The Red Pencil

Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel

Vol.XVI, No.1 August 2014__________________________________________ntn1066@hotmail.com___

August Meeting

When: TUESDAY, 19 August 2014, 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 a very special speaker, former NC Poet Laureate Joseph Bathanti

If your caller does not contact you, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 before 8 PM on Saturday, the 16th of August, or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net. NOTE NOTE NOTE that our meeting is on TUESDAY! 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 NCAE. 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. tote medicine bottles (AGAIN!) for the Hunger Coalition, and

5. bring food staples (pasta, beans, rice, canned veggies) for the Hunger Coalition, as well.

REMEMBER that we are not collecting school supplies this year. Instead, you contributed nearly $800 in cash and supplies at our May meeting and your generous donation went to help the Back 2 School Festival held at Watauga High School on the 9^th of August.

President’s Message

As your new Watauga Unit President, I am looking forward to the next two years. We will start off 2014-15 with breakfast on Tuesday, August 19th which is the first day for our Watauga County students, the same day ASU begins the fall semester. Expect traffic on the roads!

As retirees, we make up 12,000 out of 60,000 NCAE membership which includes both certified and noncertified employees. We have 97 local units and we just celebrated our 50th anniversary in 2011. When we see the dismantling of the strides our organization has made in the last 53 years, it is difficult to be positive regarding the outlook for NC public schools. We have to look to our mission statement to remind us of our focus.

The mission is to be the premier statewide association for all retired education personnel, acting collectively to enhance retirement and health care benefits and to serve the community and its educational needs.

The statement asks us to concentrate on three things: 1. protecting the State Health Plan; 2. keeping the Teachers and State Employees Retirement System secure; and 3. enabling volunteerism in public schools by our members.

We haven't forgotten the hundreds of teachers, teacher assistants, administrators and support staff who are working together in our county and across our state to make 2014-2015 another successful year with our students. As we celebrate the start of a new school year with breakfast and social time, we as NCRSP members are challenged to continue to strengthen our membership. We provide encouragement and support to each other, knowing that facing the challenges before us will require that we work together. During this upcoming year, we will keep our eye on the mission statement and continue to support our local school community. We are truly on this road together.

Lee Stroupe

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.

NCRSP Meeting Dates, 2014-2015

All meetings will take place at Deerfield Methodist Church. With the exception of the Tuesday 9A meeting on August 19, all meetings are on Thursday and begin at noon. Please mark your calendar now to avoid conflicts with doctors’ appointments and other events.

August 19, 9A Deerfield Methodist Church

October 16, 12N Deerfield Methodist Church

17 October, 10A 1-B Regional Conference,

Spruce Pine Volunteer Fire Department

(reminder: Director of new Region 1-B is our own Bill Winkler)

December 18, 12N Deerfield Methodist Church

March 19, 12N Deerfield Methodist Church

May 21, 12N Deerfield Methodist Church

We Appreciate our Callers

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 Saturday before the meeting day. We must give a total number 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 2014-2015 year are

Jackie Adams

Sue Aldridge

Wanda Bentley

Beth Carrin

Nancy Cooke

Eula Mae Fox

Candace Hall

June Mann

Mary Hazel Mast

Susan McKay

Joyce Sherrill

Betty Wells

We thank them for taking their time to make sure we know about meetings and have other timely information.

Extremely Important Information about Paying Your Dues

No matter how long you have been a member of the Watauga Unit of NCRSP, some of this information about dues is new and important. Please read carefully.

If you paid your dues by check last year, your dues amount is printed in the upper right corner of your mailing label. Please bring this amount to the August meeting with your check made payable to NCAE. ***Please note this change: all dues checks should be made to NCAE rather than to our local unit as in the past.*** If you are unable to attend the meeting, you may mail your check to Dot Barker, 451 Poplar Hill Dr., Boone NC 28607. If you receive your newsletter by email, you may check with Dot, dot24@bellsouth.net, about your amount.

If your label has PR (Payroll Deduction) or EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) printed on it, you have chosen to have your dues deducted from your retirement check. Do not write a check for your dues if you see PR or EFT on your label. You certainly will, however, want to write a check for the Scholarship Fund. These checks can still be made out to Watauga Unit of NCRSP. If you want to change your method of paying dues, please see Dot for the appropriate forms.

