SFRMA ANNUAL MEETING

Tempe AZ- Hosted by TSC
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2008

 Judy Teixeira, SFRMA President introduced herself, welcomed and thanked everyone for attending.   She thanked Janie Smith and Victoria Trujillo for the great job of organizing this meeting. Janie worked on the early planning stages of this meeting, including selecting the GETA trainer for the Friday session, Sonia Aranza.  Victoria took over the rest of the planning of the meeting including all of the last minute details.  This is the first year the annual meeting has been hosted by the TSC Representatives.

Victoria Trujillo, TSC Representative, introduced herself and went over housekeeping items.   

The Luke Air Force Base Color Guard commenced with the presentation of colors.   

Rudy Macias, Phoenix AZ TSC Manager, welcomed everybody and passed along regards and best wishes for a successful meeting from Cynthia Barnes, acting Director for the Regional Teleservice Center Operations, who was not able to attend.  

In the San Francisco Region, we have six Teleservice Centers who handle approximately 15% of the nation’s calls, which is close to 6 million calls per year.  These TSCs are located in: Honolulu, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Richmond, Salinas and San Diego. 

We have over 700 employees staffed throughout these six facilities, with the largest being the Salinas Teleservice Center with a staff of over 350 and the smallest in Honolulu with 21 employees. 

Most SSA employees are familiar with the primary role of the TSCs, which in answering the calls coming in to our 800 number.  But, we are involved with many other workloads that some of you may not be aware of. 

We have an Immediate Claims Taking Unit in the Salinas TSC that provide our callers with the opportunity to file their retirement claim immediately after speaking to one of our TSRs.

Then there are the three Operational Support Units that are currently assisting Field Offices throughout the Region with retirement, survivor and disability claims. 

We also have an ongoing project to assist ODAR with their backlogs.  Every Saturday for the past eight months, we have been sending TSRs to ODAR offices throughout the region to help them reduce their backlogs. 

And for the past three years we have been assisting Field Offices by working on some of their diary backlogs.  So, we are actively involved with more workloads than just the traditional 800 number workloads. 

There is one more project that we are especially proud of and this one comes from the Regional Commissioner and RTO Director’s offices.  For the past few years, the Region has been working with the state of California Rehabilitation Services to hire and train individuals with sight disabilities to become Teleservice Representatives.  The program has been very successful and we now have 15 new and productive TSRs assisting the American public.  And more to come. 

Before I go, I want to give you a little history of Tempe and the surrounding area.  The Hohokam Indians initially lived in this area and built canals to support their agriculture along the Salt River around 1100 A.D.  They abandoned their settlements during the 1400s, with a few individuals and families remaining nearby.  In 1867, a ferry service was established next to what is now the Tempe Butte which became the key river crossing in the area.  In 1879 a pioneer by the name of Darrell Duppa gave Tempe its name, naming it after the Vale of Tempe near Mount Olympus Greece.  Tempe is the home of Arizona State University and is the headquarters of US Airways and because it is landlocked, it is the most densely populated city in Arizona. 

In closing, I want to thank all of you for coming to the SFRMA annual meeting and I hope you find your stay here in the Tempe area an enjoyable one. 

Rudy then introduced Art Meza.  

Art Meza, Southwest Area Director, has been the Area Director for the newly constituted Southwest Area for 1 ½ years.  He has had a long relationship with SFRMA, first attending a meeting about 30 years ago.  The Southwest Area is the 2^nd largest area by employee count, the largest area by land area with 10 Level 1 offices and 25 total facilities, including two card centers.  His office is located outside of the Downtown Phoenix Card Center, the busiest office in the nation.  Therefore, he gets a real sense of what is happening in our offices on a daily basis.  Our goal as managers is to impart to our employees what we do for our communities and throughout the country.  With the recent election, the one thing that we have done for the country is to make an impact on the world; we elected someone that will be a symbol of the world, demonstrating free election and free speech, to serve all equally and successfully.  Art then introduced Pete Spencer. 

