December Meeting
The Officer Installation and Christmas Party were held December 14th. South East Area Vice President Jack Elrod and his wife attended the event and installed the new officers. New officers installed for 2006 were:
President - Dave Bloomer
Vice President - Irene Warren
Secretary - Hazel Hicks
Treasurer - Al Luna

Outgoing President Everett Leonard was presented with a plaque recognizing him for his dedicated service over the last three years.  Members also welcomed Sue Welch a recent new member who we thought had not joined as she was not on our Chapter report from National.  It turns out she had been assigned to another chapter by national.  This has now been corrected and we look forward to having Sue attend our future meetings and events.

November Meeting
New members attending the meeting were Lou De Nino, Teddi DeNino, and Walter Kelley.  Dave Bloomer reported on the cost of a chapter banner and the members approved purchase of the banner for the chapter which hopefully will be available by the District meeting in March. Members were reminded the Officer Installation and Christmas party will be at 6PM on December 14th (the next meeting date) and there will be no luncheon meeting on that day.

New officers for the upcoming year were elected at the November meeting.
The officers are:

President -- Dave Bloomer
Vice President -- Irene Warren
Secretary -- Hazel Hicks
Treasurer -- Al Luna



October Meeting
Dr. Sue Adkison spoke to the group on "Medication Tips for Seniors".
The nomination committe announced the nominees for the election to be held at the November meeting.  The floor will be open to additional nominees at the meeting in November.  The slate of nominees are:
President -- Dave Bloomer
Vice President -- Irene Warren
Secretary -- Hazel Hicks
Treasurer -- Al Luna
It was announced refunds for the Training Seminar cancelled due to hurricane Katrina will be issued in November.  It was not possible to reschedule as had been planned.  The executive committee will meet October 20th for planning of the District Meeting in March 2006.  Dave Bloomer agreed to look into obtaining a NARFE Chapter Banner for the Chapter, and will report at the next meeting. Janet Rinkel won the raffle prize, which was a bottle of homemade wine donated  by Joyce and Simon Bartos.

September Meeting
Chapter President Everett Leonard had some questions for members at the September meeting which led to some discussion by members about how to improve the chapter and gain new members.  The Chapter approved donating $50 to the Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund to help meet needs of Federal Employees caused by Hurricane Katrina.  Members also made contributions and the total will be sent to FEEA. The Texas Federation is donating $500.  The training seminar planned for Baton Rouge in September had to be cancelled due to Hurricane Katrina, but Region VI hopes to set a date in the future to try again.  Wilda Simms will arrange for a tour (no charge) of the Hindu Temple at 1150 Brand Lane, Stafford Texas for the Chapter at 10:00AM October 20th. Anyone interested in carpooling should make arrangements with members at the next meeting. Al Luna was appointed to be the alternate to serve as one of our representatives to the Houston Association of Chapters in the absence of either our President or Vice President.  The Organizational Meeting for the Association will be held September 26th at 9:30 AM at the Tracy Gee Community Center, 3599 Westcenter, Houston, Texas.  Anyone interested in working with the Association is welcome to attend, but only Chapters that join will have representatives who will have a vote.  Map

August Meeting
A good turnout of around twenty members watched as President Everett Leonard presented Adeline Sorrells with an Honorary Life Membership Certificate and card at the August meeting.  Legislative Chair Phil Miller reminded members of the importance of contributing to the NARFE PAC and had NARFE PAC pins available. The importance of contacting representatives in Congress about WEP/GPO during the next month was stressed.  The extra cover of the last NARFE magazine had on the back four postcards pre-addressed to the members representatives, all the member has to do is sign and put postage on each postcard.  PLEASE DO IT BEFORE YOU FORGET.  Five members plan to attend the Region VI Chapter Training Seminar to be held in Baton Rouge Sept 6-8. Members were reminded we were invited to the Chapter 1375 meeting on Wednesday August 17th to hear a physician talk on "Medication Tips for Seniors."  Chapter 828 has also invited our members to a Social meeting and BBQ on Thursday August 18th at Spring Branch Community Center, 1721 Pech Road Houston Texas.  Texas Federation President Pauline Belser is scheduled to address the group. A revised membership roster will be posted on the website in the near future (we are waiting for the July report to come in).
  
