Watauga County Retired School Personnel

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

August Red Pencil Vol 63

The Red Pencil NCRSP Seal (circle for color printers)

Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel

Vol.XVIII, No.1 August 2016____________________________________________steelebecky58@gmail.com___

August Meeting

When: MONDAY, 22 August 2016, 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

Our special guest speaker for this meeting is Terry Harmon, who is a product of the Watauga County school system, the author of three books (so far), and a noted genealogist. He will be tracing the families of some of our members, giving us hints on doing our own genealogical research, and answering your brief questions

If you don’t RSVP via email or receive a call from one of our volunteer callers, please call

Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 before 8 PM on Wednesday, August 17, or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.

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:

pay your dues. If you write a check, please make it out to NCAE. Remember to pay particular attention to the article about dues later in this newsletter;

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;

drop all the lovely, noisy, loose change you’ve been collecting into the little watering cans at your table;

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

Remember that we are not collecting school supplies again this year. Instead, you contributed in May to the Back2School Festival.

***Please remember that a donation to the Scholarship Fund is an excellent way to remember or to honor a friend or a professional colleague.

President’s Message

Greetings to all Watauga NCRSP members! I am looking forward to seeing you on August 22 at 9:00AM at our first meeting of 2016-17. I sure hope that you are planning to join us.

Our program features Terry Harmon, who is an avid genealogist and an amateur historian. Also visiting with us will be Marilyn Futrelle, Region 1B president.

Our neighbors in Avery County are currently without an active organization. These school personnel retirees, who pay dues and are members of NCRSP, are being invited to merge with us. This move allows them access to NCRSP information and updates. Please welcome them warmly.

Kathy Moorman, Linda Seamster, and I attended the Regional Leadership Conference in June. Key topics reinforced were legislation and membership. Regarding legislation, we can help if we 1) educate ourselves on issues; 2) learn what local and state candidates actually support retirees; 3) vote; 4) write, call, email your legislatures to let them know your thoughts. Membership is everyone’s responsibility. Invite anyone you know who is a school personnel retiree. More ideas on this subject will be forthcoming.

The latest Panorama featured two articles submitted by Nanci Tolbert Nance from our unit. One described the outstanding volunteer work of Mary Hazel Mast working with students, and the other featured NCRSP members volunteering at Tweetsie Railroad’s Letterland Days. (This is a phonics-based reading program for young children). Other members are no doubt doing notable deeds that should also be highlighted in the Panorama, so please let us know what they are.

Finally, be sure to come prepared to help enhance our scholarship fund. We are raffling off a ceramic elephant bowl, crafted and donated by Amber Bateman. Amber is one of the founders of the Back2School program. Tickets are $5.00, so please be generous as we “grow” our scholarship fund.

Know that you are appreciated, and remember that it is you who make our unit strong. Together we can have another productive, as well as an enjoyable, year!

Mary Linda Dooley

“At every moment, we are volunteers.” ~Stephen Colbert

NCRSP Meeting Dates, 2016 - 2017

All meetings will take place at Deerfield Methodist Church. With the exception of the Monday

9 AM meeting on August 22, all meetings are on Thursday and begin at noon. Please mark your calendar now to avoid conflicts with doctors’ appointments and other events.

August 22, Monday, 9 AM Deerfield Methodist Church

October 20, 12N, Thursday Deerfield Methodist Church

December 15, 12N, Thursday, Deerfield Methodist Church

March 16,12N, Thursday, Deerfield Methodist Church

May 18,12N, Thursday, Deerfield Methodist Church

Please remember to RSVP before meetings

Watauga County North Carolina Retired School Personnel: It is EXTREMELY important that you RSVP or contact Margaret Sigmon by the Saturday before Thursday luncheon meeting days. We must give a total number to George Wellington on Monday so he can do his grocery order.

If you do not either RSVP via email or receive a call about the meeting, please phone Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 or email her at

margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.

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.

Supporting the Back2School Festival

The Watauga County Unit of NCRSP has been involved for three years in helping to provide funding, materials, and personnel for the Back2School Festival.

Amber Bateman is the creator of this event, an outgrowth of her own Quiet Givers. Amber saw a need to help our county’s students begin school with the supplies, the support, and the attitudes they needed to succeed. She met with members of local organizations and led the discussion that resulted in the idea of a countywide, free school supplies festival.

The B2S Festival itself, scheduled this year on August 13, includes hands-on activities for the attending students, activities led by local businesses, and booths sponsored by businesses, public service agencies, and churches to inform attendees of their services. As our focal point for school giving, the Watauga Unit of NCRSP collected money in May to purchase supplies to “Pack the Bus” – and donated $568 to the cause!

