AAFES Retired Employees Association Duncanville TX 75138 ...

[Pages:38]AAFES Retired Employees Association ATTN: Membership Director PO Box 380614 Duncanville TX 75138-0614

SUBJECT: Newsletter ? AREA Communications

To All AREA Members

We truly appreciate the support you have given the National AAFES Retired Employees Association! We know the quarterly newsletter is important to you and you have been receiving it via regular mail. The AREA Board is reviewing all aspects of the organization and wants to move forward utilizing the various tools available to best support the membership. Newsletters after October 2019 will be published by email only. The AREA board wants to get news to members more quickly and in color for easier viewing. Using electronic media also allows you to adjust the size of the text. Large print is always a nice feature as we get older.

Most current and future retirees are used to receiving information on line, so hopefully this change will not cause you concern. If you do not have an email address, please ask a trusted family member or caregiver to sign you up to get a free email address, such as through Gmail, Yahoo, or some other company. Many assisted living facilities now offer access to a computer via a secured network. Contact management on how you can use the computer to obtain personal email. Ask for training on how to protect your personal information with appropriate password protection on any multi-use computer.

Please ensure you keep your membership data current. If you change your mailing or email address, please notify membership@ so we have a valid way to communicate with you. The AREA Personal Information Update form is on the back of this letter if you prefer to provide the information by mail.

Recently AREA established a Facebook group, AAFES Retired Employees Association. News and information is posted regularly to keep you informed of what is happening with the Exchange and provide information that may be of interest to you. We encourage you to join the group.

Please ensure you have news@, newsletter@, and membership@ as "favorites." Some email programs may send these emails to your "junk" or "spam" folder. Changing this setting varies depending upon the program you use to read your mail. Many will allow you to select the email in your junk or spam folder and simply change the status, such as "Mark as Not Junk" or "Add as Safe Address" or you may need to add these email addresses to your address book or contact list. The Help guidance for the program you are using can provide assistance if you find the emails are redirected.

We look forward to your continued support of the National AREA and the Board will continue working for and with you. If you have any questions or concerns, please direct them via email to news@. News and information you have that you would like to share with the membership is welcome and should also be sent to news@.

Sincerely,

TERRY CORLEY President AAFES Retired Employees Association

AAFES Retired Employees Association

Newsletter

October 2019 Supporting the Interests of AAFES, Its Retirees and the People it Serves

AREA Board modernizes organization to meet needs of current and future members

AREA Board Meeting--13 September 2019

Left to right back row: Ron Compton, Jonathan Miller, Terry Corley and Marcia Kane Left to right front: Richard Sheff, Michelle Priester, Chuck Poffenbarger, Pat Weaver and Don Smith Members absent: Dan Tompkins and Daryl Hinshaw

(See story beginning on page 2).

FFlleexxiibbiilliittyy,,RReeaaddininesessKseKyetoy EtoxcEhxacnhgeanSguepporting WSuaprfpioghrttienrgs WWoarrlfdigwhidteerBsy TWomoSrhludll,wExidcheange Director/CEO

By Tom Shull, Exchange Director/CEO

The Exchange is working hard to meet the needs of our Warfighters, Veterans, retirees and families in an industry that is continuing to change and evolve.

Tom Shull, Exchange Director/CEO

This year, the Exchange has expanded its self-serve "micro markets" to bring more healthy BE FIT options to Soldiers and Airmen. More than 40 micro markets have opened on

installations, offering snacks and small meals that shoppers

can access 24/7. BE FIT options such as fresh salads and fruit, sandwiches and drinks

are among the assortment. These self-service convenience stores allow the Exchange

to serve our shoppers in areas on installations that are too small or remote for an Ex-

press, such as in office buildings.

(Story continues on page 10.)

Self-Serve Micro market offers Healthy Be FIT options

Page 2

October 2019 Terry Corley, President

AREA NEWSLETTER

The Officers of the Association: Terry Corley, President; Marcia Kane, Vice President; Don Smith, Secretary; welcome you to the Fall edition of AREA's Newsletter (Oct 2019). The Treasurer position is vacant. See page 27 for the AREA Executive Board voting members and Directors contact information.

Web Site: about-exchange/retired-employees-association/

AREA Board modernizes organization to meet needs of current and future members

How does AREA modernize the organization to make it valuable for current members and to attract new retiring associates? How do we recruit volunteers to help take AREA forward? These were the main themes of the Fall AREA meeting held at the Exchange Headquarters in Dallas on September 13.

Modernization includes the following efforts:

AREA will rely on electronic communications to keep active members more fully informed, to wit: (1) a monthly e-newsletter instead of waiting 3 months for the quarterly newsletter to arrive by mail or email; (2) the new Facebook page for AREA; (3) updated electronic membership directory.