July Meeting
Members were reminded of the Seminar in Baton Rouge scheduled for September.  President Everett Leonard presented Adeline Sorrells with a framed certificate for Honorary Life Membership in NARFE.  Legislative Chair Phil Miller encouraged members to contact their representatives about the repeal of WEP/GPO and passage of premium conversion.  See NARFE legislative page (http://www.narfe.org ) for suggested message.    Phil also had NARFE PAC pins which were made available to members for a donation of $15 or more.  Vice President and Membership Chair Dave Bloomer  reminded members that Chapter 1375 has invited us to attend a talk at their chapter meeting in August (the Wednesday after our August meeting -- see Calendar for details) to hear a physician talk on "Medication Tips for Seniors." Dave also reported that it appears the Houston Association of Chapters will be able to be formed as five chapters have already joined and 2 more are expected to join this month.  An organizational meeting will be planned for the fall.  Joyce Bartos spoke to the members about the history of the railroad in Rosenberg and  the formation of the Rosenberg Railroad Museum. She encouraged those interested to become members or donate to the museum and provided members a copy of a brochure and the most recent quarterly museum newsletter.  A new member Helen Glau came to the Chapter meeting and joined our Chapter.  Helen moved here from San Antonio and previously worked for the Air Force at Kelley AFB. She retired in 1973.

June Meeting
The main order of business was the training seminar to be held in Baton Rouge in September 6-8, 2005.  The deadline for registration at $50 is August 15th, thereafter the registration will be $60.  Hotel information and registration forms are in the Texas Federal Retiree.  Sondra Weidensfeld spoke to the group about Senior resources and provided the Fort Bend Senior Resource Guide and other information.  Adeline Sorrells was not able to be present so the presentation of an honorary life membership to her will be at the July meeting.

May Meeting
President Everett Leonard reported on the recent State Convention in Austin. Resolution 05-01 from the Rosenberg Chapter was passed.  The resolution urging NARFE to improve eligibility for medical coverage of children till age 25 will now move to the National Convention in 2006.  Legislative Chair Phil Miller urged members to donate to NARFE's Political Action Committee (PAC) and had the customary NARFE PAC pins available for those donating $15 or more.  The NARFE PAC pins will be available at the next several meetings so don't forget to bring your checkbook and donate to help NARFE's Legislative program.  Vice President Dave Bloomer also provided a handout summarizing the entire NARFE Legislative Program for this year and a card which listed past legislative achievements NARFE had accomplished for members.  This is a great tool to help you convince prospective members to join because when the question of "Why should I join NARFE?" arises you will have some good reasons at hand.  An update on the Houston Association of Chapters project was also presented.  The website for the Association has been redesigned and is currently up and running at:  http://www.narfehouston.org  Members were also asked to think about attending  the Region VI seminar on Chapter Management & Development scheduled for September 6th-8th in Baton Rouge, LA. Early registration fee due by August 15th.  It was announced that Chapter 1375 (Southwest Houston) will be having a speaker with knowledge of problems of the elderly and multiple drug prescriptions and has invited our Chapter to join them at their meeting on the third Wednesday of August.  Specific time, place and speaker information will be provided on the website and future meetings when available.

April Meeting
Students from Gateway Prepatory School made an entertaining presentation on the Adopt-a-Mouse program which supports Down's Syndrome research.  The mice can be purchased for $21 on line at http://www.adoptamouse.com  New members present were Irene Warren and Barbara Schomburg.  Andrew Bedo a recent new member also attended his first chapter meeting.  Members are planning to attend the state convention in Austin from April 20th-23rd.  Bring your check book, NARFE PAC pins should be available at the May meeting.
 
March Meeting
President Everett Leonard reported on the District meeting. (See article below) The NARFE State Convention will be in April and it was the main subject of the March meeting. The Chapter voted to support resolution 05-01, tabled until the April meeting resolution 05-02, and voted to oppose resolution 05-03 unless it was  in a form that would not keep PAC donations from new candidates.   The resolutions were printed in the Jan/Feb Federal Retiree newsletter.  The Chapter agreed to pay for an ad in the State Convention Program. Seven delegates from Chapter #2030 will attend the convention in Austin.  

The Chapter also approved a motion to agree to join a proposed association of chapters for the Houston area and pay a dues of up to $30 a year. Whether the association will be created depends also on action by other Chapters.