Pete Spencer, San Francisco Regional Commissioner, asked “How are you doing today?”  Answered “Super Fantastic” This is the response from the Atlanta diversity conference. Pete is expecting to host the next diversity conference in SF Region. 

He thanked all in attendance for taking the time to invest in themselves by attending this meeting.  He has had the opportunity to be in many great places while attending SFRMA’s Annual Meetings. He applauded the TSCs in sponsoring this year’s event.  When the TSCs were created, there surely was never any idea that they would later be hosting a meeting such as this.  He thanked Rudy for his presentation and the picture he created of the TSCs in his opening. He then thanked Victoria Trujillo for all of her work in putting this meeting together.  He recognized Judy Teixeira as a great president for this association and he is proud that she is a partner in everything she does.  He is proud of the Executive Council and thanked them for their leadership.  We have a great National President in Greg Heineman.  We have many issues facing us as leaders within this agency and we have a great advocate to address these issues for us on the Hill, Rachel Emmons.  As always, we must adapt to our changes to be able to better serve the American public.  We must continue to move forward. 

At a time like this,  it is even more important for an organization like Social Security to exist.  Due to the economy issues and numerous job losses, business losses, the losses in 401K plans, we are seeing more people every day due to these issues.  The American public recognizes that this program is critical.   

We must do the best for the American public. Our leadership matters.  We need to provide the very best leadership that we can.  All of our employees and the public are counting on us.  In Sonia Aranza’s presentation yesterday, she mentioned the story of Tiger Woods wanting to improve his game even after winning The Masters.  Region 9 management all wear ‘green jackets’, but we must continue to learn, to adapt to our ever changing environment and continue to move forward.  The times demand we give the very best we can. 

San Francisco Region’s logo is Diversity and Growth.

Diversity makes us better than we would otherwise be.  In our region, there is no majority among our population. It is our great strength, it sets the tone.  We are what the public is becoming. 

Our growth is partially because of the economy and partially because people continue to move to our region.  Our disability receipts for 2009 are well above any other year already.  He expects double digit increases in disability and more than double digit increase in reconsiderations.  The California State Governor has proposed to furlough CA State employees one day a month, change overtime eligibility and calculations and eliminate certain paid holidays.  The California DDS employees will be impacted.  The agency will fight hard to prevent this from happening to the DDS employees.  This is just an example of the challenges we will continue to face due to economy related issues. It is incumbent upon us to collaborate with various agencies to continue to address these many challenges.  

He is excited about the prospect of working with the new president. The record is clear that Social Security is viewed in a positive light and Congress will most likely be supportive. We have support from Commissioner Astrue who has given us a tremendous opportunity in doing things better.   

One of our challenges will be to provide all kinds of service in a variety of ways. Succession management is necessary. We will be faced with tremendous change.  We need to reload and reform to be able to serve the American public.  The commissioner is very active in having succession planning work for us, part of what we must do to be successful.  Think about what it was like when the agency was created.  Leadership matters and we have people like you to demonstrate this.  Thank all employees that work for you and the work they do every day.  You have recruited incredible people.  Thank them for Pete, Patty and the executive team.  Thank you. Provide the opportunity for employee’s growth and ability to achieve their opportunities.  We all have dealt with disappointment some time in our careers– learn from that and continue to move forward.  The American public deserves that.   He then introduced Patty Robidart. 

Patty Robidart, Deputy Regional Commissioner, thanked Pete for his remarks – he speaks from the heart.   

Patty had the many new management members stand up.  New members of management need to take us where we need to go.  With the 78 million baby-boomers, the increase in disability filers, they are on the way and coming to any FO they can find.   

The economy has its ups and downs. We now have more customers electing early retirement.  SSA has never been staffed at the level needed.  Staffing is based on completed work, not on what work is facing us.  But this is a great agency, an extension of our families.   

