make an effort and bring home the gold! Much of the credit for the award is determined by our volunteering to help students in some manner. Let's set our goal to keep a record of all the volunteering we do and turning in our records.
As a BIG change this year, we’re asking you to bring your volunteer form covering your volunteer hours from January 1 through July 31, 2011 to our August meeting. Please sit down right now and complete the form you’ll find in this issue of The Red Pencil. Eula Mae will tally the hours for us, and we’ll collect another form from you in December.
We are planning to have informative and entertaining programs for you this year and those of us who pay for membership by payroll deduction need to remember to support the scholarship fund by bringing a check as soon as we are able. The first meeting is a great time to contribute.
I hope to see you on the 10th of August at Deerfield church at 9 a. m. for our first meeting and breakfast together for the year.
Blessings and regards to all of you. Have a pleasant rest of the summer.
La Verne Franklin The Book Nook
Each month, the folks at The Red Pencil are going to ask for a reading recommendation, something you think your friends in the Watauga Unit will enjoy reading. Please keep your suggestions non-religious and non-political, something we’d all like to read. To start us off, LA VERNE FRANKLIN recommends Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Seth Grahame-Smith weaves historical facts and figures into pure myth – or maybe not - in this book which will have you coming back to it time and time again. Although fiction, it has many details that are so believable that the story has a hypnotizing effect – and it will make you wonder just how much you really know about history. The book is a "must read" for the summer. MARY HAZEL MAST is happy with anything by Salisbury NC’s John Hart, who writes thrillers that are vividly beautiful and graphic. Mary Hazel says they’ll make you bleed and stay up too late reading!!! Try The Last Child, Iron House, King of Lies, and Down River.
REMEMBER THAT OUR AUGUST MEETING IS ON WEDNESDAY, NOT THURSDAY! $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$
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 a new retiree or a membership prospect, you will find no dues amount on your label.
If you retired after July 1, 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. Please note that the state will drop accidental death coverage for cash-paying members who have not paid by October 15. 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.
Our unit has an Associate Membership plan for noncertified personnel - assistants, secretaries, cafeteria workers, etc. The Associate Membership is $10 and is for nonvoting membership in the local unit only, which includes our newsletter, The Red Pencil. This does not include membership in the district, state, or national organization. This is available only for noncertified personnel. If you have any questions about dues, please call Dot Barker at 264-3621 or email her at dot24@bellsouth.net. Contributions/Suggestions/Email Edition of The Red Pencil, anyone? Change of email or snail mail address? ntn@skybest.com or snail mail toNanci Tolbert Nance, P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605
A BIG suggestion for your health: Keep a pouch of these crystals with you at all times. Put the crystals under your tongue immediately if you think you’re having a heart attack. How easy is that?
Welcome to Mariann Clawson, who assumes responsibility for our door prizes, and thank you to Barbara and Winston Kinsey, who will take care of our invocations.
We are happy to acknowledge a donation from Mary Frank Smith to the Scholarship Fund in memory of Gaynelle Wilson. Please be aware that donating to the fund is a perfect way of remembering or honoring a colleague. The family of the person for whom you are making the donation will receive a note informing them of your generosity.
Need a Lift?If you or anyone you know needs transportation to one of our meetings, please call Beth Carrin at 264-9227 and she will make arrangements.
2010-2011 Officers Watauga Unit North Carolina Retired School Personnel President La Verne Franklin 964-3337 franklin160954@bellsouth.netVice
Pres/Pres. Elect Billy Ralph Winkler 264-3330 winkler3@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
Memorials Susan McKay mckayinboone@live.com
Community Participation Eula Mae Fox 264-3066emfox@bellsouth.net
Scholarship
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 Janice Burns 295-7454 burnsjn@bellsouth.net
Red Pencil Editor Nanci Tolbert Nance 963-8892 ntn@skybest.com ntn1066@hotmail.com
Webmaster Lee Stroupe 264-1276 lstroupe@gmail.com
NCRSP – What Have You Got to Lose?
Do you know any prospective members of our unit, new retirees who would benefit from membership and who would add energy and another perspective to our group? If so, please let them know that we need them and they need us. What do they have to lose if they don’t join? Subscriptions to Panorama and NCAE News Bulletin, FREE accidental death and dismemberment insurance up to $7,500, lobbyists representing retirees’ needs, free hearing screenings, member discount cards for discounts at over 150,000 locations/businesses – and all for as little as $6.75 a month on payroll deduction, that’s what – and more.
New retirees have received a letter from our unit. At the bottom of the letter is a coupon for breakfast at our first meeting of the year. If people ask you exactly what we do, please tell them that in addition to meeting five times a year for fellowship and information, we also donate school supplies to Watauga County students; collect children’s books for Santa’s Toybox; collect food, medicine bottles and plastic bags for the Hunger Coalition; give cell phones to OASIS and to our troops overseas; and provide services to our members that include Christmas gifts for our shut-ins and transportation to meetings.
Volunteer Hours , Our Continuing Struggle and a BIG Change Beginning with this August, Eula Mae Fox, our Community Participation chair, and Gay Murphy, her cheerful assistant, are going to be asking you to turn in your volunteer form twice a year.
When you come to the meeting in August, please bring a volunteer form (an extra is included in this newsletter) which covers your activity from January 1, 2011 through July 31, 2011. PLEASE understand that this is no time for modesty. Every single day you do something for someone else. You visit friends in nursing homes, you help to write a newsletter, you work in a community garden, you sing in your church choir, you meet with like minds on a library board or an arts board or a church board, you provide flowers for meetings, you volunteer to take a friend shopping, you’re a substitute grandma in an elementary school class, and you do a hundred other things. Part of our reputation with headquarters in Raleigh and part of that award our president discussed in her message is based on our volunteer hours. Please pitch the modesty and tell us LOUD and PROUD about all the wonderful things you do. Remember that caring for a family member doesn’t count, but almost everything else does!