Membership recruitment: the challenge to add members each month to reverse the declining membership in the national and local chapters.

Develop database capabilities to allow members to pay dues, update membership information, and so on. This will avoid having a person handling checks/deposits, data entry of membership changes (i.e., the member will be able to update their information directly, and so on.)

The makeup of members on the AREA board continues to change. This makes sense when you consider most of the work of AREA is done by volunteers. After all, we know that life "after retirement" can be very busy.

In this newsletter, we are including for membership vote a proposed amendment to the AREA Constitution that would add a new voting member to the AREA Board as Membership Director. We also have several other volunteer opportunities.

If you are interested in being a part of the AREA board, please send a message to me at my email address: president@ with your biographical information (such as prior AAFES positions held,

education, when you retired, and why you think you would add value to the AREA organization, etc.) Don't be shy, we need your talent!

A summary of the AREA Board Motions and other news from our September 2019 meeting is on page 4.

The distinction between national AREA and the local chapters is still a source of confusion for many, even long time AREA members. Some members have said they belong to a local AREA chapter for social reasons, but many do not understand the value of joining the national AREA.

The reasons why the national AREA organization matters are many, but here are a few of them:

AREA Scholarship Program: This year, 13 children of active associates/retirees earned a total of $43,000 in scholarship awards for the 2019-2020 school year. Throughout the lifetime of the AREA Scholarship Program (1985 to present), $827,795 scholarships have been awarded to 371 deserving children of national AREA members/active associates. (Donations to the Scholarship Fund and ERF are IRS approved as tax deductible.)

Exchange Emergency Relief Program: After receiving a request to activate the AREA Emergency Relief (ERF) Fund, AREA members donated almost $4,000 to associates who had an immediate personal need at the same time they helped the Exchange re-open operations and serve customers. Since this IRS charitable donation fund was established in 1999, $128,634 has been raised to help out active associates after a disaster.

The Community Service Award Program was developed in 1979. Nominations may be submitted any time during the year. See the AREA website for details on eligibility and why this recognition serves the goals/spirit of AREA. More information is on page 25.

(continued on page 3)

AREA NEWSLETTER

October 2019

AREA Board modernizes organization to meet needs of current and future members

(Cont'd from page 2)

Page 3

AAFES Retired Employees Association

The AREA e-Newsletter will be published monthly starting in January 2020. Members will receive newsletters via email, so please make sure we have your current email address in our data base!

Mailing Address: AREA P. O Box 380614 Duncanville, TX 75138-0614

President: Terry Corley president@ Tel: (214) 460-7472

Vice President: Marcia Kane vp@ (254) 694-9914

Membership & Address Changes: Send your newsletter address, membership changes, and membership dues to Pat Weaver , AREA Memberships, membership@ Tel: (972) 780-9810

Newsletter or Facebook input: Submit articles to: Jonathan Miller at news@

AREA Web address:

The history of these programs shows the value they have added to the lives of many. Beyond these though, AREA provides two other very important reasons why you should encourage national AREA Membership among your fellow Exchange retirees--news and information and advocacy.

National members get up-to-date news on changes to the DoD NAF medical/ dental benefit program and updates to other benefit programs such as postretirement life, Accidental Life/Dismemberment, and Long Term Care. They get immediate information as to any COLA adjustments before the December payments are made. This early information allows you to plan better for the coming year.

AREA provides a strong "voice" for AAFES, DoD or Congress on proposed benefit changes that will affect current and future retirees. The strength of that voice depends on a large and growing number of members. The best example of when the AREA voice was heard by lawmakers is when a law was passed to consolidate the DoD NAF's Health Benefits Medical/Dental Plans. Given the current direction Exchange consolidation appears to be headed, our role as advocate for AAFES retirees becomes even more important. (Note: on exchange consolidation efforts, we have no updates from last quarter, but be assured we will keep you informed.)

By participating in AREA you are able to continue friendships and your connection to the Exchange. Most of these personal connections take place through local Chapter events, however, the national AREA Facebook page is becoming the "place to go" for information about your friends and fellow Exchange retirees.

As a national member you will receive e-Newsletters every month (instead of quarterly) starting in January 2020. More frequent updates will also be sent out via email as appropriate.

If you don't get the Exchange Post, members rely on AREA for notification regarding retiree deaths of fellow national AREA members and those of chapter members we are told about. Some of these folks are your friends from your working years or in retirement.

Here is my challenge to you as a current member--recruit at least 1-2 new retirees to AREA every quarter. My goal is to recruit so many new members that we are "forced" to bring back the national AREA Convention. Not too long ago, the national AREA Convention was a huge event where attendees heard directly from Exchange leadership on a range of topics. There were also speakers from Aetna, Medicare, and Fidelity Investments, talking about matters important to retirees and their families.. And those who have attended these events won't forget the fun that was had by all during the organized activities such as golf, tours, and other breakout activities.

