Baldwin County Chapter MOAA

BCmOAA50

June 2018 (Pres)

BCMOAA President’s Message – June 2018

The month of May has been a challenge for your Board of Directors.  I returned home from an extended trip and almost immediately learned that Larry Rathbun’s medical issues were significantly worse resulting in his resignation as the President of BCMOAA.  Larry’s wife, Charelene, had also endured medical issues of her own and now Larry needs her additional attention.  For those reasons Charlene also resigned her position as 1st Vice President of BCMOAA.  As 1st VP Charlene was not only a one person Programs Committee but she was singlehandedly managing publicity of all events.  Additionally, Max Mattox, the second Vice President recently experienced an unexplained sudden loss of vision in one eye.  This and other medical issues have resulted in Max’s resignation from the Board.  The last shoe to fall in May was the resignation of Loretta Ballow as Secretary of the Chapter.  That is the unpleasant news but the good news is that several of our active members quickly stepped up to fill the gaps.  On May 14th the BCMOAA Board met to discuss and make plans to keep the Chapter moving forward.  For the remainder of 2018 year the Board has approved the following members to serve on the Board of Directors in the following positions:

 

President                Jerry Davis
1st VP                      Frank Connell
2nd VP                     Vacant
Secretary                Sid Vogel (also Legislative Liaison)
Treasurer               Dennis Koppersmith
Director                  Jerry Morrison
Director                  Jim Parnell (Roster Management)
Director                  Elenor Parker
Director                  Jim Wallace
IT Chair                  Ken Cooper
Publicity                 Brenda Wallace
Special Projects     Jack Gifford

 

Our situation will not be totally resolved anytime soon but I can assure you this Board lives the motto “Never Stop Serving.”  If you would like to learn more or have any questions please feel free to call me or any of the members of the Board, contact information is available on our website (www.bcmoaa.org)

Lunch Meeting May 17th – Only three days following the Board Meeting a very successful lunch meeting was held at the Fairhope VFW.  Our speaker, Wayne Boulware, a retired Army Chaplin living in Orange Beach, talked about his experiences as a married Army officer with children volunteering to go to Viet Nam and his experiences there.

Email Notification Changes – With the resignation of Charlene Rathbun our Email messages notifying our members of upcoming events and other information will be coming from an ATT Email account.  If you have not received any Email messages in the past few weeks please send Jim Parnell an Email message so we can identify/correct the error.  Jim’s Email is jparnell38@att.net.

Future Group Trip – In the coming months you will be hearing about an overnight trip to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

This past year has been an uphill effort for our young chapter and I don’t for one minute believe this is the last challenge but I pledge to you that our Board will always live by the MOAA moto of NEVER STOP SERVING.  BC/MOAA will soon activate the Nominating Committee for the 2019 slate of officers and as away it is very important to keep new blood flowing into our organization so please accept the opportunity to serve if asked.  Thank you for your continued support and I wish you and your families a great summer.

Jerry

January Meeting

The next meeting of the Baldwin County MOAA will be Thursday, January 17, 2019.
The speaker will be Chris Elliott, Alabama State Senator
Location – Gift Horse Restaurant, Foley
Doors open for Social at 5:30 pm, Meal at 6:00 pm
Cost    $25.00 per person.    Payable at door with cash or check.    NO CREDIT CARDS.
Menu – Buffet including seafood.
Dress is casual.

Order BCMOAA Name Tags

 BCMOAA Name Tags

Baldwin County Chapter of MOAA currently has two types of name tags.

The first style of the nametag (on the left) is a clear plastic clip-on badge with cardboard printed insert.  This is the name tag each member and their spouse is provided, at no cost, once the member has paid their chapter dues.  Lost badges will be replaced at no cost.

The second style of the nametag (on the right) is a solid plastic material with a magnetic backing that can be attached to any shirt, blouse, coat, or any fabric without any damage to the material.  These name tags can be purchased for members and/or spouses for the cost of $8.00 each.  Frank Connell will be taking orders for either of these name tags at the October 25th dinner meeting and at all future meetings.  Payment for the magnetic name tags will need to be made in advance and a form completed to ensure spelling and service is correctly ordered.