TECHIE ALERT:
Do you own a Kindle? Do you buy books/shoes/baby buggies/plants/movies/anything on the planet online? Do you EVER shop at Amazon.com? The next time you’re thinking of buying anything through Amazon.com, make a quick stop first at http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/, our Watauga County Unit of NC Retired School Personnel blog. Look just below the photograph of our latest scholarship recipient and you’ll see a link to Amazon. Click on it to begin shopping in the Amazon store AND you’ll be sending a few pennies back to our unit! How’s that for clever? Calling all “Computerites”: Sites You Need to KnowWatauga Unit, North Carolina Retired School Personnel: http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/
North Carolina Retired School Personnel: http://www.ncrsp.org/Index.html (home site for all information about our state organization, including how to sign up for electronic delivery of Panorama)North Carolina Association of Educators: http://www.ncae.org/ (home site for our active association/affiliate)AARP: http://www.aarp.orgNRTA: AARP's Educator Community: http://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/nrta/ Senior discounts, hundreds of discounts on everything from milkshakes to sweatershttp://goo.gl/I5v8B
My Kind of Teacher...
A new college graduate took his first job as a school teacher. Just before the school year started, he injured his back and was required to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body.
Fortunately, the cast fit under his shirt and wasn't noticeable.
On the first day of class, as so often happens with new teachers, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in the school. The punks were facing an unknown and decided to see how tough or easy the new guy was before trying any pranks.
Walking into the August-warm classroom, the new teacher went straight to the window, opened it wide, and sat on the corner of his desk with his roll book. A strong breeze made his tie flap and the students snickered. The second time the breeze took his tie, he reached across his desk, picked up the stapler, and promptly stapled the tie to his chest - twice.
Discipline? No problem.
The Red PencilWatauga County NCRSP
451 Poplar Hill Dr.
Boone NC 28607
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel Vol.IX, No.1 August 2011_ntn1066@hotmail.com___
August Meeting
When: WEDNESDAY, 10 August 2011, 9AM Registration, payment of dues to begin at 8AM
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
How much: $10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP, for a buffet country breakfast catered by George Wellington
What: getting together on the first day of school, welcoming new retirees, and enjoying the pleasure of each other’s company, with musical entertainment If your caller does not contact you, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 before 8 PM on Saturday, the 6th of August or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.
NOTE NOTE NOTE that school begins on WEDNESDAY! Don’t forget to put your golden apple pin on your lapel, either! Every year we say the same thing about our first meeting, but it still matters and you can really help “the staff” 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. turn in your first form for volunteer hours for Community Participation chairperson Eula Mae Fox; and
5. pile the tables just inside the door high with school supplies for distribution to the students in the Watauga County Schools. Please make a point to purchase 1 ½” - 3” three-ring binders if you can, instead of spiral notebooks. Students are also in need of backpacks of all sizes. Because the backpacks usually cost between $15 and $20, perhaps you’d like to team up with another member or two and hit Wal-mart!
Remember that school supplies are tax-free on the weekend before school begins. BIG RAFFLE COMING: At our August meeting, we will raffle one of Janice Burns’ world-famous coconut pound cakes. Tickets are $1 each or 6 for $5. As always, proceeds benefit the scholarship fund. Heads Up!!!!! At the beginning of a year, we have lots of information on lots of subjects to share. Please, please, please read this issue of The Red Pencil carefully; you never know when something extremely important might sneak up on you. Look for the walking exclamation point for facts, hints, and pointers.
A REALLY IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM MARGARET SIGMON The members of Watauga County North Carolina Retired School Personnel receive a call before each of the five annual meetings reminding them of the meetings and confirming their attendance. Our volunteers make many phone calls and leave many messages on answering machines. If you find a message on your machine, returning that call is EXTREMELY important so that the callers can get their lists to Margaret Sigmon by Sunday before the meeting day. A total number must be given to George Wellington on Monday so he can do his grocery order. If you do not receive a call about the meeting, please phone Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036. Our really important callers for the 2011-2012 year are Jackie Adams, Sue Aldridge, Wanda Bentley,Beth Carrin, Nancy Cooke, Eula Mae Fox, Mary Moretz, June Mann, Hazel Mast, Susan McKay,Ann Millsaps, Gay Murphy, Rebecca Robinson, Joyce Sherrill, and Deane Shuford. We thank them for taking their time to make sure we know about meetings and have other timely information.
Electronics = Savings Each electronic issue of The Red Pencil saves our unit roughly $5 per year per member. That’s slightly more than $500 we’re putting to use for scholarships and community projects instead of on paper, ink, postage, and printing. If you have an email address, please notify Nanci Tolbert Nance at ntn@skybest.com and begin helping our unit to help others.
President’s Message
For most of July, Mother Nature has seemed to be paying us back for all the times we said, "It's too cold" during the past winter. I don't know if our weather is getting worse or our bones don't like the weather extremes as much!
Thanks to your executive board, we are off to a good start for this year. This past year we qualified for a silver award from NCRSP and we weren't even trying. This year, let’s make an effort and bring home the gold! Much of the credit for the award is determined by our volunteering to help students in some manner. Let's set our goal to keep a record of all the volunteering we do and turning in our records.
As a BIG change this year, we’re asking you to bring your volunteer form covering your volunteer hours from January 1 through July 31, 2011 to our August meeting. Please sit down right now and complete the form you’ll find in this issue of The Red Pencil. Eula Mae will tally the hours for us, and we’ll collect another form from you in December.
We are planning to have informative and entertaining programs for you this year and those of us who pay for membership by payroll deduction need to remember to support the scholarship fund by bringing a check as soon as we are able. The first meeting is a great time to contribute.
I hope to see you on the 10th of August at Deerfield church at 9 a. m. for our first meeting and breakfast together for the year.
Blessings and regards to all of you. Have a pleasant rest of the summer.
La Verne Franklin The Book Nook
Each month, the folks at The Red Pencil are going to ask for a reading recommendation, something you think your friends in the Watauga Unit will enjoy reading. Please keep your suggestions non-religious and non-political, something we’d all like to read. To start us off, LA VERNE FRANKLIN recommends Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Seth Grahame-Smith weaves historical facts and figures into pure myth – or maybe not - in this book which will have you coming back to it time and time again. Although fiction, it has many details that are so believable that the story has a hypnotizing effect – and it will make you wonder just how much you really know about history. The book is a "must read" for the summer. MARY HAZEL MAST is happy with anything by Salisbury NC’s John Hart, who writes thrillers that are vividly beautiful and graphic. Mary Hazel says they’ll make you bleed and stay up too late reading!!! Try The Last Child, Iron House, King of Lies, and Down River.
