1. No category

Volume 21, Issue 1
January 2015
MANASSAS CHAPTER
NEWSLETTER
NARFE Chapter 356, Manassas, VA - Organized September 9, 1953
Managing Arthritis with Physical
Therapy Treatment, David Sahley, DPT
Next Meeting Date
January 21, 2015
Hibachi Buffet &
Sushi Grill at
8121 Sudley Road,
Manassas, VA
Buffet Lunch 11:30 AM
Program at
12:15PM
For directions and
Inclement Weather
Policy see Page 4
Future Meetings:
February 18—Veterinary
Medicine, Joe “Chip”
Wells, DVM
Our speaker, Dr. David Sahley graduated
from Physical Therapy School at Marymount University in 2000. Prior to opening
Dynamics Physical Therapy in 2002, he
managed an outpatient orthopedic clinic in
Northern Virginia. Dave is an Orthopedic
Certified Specialist (OCS), a Certified Orthopedic Manual Therapist (COMT), a credentialed Clinical Instructor and a senior instructor for Maitland Physiotherapy Seminars.
He helps instruct continuing education
courses focusing on the spine and the extremities to his peers nationally, as well as
giving seminars on injury prevention and
treatment for a host of diagnosis to the
community locally. He is a member of the
American Physical Therapy Association
(APTA) and the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapists
(AAOMPT). In his spare time, Dr. Sahley
enjoys traveling, scuba diving, playing soccer, and spending time with his family.
Dr. Sahley is also the co-founder and Vice
President of Teardrops to Rainbows, which
is a non-profit that provides support and
financial assistance to children with cancer
and their families.
From The Chapter
President
A new calendar year is here and we have seen
the 1.7% increase in our pensions and 1.0%
increase in active employee pay. Next month
the figures will change when the new premiums for health, dental and vision insurance go
into effect.
We ended the calendar year with 337 chapter members. Over the past three years we
have had a 94 person drop in membership,
which can be largely attributed to those not
renewing their membership. Since January
2014, we gained 7 new members but lost 42
members for non-renewal. This trend not
only hurts our effort to protect federal employee and retiree benefits, but impacts the
budget of this chapter. Other chapters are
experiencing similar trends but many have
enough numbers to absorb these losses.
Therefore, I urge you to renew your membership when it becomes due. Consider the
different options, such as, two or three year
membership or dues withholding. We also
have to reach out to our friends, former coworkers, and relatives and extend the invitation to join NARFE. Application forms are
located in the National magazine or we have
applications with prepaid postage paid at our
meetings for anyone who needs them.
We are looking forward to continuing to
provide monthly meetings with informative
and interesting speakers. Please consider
joining us for future meetings. See you at
the next meeting.
David A. Doliber
President
Help Wanted
Our Chapter is looking for a member to
serve as our Public Relations Chair. The
primary duty is to inform our local news
media outlets of our meeting dates to have
posted in their newspapers and online. If you
would be interested in supporting our Chapter in this way, please contact our President,
David Doliber.
Page 2
Manassas Chapter Newsletter
Legislation Update
Ronald Bantom
NATIONAL LEGISLATION
The 114th Congress will convene on January 6, 2015 and has been expected to hit the
ground running. Between budget proposals,
the debt ceiling deadline, an extension of
the highway trust fund and other major policy debates, NARFE members could face
serious threats to their earned retirement and
health benefits early on in the new Congress. Now is the time to plan your 2015
Grassroots activities. (Extracted from
12/04/14 NARFE GEMS Upcoming legislative Training.)
Recent tax law changes, and some that may
come after the national elections, are likely
to have a significant impact on year-end tax
planning for 2014.
First, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (the PPACA) added
several key tax provisions for individuals
and employers, including a new 3.8% surtax
affecting many investors. Next, the Tax
Relief Act of 2010 (TRA) extended numerous tax breaks, although some were on a
temporary basis. Finally, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (ATRA) raised tax
rates, reduced itemized deductions and personal exemptions for high-income taxpayers, and established permanent parameters
for estate and gift-tax planning, among other
changes.
As things stand now, certain favorable
tax law provisions that technically expired
after 2013 or have been curtailed for 2014
may be reinstated, even retroactive to the
beginning of the year, if Congress enacts
new legislation. But the uncertainty could
affect your year-end tax-planning decisions.
It is important to continue to monitor developments. (Extracted from 11/20/14 NW
Capitol Management issue.)
As 2014 came to an end, seen in Congress
were some signs of bipartisanship; majorities in both the House and the Senate approved an 11th hour spending agreement
and a number of bipartisan bills were approved. While the House and Senate budget
agreement was far from perfect, it did honor
last year’s bipartisan agreement to limit
federal spending and we have reduced our
federal deficit,. It also removed the danger
of another disruptive government shutdown,
which would have hit Virginia harder
than any other state. Additionally, the
Virginia delegation worked together to
make sure the spending agreement protected many of our shared priorities.