VP Dave Bloomer presented a report on his trip to the NARFE Legislative Conference and encouraged any members who have not yet contacted their congressmen seeking their support of Premium Conversion and repeal of WEP &GPO to do so by email or phone as soon as possible.  Please do not write letters as they have to go through screening for anthrax and take too long to reach the congressmen.  Although our benefits are not directly attacked by the President's budget proposal, it will be important that NARFE members respond to alerts from NARFE should a budget cut be proposed in the budget reconciliation process.  When such an alert is issued it will be important that members respond by quickly contacting their congressmen since there is usually very little time before a vote is taken.  

District 7 Conference
Ten members of Chapter #2030 attended the Distict 7 Conference in Bellville, Texas on February 16th.  Attendees were urged to have all chapter members participate in calling their congressmen on March 1st in support of the NARFE legislative program. A toll free number is available to do so: 866-220-0044. NARFE will have members from across the country in Washington DC on March 1st and it will help if the members back home call to let your congressman know you are interested and watching how they vote. Let your congressman know you support repeal of WEP/GPO and want premium conversion to pass so you can pay your medical insurance with pre-tax dollars, like Congress and current employees can.  Members are also urged to help by donating to NARFE PAC this year as soon as possible.  PAC donations will be taken at the March meeting or can be made anytime using forms in the NARFE magazine or on NARFE.com  Members were also asked to consider attending a training conference in Baton Rouge September 6th & 7th which is intended to provide guidance on developing an active chapter.  The chapters were also encouraged to send in their delegate forms for the State Convention and review the resolutions that will be considered at the convention at their March meeting so they will be prepared as to how to vote at the State Convention in April.  Stella Ward was elected our District 7 Representative.

Sally Parker and Dave Bloomer  asked the Chapters to consider at their meeting in March whether they would agree to pay $30 a year to join together with District 7 & 8 Chapters to form a Council of Houston Chapters (or Association of Chapters for metropolitan Houston).  The proposed Council would keep up the narfehouston.org website which is currently in the hole financially and have quarterly meetings attended by representatives of each participating chapter who would work toward developing speaker resources, project ideas, methods of improving membership retention etc.
 
February Meeting
At the February meeting we had one prospective member, Barbara Schomburg visit the Chapter. Membership Chair Dave Bloomer also reported two prospective members for other chapters were recently given membership information and forms.  President Everett Leonard presented Martha Gray with a framed certificate of appreciation on behalf of the Chapter and expressed the Chapter's appreciation of Martha's twenty continuous years of service as Sunshine Chair.  It was announced Joyce Bartos has agreed to take over those duties in the near future.  Plans were made by twelve members to carpool to the District Meeting in Bellville February 16th.

NARFE's New Name
The National Office has asked that all members begin using the new official name of NARFE which is National Active & Retired Federal Employees Association.  This preserves the acronym NARFE, but more precisely recognizes that part of our membership is and should be current federal employees.  This hopefully will help overcome the mistaken view that NARFE was only for retired employees. If you know current employees please advise them NARFE is for all Federal employees with retirement plans to protect. Let them know of this change and encourage them to join now, to help protect their retirement benefits. The new seal logo is available but I have been unable to get the color horizontal logo.  I was able to get the black and white horizontal logo and have put it on our Home page.  When it is available in color I will update the site so it again has the color logo.


NARFE District 7 Conference
The NARFE District 7 Conference will be held in Bellville February 16th at the Seniors Center. Additional information will be announced at the January meeting.  A map showing location of the Senior Citizen Center where the Conference will be held is available by clicking here: MAP
The meeting agenda is available here: Agenda

Christmas Reception
Wilda Simms held an open house for members of Chapter #2030 at her home in Pecan Grove on December 15th.  A good crowd was present to see Wilda's many antiques and enjoy great food and friendship.  The Chapter thanks Wilda for hosting this event.

Officer Installation
Officers for the coming year were installed at the annual Christmas Party on December 8th at the Fort Bend Country Club.  Honored guests present were Joe Gurecky, Rosenberg Mayor, and Jerome Smith, NARFE South East Texas Area Vice President. The basket of goodies raffle winner was Eleanor Pavlok, a guest of prospective member Joe Thomason. Pictures have been posted to the Event Photos page.  If there are other pictures available you would like to share please get them to Dave Bloomer to be added to the website.