REMEMBER THAT OUR AUGUST MEETING IS ON WEDNESDAY, NOT THURSDAY! $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$ $$$$$
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 a new retiree or a membership prospect, you will find no dues amount on your label.
If you retired after July 1, 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. Please note that the state will drop accidental death coverage for cash-paying members who have not paid by October 15. 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.
Our unit has an Associate Membership plan for noncertified personnel - assistants, secretaries, cafeteria workers, etc. The Associate Membership is $10 and is for nonvoting membership in the local unit only, which includes our newsletter, The Red Pencil. This does not include membership in the district, state, or national organization. This is available only for noncertified personnel. If you have any questions about dues, please call Dot Barker at 264-3621 or email her at dot24@bellsouth.net. Contributions/Suggestions/Email Edition of The Red Pencil, anyone? Change of email or snail mail address? ntn@skybest.com or snail mail toNanci Tolbert Nance, P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605
A BIG suggestion for your health: Keep a pouch of these crystals with you at all times. Put the crystals under your tongue immediately if you think you’re having a heart attack. How easy is that?
Welcome to Mariann Clawson, who assumes responsibility for our door prizes, and thank you to Barbara and Winston Kinsey, who will take care of our invocations.
We are happy to acknowledge a donation from Mary Frank Smith to the Scholarship Fund in memory of Gaynelle Wilson. Please be aware that donating to the fund is a perfect way of remembering or honoring a colleague. The family of the person for whom you are making the donation will receive a note informing them of your generosity.
Need a Lift?If you or anyone you know needs transportation to one of our meetings, please call Beth Carrin at 264-9227 and she will make arrangements.
2010-2011 Officers Watauga Unit North Carolina Retired School Personnel President La Verne Franklin 964-3337 franklin160954@bellsouth.netVice
Pres/Pres. Elect Billy Ralph Winkler 264-3330 winkler3@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
Memorials Susan McKay mckayinboone@live.com
Community Participation Eula Mae Fox 264-3066emfox@bellsouth.net
Scholarship
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 Janice Burns 295-7454 burnsjn@bellsouth.net
Red Pencil Editor Nanci Tolbert Nance 963-8892 ntn@skybest.com ntn1066@hotmail.com
Webmaster Lee Stroupe 264-1276 lstroupe@gmail.com
NCRSP – What Have You Got to Lose?
Do you know any prospective members of our unit, new retirees who would benefit from membership and who would add energy and another perspective to our group? If so, please let them know that we need them and they need us. What do they have to lose if they don’t join? Subscriptions to Panorama and NCAE News Bulletin, FREE accidental death and dismemberment insurance up to $7,500, lobbyists representing retirees’ needs, free hearing screenings, member discount cards for discounts at over 150,000 locations/businesses – and all for as little as $6.75 a month on payroll deduction, that’s what – and more.
New retirees have received a letter from our unit. At the bottom of the letter is a coupon for breakfast at our first meeting of the year. If people ask you exactly what we do, please tell them that in addition to meeting five times a year for fellowship and information, we also donate school supplies to Watauga County students; collect children’s books for Santa’s Toybox; collect food, medicine bottles and plastic bags for the Hunger Coalition; give cell phones to OASIS and to our troops overseas; and provide services to our members that include Christmas gifts for our shut-ins and transportation to meetings.
Volunteer Hours , Our Continuing Struggle and a BIG Change Beginning with this August, Eula Mae Fox, our Community Participation chair, and Gay Murphy, her cheerful assistant, are going to be asking you to turn in your volunteer form twice a year.
When you come to the meeting in August, please bring a volunteer form (an extra is included in this newsletter) which covers your activity from January 1, 2011 through July 31, 2011. PLEASE understand that this is no time for modesty. Every single day you do something for someone else. You visit friends in nursing homes, you help to write a newsletter, you work in a community garden, you sing in your church choir, you meet with like minds on a library board or an arts board or a church board, you provide flowers for meetings, you volunteer to take a friend shopping, you’re a substitute grandma in an elementary school class, and you do a hundred other things. Part of our reputation with headquarters in Raleigh and part of that award our president discussed in her message is based on our volunteer hours. Please pitch the modesty and tell us LOUD and PROUD about all the wonderful things you do. Remember that caring for a family member doesn’t count, but almost everything else does!
TECHIE ALERT:
Do you own a Kindle? Do you buy books/shoes/baby buggies/plants/movies/anything on the planet online? Do you EVER shop at Amazon.com? The next time you’re thinking of buying anything through Amazon.com, make a quick stop first at http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/, our Watauga County Unit of NC Retired School Personnel blog. Look just below the photograph of our latest scholarship recipient and you’ll see a link to Amazon. Click on it to begin shopping in the Amazon store AND you’ll be sending a few pennies back to our unit! How’s that for clever? Calling all “Computerites”: Sites You Need to KnowWatauga Unit, North Carolina Retired School Personnel: http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/
North Carolina Retired School Personnel: http://www.ncrsp.org/Index.html (home site for all information about our state organization, including how to sign up for electronic delivery of Panorama)North Carolina Association of Educators: http://www.ncae.org/ (home site for our active association/affiliate)AARP: http://www.aarp.orgNRTA: AARP's Educator Community: http://www.aarp.org/about-aarp/nrta/ Senior discounts, hundreds of discounts on everything from milkshakes to sweatershttp://goo.gl/I5v8B
My Kind of Teacher...
A new college graduate took his first job as a school teacher. Just before the school year started, he injured his back and was required to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body.
Fortunately, the cast fit under his shirt and wasn't noticeable.
On the first day of class, as so often happens with new teachers, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in the school. The punks were facing an unknown and decided to see how tough or easy the new guy was before trying any pranks.
Walking into the August-warm classroom, the new teacher went straight to the window, opened it wide, and sat on the corner of his desk with his roll book. A strong breeze made his tie flap and the students snickered. The second time the breeze took his tie, he reached across his desk, picked up the stapler, and promptly stapled the tie to his chest - twice.
Discipline? No problem.