 Questions can be addressed to Frank Connell at Email address    rolltideroll58@live.com

Proposed and Revised Slate Of Officers/Directors for 2019

BC-MOAA

Slate Of Officers/Directors for 2019

As required by our By-laws each November we must schedule a “business” meeting.  One of the requirements of that business meeting is a vote for the officers and directors for the following year.  This year our business meeting will be held on November 15th at the Fairhope VFW on Nichols St.  That lunch meeting will begin at 11:30 am.  Also required by our By-laws is the announcement of the slate of officers to be voted on at the November meeting.  That slate is to be prepared by the Nominating Committee, presented to the Board of Directors, and sent to all BCMOAA members no later than 20 prior to the business meeting.  The Nominating Committee, chaired by Jack Gifford, presented the slate listed below to the Board at the September 20th Board meeting.  The slate was unanimously approved by the Board and now is provided to all BCMOAA members using their Email addresses on file.  Additionally, the slate will be posted on the BCMOAA web site.  Questions or comments can be provided to any Board member or expressed at the business meeting on November 15th.

Jerry Davis

SLATE

President                                          Jim Beck

1st Vice President                           Frank Connell

2nd Vice President                          Jim Wallace

Secretary                                          Sid Vogel

Treasurer                                          Dennis Koppersmith

Director                                             Elenor Parker

Director                                             Rob Fields

Director                                             Jim Parnell

Immediate Past President            Jerry Davis

BCMOAA

Revised Slate Of Officers/Directors for 2019

In accordance with our chapter by-laws, Baldwin County MOAA members were notified in September of our proposed slate of officers and directors for 2019. These nominees, excluding the chapter president, were approved by a vote of our general membership during our annual business meeting on November 15th. The president’s position was not voted on due to the nominee withdrawing his name prior to the meeting, resulting in insufficient time in accordance with our by-laws to identify a replacement. To explain, the nominee removed his name because his son is serving as legal counsel for our chapter, which has been named as a defendant in a claim resulting from injuries sustained in the February 28, 2017 accident in Gulf Shores. For this reason, he believes that being chapter president or Board member would appear to be a conflict of interest until this matter is resolved.

This is your official notification that the Nominating Committee and the current Board of Directors have identified Jerry Davis to be the President for 2019. This message will be posted on our website and if you have any comments or questions they can be directed to any of the current Board members or expressed before the vote is taken at the January 17th dinner meeting at the Gift Horse Restaurant in Foley.

Jerry Davis, President

BCMOAA

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES DENTAL AND VISION PLAN (FEDVIP)

November 12 is fast approaching!
 
As you are well aware, at least I hope you are, beginning next year (2019) you will have to transition to a new Dental and Vision care plans. The current Delta Dental, which most of us use, will go away! If you do not apply for one of the several available plans you will have NO dental or vision coverage. That is to say, the current Delta Dental plan does NOT automatically roll over as it has in prior years!
 
The following highlight is from: (https://tricare.benefeds.com/InfoPortal/indexAction)
Open season is almost here! 
Eligibility for the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program (FEDVIP), offered by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), has expanded to include certain retired uniformed service members and active duty family members. The first opportunity for you to enroll is this year’s Federal Benefits Open Season, which runs from November 12 through December 10, 2018, with coverage effective January 1, 2019.
Don’t forget! The TRICARE Retiree Dental Program (TRDP) ends on December 31, 2018. If you were enrolled in TRDP, you will not be automatically enrolled in a FEDVIP dental plan.
You must enroll during open season if you’d like FEDVIP dental and/or vision coverage in 2019.

 

 YOU MUST SELECT A NEW DENTAL AND/OR VISION PLAN!
 
This email is being sent to all members, that I am aware of, to inform you of what you need to do to enroll in a new dental and/or vision plan for 2019.
 
I would highly recommend that you start your education on the new dental and vision plans by watching a one hour webinar presented by Shane Ostrom and Paul Frost that was presented on 9-Oct-2018. The archived presentation, “How to Shop for a FEDVIP Dental and Vision Plan” is available here.
 
After you have looked at and understand the webinar content I would suggest the following references.
 
    • Eligibility
    • TRDP Transition
    • Plan Comparison
    • FAQS
A MUST go to site for information/comparisons of the new plans.
 
Additional sources of information:
  • You may also gather more information by Googling for “FEDVIP Dental and Vision Plans”
  • Another way to weigh each plan is to take the list of plans to your dentist/vision doctors and ask them what plans they recognize.