Our public changes and therefore our processes change.  She gave examples of the many changes to our processes throughout the years, starting with interviewing at our desks in the pre-FEI days.  Later we started teleclaims.  Disability by phone?  This will never work!   All changes were tough, but we did it.  Then there was the outrage of taking SSI, but we got up and went forward. We are the safety net for the public. Our business is not only to serve them BUT to serve them as they expect to be served.  We instituted appointments, kept the teleclaims and added the ICTUs.  And now we have e-Services. So many people use the internet to conduct business, it is expected by many to be able to file claims and complete their SSA business on the internet.  Not only do we need to go forward with these services, but we need to help each other out.   

First, the TSCs can help by obtaining email addresses of the clients.  Second, the field offices can help by also obtaining the email addresses and educating the public on services that are available now and services the customer might need later.  Third, we  need to continue to help each other in educating and offering this service.  eServices is an option for those who are comfortable, but not all.  We need to offer the option.   

Another reminder related to electronic services is to do anything and everything to keep the cases electronic in the electronic folder environment. 

You represent this agency through your diversity, your work ethic and what you do for the public.  

The session was then opened to Questions and Answers. 

Q: What is the prognosis of relations with AFGE due to the results of the current election?
A:  Pete: John Gage, AFGE, has already been in touch with Obama and has a letter of support for the agency on the record.  The National AFGE Contract will be negotiated and it is unknown what the outcome will be.  Preparation for the contract negotiations is in the works.  He looks forward to working with AFGE to make it a constructive environment.   

Q: What is the likelihood of educating employees in other skills?
A: Pete: We are the only region that holds front line conferences.  We need to continually look for ways to provide necessary training.  We need to let the employees know what we can/will do for them.   Patty added that we all need to invest in ourselves.  People need to demonstrate that they can make the commitment.  She pointed out that last year she really emphasized going back to school and obtaining degrees to all.  After Sonia Aranza’s presentation of labeling those without college degrees as not feeling valued, Patty thought long and hard about this.  She still feels that everybody  needs to demonstrate that they can make a commitment to continue to improve. 

Comment:  Rudy Macias mentioned that the TSCs have an RTO development program based on Pete’s support.  He thanked Pete for this pursuit.  

Q: Why is there no national media campaign regarding our online services?  Will the agency be promoting?
A: Pete: Yes. The Commissioner did not want to advertise until the new iClaim was perfected. PSA’s with Patty Duke will be done as well as advertisements on the internet will be done in the future.  A lot more to come after the rollout of the iClaim.  

Q:   Will there be any advertisement of our business services available online?
A: Patty: We are trying to expand our outreach to business services with the eServices workgroups.  Another expansion is to get an ODAR person on the workgroup to have all parties on the same page.

Comment: Abe Calderon mentioned that we have valuable resources in ourselves.  We are the ambassador for Social Security.  He wears his “Ask me about e-Services” button when he goes to lunch and it generates a lot of questions.        

Q: Will there be e-Services outreach to the national third parties? 
A: Patty: Binder and Binder is talking with SSA Nationally and are not working with the local offices. Greg Heineman mentioned that Allsup is starting to complete the i3368pro. 

Q:  Is it possible to have a template or macro created for the TSCs to obtain email addresses?
A: Patty: The only TSCs in the nation asking for the email address are in the SF Region.  We don’t have control of who is answering the call.  We are in transition and in the meantime it will be hit and miss.  A good idea is to include “promote e-Services” on our appointment calendars.  

Q: Is there any pending legislation to eliminate representative payee accountings on every account?
A: Pete:  Senator Grassley is a supporter of the payee accounting process for all due to instances in the past where it appeared SSA failed to be aware of certain problem cases.  There is pressure on whether we are doing the right thing. 

Comment:  eServices publications are not available at the rate we need them.   Flyers and brochures have been unavailable for weeks now.

Pete:  This could be related to the new iClaims rollout and campaign, but they will look in to it.  

Comment:  Having the TSRs add a remark that either the internet or email address is not available is just as helpful as obtaining the email address to eliminate the field office from requesting this information again.

Rudy Macias will review the policy. 

Comment:  Kudos to TSCs in the Region for obtaining the email address.  

Comment:  The e-Services posters provided to offices are also helpful. 