(Edited from VA Senator Mark R. Warner’s report dated 12/22/2004).
Congress passed and the President
signed, a $1.1 trillion spending package,
nicknamed the “CRomnibus.” The package funds most government operations
through the end of the fiscal year. The
one exception is the Department of
Homeland security, which was funded
by a continuing resolution that will expire in February. There were no provisions in the CRomnibus negatively impacting federal employees or retirees.
Some news outlets reported on a provision dealing with multi-state pensions
and the federal pension insurance program. Some media described these as
federal pension but they are private pensions that are insured by the Pension
Benefit Guarantee Corporation, a government entity. The provision does not
impact the pensions of federal employees or annuities. (Extracted from the
12/22/2014 January NARFE National
Headquarters Gems Legislative Update
for Chapters.)
President Obama made the 2015 federal pay raise official for federal employees covered by the General Schedule and
members of the military, among other
feds. These federal employees will get a
1 percent pay raise in January. The president signed an executive order calling
for the increases on 12/19/2014.
Under new dismissal and closure procedures issued by the Office of Personnel Management on 12/17//2014, federal
employees who are on pre-approved paid
leave during a government closure will
no longer be given an excused absence.
OPM also, on 12/18/2014 was to notify 48,439 federal employees whose
personal information may have been
exposed due to a compromised computer
network at KeyPoint Government Solutions. (Sources for above three items
from Federal News Radio.com of 17, 18,
and 19 Dec.)
The Legislative Action Center at
www.narfe.org, is the one-stop site to
send a letter to congress. NARFE members who modify the form letter report
better responses. Reach the letter template
by using:
http://capwiz.com/narfe/issues/alert?/
alertid-62245936, President Beaudoin
urges every Association member to use
NARFE’s Action Center to speak to your
Congressional delegations.
Legislative Hotline: A weekly legislative message is available at 703-838-7780
and toll-free at 877-217-8234; posted on
the NARFE website www.narfe.org, and
is sent to over 80,000 GEMS email addresses. To obtain an answer to federal
benefits questions, NARFE members
should call 703-838-7760, ask for the
Federal Benefits Department; or send a
question by postal mail to NARFE Headquarters, ATTN: Federal Benefits; or
email to [email protected],
The NARFE BILL TRACKER is your
monthly guide to congressional legislation that NARFE is following. As the
year draws to a close, so, too, will the
113th Congress. When this Congress adjourned “sine die”, bills that did not pass
in the113th Congress will expire. Because
most of the bills in the NARFE Bill
Tracker are not likely to be considered
during the lame-duck session of Congress, the Tracker will be on hiatus until
key pieces of legislation are introduced in
the 114th Congress. Please visit the
NARFE Legislative Action Center at
www.narafe.org/legislationto check the
status of all bills NARFE is watching.
Contact the Legislative Department with
questions at 703-838-7760, ext. 201, or
[email protected].
NARFE is fighting against attacks on
Federal workers and retirees, along with
their pay and benefits, every day. But we
need YOUR help to make our voice
stronger. NARFE-PAC (the Federal
Employee & Retiree Defense Fund) is
there, with your help to help elect (and re
-elect) lawmakers who will protect your
benefits and recognize the value of our
service. A NARFE-PAC Contribution
Form is located on page 11 of the January
issue of NARFE magazine.
A new NARFE-PAC Toolkit is available from the NARFE website or by request from the Legislative Department. It
is designed to help NARFE leaders on the
federation and chapter levels to raise
(Continued on page 3)
Volume 21, Issue 1
(Continued from page 2)
funds for NARFE-PAC, the Association’s political action committee.
(Edited from the December issue of
NARFE magazine.)
VIRGINIA LEGISLATION
This month, Virginia delegate Joseph
Morrissey resigned in wake of conviction and then promised to run again.
Virginia is in for more spectacle, on top
of all the rest: a state delegate sent to
prison for corruption; a federal investigation, just wrapped up without
charges, that exposed a seeming bidding war over a state senator; and, most
shocking of all in a state long known
for clean government, the federal corruption conviction and imminent sentencing of a popular former governor
and first lady.
Morrissey had been in trouble many
times before: he has been jailed for
fights and lost his law license for nearly
a decade. So it was not a shocker to see
him in trouble again. The saga has
churned on in ever more salacious and
absurd directions, giving it a staying
power and a level of attention mortifying to people stepped in the state’s
proud image of political rectitude.
(Extracted and edited from the
12/18/2014 Washington Post Article by
Laura Vozzella and Rachel Weiner.)