The Red PencilWatauga County NCRSP
451 Poplar Hill Dr.
Boone NC 28607
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
May Edition of Red Pencil
The Red Pencil
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XIII, No.5 May 2011 ntn1066@hotmail.com___
May Meeting
When: Thursday, 19 May 2010
Where:Deerfield Methodist Church
How much:$10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP
What: Annual presentation of scholarship
Memorial service
Recognition of District 3 officer
Bring medicine bottles and any food staples you wish, especially powdered milk, canned soups, and cereals. Add a jar of peanut butter or two to your donation! The need at the Hunger Coalition has never been greater. And, AND, AND don’t forget our furry, hairy friends. Pick up a bag of cat or dog food for our four-legged friends in the animal shelter.
If your caller has not contacted you by the 15th of May, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.
As a special donation this month, please bring first aid supplies (Band-Aids, Neosporin packets, alcohol rubs, gauze/pads, zinc oxide ointment and more) for use at OASIS, Boone’s shelter for battered women and children.
In a practice we began at our March meeting, we will have meals for sale for $5 after our meeting. If you are having a guest for dinner or eating alone for dinner or just love George’s wonderful food, place your order as you arrive or stay for a few moments after the meeting.
Most unusually, we are going to be putting out our little watering cans and collecting your scholarship “love offering” at our meeting. Because we were snowed out in December, we are considerably under our usual total for the scholarship fund and need to ask for your coin donations in May.
President’s Message
No one could be happier than I was when I took the last bean out of the snow-predicting jar this winter. So many members, friends and family members have had different ailments, especially during the cold temperatures. This had to be the year of the sinus infections. I think most of us got our gall bladders out during the year of the gall bladders. I'm wondering what will come next, but don't want to think about it.
Even though we lost some members through death, our numbers have remained steady. I think we all are realizing how important to be a part of the voice that reaches Raleigh. Our legislators are constantly in a tug of war and lots of times it has to do with us directly. Please let me encourage you to remain a part of our united voice and encourage other Watauga county school retirees to become an active part of that voice. I cannot thank the members who help see that things are done for us enough.
Have a great summer and may many blessings come your way.
LaVerne Franklin, President
We have so much for which to be grateful and so many people who work quietly behind the scenes to make our unit run smoothly and our meetings go well. This month, we’d like to thank George Wellington and his wife, Nettie, for feeding us as if we were kings and queens, Linda Harwood and her flower garden for making the tables so attractive, and Margaret Sigmon for making sure that the tables are up and set and ready for us as well as Margaret’s callers, who make sure we know when to arrive. George, Nettie, Linda, Margaret, and callers, we appreciate everything you do, even if we don’t shout it from the rooftops with trumpet accompaniment! And if YOU can stay after the meeting to help Roger Harwood and his crew return the tables to their proper storage and make sure the kitchen is ready for its next use, please do. We can use all the help we can get!
What I Love, a continuing series of personal essays from our members.
When I was a little girl, about 3 or 4 years of age, my grandfather would lift me up into the candy counter at his general store. I could have everything I could hold in my two hands as he pulled me out of the glass case. Back then, generally each piece of candy was not wrapped separately as it mostly is today.
Chocolate was the flavor I mostly went for and I created a love affair that has lasted most of my 68 years. Chocolate has been there when I celebrated happy times. It has been there when I was sad. It’s been there for holidays and celebrations and has made many days a little more special.
When I was a teenager, chocolate was a trusted friend. It asked nothing of me and accepted me every day through those difficult years. Chocolate always was a "giver".
When I was sixteen and had my driver's license, I would often go to the cemetery to “visit” my grandfather. I would remember those childhood trips to the store and I would sing to him. I wonder if he liked my choice of tunes. I was especially good at "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" and "Lady of Spain.” Being from our good Methodist family, I did throw in a few hymns I knew he would he approve of.
When I had children and grandchildren, I thought a little chocolate wouldn't hurt them, so I repeated my own history and gave them treats from brownies to fudge and more.
Now, I know what you are thinking! Candy is not good for your children or grandchildren, but a little can’t hurt.
I think chocolate is divine, a gift from heaven to multiply happiness and subtract sadness from our lives.
Today, give me a little chocolate, food of the gods, and a musical tune to hum or sing, and I think everything will be OK.
La Verne Franklin
Saying It with Poetry
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
Vials of Life – lifesavers for you and me
What is a Vial of Life? It’s a large pill bottle containing a sheet on which you will list your medications and medical conditions and a day’s worth of your medications. You’ll keep it in your fridge or next to your kitchen sink or by your bedside – or wherever you choose, notify a relative or put a note on the fridge to tell someone where it is, and if you find yourself in a medical emergency, the immediate responders will have everything they need at hand to help you.
The vials are free, a service of Boone Drug, and they will be available to us at our May meeting on the 19th. In fact, we hope to have enough vials at that meeting to be able to give you an extra for a spouse or a relative if you wish. If you cannot be at the meeting, you may pick up a vial at Boone Drug at Deerfield after the 19th. We thank Johnny Stacy and the rest of the Boone Drug team for their concern and generosity.
New faces at our meeting in March: Wynne Ayers, Barbara and Winston Kinsey, Leigh Garrard, and Claire Mamola. Yahoo (not the search engine) and welcome!
Scholarship Fund in Need
Because we missed our December meeting, we have had only 4/5 of our opportunities to contribute to the Scholarship Fund, and that is a very bad thing. We ask you to come to the meeting in May prepared to be generous with your noisy change, softly swishing folding money, and crinkly checks.
In addition, please think about donating to the Scholarship Fund in honor or in memory of a friend, a teacher, or a family member. This month we recognize contributions from Mary E. Moretz and Nanci Tolbert Nance in memory of Kate Peterson and from Mary E. Moretz in memory of Betty Martha Triplett.
If you like being in the know, check out our blogspot at http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/ for the latest local news about your NCRSP chapter and go to www.ncae.org to sign up for daily political briefings about legislation that affects retired school personnel. Other helpful sites include www.ncrsp.org for our NC Retired School Personnel and www.ncga.state.nc.us/ for the NC General Assembly. To share news of our own unit, please get in touch with Nanci Tolbert Nance, ntn@skybest.com.