Q: FCIP has been an important recruitment tool, but has been challenged by OPM.  What tools would we use if it is not available?
A: Pete:  We can’t be found to be using it exclusively as our recruitment tool. In our Region we have also used ACWA to recruit.  We need to continue to look at multiple ways of recruiting. 

Judy Teixeira spoke of continuing education.  SFRMA will be starting a mentoring program.  She will be sending out information related to continuing education and taking us forward.    Sara Serrano and Rick Jackson will be helping Judy in implementing this new program. 

Sponsor messages:  Kelly Contreras – Hello Direct; Tom Bebbington – Long Term Care Insurance; Dave and Shirley Adam – Benefit Planning. 

Rachel Emmons, Greystone Group, presented the Legislative Report.

She thanked Judy and SFRMA for the invitation to be able to present this information in person.

This year’s election was a historical event no matter who you voted for.  We could talk for hours about what happened in this election.    But just a much on what the impact will be. 

She recognized and thanked Judy for her presence and participation at the National level.  She also thanked Doug Brown for his grassroots efforts in this Region as well as all of our members’ grassroots contacts.  All contacts are beneficial. 

With Senator Robert Byrd, West Virginia, (Majority Leader) stepping down, Senator Daniel Inouye, Hawaii, will most likely be stepping in.  This will create a good representation for this Region.  

She then discussed the Legislative Report sent out Thursday.  Refer to Legislative Report 08-2008 dated November 6, 2008 for further details.

A lot of the changes are tied to what is happening in the economy. 

What does this mean for SSA issues? 

Obama’s staff has been involved with the outside groups on The Hill including NCSSMA and AFGE.  Greystone group will continue to make sure to get to the right people at the right time on The Hill. 

It is still too early to know.  Things are still moving so fast. Obama is a better candidate for SSA’s issues in that it has been a lot easier to make contacts with the Obama camp vs. the McCain camp, but there are so many budget constraints, it still must be decided what realistically can be spent.  So even if there is support for SSA issues, there may not be enough money to go around.  

The Continuing Resolution will last until March 6, 2009.  Nine out of twelve sub-committees are funded at FY08 level with the VA, DHS, and DOD funded at FY09 levels.  SSA and Rachel’s group attempted to get an exception but the bar was set pretty high.  SSA must have been facing office closures or furloughs, etc. to be granted the exception.   

A second Economic Stimulus Package is expected, but possibly not until January, delay attributed to the change in structure in the House and Senate.  The bailout was not as much help as hoped for the average American citizen.  The next funding angle for SSA to consider on the Hill would be what workloads does SSA process that would have an economic stimulus affect?  The Greystone Group’s lobbying keeps the funding issue on the screen for the appropriators.  The goal is to get more money in a long term baseline rather than short term.    She is not optimistic that funds for SSA will come from the Stimulus Package.  Another issue related to special or extra funding is the condition of the National Computer Center.  Hill staff has been out to visit the NCC just to be able to see how bad it is.  They are attempting to get the costs of the needed NCC improvements/replacement out of the baseline funding and possibly under special funding. 

A year long CR is not out of the woods.  It is realized that SSA could not continue to provide adequate service at FY08 levels during a year long CR.   

There is talk in lieu of a lame duck session, they may just hold off passing anything.  Also under consideration are other ways of generating economic stimulus other than sending out checks, such as infrastructure projects, etc. 

What has NCSSMA with Greystone done for you?  All the behind the scenes action that took place in the recent past:

