Louise Lloyd
Chapter
President
MEETING OUR CONGRESSIONAL SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES
On January 27th, Louis Bornman, our 1st Vice-President and Legislative Chair, and I both attended several receptions at the Kansas Day Activities in Topeka, Kansas. Louis has written up an excellent article summarizing some of the discussions and his reactions, but I also wanted to provide a few comments of my own. I really didn’t know what to expect, and am very glad that we had chosen to attend. It didn’t matter what political party we belonged to.
The event is sponsored by the Republican Party, but for the purposes of our visit, that was not an issue. One does not have to be a Republican to attend, and one can choose to just attend receptions to take advantage of the great opportunity to meet with elected officials. For our purposes, the important factor was that this was an opportunity to meet with the federal congressional delegation all in one place, as well having an opportunity to meet with state level officials. NARFE definitely needs a presence at such occasions, and I am glad we were able to attend. And I will definitely encourage more members attend in future years.
Another excellent opportunity to meet with the elected federal congressional delegation, as well as state elected officials, comes February 17 and 18 in Overland Park. The Kansas Republican party is hosting their annual convention at the Sheraton Convention Center Hotel in Overland Park. The complete schedule can be found on www.ksgop.org. However, it should be noted that there will be a reception at the Sheraton Hotel for Governor Sam Brownback on Friday evening from 5 to 7 p.m. And there will also be a reception for Congressman Kevin Yoder from 8 to 10 p.m. at the Sheraton. On Saturday morning there will be a combined reception for Senator Pat Roberts and Senator Jerry Moran from 9 to 11 a.m. There will also be other receptions at this time for other state elected officials, as well as receptions for the other 3 elected Federal Representatives from the State of Kansas. These receptions will be in the Convention Center.
From information on the website, www.ksgop.org, it does not appear that there is any cost to attend these receptions. And to my knowledge, one does not have to be a registered Republican to attend. I hope if you are reading this article, that you will consider attending some of these receptions as we don’t often have the opportunity to have all these officials gathered where we can conveniently meet them. We need to take every opportunity we can to let them know about our concerns whether it be as federal annuitants or active federal employees. However, if you choose to attend, I would encourage you to double check the schedule on the website www.ksgop.org to be sure of the latest schedule changes that may occur.
For those of our members who are registered Republicans, in case you may not be aware, the Republican party will hold its Presidential Caucuses throughout the state of Kansas on Saturday March 10th beginning at 10 a.m. Any registered Republican can participate in the process. Caucuses will be held in a number of Johnson County High Schools. A complete list of the locations for the caucuses is also available on the website www.ksgop.org. The website contains information about the process and answers a number of common questions that individuals may have.
CHAPTER MEETING FEBRUARY 28
The next NARFE Chapter 1162 regular business meeting will be on Tuesday February 28th at 1:30 p.m. at the Overland Park Lutheran Church.We will be meeting in a different room at the church for this meeting. For those who are able to attend, please enter using the church entrance on Lowell Street. There is also parking on Lowell Street in front of this entrance.
We will have two speakers from the Senior Computer Users Group (SenCom) who will provide some basic information on Social Media, such as Facebook.This topic was selected as we know a number of people do have questions or concerns about using Facebook.The speakers will also provide some information about SenCom. SenCom does provide computer training for seniors, and have recently moved to a new location. We do hope a number of our members will come and hear these speakers as we think it will be good information for our members.
At the chapter meeting we will be discussing three proposed bylaws amendments to the Kansas Federation bylaws to obtain our chapter members input on how they would have delegates vote on these amendments at the April Federation Convention.
The first amendment proposes that Federation conventions would be hosted in rotation by Federation District Areas beginning in 2014. The area would be able to choose the host convention site, and would not have to be in the District boundary as proposed. Currently conventions are hosted by an individual chapter. For example, our chapter will host the April 2013 Convention.
The second amendment proposes changing the timeline of Federation Per-capita assessment by moving the timeline up 3 months from November 30th each year to August 31st each year. Rationale for the amendment is that current timing of assessment causes the billing to fall at a timem when Chapter officers are changing which can cause confusion.
The third amendment is one our chapter proposed, and approved for submission at the October meeting. The proposed amendment would change the length of terms of office and election schedule on officer positions. The terms of office would become two year terms. The offices of 1st Vice President and Secretary would be elected in the odd years, with the President, 2nd Vice-President, and Treasurer be elected in the even years. Rationale for the proposal would be reduce turnover of all officers at the same time.
KANSAS FEDERATION CONVENTION APRIL 22 IN SALINA
I also want to mention that the NARFE Kansas Federation Convention will be held from April 22nd to April 24th in Salina, Kansas at the Ramada Conference Center. The Convention begins at 1 p.m. on Sunday April 22nd, and concludes by noon on Tuesday April 24th. The format for the Sunday afternoon sessions is a little different this year. At 1 p.m. we will have a legislative session with Carol Ek, our NARFE Region V Regional Vice President, Gary Townson, the Federation National Legislative Chair, and Jim Miller, the Federation State Legislative Chair. For a 2 p.m. Congressional session, all the federal elected congressional delegation from the State of Kansas have been asked to participate. We hope that many of them will attend in person, and if unable to attend will send members of their staff.
The traditional meetings held on Sunday afternoon, such as the Bylaws Committee meeting, Nominating Committee meeting, Alzheimer’s committee meeting and Resolutions Committee meeting will be held at 4:15 p.m., followed by dinner. The Alzheimer’s live auction will be held that evening as usual.
For this convention, the Bylaws committee will be discussing three proposed bylaws amendments that will generate a lot of discussion. These three amendments will have been considered at our February chapter meeting so that our delegates can know how to vote on them for our chapter — if the bylaws committee recommends that these amendments be presented to the members for a vote at the main business session.
The costs for this convention are very reasonable, the hotel is $72, plus taxes. The meals are also very reasonably priced. I have had the opportunity as a Federation officer to have stayed at the hotel several times, and have eaten several meals there, and the food has been very good. It would be great if we could have a number of our members attend this convention as I think it will be an outstanding convention and certainly with all the challenges to our federal benefits, it is very important that NARFE have a strong presence throughout the state. In addition, our chapter will be hosting the Federation Convention next year beginning April 28th at the Holiday Inn in Overland Park. We certainly would like to have as many of our members attend the Salina Convention as possible to observe the various tasks done by the host chapter.
Our chapter is allotted 25 voting delegates for the Federation Convention, so if you are interested and able to attend, please contact our Chapter Secretary, Elizabeth Bornman, 913-268-8526, for the registration packet and appropriate credential forms. We would love to have our chapter have the full number of delegates we are entitled to be represented.