Watch this space for more news on this recruitment challenge. In the meantime, it's Oktoberfest season. To that end, I close with these words.

"Genie?e das Leben st?ndig! Du bist l?nger tot als lebendig!"

See the next page for revisions to the constitution and the inside back page of this newsletter for your ballot. Please take time to complete and mail by October 31 to:

Terry Corley AREA President

AREA (Vote on Constitution) P. O Box 380614 Duncanville, TX 75138-0614

Page 4

October 2019

AREA NEWSLETTER

AREA Board Meeting Summary

The Fall AREA Board meeting was held September 13, 2019.

Terry Corley presented the financial report for Jan 1 through Sept 4, 2019 versus the same period last year.

Summary of financial activity:

While AREA is still financially sound and our investments showed solid performance, we continue to lose money mostly due to falling membership dues and increased costs. We hope to reverse that trend with the previous Spring AREA board decision to eliminate the hard copy printing of the AREA newsletter and improvements to our membership information on a new "cloud" platform. Eventually we hope to reduce annual membership dues.

We discussed several ways to increase membership (and gather dues more efficiently) and we will share that information with you in a future e-newsletter. As a reminder this newsletter is the final "printed" version, but the good news is that we will keep you better informed and you will receive e-newsletters monthly starting in January 2020.

While we enrolled 44 new retirees in AREA (for the period of 1 Jan through 4 Sept,) we are not getting new retirees in the organization that we need. This is despite the Exchange paying for the first year's of national AREA dues. There is so much competing information given to associates who are being processed for retirement, it is difficult to get our message out effectively. Also, newly retired associates don't tend to want to socialize as much as current members who spent many of their working years making lasting friendships. This problem is one of our priorities to work on going forward.

The AREA Scholarship Program is probably one of the most important things we do in the national AREA.

While scholarship donations remain about the same as last year, we are still dipping into our investments each year to cover the total scholarship funds necessary. Without increasing contributions we may need to reduce the number, and the amount, of scholarships granted in future years.

We added the ability for a member to donate through our new GoFundMe website: areascholarship/ to hopefully make donating easier. You don't have to complete a form (although we may need information from you via email--see page 13), or send in a donation check, and your donation is still tax deductible.

Also, the Board is exploring an expansion of scholarships to include those seeking a Career Technical Education Program from an accredited institution. Chuck Poffenbarger is spearheading our exploration of this initiative. Watch a future e-newsletter for details.

Board Motions/Voting Agenda Items:

The Board voted to put forth to membership an amendment to Article IV, Section 2 of AREA Constitution: re-establish the Membership Director position as a "voting" member on the board. We also propose adding a new Membership Administrator position which is a non-voting member. The goal is to establish a clear distinction between what a Membership Director does and what's needed for membership administration support. The number of AREA board voting members would increase from eight to nine. A "quorum" would change from four to five voting members.

A proposal was made to amend the by-laws to authorize reimbursement of out-of-pocket transportation costs incurred by Board Members and Board Advisors to attend AREA Executive Board meetings (held two times a year). More of our volunteers are outside the Dallas area and they should not incur personal expense in order to volunteer on the board. The motion was approved with the following section added to Article XI, Executive Board Meetings, AREA by-laws as follows:

Section 3: Transportation expenses to/from AREA Board Meetings for Board Members and Advisors will be reimbursed by the association if one way transportation exceeds 50 miles. Personal auto transportation will be reimbursed at the prevailing IRS mileage rate. All other transportation expenses will be reimbursed based on actual transportation expense incurred for transportation tickets. Note: in our discussion board members agreed that actual expenses would need to be "reasonable," for example, air travel reimbursement would be for coach versus first/ business class.

Lastly the Board discussed the need for an AREA audit and succession planning. Watch for more on these subjects in a future issue of the e-newsletter.

AREA NEWSLETTER

October 2019

Page 5

YOUR EXCHANGE BENEFITS...

Benefits Q&A--Questions you ask; answers from Exchange Benefits

Q: What is the Cost?of-Living Adjustment going to be beginning with the December 2019 annuity payments? (and SS payments as of 1 January 2020)?

A: The official figure for the 2020 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) will not be announced until mid-October 2019. The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) increased 1.6 percent over the last 12 months. Watch the AAFES Retired Employees Facebook page for the final COLA announcement in midOctober.

Q: If a surviving widow/widower of an AAFES retiree is receiving AAFES retirement remarries, does the AAFES survivor pension payment stop?

A: No, if a widowed spouse is receiving retirement from the AAFES plan and they then remarry, the spousal pension will continue to be paid until their death.