• Starting with the letter from Commissioner Barnhart addressing the possibility of furloughs and the efforts of obtaining the additional $148 million funding. Senator Jon Kyl, AZ, was holding up the bill. Rachel and Rick Warskinskey called Rudy Macias to have his managers make immediate contacts to Senator Kyl to get this pushed through. 
• NCSSMA testified three times this year on The Hill.  E-verify has become a big issue on The Hill.   The issue hasn’t been resolved so it will be coming up again in the next session. 
• Every spring NCSSMA brings in members of the National Council to attend 60 different scheduled meetings with various Senators and Representatives of their states as well as various Committees.
• Rachel had issues in past with the Senate Finance Committee and Budget Committee referring her to the other.  She then organized to have all of the authors in the same meeting to prevent the shuffling that was happening before.
• NCSSMA is being recognized on The Hill.  There was the victory with the FERS sick leave issue being passed through the House.  Originally it was a stand alone bill, but ended up with the Tobacco Bill.   It has not been heard on the Senate side.  Senator Ted Kennedy’s health has delayed its further consideration.  It will be on the agenda coming up for Greystone.
• They got other Advocacy groups, including AARP on board with our issues.  This has been a benefit since they are such a large group.  In 2008 there were over 225 major news pieces and articles compared to 115 total articles in 2007.  Why is this significant?  This helps at the lobbying level in keeping attention on SSA’s budget needs.
• They met with Central Office on the Agency Strategic Plan before its release, providing feedback on the draft.  Another meeting was held after the release. Commissioner Astrue has been great to work with.  All parties involved in the budget process are telling the same story which provides consistency at the national level.
• Rachel and Greg Heineman had a recorded session on the Radio – Fed Talk.
• They took the SPEG issue to The Hill right away in addition to the agency pursuing this issue through OPM.

The session was then opened to questions, answers and comments. 

Q: Was the ASP video shared with Congress?
A: Unknown. Rachel commented how well the publications with charts that are being produced by the agency for use with Hill contacts has been in general.

Pete: The agency needs to be continually updating where we are with our workloads  to enable ongoing communication at the local offices.  Having local management contacts with updated information would be very beneficial. 

Rachel agreed that local contacts are so important. Our contacts open the door for Rachel to follow up on The Hill.  Rachel will set up the material for you including talking points.  One point to discuss is the fixed costs eating up what little bit we receive each year.  

Q: Are local figures available of our fixed costs?
A: Pete will see if there is something we can provide.

Q: Any possibility in changing MED D to more traditional benefits like MED Part B?
A:  We have to choose our battles.  Baucus is a great supporter of MED D but also one of our biggest supporters. It is unlikely MED D will be brought up again any time soon.

Judy then introduced Greg Heineman.

Greg Heineman, President -National Council of Social Security Management Associations (NCSSMA) He stated that it is nice to have this opportunity to attend this meeting.  Judy Teixeira representing the San Francisco Region does bring interesting issues to the national level.  It has also been great meeting and working with past Regional Presidents such as Karen Sims, Marv Mueller, and Steve Korn. 

Is being involved with the management association a good thing or a bad thing for your career?   In his region (KC), it has not been an impediment at all.   

This past year has been active and challenging.  We have made strides working with Commissioner Astrue as well as Central Office.  It has been a great working relationship with all.  He encouraged all to share ideas with Judy who will in turn share with NCSSMA.  Rachel mentioned we work closely with budget related items and recently on the ASP.   This was possible because of our working relationship has been built up. 

SPEG: We are currently operating with the General Series Supervisory Guide (GSSG) which gives guidelines on grade structure based on size, workloads, etc. It has been used in the past to justify upgrades in various components.  One area we have been continuing to support is the upgrade of OS’s to GS-13 based on their duties.

Under SPEG, not only are these opportunities taken away, but we would also lose grades at the GS-14 and GS-13 levels.  NCSSMA worked closely with the agency, reviewing three drafts.  DCHR, Classification and the Agency have come to the same conclusion as NCSSMA.

The agency and NCSSMA sent in comments to the last problematic draft. The best solution would not to have SPEG and retain GSSG.  NCSSMA contacted many other agencies and they were impacted as well.  They then requested DCO for an update. It has been pushed off until the first of the year.  With the negative publicity, SPEG would have little chance to be implemented in its current form.  If it is, this agency has already taken the stand that they will create a single agency standard to protect our structure. 