Website helps givers identify real vs. fake charities

Just FYI, keep in mind that fake charities abound these days, especially ones that intentionally sound like the “real deal.” The list of fake charities includes, for example, Disabled Veterans of America. The REAL one is the DAV, the Disabled American Veterans.

Check out http://www.charitynavigator.org before giving if you want to make sure your dollars are going to a legitimate charity.

2016-2017 Officers

Watauga Unit

North Carolina Retired School Personnel

Your unit officers serve you. If you have questions or information for any one of them, please get in touch using

these numbers and email addresses.

President Mary Linda Dooley 773-6597 mdooley999@gmail.com

Vice-Pres./Pres. Elect Kathy Moorman 262-5595 moormankat@gmail.com

Treasurer Linda Seamster 264-3621 seamster@charter.net

Parliamentarian Ben Strickland 264-2320 benstrickland@bellsouth.net

Legislative Comm. Bill Watterson 898-5500 wataugateacher@yahoo.com

Membership Comm. Saralyn Kader 295-9414 saralynkader@gmail.com

Memorials Susan McKay 264-9691 mckayinboone@live.com

Community Participation Candace Hall 264-5763 mcandacehall@gmail.com

Scholarship Melony Winkelmann 264-6190 melony1943@bellsouth.net

Decorations Beth Winkler 264-6194 betwinkl@bellsouth.net

Meeting Arrangements Margaret Sigmon 264-2036 margaretsigmon@gmail.com

margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net

Historian Janice Burns 295-7454 burnsjn@bellsouth.net

Care Comm. Beth Carrin 264-9227 xartprof@charter.net

Red Apple Award Nanci Tolbert Nance 963-8892 ntn1066@hotmail.com

Red Pencil Editor/Sec. Becky Steele 295-3045 steelebecky58@gmail.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?

steelebecky58@gmail.com or snail mail to

Becky Steele, 1120 Aho Rd., Blowing Rock NC 28605

Treasurer’s Report:

Extremely Important Information about Paying Your Dues

I look forward to serving as Watauga Unit’s treasurer for the next two years. My first responsibility, collecting dues for July 2016 – June 2017, will occur at our August 22 breakfast meeting.

There are three options for dues payment:

Check (check made payable to : NCAE)
Bank Draft (Electronic Funds Transfer: bring voided check to attach to form)
Credit Card (Card info needed: choice of annual or 10-month deductions) Note: If you currently use payroll deduction, you may continue until notified of a change. This option is not available to new retirees.

Current members’ dues are the same as last year except for those of you whose dues are less than $81. You will notice a five-dollar increase this year. This is an effort to equalize the return to the local units for operation expenses

New members’ dues are $111.00 made payable to NCAE. In the initial year of membership, members have the option of paying an NEA-Retired Lifetime Membership of $250 with the other dues. I will explain this option in person at the meeting.

Our unit has an Associate Membership plan for noncertified personnel – assistants, secretaries, and cafeteria workers. The Associate Membership is $10, is 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.

At the meeting, you may also want to write a check for the Scholarship Fund. These checks can still be made out to Watauga Unit of NCRSP.

I will send membership notices to those of you who have paid dues in the past by mail. My address is Linda Seamster, PO Box 2963, Boone, NC 28607.

I look forward to seeing many of you at the August breakfast.

Linda Seamster

Watauga Unit Treasurer

Red Apple Award Update

In April, your executive board approved a very special recognition, the Red Apple Award. It’s not a Tony or an Emmy or an Oscar or a Grammy, but it means more to us because it’s our way of acknowledging and thanking members of our own unit.

That’s a photo of the Red Apple Award pin above, and we know that each of its recipients will wear it with pride in its representation of our appreciation for outstanding service to the Watauga Unit of NCRSP.

Dot Barker, Lee Stroupe, and I are the members of the Red Apple Award Committee, and we are seeking your help in selecting future recipients. We ask that you consider nominating a member of our organization whose service to our unit has been exemplary, by faithful attendance over a number of years or by filling an important need within the group or by performing a service to the organization.

To nominate a member of our unit, please email Nanci Tolbert Nance at ntn1066@hotmail.com or snail mail me at P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605 with your name, the name of the person you have chosen, and a few sentences explaining the reason for your nomination. You may make multiple nominations.

We want this award to be as outstanding as its recipients, and we know that you do, too.

Nanci Tolbert Nance

Support our local Watauga County Farmers’ Market

Saturdays

May - Oct: 8am - Noon

November: 9am - Noon

At Horn in the West

We’re ready to welcome new members!

