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(Site last updated July 18, 2010)
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Retiree Council #4 Calendar:
Newsletters:Current (Summer 2010)Spring 2010Winter 2009-10Fall 2009Summer 2009Retiree Council 4 Officers:President - Hobie Rhinehart | Summer 2010 newsletter available for download. Click here to download a pdf version.Regional Conference Great Success!
Approximately 100 RC4 members and guests enjoyed a full day of socializing and information gathering at the annual RC4 regional conference held Wednesday, June 23 at the Seneca-Allegany Casino Event Center. Click here for pictures and information from the conference.(Not only was the conference a great success, but we know of at least one couple who visited the slot machines on their way out of the casino and won enough to pay for their next 15 conferences!!)Is Your Pension Safe?Maybe yes, maybe no. Click here for details.Thinking of moving? Click here to see how friendly other states are to pensions and retiree assets.Attention readers! If you have a PC or Mac, you already have a FREE Amazon Kindle!!Click here for details.NYSUT 2010 AwardsOn May 27 at the Southwestern Regional Awards Dinner at the Seneca Casino Event Center, two of our own were recognized for their service to NYSUT and the retiree chapter:Ruth BrownRuth received the Local Outstanding Service Award. Ruth served on the Retiree Council #4 board since its inception. She helped write the original constitution in 1997, and was secretary until 2009. She was in Albany lobbying for the COLA, worked on the first "Free at Last" luncheon, has been a delegate to state meetings and has been co-chair for the "Making Strides for Breast Cancer Walk" in Jamestown. We are grateful to have Ruth as a member of RC#4, and value her contributions!Warner PageWarner received the NYSUT Statewide Community Service Award. Warner has been devoted to improving the lives of others through his profession as a teacher, advocacy as a union member, and service to the community. He was recognized as Allegany County Educator of the Year in 2003 for all his activities with students, districts, parents and NYSED. He was an alderman in the city of Olean, served on many committees, including the Allegany-Cattaraugus County Economic Development Zone committee. After his retirement, Warner served as an RC#4 director, and is currently treasurer. He organized the Council's trip to New Orleans to assist with Katrina cleanup. Job well done, Warner!
Left to right: Community Service award winner Warner Page, RC4 president Hobie Rhinehart, Outstanding Service award winner Ruth Brown.Cecil Roberts, United Mine Workers President brought down the house at the NYSUT RA May 1, with this speech...
Retired Teachers Help Flood-Ravaged Area in FebruaryRetirees from Retiree Council 4 donated their time and talents in the flood-damaged areas of Gowanda during the week of February 22. Although things look as if they are returning to normal when you drive down the main street, one of the directors of the ongoing volunteer effort told us that there are still several homes whose basements are filled with frozen mud. Many homes suffered interior damage when sewers backed up, and there is still much work to be done in the area.Below, retirees Rick Crandall and Jim McGrath repair drywall in a damaged home. They were part of a retiree contingent led by Warner Page.
NEA Member Benefits for NYSUT RetireesDid you know that as a NYSUT retiree, you may enroll in NEA at no cost* and are entitled to NEA member benefits? These benefits include a complimentary one-year term life insurance policy! Along with that, there are product, store, and travel discounts, vision, hearing, and prescription savings plans, reduced-price memberships in fitness clubs and, most recently, a "Money Talk" blog, to mention just a few. check it out at www.neamb.com.* Due to the NY merger, NYSUT is affiliated with both AFT and NEA. If you wish, you may choose to join NEA as a Lifetime Retiree for a one-time fee of $200. At this time, for NYSUT retirees to participate in NEA Member Benefits, retiree membership with NEA is NOT required.If you're hit by a bus, can your loved ones access your online acounts?Despite our increasing reliance on cloud computing -- storing all sorts of data online through Web applications -- very few Internet users have begun to think about what happens to all that data should we get hit by a bus. "We haven't truly seen the breadth of this issue play out yet, but I'm telling you, this is a huge problem," said Chicago lawyer Karin C. Prangley, who has spoken on the topic at conferences. "Ten or 15 years ago, someone could go into your house and find the paper trail if you die. Now the paper trail is online."Click here to download a pdf file of an article from the Washington Post dealing with this topic.Learn ANYTHING online, for FREE..."Welcome to “e-learning.” Curious about world history or quantum physics? Want to stretch your mind by learning to speak a new language or to play the accordion? Need to fix a leaky faucet or teach your dog to behave? Now you can learn just about anything you want to learn without setting foot in a classroom.Years ago the Internet paved the way for learning online from schools that charged tuition for their courses. And they still do, for academic credit. But e-learning is different. Though it doesn’t earn you credits, it does allow you to learn pretty much on your own schedule, without spending a nickel on class fees."For details, click here to see a great article from the Jan-Feb AARP Bulletin.Private sector retirees enjoy tax benefits, too.Much is made of the exemption of public employee pensions from state income taxes. The implication is often that private sector pensions are fully taxed. As a recent letter to the Buffalo News pointed out, there are tax benefits for private sector retirees as well."Here is a brief summary of the facts. State and local government pensions, as well as all federal and military pensions, are exempt from state income tax. In addition, private sector retirees are entitled to exclude up to $20,000 in pension income, 401(k) withdrawals, traditional IRA distributions, etc. from state income tax. For married retirees filing jointly, each spouse is entitled to the above exemption, so they may be able to exclude up to $40,000. Also, the state does not tax social security benefits."The next time a private sector retiree suggests teachers, or other public sector retirees give up the tax exemption on their pensions, ask if they are willing to give up theirs as well!The Internet Does Not Have an Editor!Seniors grew up in a time largely before the internet. Most of our information came from newspapers and magazines. Today, a large number of people get the majority of their information from the internet . While newspapers and magazines employ factcheckers--people whose sole job is to go over stories with a fine tooth comb to be sure that facts are correct as stated--the internet has no editors or fact checkers. Anyone can publish any "fact" they wish, and it is usually up to the reader to determine the validity of those "facts."Many of us receive emails from relatives or friends containing some "hair-on-fire" warning, e.g. the president is really a space alien or Congress has voted to allow illegal aliens to collect social security. The email usually contains a plea to pass it on to everyone we know. How do we know if these emails contain the truth? Two organizations make it easy to separate fact from fiction on the internet:1) Snopes.com is a well-known site whose purpose is to separate truth from "urban legend" on the web. The April 2009 edition of Readers' Digest had this article about Snopes.com. You can go to their site at www.snopes.com/snopes.asp to check out the latest "pass it on" email you received. Chance are if you got it, so did lots of other folks, and it will be listed under the "Hot 25" tag. They will explain what is true, partially true and downright untrue.2) Factcheck.org is maintained by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. It is a "down the middle" arbiter of fact, calling out both the left and the right for their fabrications. You can even submit a question for fact-checking! It can be found at www.factcheck.orgEspecially with our current angry debate concerning healthcare, it's important that we get our FACTS straight! (In case you were wondering, the president is NOT a space alien, and Congress has NOT voted to allow illegal aliens to collect social security!) |
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