Q: Secondly, is there any "grandfathering" in play when a widowed retiree remarries?

A: If a retiree who has lost their spouse remarries and is receiving retiree health benefits (grandfathered or not), they can add their new spouse to health coverage if they had "family" coverage at the time of retirement. This must be done within 31 days of the marriage event (Family Status Change).

Q: Could you get me an answer to a question that's been bugging me? Has to do with the DoD NAF plan metabolic screening tests. From what I see, the tests, weight, etc., are actually redundant to those done in the Medicare Wellness/Annual Physical tests. Why go through the tests twice? Seems if a retiree is meeting all the criteria, the credit should be automatic to be applied to the annual benefit. What am I missing? Other than Quest has a contract where they can get paid?

You can do both in one doctor visit. See option 3 below, taken from the Wellness section of the website. NOTE: Since option 3 requires that you log in, download and print a personalized, bar-coded Quest form, some people may decide it's easier to go with Option 1 or 2 instead, and yes, we realize that means two screenings.

You have 3 ways to complete your metabolic syndrome screening:

Onsite ? On this page () click on site screening schedule link at left to see if there is an event near you.

At a Quest Diagnostics lab near you. Use Quest location search to find one of 2,200 labs near you. Use this link only to find locations in advance if you wish. DoD NAF registration is only at My..

With your doctor - Download and print the Physician Result Form at My. to take along with you. If you need help downloading the form, call Quest Diagnostics Customer Support at 1-855-623-9355, Mon-Fri 7 am ? 8:30 pm CST, and Sat 7:30 am ? 4pm CST.

If you use option 2 early in the year to get the $150 incentive credit (per covered person) before you have regular office visits, you can offset your out-of-pocket expenses right away. That is, some or all of the patient portion would be paid out of your incentive "credit bank" versus paying the full cost (or at least up to that year's deductible). Having the same tests done a couple times of year is not necessarily a bad thing. For example, it's important for some to check their A1C (test used to determine diabetes) more than once a year if they are pre-diabetic. But if you want to sync the two wellness tests done once a year, you can do so with option 3.

Note: other participants covered by the plan do not have Medicare as their primary medical coverage (active associates, retirees under age 65, and so on). This plan provision provides them a way to get preventative care and actually get an incentive credit. This credit reduces their out-of-pocket medical costs.

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October 2019

AREA NEWSLETTER

YOUR EXCHANGE BENEFITS...

Benefits Q&A--Questions you ask; answers from Exchange Benefits

Q: Now that the Exchange Post is sent out electronically I can't find the listing of all active/retiree deaths. It does not appear that all deaths are reported in the AREA newsletter. I also am interested in the transfer of active employees. What is my best resource for this information?

A: The Exchange Post still list employee transfers, obits and retirements. PA receives a list each month from HR. The list includes everybody ? managers and non-managers -- who passed away. All of those names are put in the Exchange Post. Ditto with the transfers and retirements list we get from HR.

On the Exchange Post home page, , you can scroll all the way down to the bottom and see a link that says "Obituaries, Transfers and Retirements." Clicking on this link will take you to the link listed above.

Editor's Note: This was a great question and as a result, I am putting this link on the AREA obit newsletter page from now on so you can see all deaths, not just AREA national members or ones reported to us by AREA members/family.

When you receive mail with the DoD / Taking Care of You logo, you know it's related to your DoD NAF / Aetna health benefits.

Coming soon: 2020 Benefits Open Enrollment October 28 ? November 29, 2019

Watch your mailbox in late October. The annual Open Enrollment notice will give more information about the new High Deductible Health Plan option (medical plan with 15-20% lower premiums), and any plan or premium changes. You can always find plenty of information here, year-round: Editor's Note: since very few current AAFES retirees were not grandfathered with the AAFES-paid post-retirement medical benefit, this new High Deductible plan will not be something most of you would be interested in. However, if you are paying a portion of the premiums because you were not grandfathered with the benefit, it is a plan you should consider.

Aetna Open Enrolment conference calls for retirees: Call in to ask questions about the medical/dental plans and any 2020 changes. The schedule will be posted soon on the main page of

Aetna medical plan: there's still time to earn 2019 Health Incentive Credits Schedule your biometric screening now, so you complete it by the November 30, 2019 deadline! You can have your screening at any Quest Patient Service Center, or with your doctor, or at an onsite event (the latest event list is here). You must register in advance.

Phone registration: call Quest at 1-855-623-9355, Mon-Fri 7 am ? 8:30 pm CST, and Sat 7:30am ? 4 pm CST.; or

Online registration: go to My. with registration key DoD2019 Biometric screenings are just one of the healthy actions you can take to earn credits. See the full list at: . Refer to the schedule link in the left margin.

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