New retirees and membership prospects will not find a dues amount on your mailing label. If you retired after July 1, 1999, your annual dues are $111. If you retired between July 1, 1985 and July 1, 1999, your annual dues are $65.

***If you have notified Dot that you do not plan to rejoin NCRSP and if you have been paying your dues by payroll deduction or EFT, you MUST ALSO notify the state office in Raleigh in writing. The address is NCRSP Membership, P.O. Box 27347, Raleigh NC 27622-7347.***

Our unit has an Associate Membership plan for noncertified personnel – assistants, secretaries, cafeteria workers. The Associate Membership is $10 for nonvoting membership in the local unit only and includes our newsletter, The Red Pencil. Associate Membership does not include membership in the district, state, or national organizations and is available only for noncertified personnel.

If you have any questions about dues, please call Dot Barker at 264-3621 or email her atdot24@bellsouth.net.

2014-2016 Officers

Watauga Unit

North Carolina Retired School Personnel

President Lee Stroupe lstroupe@gmail.com

Vice Pres/Pres. Elect Mary Linda Dooley mdooley999@gmail.com

Sec./Treas. Dot Barker 264-3621 dot24@bellsouth.net

Bill Winkler winklerbr@gmail.com

Honorary Parliamentarian Robert G. Shipley bshipley@nc.rr.com

Legislative Comm. Chr. Bill Watterson wataugateacher@yahoo.com

Membership Comm. Chrs. Roland, Barbara Moy moyrf@appstate.edu

Memorials Susan McKay mckayinboone@live.com

Community Participation chr. Candace Hall mcandacehall@gmail.com

Scholarship La Verne Franklin franklin160954@bellsouth.net

Decorations Linda and Roger Harwood rlharwood@bellsouth.net

Meeting Arrangements Margaret Sigmon 264-2036 margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net

Remembrance La Verne Franklin franklin160954@bellsouth.net

Historian Janice Burns 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

Contributions/Suggestions/Email Edition of The Red Pencil, anyone? Change of email or snail mail address?

ntn@skybest.com or snail mail to

Nanci Tolbert Nance, P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605

News of Our Members

We mourn the deaths of three of our members this summer and extend our sympathies to the families of Daisy Adams, Margaret Agle, and Catherine Ross. In their memories, as is our custom, our treasurer has transferred $25 in each name to the Scholarship Fund.

To our email numbers we happily add R.G. Shipley, who is living in Raleigh with his son, Bob. We have Bob’s permission to get in touch with Mr. Shipley through his email address,bshipley@nc.rr.com, on his cell, 828.963-0522, and at Bob’s address, 4113 Huckleberry Dr., Raleigh NC 27612.

We are also delighted to share the good news of the continuing recovery of Lera Randall. The latest is that she is at home in Boone! We appreciate Richard’s updates.

NCRSP – Strength in Numbers

At the beginning of a new school year, do you know any prospective members of our unit, new retirees who would benefit from membership and 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 money and supplies to the Back2School Festival; 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

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, you work at the polls for elections, and you do a hundred other things. Part of our reputation with headquarters in Raleigh 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!

Something new is here:

This year, in an effort to be more accurate in our reporting, new Community Participation chair Candace Hall and your executive board are asking that you bring a volunteer hours form to EVERY meeting. You’ll find a form in each Red Pencil so there’s no need to make copies for yourself.

The first report will be due at our first meeting, and that will be the most difficult one for you to do since it will include all the volunteer hours you’ve accumulated this year, from January to August. After that, the process will be a piece of cake. You’ll complete a form to cover September and October and turn it in at the October meeting, one to cover November and December and turn it in at the December meeting, one to cover January through March and turn it in at the March meeting, and one to cover April and May and turn it in at the May meeting. If you know that you are not coming to a meeting, you may mail the form to Candace Hall, 229 Ivy Dr., Boone NC 28607. Again, a form will be included in each Red Pencil. We will also try to have blank copies for you to fill in at each meeting. If you are receiving an electronic version of the newsletter, you may highlight the form, copy it into a blank document, and print it for yourself. Please take the time to complete this form; Raleigh really wants to know how busy we are!