- WASCOE Officers, Directors and Committee Chairpersons Meeting April 23, 2010 Eau Claire, WI – WASCOE Convention
The meeting was called to order at 2:10 PM by President Tom Oasen.
Roll Call: those in attendance introduced themselves, why they were at the meeting and what we do in our FSA offices. The following were in attendance:
President---Tom Oasen
Vice-President---Deb Esselman-Baird
Treasurer---Mary Behm
Secretary---Kathy Watson
Directors Area 1--Amy Moldenhauer, Mary Behm, Terri Polley
Directors Area 2--Jim Sullivan, Marion Koca, John Baird
Directors Area 3--Randy Kunsman
Directors Area 4--Chris Imhoff, Jake Bourget
Directors Area 5--Deb Schut
Committee Chairs present: Teresa Zimmer, Awards; Deb Esselman-Baird, Legislative, Emblems, Webmaster, and Publicity; Jon Williams, CAPWIZ; Susan Blachowiak, Scholarship.
A quorum was present, there was more than 50% attendance.
There were out of state guests in attendance.
The secretary’s report was given by Kathy with minutes being published for all to read. John Baird made a
motion to accept the minutes and Amy Moldenhauer seconded the motion. Motion passed.
The treasurer’s report was given by Mary. A detailed report is attached to these minutes.
In summary there is a balance of $5,955.60 in the checking account as of April 23, 2010 and a balance of $5010.11 in the Scholarship Fund as of April 23, 2010. Randy Kunsman moved to accept the Treasurer’s report and the motion was seconded by Deb Schut. Motion passed.
Marion Koca and Deb Schut volunteered to audit the Treasurer’s books.
Tom gave a short Presidents’ report with the following items mentioned: Robert Redding, Legislative Consultant will speak at the Convention meeting via the web with information on: what PAC can do for all of us, what other states have done to get more attendance at their Conventions by giving 4 hours administrative leave to attend a session to meet with State Office specialists, and members would be there to attend the banquet and the scholarship auction.
CHAIRPERSONS REPORTS:
Membership: Tom spoke with Kathy Morton about all new employees to be sent a “Welcome” letter and would also like them to receive a J & M Marketing packet to know what is available to all members. WI has 85% membership with 243 paid members and 3 associate members.
A short discussion was held if Membership and Treasurer should be combined, but was decided to leave as according to the By-Laws.
Scholarship: The NASCOE scholarship had a February 28th deadline with 1 application as of this Convention meeting date. The NASCOE Scholarship was extended to March 15th, due to the lack of participation. WASCOE will be awarding 4 scholarships: $1500, $1000, $750 and $500. Kris Imhoff and John Baird had volunteered to help with the judging of this years scholarship applicants. A “Thank You” was extended to all those individuals helping with the WASCOE judging process. The top WI Scholarship winner will compete for the NASCOE $2500 scholarship. The only nationwide employee scholarship applicants came from the Mid-West Area.
Awards: Teresa announced that there was one Distinguished Service Award nominee and this award will be presented at the banquet. There will be a $25.00 drawing at the banquet for 1 of the 7 nominees for the Nice Job Award.
Benefits: In the absence of the chairperson, Tom gave a short overview. Tom urged members to go to the NASCOE and WASCOE websites and click on Benefits for cheaper air fares, water park passes, and other travel opportunities to see what is available as well as the discounts we have access to. The biggest benefit to us as members is the unused sick leave which will be added to our retirement calculation.
Legislative: Deb reported that the Legislative Health Care is the big issue. CAPWIZ is there for us to use and NASCOE pays for it. Deb recapped HR-4855 with annual leave to go to TSP. Looks like direct payments and price support are on the chopping block. PAC is the way to get our voices heard. PAC is very effective and we can sign up for $3.00 per pay period. This builds a reserve so NASCOE can be a bigger player in Washington with the Ag Committees and Congress. If only 16% of our members signed up for PAC, we could be the 3rd or 4th largest organization. Members can sign up for PAC with Tom, Deb and Jon here at the Convention.
CAP WIZ: Jon reinforced Deb’s explanation for the PAC and urged members to sign up. There are 128 members out of 243 paid members is WI signed up for CAP WIZ. Jon reminded members to respond when he sends out an alert as a general mailing and to check our home computers and to act on the alerts. The electronic e-mails are fast and “snail mail” is not as effective of a tool.
Web Site/Emblems: If someone would like to take this job, let Deb know. Deb explained about each and the Emblems at the 2010 Convention
Publicity: Newsletters will be out every couple months. Deb is working with counties for feature articles, funny stories, and human interest stories are welcome too. She has gotten positive response from the feature county in the newsletters.
Programs: Jake reported, ”keep those ideas coming in”, they do make a difference. Brenda Kluesner views through the suggestions, passes them on to Jake (Jake is the Mid-West Area Chairperson on Programs), and Jake screens them whether a state or national issue and passes them on to the appropriate place. Jake mentioned that Brenda’s term as Programs chair ends this year too. Jake got an award at the Mid-West Rally for his work with Programs.
A motion to approve all committee reports was made by Marion Koca and seconded by Jim Sullivan. Motion approved.
OLD BUSINESS:
Brenda Kluesner is stepping down from Programs Committee, so nominees will be needed for that position
WASCOE: Deb Esselmen-Baird announced her candidacy for President of WASCOE. John Baird announced his candidacy for Vice-President of WASCOE. Nominations will become official at the Convention.
When attendees are at other Conventions our Emblems will be there too.
NEW BUSINESS:
The NASCOE Convention will be held in Arkansas this year. We need 2 delegates to attend the Convention and the sessions and to report back to WASCOE. NASCOE reimburses us for 1 delegate; WASCOE pays for the second person attending as a delegate.
A memorandum came out that RD/FSA/NRCS as a joint effort were to give crop updates and information from our counties. We are hesitant to do that, where as WI was never considered a player in the commodity crops in the past, that is changing and we do not know who will be seeing the report, what could be the impact on the markets, are some of the concerns. When the WASCOE members met with the STO, Tom mentioned to the committee that some states are starting there Conventions on a Thursday, with County Office Program Technician’s getting 4 hours of administrative leave to meet with State Office Specialists, and it is a way of getting more members at the Convention.
Tom told us that during the Convention meeting we will have the opportunity to listen to Robert Redding,NASCOE Legislative Consultant and Mike Mayfield, NASCOE Legislative Co-Chair and we will be able to ask questions.
Tom would like to see changes with Insurance, like the Mail Handlers Benefit Plan, where employee money goes into a Health Savings Account. There was a Health Fair held at the State Office for NRCS and State Office employees. County Office employees were not allowed to attend the Health Fair, yet we are all Federal Employees.
Mary presented having the same deadline dates for 100% membership to co-inside with the dues deadline. Randy Kunsman made a motion for the same date deadline and John Baird seconded the motion. Motion passed.
J & M Marketing representative Trevor Gartner spoke to the group about Dental Insurance with First Continental. More information will be coming on health care and the age of minors
A NARFE representative from the Eau Claire Chapter presented to the group, the advantages of NARFE membership for travel and hotel discounts, and receiving updates affecting our retirement. It costs $33.00 the 1st year and a special at Convention is that a $5 bill will be given to each person signing up at the Convention. There are 20 NARFE Chapters in the State of Wisconsin. Legislative is a very important part of their organization too.
Tom mentioned the officers meeting with the STO committee and that the minutes should be coming from State Office.
A motion to adjourn was made by John Baird and seconded by Terri Polley. Motion carried.
Meeting adjourned at 4:20 PM.
Respectfully Submitted: Kathy Watson
WASCOE Secretary
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