Sanctions:  The new guide provided on referent powers this year was based on NCSSMA’s request.  It contains better explanations of friends and acquaintances as well as several changes to disciplinary actions.  The treatment of management with sanctions has been the elephant in the room when dealing with DCO.  He discussed a letter that was sent to Linda and the Front Line Special Edition related to the same subject.  The intent was not to embarrass any leader, but that we want the same consideration as bargaining unit rights, such as Weingarten. Linda indicated that if we (management) have any case that appears management has not been treated fairly or properly, NCSSMA will take this to Linda.  This is where NCSSMA will leave this issue for the time being. 

Streamlining of policy:  NCSSMA has been involved in many of the policy changes such as: POA, administrative waivers, QR, and eServices. NCSSMA supports having live help available with our online services.  San Francisco put together a good power point on best practices. Greg applauds this region for the efforts on eServices.  We advocate for people to have choices in how they conduct business based on what they are comfortable with.  You can’t predict who is comfortable with the internet. 

There have been many workgroup participants for NSCCMA including:  Marv Mueller (SF Region) -Front End and Facilities committee; three members on e-Services workgroup; DCO operating plan; PACS workgroup; eDIB workgroup; Cooperative workgroup.   Greg tries to rotate the assignments around the various regions.   

He asked that we encourage people to get involved with the Regional Association in any way they can.  We need a fresh perspective and new ideas.  The same as management as a whole, NCSSMA will be in need of new members as others move on.  Billie Armenta has been appointed as Greg’s Executive Officer.  He spoke about the involvement with committees including the T2 and T16 committees having to review all transmittals.  He recognized Billie Armenta’s and Barbara Groberg’s efforts in reviewing all of these transmittals.   They are thinking of sharing the transmittal reviews with other committees involved in this review process.    

Greg ended by saying the diversity and new ideas that you bring to the table are important to NCSSMA.  He encouraged members to consider being involved in committees or running for office either at the Regional or National level.   

Comment:  Pete Spencer appreciated the comment that participating in SFRMA/NCSSMA is not a career killer. He then acknowledged several members and officers in the room that had been promoted recently.  

Judy followed up with a comment that the Think Twice First Campaign established by this Region has been very helpful in getting ahead of the game and eliminating problems with the sanctions issues.  She thanked Pete for this effort.  

Hung Sa Kloeung, Bay AVP, thanked those who had submitted Resolutions and encouraged those in attendance to make additional floor submissions. It was resolved that any additional Resolutions from the floor would need to be submitted by 1:00 p.m., the end of the lunch break.   Resolutions should be submitted on a three-part form.  Hung introduced and thanked his fellow Resolutions Committee members: Rosali Velasco and Chy Vang.  

Chy Vang completed the first reading of the resolutions. 

SFRMA’s 2008 Award selections: Penny Baumann, Chairman of the Awards committee thanked the members of the committee Rosali Velasco and Doug Brown 

·        Communications Citation –  Pat MacGarvey, Center for Automation

·        Outstanding Service –  Carolyn Thomas, DM Victorville

·        Innovative OS/MSS Citation–Meli Incardona, National City
    and Shawn McKee, South Sacramento

·        President’s Citation–Hung Sa Kloeung, DM Crescent City
    and Richard Jackson, ADM San Bernardino

·        Outstanding Life Achievement  - Marv Mueller, DM Santa Rosa 

Carolyn Thomas thanked the Scholarship Committee, Liz Behrens and Marc McClenahan who reviewed 37 applications.  She acknowledged this year’s winner of the Frank Figueroa Scholarship, Alison Ahlgrim, a student at Northern Arizona University.   (The full text of the award-winning essay will be posted to the SFRMA web site as part of the annual meeting newsletter). 

Secretary, Becky Archer for Lourdes Esquer presented the minutes from the 2007 Annual Meeting held in Industry California.  A motion was made, seconded and passed to waive the reading of the minutes and then another to accept the minutes as presented. 

Treasurer, Miriam Marquez presented SFRMA’s Financial Report for the last fiscal year, October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008.  SFRMA had revenue of $75,303.53 and expenses of $68,578.91.  SFRMA has total assets of $94,363.20.  A motion was made, seconded and passed to accept the Treasurer Report. 