Important Information about Your NC State Health Plan,
an update from Angie Miller, Associate Director, Benefits and Employee Assistance, Human Resource Services, ASU
The State Health Plan has announced annual enrollment dates for the 2011-2012 plan year. Beginning Monday May 9th, 2011 employees may go on-line and complete the annual enrollment process. The annual enrollment site will automatically close at midnight on June 8th, 2011. Enrollment Kits are being placed in the mail today, but due to the delayed enrollment dates Human Resources wanted all employees to have access to the on-line enrollment kits immediately. To access and download the annual enrollment kits please go to:
http://www.shpnc.org/hbr-enrollment-matls/ae-kit-2011.pdf
Important Points:
• All premiums, co-payments, and deductibles remain the same until further legislation is enacted. At the time of any legislative changes a separate annual enrollment will be announced.
• This enrollment is online ONLY. No paper forms are accepted. Information on how to access the on-line system is outlined in the annual enrollment kit
• All employees and retirees who are not on Medicare will automatically be placed in the 70/30 Basic Plan effective 7-1-2011. Any employee wishing to move up to the 80/20 Standard Plan will be required to complete the on-line enrollment and complete the comprehensive wellness initiatives attestation questions that will be prompted in the on-line enrollment. For employees wishing to remain in the 70/30 Basic Plan you do not have to complete the on-line annual enrollment unless adding or taking off dependents.
Assistance Sessions
Human Resources will be offering Annual Enrollment Assistance Sessions for non-ASU employees and any NC state retiree in the Amber Room of the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center on the following dates and times:
Tuesday May 24th, 2011 4-6P Broyhill Conference Center (Amber Room)
Wednesday June 1st, 2011 1-5P Broyhill Conference Center (Amber Room)
If you have any questions, please call Angie Miller in the Benefits Office in Human Resource Services at 262-6769.
A Little of This, a Lot of That, and Everything Important,
Being a quick look at information you really need about a number of subjects1. We are still collecting old cell phones for use at OASIS. Your old phone will be wiped clean of your information and programmed to dial only 911. Please remember to include the chargers when donating phones.
2. We note with sadness the passing of Dr. Ben Horton on 2 May 2011. Ben and Libby were two of our dearest and most loyal members.
3. Advice from the Boone Police Department: if you have a handicapped-driver placard for your car, DO NOT drive with it hanging from your rearview mirror, where it causes a ticketable offense: an impairment to vision. Wait until you park the car to hang the placard from mirror.
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XIII, No.5 May 2011 ntn1066@hotmail.com___
May Meeting
When: Thursday, 19 May 2010
Where:Deerfield Methodist Church
How much:$10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP
What: Annual presentation of scholarship
Memorial service
Recognition of District 3 officer
Bring medicine bottles and any food staples you wish, especially powdered milk, canned soups, and cereals. Add a jar of peanut butter or two to your donation! The need at the Hunger Coalition has never been greater. And, AND, AND don’t forget our furry, hairy friends. Pick up a bag of cat or dog food for our four-legged friends in the animal shelter.
If your caller has not contacted you by the 15th of May, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.
As a special donation this month, please bring first aid supplies (Band-Aids, Neosporin packets, alcohol rubs, gauze/pads, zinc oxide ointment and more) for use at OASIS, Boone’s shelter for battered women and children.
In a practice we began at our March meeting, we will have meals for sale for $5 after our meeting. If you are having a guest for dinner or eating alone for dinner or just love George’s wonderful food, place your order as you arrive or stay for a few moments after the meeting.
Most unusually, we are going to be putting out our little watering cans and collecting your scholarship “love offering” at our meeting. Because we were snowed out in December, we are considerably under our usual total for the scholarship fund and need to ask for your coin donations in May.
President’s Message
No one could be happier than I was when I took the last bean out of the snow-predicting jar this winter. So many members, friends and family members have had different ailments, especially during the cold temperatures. This had to be the year of the sinus infections. I think most of us got our gall bladders out during the year of the gall bladders. I'm wondering what will come next, but don't want to think about it.
Even though we lost some members through death, our numbers have remained steady. I think we all are realizing how important to be a part of the voice that reaches Raleigh. Our legislators are constantly in a tug of war and lots of times it has to do with us directly. Please let me encourage you to remain a part of our united voice and encourage other Watauga county school retirees to become an active part of that voice. I cannot thank the members who help see that things are done for us enough.
Have a great summer and may many blessings come your way.
LaVerne Franklin, President
We have so much for which to be grateful and so many people who work quietly behind the scenes to make our unit run smoothly and our meetings go well. This month, we’d like to thank George Wellington and his wife, Nettie, for feeding us as if we were kings and queens, Linda Harwood and her flower garden for making the tables so attractive, and Margaret Sigmon for making sure that the tables are up and set and ready for us as well as Margaret’s callers, who make sure we know when to arrive. George, Nettie, Linda, Margaret, and callers, we appreciate everything you do, even if we don’t shout it from the rooftops with trumpet accompaniment! And if YOU can stay after the meeting to help Roger Harwood and his crew return the tables to their proper storage and make sure the kitchen is ready for its next use, please do. We can use all the help we can get!
What I Love, a continuing series of personal essays from our members.
When I was a little girl, about 3 or 4 years of age, my grandfather would lift me up into the candy counter at his general store. I could have everything I could hold in my two hands as he pulled me out of the glass case. Back then, generally each piece of candy was not wrapped separately as it mostly is today.
Chocolate was the flavor I mostly went for and I created a love affair that has lasted most of my 68 years. Chocolate has been there when I celebrated happy times. It has been there when I was sad. It’s been there for holidays and celebrations and has made many days a little more special.
When I was a teenager, chocolate was a trusted friend. It asked nothing of me and accepted me every day through those difficult years. Chocolate always was a "giver".
When I was sixteen and had my driver's license, I would often go to the cemetery to “visit” my grandfather. I would remember those childhood trips to the store and I would sing to him. I wonder if he liked my choice of tunes. I was especially good at "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing" and "Lady of Spain.” Being from our good Methodist family, I did throw in a few hymns I knew he would he approve of.
When I had children and grandchildren, I thought a little chocolate wouldn't hurt them, so I repeated my own history and gave them treats from brownies to fudge and more.
