Chelan-Douglas School Retirees' Association KEEPING YOU UP TO DATE MARCH 2018 |
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The mission of the Chelan-Douglas School Retirees' Association is to secure and protect retirees' benefits and to provide educational and service opportunities for members. | | |
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Join us for our March monthly meeting! The Executive Board meets at 10:00am, all are welcome. Progam includes: WHS Mariachi Band - CDSRA helped provide funding for their trip to Washington D.C. Come enjoy their music! |
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UPCOMING EVENTS March 12 CDSRA General Meeting at Red Lion March 19 Newsletter Items Due March 28 Newsletter Mailing Committee |
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Can we buy you lunch? If you haven't had the opportunity to come to our monthly meetings, we would like to invite you to join us. All first time member attendees will enjoy lunch on us! |
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A Message From Our President Spring is almost here! Our membership continues to grow as our Chairpersons, Sharon Salley and JoAnn Lewis, have added 49 new members this year and have more visits to schools scheduled. |
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Our Unit 2 total is now 913 but we would sure like to see more of you at our monthly meetings. We encourage you to let us know what you'd like to see as programs. We are very pleased to see the interest in our Mini-Grant project. It was so successful that we will offer another round this Spring. It is a perfect way to support our educators and their extra projects for their students. Learn more on our website. We encourage any of our members to attend the State Convention which will be here in Wenatchee on June 4-6. You will receive more information about this later. We continue to support several projects which help families in our area. We contribute to Small Miracles which is a summer lunch program, as well as, Haven of Hope which supports displaced woman and children in our community. Our next meeting will feature the Wenatchee High School Mariachi Band. We contributed funds to enable them to take all of their band members to Washington, D.C. to perfrom in the Capital Building. Sincerely, Beverly Jagla, Unit 2 President |
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Cashmere High School students creating hats for their drama presentation of "Hello Dolly". CDSRA supported their efforts with a mini-grant to active member, Susan Gucsch. THANK YOU CDSRA! |
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District 12 Legislative News |
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We just returned February 22 from three days of visiting our legislators in Olympia. We are closer to regaining some retirement benefits than we have been since our Plan 1 COLA was removed by the Legislature in 2011. Our visits with our District 12 Legislators were very positive. They were all supporting our bills! Funding for our COLA appears in all three budgets (Governors, House and Senate) but because everything is up for negotiation, changes can be made at any time. We haven't given up! Please contact our Legislators and thank them for their support and ask them to continue to work for: - The 3% COLA for all Plan 1 members
- Restoration of the medical benefit that was removed by the Legislature in 2011
Sen. Brad Hawkins 360-786-7622 brad.hawkins@leg.wa.gov Sen. Cary Condotta 360-786-7954 cary.condotta@leg.wa.gov Rep. Mike Steele 360-786-7832 mike.steele@leg.wa.gov Mary Perkins and Denise Perkins reporting. |
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All House seats and half of the Senate seats are up for election in 2018. In 2018 PAC made contributions of $1,000 to 22 candidates from both parties as well as the Republican and Democratic Caucuses. We are non-partisan! This year we need to do more as many of the district legislators who have stepped up to help us will need help in retaining their seats. Step up to the plate and give what you can. Help us to recover, retain, and enchance our pensions. Send your check; payable to WSSR-PAC to: WSSR-PAC Treasurer c/o Lara Brabant 125 West 11th Street Port Angeles, WA 98362-7709 |
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Haven of Hope is grateful for all the travel shampoo, conditioner, and lotion. Thanks also for the zip lock storage bags. Next time they could use paper towels, disinfecting wipes, liquid hand soap and disinfectant, and Kleenex tissues and cards. They really appreciate our generosity! We gave Small Miracles $1,000 to help with purchasing milk for the summer program. |
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Active Members - Plan Ahead for Retirement |
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There are many questions about what you need to do before retiring. How do I calculate what my retirement pension might be? What steps do I take before I retire? Do I have any options to change my benefits? Washington State Department of Retirement Systems (DRS) has written information as well as online information describing your retirement benefits. Contact them at 360-664-7000. They have an excellent web page at www.drs.wa.gov. Click on Education, then on Webinar to find your plan (or click here). An immediate estimate of your retirement benefits can also be found there. You can't afford to be without some kind of health insurance when you retire. You should investigate your options for insurance coverage to meet your individual needs. Check to see if your district has a VEBA plan that will help pay for insurance. For more information regarding the Public Employees Benefits Board (PEBB) program call 1-800-200-1004 of download booklet at www.hca.wa.gov/pebb IMPORTANT! You must apply for coverage (or defer you coverage in some circumstances) no later than 60 days after you the end of your employment with the district. Retirement planning guides are available. Call 360-413-5496 |
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PENDING RETIREMENT WORKSHOPS March 22, 4:00pm - 6:00pm at Columbia Technical Skills Center 900 E. Yonezawa Blvd. Moses Lake, WA August 1, 2018 DRS at Technology Confluence Center Wenatchee, WA |
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Please let us know if we can update your contact information, just email CDSRA@outlook.com |
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