Page 3
Previous Chapter Meeting,
December 17th
Chapter 356 held its annual Christmas/
Holiday party with 17 members and guests
present. Gifts donated by the Executive
Committee members were raffled to attendees and netted $135 in donations for the
Alzheimer’s fund. Canned goods, food
staples and grocery gift cards were collected for SERVE.
A short business meeting was conducted
with officers and committee reports. The
Minutes of the November 19 Chapter
meeting as they appeared in the Newsletter
were approved and the Treasurer’s report
was accepted. President Doliber noted that
January pension checks would reflect a
1.7% COLA increase and that changes to
the cost of the Federal Employees Health
Benefit Plan, which take effect in January
2015, would appear in February pension
checks. Active Federal employees can
expect a 1% pay increase in 2015. The
Congress has passed an omnibus spending
bill funding all government agencies, except the Department of Homeland Security
(DHS), through September 2015. DHS
will only be funded through February
2015, providing the new Congress with an
opportunity to challenge President
Obama’s immigration policies.
The next Executive Committee meeting
will be held at the Manassas Senior Center on Tuesday, January 6; all members
are welcome to attend. (Note that the
Executive Committee has moved its
monthly meeting from the first Wednesday of the month to the first Tuesday of
the month.) The next regular monthly
meeting of Chapter 356 will be held on
Wednesday, January 20 at the Hibachi
Buffet and Sushi Grill.
Mary M. Brandt
Secretary
Chapter 356 Membership
Report for November 2014
1 reinstatement
1 dropped for nonrenewal
2 transferred from other chapters
1 transferred out to other chapters
Welcome to our Chapter
Ernest Gaddy
Herb Thompson
Chapter 356 membership as of
Dec. 31, 2014 is 337 members .
Mature Driver Law Change Goes into
Effect January 1
Beginning January 1, 2015, Virginia
law requires drivers age 75 and older to
visit a Virginia Department of Motor
Vehicles (DMV) customer service center every five years to renew their
driver’s licenses. These drivers do not
need to renew their licenses until their
current licenses are set to expire. At
each renewal, they will have a vision
screening, which is the standard for all
individuals renewing in person. Currently, drivers 80 and up renew their
licenses in person every eight years.
Driver's license fees are $4 per year. A
five-year license costs $20. (Extracted
from DMV News 12/22/14 at
(www.dmv.virginia.gov)
Gifts raffled to attendees netted $135 in
donations for the Alzheimer’s fund.
Visitors from the North?
Just our President David and
Area VP Pierce Johnson
Food items collected for SERVE
NARFE Chapter 356,
Manassas, VA Organized
September 9, 1953
Return Service Requested
NARFE Chapter 356
PO Box 1682
Manassas, VA 20108-1682
POSTMASTER: - T IME S ENSITIVE P LEASE D ELIVER BEFORE J ANUARY 1 4 TH
C HAPTER
M EETING J ANUARY 21 ST

Meeting Location
The next chapter meeting will be at
Hibachi Buffet & Sushi Grill
located at 8121 Sudley Road (Westgate
Shopping Center). It is next door to the
Barnes and Noble Book Store.
I N CL EM EN T WEAT HER
In case of inclement weather, please listen
to the radio and/or TV for news about
Prince William Schools.
 If the schools are closed, the meeting
will be canceled.
 If the schools are opening late, we
will plan to hold the meeting as usual.
CHAPTER 356 OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES
President:
1st Vice Pres
2nd Vice Pres.
Treasurer:
Secretary:
Service Officer:
Program Comm:
Public Relations:
Membership Comm:
National Legislation:
Sunshine Comm:
Alzheimer’s Comm:
Yahoo Group Coord:
Chapter Chaplain:
Newsletter Editor:
David A. Doliber
Ronald Bantom
Blaine Stockton
Blaine Stockton
Mary Brandt
Priscilla Saboe
Jana L. Bennett
Gloria Donovan
Helen Brooks
Ronald Bantom
Priscilla Saboe
Marilyn Markman, RN
Gary Bowles
Richard Horte
Richard Horte
703-330-0535
703-368-2062
703-791-3881
703-791-3881
703-753-3954
703-361-1150
703-743-1597
703-361-4677
703-791-6737
703-368-2062
703-361-1150
703-791-4329
541-608-7307
703-368-8767
703-368-8767
Past President:
President Emeritus:
Treaurer Emeritus:
Jack Shipley
Phil Louer
Merritt Robertson
703-753-0143
703-754-2824
703-369-5348
Manassas Chapter Newsletter Online
Our newsletter is available by email through our Chapter Yahoo Group to group members when submitted to the printer.
To subscribe to this mail group, please submit your email address to: [email protected]. The latest
newsletter is also available at the VFC website at www.vanarfe.org. Go to Chapter/Area Newsletters #356.