Now, I know what you are thinking! Candy is not good for your children or grandchildren, but a little can’t hurt.
I think chocolate is divine, a gift from heaven to multiply happiness and subtract sadness from our lives.
Today, give me a little chocolate, food of the gods, and a musical tune to hum or sing, and I think everything will be OK.
La Verne Franklin
Saying It with Poetry
Forgetfulness by Billy Collins
The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,
as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.
Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,
something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.
Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.
It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.
No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.
Vials of Life – lifesavers for you and me
What is a Vial of Life? It’s a large pill bottle containing a sheet on which you will list your medications and medical conditions and a day’s worth of your medications. You’ll keep it in your fridge or next to your kitchen sink or by your bedside – or wherever you choose, notify a relative or put a note on the fridge to tell someone where it is, and if you find yourself in a medical emergency, the immediate responders will have everything they need at hand to help you.
The vials are free, a service of Boone Drug, and they will be available to us at our May meeting on the 19th. In fact, we hope to have enough vials at that meeting to be able to give you an extra for a spouse or a relative if you wish. If you cannot be at the meeting, you may pick up a vial at Boone Drug at Deerfield after the 19th. We thank Johnny Stacy and the rest of the Boone Drug team for their concern and generosity.
New faces at our meeting in March: Wynne Ayers, Barbara and Winston Kinsey, Leigh Garrard, and Claire Mamola. Yahoo (not the search engine) and welcome!
Scholarship Fund in Need
Because we missed our December meeting, we have had only 4/5 of our opportunities to contribute to the Scholarship Fund, and that is a very bad thing. We ask you to come to the meeting in May prepared to be generous with your noisy change, softly swishing folding money, and crinkly checks.
In addition, please think about donating to the Scholarship Fund in honor or in memory of a friend, a teacher, or a family member. This month we recognize contributions from Mary E. Moretz and Nanci Tolbert Nance in memory of Kate Peterson and from Mary E. Moretz in memory of Betty Martha Triplett.
If you like being in the know, check out our blogspot at http://wcrsp.blogspot.com/ for the latest local news about your NCRSP chapter and go to www.ncae.org to sign up for daily political briefings about legislation that affects retired school personnel. Other helpful sites include www.ncrsp.org for our NC Retired School Personnel and www.ncga.state.nc.us/ for the NC General Assembly. To share news of our own unit, please get in touch with Nanci Tolbert Nance, ntn@skybest.com.
Important Information about Your NC State Health Plan,
an update from Angie Miller, Associate Director, Benefits and Employee Assistance, Human Resource Services, ASU
The State Health Plan has announced annual enrollment dates for the 2011-2012 plan year. Beginning Monday May 9th, 2011 employees may go on-line and complete the annual enrollment process. The annual enrollment site will automatically close at midnight on June 8th, 2011. Enrollment Kits are being placed in the mail today, but due to the delayed enrollment dates Human Resources wanted all employees to have access to the on-line enrollment kits immediately. To access and download the annual enrollment kits please go to:
http://www.shpnc.org/hbr-enrollment-matls/ae-kit-2011.pdf
Important Points:
• All premiums, co-payments, and deductibles remain the same until further legislation is enacted. At the time of any legislative changes a separate annual enrollment will be announced.
• This enrollment is online ONLY. No paper forms are accepted. Information on how to access the on-line system is outlined in the annual enrollment kit
• All employees and retirees who are not on Medicare will automatically be placed in the 70/30 Basic Plan effective 7-1-2011. Any employee wishing to move up to the 80/20 Standard Plan will be required to complete the on-line enrollment and complete the comprehensive wellness initiatives attestation questions that will be prompted in the on-line enrollment. For employees wishing to remain in the 70/30 Basic Plan you do not have to complete the on-line annual enrollment unless adding or taking off dependents.
Assistance Sessions
Human Resources will be offering Annual Enrollment Assistance Sessions for non-ASU employees and any NC state retiree in the Amber Room of the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center on the following dates and times:
Tuesday May 24th, 2011 4-6P Broyhill Conference Center (Amber Room)
Wednesday June 1st, 2011 1-5P Broyhill Conference Center (Amber Room)
If you have any questions, please call Angie Miller in the Benefits Office in Human Resource Services at 262-6769.
A Little of This, a Lot of That, and Everything Important,
Being a quick look at information you really need about a number of subjects1. We are still collecting old cell phones for use at OASIS. Your old phone will be wiped clean of your information and programmed to dial only 911. Please remember to include the chargers when donating phones.
2. We note with sadness the passing of Dr. Ben Horton on 2 May 2011. Ben and Libby were two of our dearest and most loyal members.
3. Advice from the Boone Police Department: if you have a handicapped-driver placard for your car, DO NOT drive with it hanging from your rearview mirror, where it causes a ticketable offense: an impairment to vision. Wait until you park the car to hang the placard from mirror.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
March Newsletter-- Red Pencil-2011
The Red Pencil The Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XIII, No.4, March 2011
Nanci Tolbert Nance, editor
ntn1066@hotmail.com
963-8892
March Meeting
Noon, Thursday, March 17, 2011
Deerfield Methodist Church
Cost per meal is $10, check payable to
Watauga Unit, NCRSP
Program: Christmas in March. Since we missed our annual Christmas entertainment, we’ll be celebrating the holiday twice as much when we add a little St. Patrick to St. Nick. Wear something green AND your NCRSP apple and come prepared to tap your toes!
Also, we will be voting for NEA-R/NEA delegates to the NEA National Convention at the March meeting.
Janice Burns is donating one of her fabulous coconut pound cakes to a raffle to benefit the Scholarship Fund. Tickets are $1 apiece or $5 for six.
Please bring as much non-perishable food as you can manage for the Hunger Coalition. Powdered milk, cans of soup, oatmeal and pasta products, canned fruit and vegetables, ANYTHING non-perishable, will be acceptable. Remember those empty medicine bottles, too; each one of them saves the Hunger Coalition at least a nickel. And plastic bags. And Box Tops for Education. And yourself, of course.
Important note: Those books you bought to bring to the December meeting for Santa’s Toybox? Bring them in March! We’ll get them to Gene Swift and be one step ahead for the coming season!