As we approach the beginning of a new school year, 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 already received a letter from our unit. At the bottom of the letter is a coupon for breakfast at our first meeting of the year. Please encourage any new retirees that you know to take advantage of the free coupon and to come join us on August 22!

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 through our participation in 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 transportation to meetings.

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Peach Layer Dessert - Take advantage of summer’s fresh peaches

Crust:

2 C. self-rising flour 1 C. chopped pecans

2 sticks melted margarine or butter

Blend together all ingredients and press into 13x9” baking dish. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool.

8 oz. cream cheese, softened 4 T. dry peach Jell-O

8 oz. Cool Whip 1 C. cold water

2 1/2 C. powdered sugar 3 T. plain flour

4 C. fresh peaches, sweetened to taste

Combine cream cheese, Cool Whip, and powdered sugar. Beat well with mixer and spread on cooled crust. Top with sweetened peaches. Mix Jell-O, water, and flour in saucepan. Cook over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly. Cool and pour over peaches. Chill several hours before serving. ~Teresa Lentz in Treasures from the Village Table

Don’t forget your volunteer hours

Our Community Service Coordinator, Candace Hall, reminds us that the state goals for volunteer hours are for 50% of members to report and for 25% of the reported hours to be in education. We usually easily meet the percentage goal for members reporting, but often fall short for the percentage of volunteer hours “in education”; therefore we would like to encourage members to work in even more hours in education as we enter the final five months of 2016.

Candace has individual totals for the members for each of the two meetings that we've had so far this year; those totals will be available at each table. She welcomes receiving hours from earlier this year as well as the most recent period. So far in 2016 we have a total of 1783.5 hours, both education and other.

Think about all the wonderful things you do, from singing in your church choir to providing flowers for meetings to being a substitute grandparent in an elementary school class or working the polls at elections. Caring for a family member doesn’t count, but almost everything else does!

Other ideas for volunteering include, but are not limited to:

Assisting at a public library Tutoring Classroom assistance

Chaperoning field trips Mentoring Working with ESL students

Serving on a scholarship committee Meals on Wheels Teaching Sunday School

Volunteering at a hospital Girl/Boy Scouts Visiting shut-ins

American Red Cross Hospitality House Health & Hunger Coalition

Shoebox Ministry Mountain Alliance Western Youth Network

Children’s Council Children’s Playhouse Wine to Water

Habitat for Humanity Arts Council Watauga Storm sports

Grandfather Home Hospice of Watauga Co. Community Care Clinic

Fill out the form on the last page of the newsletter and bring it

to the meeting on the 22nd or phone/email Candace.

NCRSP Community Participation Volunteer Hours 2016

Name:

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

The Red Pencil

Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel

Vol.XVI, No.2 October 2015_______ _____________________________ntn1066@hotmail.com

October Meeting

When:Thursday, October 15, NOON, $10, check made payable to Watauga County NCRSP

Where:Deerfield Methodist Church

Why:To share time with each other AND to hear from Watauga County Superintendent of Education, Dr. Scott Elliott. Please come!

With:non-perishable food for the Hunger Coalition. This month, let’s load down that long table in the Fellowship Hall with INDIVIDUAL SIZES of fruit, heatable meals, cereal, and everything else for the more than 400 backpacks our schoolkids take home every weekend, don’t forget all the lovely, noisy, loose change you’ve been collecting for the Scholarship Fund.. And don’t forget the plastic bags and medicine bottles!

If your caller has not reached you by October 10, phone Margaret Sigmon, 264-2036, to make your reservation. Remember that we’ll be selling take-home meals for $5.

AND, if you have time, please plan to stay for just a few minutes after the meeting to help Margaret clean our meeting space.

President’s Message

As summer warmth gives way to cooler days and our mountain landscape sheds its green foliage to provide us its October brilliance, it is time to join together for our autumn NCRSP luncheon.

Schools are in full swing and our legislature has finally reached a budget agreement giving us a few positives i.e., restoring our teacher assistants and driver education and increasing beginning teacher salaries. Unfortunately, the assault on North Carolina’s public education system has not stopped. Funding for students and teachers continues to decline. North Carolina is currently spending $877 less per student than in 2009 and 70% of our teachers will receive no salary increase. They will receive a one-time $750 bonus that does not count towards retirement. NC struggles to keep experienced teachers while the poverty rate of school age children climbs to 25%. We retirees will receive no Cost of Living Increase (COLA), a real disappointment after our state treasurer said publically that money was available for this purpose.

