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.
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