Very important note: If your caller has not phoned you by the 12st of March, call your caller if you plan to attend. If you change your mind at the last minute about attending, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 immediately and come ahead! As usual, Margaret thanks her team of callers who generously volunteer their time doing important work for our organization.
AND remember: After our lunch, you will be able to purchase a second meal to take home for $5. As good as George’s food is, imagine how much you’ll enjoy sharing with a friend or spouse or having your own dinner already prepared! Let one of your officers know as quickly as you can at the meeting so that your meal will be ready for you to take home.
President’s Message Blame it on la nina, el nino, global warming, Mother Nature or Old Man Winter, but this winter has really been something, hasn’t it? Soon we’ll come to the end of it and I know we’ll all be grateful.
Our March meeting will be our first time together since fall and we will have to try to get our scholarship funded for our recipient in May.
I am receiving mail from Raleigh each day with updates on what our legislators are doing or thinking of doing. I will try to pass on any information of which you need to be aware. We can expect many changes in the near future on the state and national level and we can't afford to be complacent. Your officers will try to stay abreast of developments and we may sometimes ask you to send your input to the state or national politicians. Remember that together, we can make our voices heard.
Look for the snow crocuses and daffodils soon.
Your President,
La Verne Franklin
In Memoriam
The Watauga Unit of NCRSP extends its sympathy to the families and friends of these members whom we have lost, Lovely Danner, Miriam Darnell, Kate Peterson, Jane Robinson, Betty Martha Triplett, and Dot Tugman.
NCRSP Scholarship Fund in Need
Each May, our chapter of NCRSP awards a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating high school senior who plans to become a teacher. Our generosity to the scholarship winner depends entirely on each NCRSP’s generosity to the Scholarship Fund. Because we missed getting together in December, we are behind in collecting loose change and the other donations that come in at that meeting.
First, PLEASE bring all your spare change for the little watering cans on your table and plan to make an enormous noise when you pour those nickels and dimes and quarters into the pots.
Second, if you haven’t made your annual gift to the Scholarship Fund, please do so at the March meeting or mail a check to Watauga County NCRSP Scholarship Fund to Dot Barker, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone NC 28607.
Third, if you have already contributed to the fund, please consider doing it again, this time in memory or in honor of a deceased member of our chapter, a colleague, or a favorite teacher. Write the name of the honoree on your check and we’ll make a point of including it in the next Red Pencil.
And don’t forget the cake raffle!
BRAIN WORKS; DOING SOMETHING WONDERFUL FOR YOURSELF EVERY DAY
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html is the address for a most challenging game of identifying the countries in the politically volatile Middle East and North Africa. Try it yourself before passing it along to your children and grandchildren.
http://bremco.maps.sienatech.com. Purely as a matter of interest, when power goes out in Watauga County – and yours is still on – you can log onto this site to see where the problems are. Little power trucks will show you precisely where your BREMCO folks are at work!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ways by which we communicate are changing. Don’t be left behind!
We hope you aren’t tiring of hearing this message, because we can’t tire of saying it: every member of our unit who receives The Red Pencil by email saves the unit nearly $1 per issue. If you do not currently receive the newsletter by email and would like to do so, please send an email to Nanci at ntn@skybest.com with your name and email address in the body of your message. Use the same address if you would like to contribute to The Red Pencil.
AND, AND, AND, here’s a reminder that the web address for our Watauga County NCRSP blog is http://wcrsp.blogspot.com. Put that address in your Favorites column and keep up with the activities of our unit, including a copy of The Red Pencil and photos from meetings, courtesy of our webmaster, Lee Stroupe.
Volunteer Hours Fall Short of Goal
Last year, in an effort to entice more of us to do more of our volunteer hours in educational activities, our state officers set their goals for us. We’re asked to have at least 50% of our members to report their volunteer hours, with at least 25% of those hours in educational activities and we’re asked to create a group project in a school or in our community.
In 2010, we were far short of achieving the goal of 50% reporting. Only 42 people turned in a report, and we would have needed at least 60 to meet that goal. We came VERY CLOSE to achieving our aim of putting at least 25% of our hours into education, the one goal I thought would be hardest for us to meet. We had 1874 hours of school-related activity out of a total of 8197 hours! Way to go!
We did not attempt to meet that third goal, creating a unit project in a school or the community, but your Executive Board is at work on that one right now and may have exciting news soon.
At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, PLEASE let me encourage you to keep an accounting of the time you spend volunteering in a school or in a community. We are a very active group; we just need to keep records to show it!
Eula Mae Fox, chr., Community Service Comm.
“What I Love” is our continuing series of personal essays. This contribution is anonymous – but it’s wonderful.
The History of 'APRONS'
I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, shy kids could hide behind it.
And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
Young wives and mothers today would probably go crazy trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love...
What’s New that You Need to Know:
v The State NCRSP Convention is happening in Durham March 15-16. Representing our unit will be Beth Carrin, Eula Mae Fox, and Bill Winkler.
v Our unit currently has 121 members. Every single member is important, yet we obviously need to grow. If you are aware of current members of the education community who are nearing retirement, please begin now to explain the value of their membership in NC Retired School Personnel.
v If you are newly retired, this is the first Red Pencil you have received because we have just learned of your retirement and we welcome you. We hope that you will come to our luncheon meeting on March 17 at 12:00 at Deerfield Methodist Church. If you can attend, please call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 by Saturday, March 12.
Vol.XIII, No.4, March 2011
Nanci Tolbert Nance, editor
ntn1066@hotmail.com
963-8892
March Meeting
Noon, Thursday, March 17, 2011
Deerfield Methodist Church
Cost per meal is $10, check payable to
Watauga Unit, NCRSP
Program: Christmas in March. Since we missed our annual Christmas entertainment, we’ll be celebrating the holiday twice as much when we add a little St. Patrick to St. Nick. Wear something green AND your NCRSP apple and come prepared to tap your toes!
Also, we will be voting for NEA-R/NEA delegates to the NEA National Convention at the March meeting.
Janice Burns is donating one of her fabulous coconut pound cakes to a raffle to benefit the Scholarship Fund. Tickets are $1 apiece or $5 for six.
