Holiday Times

I hope all of you had a Merry Christmas! It is hard to believe that we are at holiday time when it is so warm. Anybody go to the beach?

This is why we live here!

 But the temps are supposed to drop this weekend. Yea!  Maybe I will get to wear the new sweater I got for Christmas this weekend.
I am wishing for all of you a healthy and happy New Year 2016!

 Remember our next meeting is Tuesday, January 12, 2016.

Giving is a Good Reward

On December 10, 2015, Cluster 1 took treats to the faculty and staff at North Charleston Elementary. The treats were Christmas mugs filled with candy, ornaments and other great stuff. Our cluster members did a wonderful job. The faculty and staff were so appreciative. And one of our scholarship recipients is a teacher there. So it was great to add a little joy to the day of the NCES faculty and staff. I wonder if the other clusters did anything for their schools?

Hats for Veterans' Day Meeting

Our meeting was one of song, marching and hats. Ginny had our room decorated for fall and it was gorgeous.

There were 35 members in attendance, three visitors and the wonderful hat ladies. During the business portion of the meeting we were told that we will be transferring monies from our checking account to our scholarship fund. Yea! We do need to encourage our young people to enter the teaching profession. We also learned that we now have 64 members BUT we need to recruit many more. What a wonderful thing it would be if we could get 100 members! Please encourage our fellow retired educators to join us. There were several announcements from the floor:
1. The North Charleston United Methodist Church on Montague will have a fall festival November 14 and 15. I hope some of you attended.
2. Some books have been written by members and family members-
God's House for Graham by Mary Ferguson and Hiding is Good by Kim McDermott.
Wow! We have a prolific group. Hope I did not leave anyone out. After our business was concluded The Hat Ladies had us all up and moving and singing patriotic songs. Then, we ate...the food was terrific.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

"Together Again"

 

It is a week from our next meeting. It sounds like we will have wonderful entertainment by "The Hat Ladies."

I found a couple of images from the Net. They are quite interesting hats, don't you think? Our meeting will be one of entertainment and fun. I sent out a reminder email as well as one to the Hat Ladies. Should we all wear hats?? My only entertaining hat is a witch's hat a got on sale in Biltmore Village a bunch of years back. 

I hope that Cluster 1 will bring us some delicious foods. I have not heard from our leader but I am taking upon myself to bring pimento cheese sandwiches and some apple caramel cheesecake bars. At least we will have some sugar and some protein.

Fall is in the Air

It is finally fall again. I hope all of you are getting back to a sense of normalcy. The sun is certainly a welcome sight each morning. Our next meeting is quickly approaching. I still have not heard from Cluster 1 about what I am supposed to bring. The meeting looks like a fun one. I also thought that we could send a Christmas card to that "Any Soldier" address as kind of a service project. It would only take a card with an envelope and a stamp. The hardest thing would be  writing a message on the inside. Some may want to make their own cards.Who knows. I will ask you all about it when I send out the announcement about our meeting in late October or early November. Please consider asking a retired educator to join us. Our numbers should be growing. You know there are lots of retired people in our tri-county area who may want to become members. Think about it and give us a hand in growing our organization.

"Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head..."

As I write this post I can see lots of sunshine. Our prayers go out to all of those effected by all the flooding. I hope all of our members, present and past, are high and dry. The picture is looking out my front door. I am sure you all have similar ones.

 Our next meeting is in November. I hope we can increase our membership. Ask a friend to join you. The refreshments are being done by our Cluster 1. I am in that group and have not heard about what I am supposed to bring. But it is still a little early yet. The officers along with the executive committee members will be discussing the future of our clusters.Some former members have not joined this year because of these groups. The purpose of the clusters was to distribute the work load evenly and fairly. Our members who always brought stuff needed some relief. And the clean-up process should not be left to Ginny alone. We are all in this together.

Our First Gathering

Our meeting began at 11:00 on a bright and beautiful morning. Our president, Carol Poole, told us of her recent cruise through Europe. The only hitch in the journey's giddy up was that the cruise lines "lost" their luggage. But Carol, as always, was prepared. She then read a poem. "New Beginnings," an inspirational piece to start us off. She introduced our guest speaker, Paul Graham. Mr. Graham is a field service representative for PEBA, Public Employee Benefit Authority. He told us that all services for public employees as well as retired folks are now covered by this umbrella, PEBA. It does make sense that these services would be gathered in one place.  That is one plus for South Carolina.
There have been changes in the retirement system with most of these affecting those who retired after 2013 and current employees still working in the educational system. We retirees are considered Class 2: nothing has changed for us. But Class 3 (those who will retire and did retire after January 1, 2013) will find some changes:
1. Cannot add sick or annual leave to years of service ( remember we could add up to 90 days!);
2. Rule of 90: for full retirement you add up- your age plus years of service have to equal 90.
3. The monthly allotment is now based on five years instead of three years.
4. Class 3 will be vested after 8 years. (Ours was after 5 years I think.)
5. If one retired after January 1, 2013 there is an earnings limit. If you are under 60 years of age you can only earn $10,000 a year.
These changes will make it easier for the system to remain solvent according to Mr. Graham..

Newsworthy item:
 TERI is on life support at this point. TERI ends on June 30, 2018!
Mr. Graham encouraged all to access their account and information online. He gave out handouts to show how easy it will be to register for PEBA. There is a link at the bottom of my home page that will take you to my page that has the directions he gave us in registering on-line for PEBA. Look for "How to Access the Retirement System On-line." Also I have a link to the retirement system on the right-hand side of the home page.
 As far as health insurance: no changes in premiums and October is open enrollment month with dental plus availability this year. Yea!

We had a tad over 2/3 of our membership in attendance. Our lunch was catered by Cluster 3. It was delicious. Thank you all for such great food.

Anticipation

Tomorrow the members of the CCREA will meet for the first time. Our speaker from the state benefits office will be our guest. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say. It will be good to see old friends again and make plans within each cluster group. I hope all will look at our organization as an active one and plan to participate as much as possible. Cluster 3 will be providing refreshments after our guest finishes the presentation. All of us should pitch in and be available to help with set-up and the clean up.

Our Meeting Place

The Beginnings

The Charleston County Retired Educators Association is opened to all retired educators in our area. This is not just for CCSD retired employees. We welcome all and any who have had any part in our educational system. We meet six times each year starting in September. We have diversified speakers as well as different student presentations. Our first meeting is on Tuesday, September 29, 2015. Our meetings begin at 11:00 for the business of the group and our presentations start at 11:30. A light lunch is served afterwards. Our dues are $15.00 per year.
Our focus every year is our Scholarship Fund. We collect monies all year and in May we award  a scholarship to an area senior who plans on entering the educational profession. Sometimes we have enough to award two of these scholarships.  Below is the flyer for the 2015-2016 year. Won't you come and join us?