Hung Sa Kloeung, Northern AVP and Parliamentarian, went over the general Resolutions process. A total of eight Resolutions, with two received from the floor, were presented.  With no others submitted, Resolutions were closed. 

Chy Vang completed the second reading of the resolutions with Hung Sa acting as the parliamentarian.  (See the Resolutions Attachment for final results.) 

Judy Teixeira, SFRMA President, presented the President’s Report as follows: 

Thank you again for attending this year’s SFRMA Annual Meeting.  I hope that you were able to meet new friends, reacquaint yourself with old friends, learn and had fun. 

I’d like to take a few moments to thank the 2007-2008 SFRMA Executive Council: 

• Vice President – Becky Archer, DM Reno.  She served as the SFRMA Representative on the NCSSMA’s Labor Management Relations Committee.  She also had the opportunity to go to Washington DC to meet with the Senate and Congressional leaders from the SF Region. 
• Past President – Karen Sims, DM San Mateo.  She was not able to attend this meeting.  She served as the SFRMA Representative for the NCSSMA Management Structure Committee.
• Secretary – Lourdes Esquer, TSC Manager San Diego.  She was not able to attend this meeting.
• Treasurer – Miriam Marquez, OS Oceanside
• Bay AVP – Hung Sa Kleoung initially. We were not able to have an Area Vice President once Hung Sa Kloeung moved to the Northern Area.
• Northern AVP – Hung Sa Kloeung, DM Eureka – Parliamentarian, By-Laws Chair and the SFRMA Representative on the NCSSMA Disability Committee.
• Central Cal AVP – Chy Vang, ADM Stockton.  She served as the SFRMA Representative on the NCSSMA Staffing and Training Committee.
• Inland AVP – Rick Jackson, ADM San Bernardino.  He is currently working on a project/assignment in Baltimore and not able to attend.  He served as SFRMA’s Representative for the NCSSMA Automation Committee.
• LA Metro AVP – Connie Lofton, PAS Los Angeles
• South Coast AVP – Penny Baumann, DM San Marcos, Awards Chair, SFRMA Representative on the NCSSMA Membership Committee and the Service Delivery Committee.
• TSC AVP – We had Janie Smith and then Victoria Trujillo who both served as the SFRMA representatives for the NCSSMA TSC Representative Committee.  Let’s give Janie and Victoria another round of applause for all the hard work they did to plan this year’s meeting.
• Southwest AVP – Tammy Aguilar, Phoenix who took the position when Frank Cardoza was reassigned to ODAR in Sacramento
• Tri-Counties AVP – Sara Serrano, OS Norwalk
• Communications Webmaster – Rosali Velasco who is also SFRMA’s Representative on NCSSMA’s Communication Committee.  She also served on our Election Committee, Awards Committee,  prepares the meeting packets, badges, etc. in addition to publishing our Newsletter.
• Grassroots Coordinator – Doug Brown who also serves as the SFRMA Representative for the NCSSMA Grassroots Committee.  Doug also does a wonderful job coordinating all the Nuts and Bolts SFRMA Receptions. 
• Carolyn Thomas – Election and Scholarship Committees.  Next year we will have electronic voting.

She also recognized the following Committee Members:

• T16 Operations Committee – Yesenia Martinez Esparza, El Centro
• T2 Operations Committee – Barbara Groberg, Reno NV and now Debra France
• Chair of the NCSSMA T2 Committee, Billie Armenta, Phoenix who is now NCSSMA’s President, Greg Heineman’s Executive Officer
• Management Committee- Marv Mueller who also served as our parliamentarian but was not able to attend this year’s meeting.

What has SFRMA done for you?

It is a way of communicating. We are your voice.  We invite you all to become our ambassador for SFRMA and NCSSMA.

Network, network, network.  We were able to host SFRMA Receptions at the Bi-Area and Tri-Area meetings, Nuts and Bolts, Area OS Meetings, in addition to the quarterly Area Meetings.  During these receptions, we were able to tell you the latest news about SFRMA/NCSSMA activities and listen to your comments, issues, questions and even better, solutions to the problems we face. 