Please bring as much non-perishable food as you can manage for the Hunger Coalition. Powdered milk, cans of soup, oatmeal and pasta products, canned fruit and vegetables, ANYTHING non-perishable, will be acceptable. Remember those empty medicine bottles, too; each one of them saves the Hunger Coalition at least a nickel. And plastic bags. And Box Tops for Education. And yourself, of course.
Important note: Those books you bought to bring to the December meeting for Santa’s Toybox? Bring them in March! We’ll get them to Gene Swift and be one step ahead for the coming season!
Very important note: If your caller has not phoned you by the 12st of March, call your caller if you plan to attend. If you change your mind at the last minute about attending, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 immediately and come ahead! As usual, Margaret thanks her team of callers who generously volunteer their time doing important work for our organization.
AND remember: After our lunch, you will be able to purchase a second meal to take home for $5. As good as George’s food is, imagine how much you’ll enjoy sharing with a friend or spouse or having your own dinner already prepared! Let one of your officers know as quickly as you can at the meeting so that your meal will be ready for you to take home.
President’s Message Blame it on la nina, el nino, global warming, Mother Nature or Old Man Winter, but this winter has really been something, hasn’t it? Soon we’ll come to the end of it and I know we’ll all be grateful.
Our March meeting will be our first time together since fall and we will have to try to get our scholarship funded for our recipient in May.
I am receiving mail from Raleigh each day with updates on what our legislators are doing or thinking of doing. I will try to pass on any information of which you need to be aware. We can expect many changes in the near future on the state and national level and we can't afford to be complacent. Your officers will try to stay abreast of developments and we may sometimes ask you to send your input to the state or national politicians. Remember that together, we can make our voices heard.
Look for the snow crocuses and daffodils soon.
Your President,
La Verne Franklin
In Memoriam
The Watauga Unit of NCRSP extends its sympathy to the families and friends of these members whom we have lost, Lovely Danner, Miriam Darnell, Kate Peterson, Jane Robinson, Betty Martha Triplett, and Dot Tugman.
NCRSP Scholarship Fund in Need
Each May, our chapter of NCRSP awards a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating high school senior who plans to become a teacher. Our generosity to the scholarship winner depends entirely on each NCRSP’s generosity to the Scholarship Fund. Because we missed getting together in December, we are behind in collecting loose change and the other donations that come in at that meeting.
First, PLEASE bring all your spare change for the little watering cans on your table and plan to make an enormous noise when you pour those nickels and dimes and quarters into the pots.
Second, if you haven’t made your annual gift to the Scholarship Fund, please do so at the March meeting or mail a check to Watauga County NCRSP Scholarship Fund to Dot Barker, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone NC 28607.
Third, if you have already contributed to the fund, please consider doing it again, this time in memory or in honor of a deceased member of our chapter, a colleague, or a favorite teacher. Write the name of the honoree on your check and we’ll make a point of including it in the next Red Pencil.
And don’t forget the cake raffle!
BRAIN WORKS; DOING SOMETHING WONDERFUL FOR YOURSELF EVERY DAY
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html is the address for a most challenging game of identifying the countries in the politically volatile Middle East and North Africa. Try it yourself before passing it along to your children and grandchildren.
http://bremco.maps.sienatech.com. Purely as a matter of interest, when power goes out in Watauga County – and yours is still on – you can log onto this site to see where the problems are. Little power trucks will show you precisely where your BREMCO folks are at work!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The ways by which we communicate are changing. Don’t be left behind!
We hope you aren’t tiring of hearing this message, because we can’t tire of saying it: every member of our unit who receives The Red Pencil by email saves the unit nearly $1 per issue. If you do not currently receive the newsletter by email and would like to do so, please send an email to Nanci at ntn@skybest.com with your name and email address in the body of your message. Use the same address if you would like to contribute to The Red Pencil.
AND, AND, AND, here’s a reminder that the web address for our Watauga County NCRSP blog is http://wcrsp.blogspot.com. Put that address in your Favorites column and keep up with the activities of our unit, including a copy of The Red Pencil and photos from meetings, courtesy of our webmaster, Lee Stroupe.
Volunteer Hours Fall Short of Goal
Last year, in an effort to entice more of us to do more of our volunteer hours in educational activities, our state officers set their goals for us. We’re asked to have at least 50% of our members to report their volunteer hours, with at least 25% of those hours in educational activities and we’re asked to create a group project in a school or in our community.
In 2010, we were far short of achieving the goal of 50% reporting. Only 42 people turned in a report, and we would have needed at least 60 to meet that goal. We came VERY CLOSE to achieving our aim of putting at least 25% of our hours into education, the one goal I thought would be hardest for us to meet. We had 1874 hours of school-related activity out of a total of 8197 hours! Way to go!
We did not attempt to meet that third goal, creating a unit project in a school or the community, but your Executive Board is at work on that one right now and may have exciting news soon.
At the risk of sounding like the proverbial broken record, PLEASE let me encourage you to keep an accounting of the time you spend volunteering in a school or in a community. We are a very active group; we just need to keep records to show it!
Eula Mae Fox, chr., Community Service Comm.
“What I Love” is our continuing series of personal essays. This contribution is anonymous – but it’s wonderful.
The History of 'APRONS'
I don't think our kids know what an apron is.
The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few. It was also because it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and aprons used less material. But along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.
It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.
From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.
When company came, shy kids could hide behind it.
And when the weather was cold Grandma wrapped it around her arms.
Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.
Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.
From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables.
After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.
When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.
When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men folk knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.
It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that 'old-time apron' that served so many purposes.
Young wives and mothers today would probably go crazy trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron.
I don't think I ever caught anything from an apron - but love...
What’s New that You Need to Know:
v The State NCRSP Convention is happening in Durham March 15-16. Representing our unit will be Beth Carrin, Eula Mae Fox, and Bill Winkler.
v Our unit currently has 121 members. Every single member is important, yet we obviously need to grow. If you are aware of current members of the education community who are nearing retirement, please begin now to explain the value of their membership in NC Retired School Personnel.
v If you are newly retired, this is the first Red Pencil you have received because we have just learned of your retirement and we welcome you. We hope that you will come to our luncheon meeting on March 17 at 12:00 at Deerfield Methodist Church. If you can attend, please call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 by Saturday, March 12.
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