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2005 - First
edition, AASBCR Newsletter (January 2005) A message from the AASBCR President Dear fellow AASBCR members, As mentioned to you recently, our annual officer elections will be taking place in the next few months. Because the AASBCR is a 100% volunteer initiative, it is vital that its leadership remain strong and with a sense of renewal. When the AASBCR was first organized, this concern was recognized and therefore contained in our by-laws is the requirement that no Officer can succeed himself or herself more than once. All members of the Board have served two terms in their present role. We have come along way in the last 18 months. As you know, we had no track to ride or a course to follow yet we have achieved several goals:
We recently sent two members (Bruce Beckman and Ray Sternot) to the annual National Retiree Legislative Network Conference held in Washington D.C. In addition to having significant input into future legislative initiatives, the conference provided us with an opportunity to gain a wealth of knowledge from other retiree groups about how we will be able to improve the way we do business and our service to you. Some changes will be easy and in the next few weeks you will be seeing these improvements. Some are more difficult but imperative for our association reach its goals. (Bruce Beckman is providing a substantial report from the conference in this Newsletter.) Therefore it is essential that we see new leaders emerge from our membership. We have organized a nominating committee and will be approaching members to serve in a leadership role for the next year. All members who have an interest please contact the members of the Nominating Committee. They are Ralph Kolderup, Bruce Beckman and Bob Papierniak. Ralph Kolderup State Directors Wanted Your Association has adopted a State Director program. We are looking for State Directors in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Florida and Arizona to help with the membership growth, interfacing with the local legislative units and providing feedback from the respective states. Please contact either Bruce Beckman or Ralph Kolderup for more information. In addition, the AASBCR is looking for members who are willing to provide some of their time to make our Association more successful. Whether it is simply making calls, serve as a clearing house volunteer or attends Board meetings to provide insight, your participation is important. 2005 Plans While it is essential that we continue our participation with SBC management on retiree issues, more and more we see legislative efforts as the means to protecting retiree benefits. That is why we joined the NRLN last year and are building a state by state, region by region Directors network for legislative issues and membership programs. Based upon what we have seen through the eyes of other associations and the kinds of feedback we are receiving from you, size matters. We continue to reach for our membership goals and are extremely pleased with the renewal of our membership. If you haven’t had a chance to renew, please do so. One of our unanticipated goals is active participation with the NRLN on the previously discussed legislative initiatives. I believe some of our plans for 2005 will help us accelerate our growth and I believe these changes will be welcomed by many. We are assessing much of the input gathered at the NRLN conference (outlined elsewhere in the Newsletter). If it weren’t for the efforts of you all, we couldn’t have been able to gain the audiences of our elected officials. “Call to Action” List Server The NRLN is in the process of developing a “Call to Action” list server. While the AASBCR Board of Directors and State Directors will be included on the list server, no general member will be listed without their consent. More information will be available later this year. We will keep you posted. NRLN National Conference-January 10-12, 2005 The conference agenda can best be described as being divided into two parts, one that dealt with legislative initiatives and the other half that provided a forum for discussing ways to improve the performance of retirees associations for their members. The guest speakers included Litigating Attorneys Curtis Kennedy and Mike Callabrese, former Congressman Barbara Kennelly (Now head of the Committee to preserve Social Security and Medicare) and Ellen Schultz, Reporter for the Wall Street Journal. In addition, members of the NRLN Board of Directors spoke extensively on current and planned litigation and legislation. Many associations had representation at the conference. Of interest to us were the BellTel Retiree Association (Verizon), Qwest Retiree Association, SRA (SNET), Telco Retirees (Pac Bell), Lucent Retirees, ACE (ATT retirees), Detroit Edison Retirees and GM. Representatives from Pac Bell and SNET met with us to discuss potential joint initiatives when dealing with SBC (more to come). In addition to litigation and legislative initiatives, much time was allocated to discuss how Shareholder Meeting “proxies” can be developed and used for the benefit of the association membership. The AASBCR walked away with a couple of classic initiatives that may make sense when addressing SBC shareholder concerns that could impact retiree benefits. Three 2005 legislative initiatives: House Resolution 1322. John Tierney (D- Mass) has sponsored this bill which, if passed, would guarantee company sponsored Health Benefits for all retirees. This bill currently sits in the Workforce Committee. NRLN representatives (including Bruce Beckman) have met with various members of this house committee and it is apparent that 1322 needs additional restructuring before it can successfully emerge from this committee. This understanding is vital as we move forward during 2005 with plans to restructure it. Bill to modify “5500” requirements. Current SEC rules require companies to publish Pension Fund status only once a year. The proposed bill would require corporations to publish updates quarterly. Current rules allow corporation “free” use of the money within the year. The new regulation would better assure pensioners that its funds are being put to use for the benefit of them. A House sponsor may be announced shortly. Bill to allow Health Care Pre-funding. Current rules do not allow Corporations to “pre-fund” health care costs. This bill would allow corporations to over fund during the good years and allow these funds to be used during the leaner years. As an incentive, any “pre-funding” will qualify for a 15% tax credit. This bill is early in its development. In addition, the NRLN Board has decided not to take a position on the proposed Social Security changes yet. It was determined that the Administration’s program is far from complete and taking a position today would be pre-mature. One item of interest to us: According to members of the NRLN Board, at time of ATT divestiture, all pension trusts resided with and were managed by ATT. These were transferred to appropriate corporations. The ATT trust fund was over-funded at the time. Some of the legacy companies have not invested any money into their pension funds yet as the RBOC’s have re-assembled, these over-funded amounts have disappeared. While companies can use over-funding for various purposes, the funds from divestiture carried certain stipulations. The AASBCR Board has little knowledge in this area. Is anyone of our members familiar with this issue? Association Development discussions: it was apparent that most Retiree Associations have certain common themes:
The AASBCR Board is reviewing these items and plans to adopt those that are appropriate to us. |