In February 2008, we had our ORC/SFRMA meeting in RO.  We discussed budget, staffing and training, early out, summer hiring, volunteer programs, new hire and management training, disability processing times, telephone service, ISBA, eServices outreach, HSPD-12, office hour pilots, PACS, PII, VOD, and Rep Payee Accounting programs. 

In June 2008, we have our second ORC/SFRMA meeting where we discussed budget, retirement and succession planning, USAS System online applications, technical training, supervisory allocations, overtime, SDW Cadres, policy streamlining, proof of age tolerances, DDS processing times, EDCS pending lists, electronic death registrations, 1-800-Medicare, workstation needs, VOIP, Security and integrity issues, SR PIN access, photocopy paper and toner purchases. 

I want to remind you to send in your questions, suggestions and comments to your Area Vice President or me.  We share the information that you provide with the Office of Regional Commissioner and with Central Office through NCSSMA.  We hope that you will be our ambassadors for SFRMA and encourage fellow management and new management staff to join SFRMA. 

As the SFRMA President, I attended two NCSSMA meetings in Baltimore, along with the NCSSMA Annual Meeting in West Point, NY.  During the NCSSMA meetings, we discuss national and regional issues.  

In the NCSSMA Annual Meeting in NY, the delegates voted for a one dollar increase in dues due to the travel expense increases.  This means that our recent SFRMA dues increase will put our funds back in the red in the near future. We need to recruit, recruit, recruit to help offset the increase to NCSMMA and not to have to increase our dues again. All of you can help us with that.  Please go back to your offices, ask your supervisors, ADM, DM, LDP Staff, ASC, ATS, PAS, ADO Staff, if they’re a SFRMA member already.  We also want to increase our ODAR membership.  We should reach out to our ODAR friends to get involved with SFRMA.  We’ve had quite a few very active SFRMA members transfer to ODAR in the last two years.  We want to have an ODAR membership drive and have them participate more in SFRMA.  This year was the first time TSC hosted the SFRMA meeting.  Maybe we can have an ODAR AVP some day and have ODAR host the SFRMA meeting. 

I can’t tell you how I’ve enjoyed participating in SFRMA in the last eight years.  I’ve met wonderful people who have become dear friends, I’ve learned so much about our agency, shared workflows and work problems, but more important, found solutions through networking with other managers while having fun going to different places in our region and nation.  Thank you for joining us this year at the SFRMA Annual meeting.  It’s been an honor and a pleasure to serve as the SFRMA President this year.  Thank you. 

Judy has created a flyer ‘The Top 10 Reasons You Should  Join SFRMA’ which she will be sharing with all members.  She again encourages all to be ambassadors in recruiting for SFRMA. 

Greg Heineman then recognized Dean DalBen for his communication assistance. 

Election Results: Carolyn Thomas thanked Sue Rowland and Rosali Velasco who helped in counting the ballots. They counted 287 out of 582 ballots that were mailed out. The final results of the 2008 election were: 

President  - Judy Teixeira

Executive Vice-President – Becky Archer

Secretary – Lourdes Esquer

AVP Bay – Peggy Francis

AVP Inland – Jackie Chapin

AVP Northern – Hung Sa Kloeung

AVP – Southwest - Shirley McDaniel

AVP TSC – Paul Chan

A motion was made and seconded to destroy the ballots.  Motion was passed. 

Judy Teixeira on behalf of Northern Area, announced the site for next year’s SFRMA Annual Meeting.  2009 SFRMA Annual meeting will be hosted by the Northern Area.   The meeting will be held at the DoubleTree Wine Country Hotel.  The meeting will be November 13 – 14, 2009. 

Judy closed the meeting by thanking all those in attendance.  Meeting adjourned at 2:30  p.m.  

The two grand door prizes of the day were then given out to:

One night stay at Doubletree Hotel, Sonoma CA – Kathy Coffin

iPod Nano – Ana Jimenez-Ng

 Respectfully submitted by:

Becky Archer for Lourdes Esquer, SFRMA Secretary

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