Since the education news from Raleigh has not been encouraging, we look forward to some positive news from our recently hired superintendent, Dr. Scott Elliott. He will be our featured speaker for our October program. He will share what is happening in the Watauga County Schools. We are fortunate to have Dr. Elliott as our superintendent and we wish him well as he begins his second year serving our county. These are his remarks taken from his welcoming on the Watauga county school web site:

“ Our circumstances include both great strengths and notable challenges, but I would not trade the talents and resources of the Watauga County Schools and this community for those of any of the 114 other districts in NC. If we all work together to focus on providing great teaching and learning in our schools, we can offer life changing education for our students. Let’s not settle for anything less.”

I share his views that I would not want to trade the resources of Watauga County schools for those of the 114 other units in the state. We are fortunate to live in a beautiful part of the Blue Ridge Mountains and we are fortunate to have a wonderful workplace to educate our children. Whether it is our geographic isolation, our exceptional staff, our exceptional community, the university advantage or all these reasons, we have advantages over other units that foster educational excellence.

I am grateful to our Watauga NCRSP unit as a bright spot in the northwest part of NC, working to support local education. Thank you for all you do to support Watauga schools. I look forward to seeing you at our October meeting.

Lee

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People Pieces

Congratulations to prospective NCRSP member Cheri Harmon, now Cheri Harmon Craver, on her September marriage to long-time beau Jim Craver.

And more congratulations to Susan McKay, who celebrated finishing her chemo treatments by taking a three-week trip to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands!

Happy recovering to Sue Aldridge, doing nicely after knee surgery in early September.

Kudos to Dot Barker, who survived an unannounced and unwelcome visit from raccoons IN HER HOUSE. Ask her for all the scary details.

Representing us at the NCRSP regional meeting on the 16th of October will be Janice Burns, Bill Winkler, Lee Stroupe, Dot Barker, Barbara Hunsucker, Betty Wells, and Mary Linda Dooley. They’ll do us proud!

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In Memoriam

The Watauga Unit of North Carolina Retired School Personnel sends its deepest sympathies to the families of Betty Elliott, Charles Isley, and R.G. Shipley, three of our most valued members.

In the past year, our unit has lost eleven members. When a death occurs in our membership, we transfer $25 from our treasury into the scholarship fund in memory. Please remember that contributions in memory or in honor of our colleagues are always appropriate. Make your check to WC NCRSP and send it to Dot Barker. Put the name of the person in whose honor/memory you are contributing on the memo line.

LISTEN UP!!!

OK, that was shouting and I know shouting isn’t polite. On the other hand, I really need your attention. The Red Pencil is only as useful to you as you allow it to be. In a world filled with “stuff” bombarding all of us all the time, information overload is not just possible; it’s well nigh unavoidable. Our little newsletter, however, can’t become just another piece of flotsam and jetsam in your life. You can’t let it. News about our programs and our schedules and activities is in here. A message from our unit president is in here. Business matters like the budget on which we’ll all have to vote are in here. What to bring to meetings, whether or not Janice Burns has made another of her legendary cakes for auction, Candace’s latest news about volunteer opportunities, even an occasional brief book recommendation or a nifty recipe are in here, and it’s all important. Please take the time to read this newsletter, and if you have comments to make about it or news you want to share through it, get in touch with Nanci Tolbert Nance, ntn@skybest.com or 828.963-8892.

A Very Special Message

On behalf of my family, I would like to thank the members of the Watauga Unit of North Carolina Retired School Personnel for the special offering made in memory of my mother, LaVerne Franklin, to the NCRSP Scholarship Fund. We have been devastated by our loss, but the many acts of kindness shown to us during this difficult time have been an uplifting blessing. The scholarship program was something she looked forward to every year and you have all fittingly honored her legacy with your contributions to North Carolina’s future educators.

Thank you kindly,

Morgan Redmond & The Franklin/Redmond/Martin Families

The Importance of Membership

If you did not join or renew your membership in NCRSP in August, October is the next best time. If you are a renewing member and a cash-paying member and have not yet paid your dues, you will find the amount of your dues in the upper right corner of the mailing label on this newsletter. Your 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 $111 and can be paid by check or you can join by bank draft or credit card. If you plan to join by bank draft, bring a voided check with you. Both forms will be available at the meeting. If you have questions, please call Dot at 264-3621 or Barbara or Roland Moy at 264-8811.

IMPORTANT! New this year – checks written for dues payment must be written to NCAE. All other checks, such as scholarship or attendance at association meetings/conferences, are still written to Watauga Unit of NCRSP.