MWA Report for Membership

December, 2011

 

                After much discussion with FSA leadership in Washington, DC, your NASCOE leadership and Negotiation Consultants were able to hold their negotiation session with the items submitted from FSA employees in December, 2010.  Many good ideas were submitted and discussed with management.  Being able to have a face-to-face meeting with management while sharing ideas on how to better our processes benefits both the county offices and management. 

                Now is the time to submit your Negotiation items for the upcoming year.  The deadline has been extended to December 15.  ACT NOW!  Go to www.nascoe.org and click on Negotiations on the left hand side.  The form is now online and very easy to use.  Please remember this is not a complaint process.  When you complete the form you will explain what is not efficient or effective and what your idea is on how to make it better.  Let your voice be heard on how to do your daily work better and with more efficiency.  We will be holding our annual Pre-Negotiation Meeting on January 14-17 to discuss each and every item that is submitted for review.

                There will be a full Legislative Conference held February 6-9, 2012.  The 6th and 9th will be travel days.  There will be required training on the 7th and meetings on the Hill will be on the 8th.  Each state association will receive $750 to help with expenses for attending the conference.  I will get out more information on this as it becomes available. 

                With the recent VSIP and VERA, FSA has lost a great magnitude of years of FSA experience.  It is now more important than ever for states to educate FSA employees about the importance of NASCOE membership.  An organization is only as effective as its membership, and as we get ready to go to Washington DC to talk to Congress, the greater our membership, the louder our voice speaks.

                There are new incentives for employees to sign up for the PAC for the 2012 year.  It is a concern that we are losing some PAC contributors with the recent retires, however there are still many FSA employees that have never signed up.  NOW is the TIME!  States need to educate on the PAC to their employees.  You can get additional information or sign up on the NASCOE website for the PAC.  There will also be information available and help for any employee that either wants to sign up or increase their current contribution at every MWA convention this spring.

                Every office in the MWA needs to provide the NAFEC information, which is available on the Legislative page on the NASCOE website, to each COC member by their January, 2012 meeting.  There are discounts for COC full memberships and also for associate members by signing up in December, 2011 or January, 2012.  Any FSA employee can be an associate NAFEC member.  I paid my associate membership last week and I encourage each of you to become an associate member of NAFEC and also for you to encourage each of your COC members to join.   

               

                During the Fall Negotiation Meeting, Mike Wooden, Deputy Administrator of Field Operations, stated that he would support CEDs who request to get trained and certified to deliver FLP in the county office.  I would request feedback on this from CEDs.  I also need feedback on pursuing either a change to the current FLM eligibility (some type of training requirement) for vacant CED positions and/or a change to the CED eligibility (no initial training requirements same as FLMs that apply for CED positions) for vacant FLM positions.

                It is going to take everyone working together to get through the transitions that are occurring with the recent VSIPs and VERAs.  In addition, many offices are busy with work in Conservation, ACRE, 2010 SURE, MALs and many other programs.  If anything comes up that I can be of help with, please do not hesitate to contact me.

                I would like to thank each of you for your dedication to this nation’s farmers and ranchers.  Keep up the good work!

                Although it is important to work hard during the day, please remember to take time out during this Christmas Season to spend some time with family and friends.

 

Wishing each of you a Merry Christmas and Blessings into your New Year,

Charlene Neukomm

Your MWA Executive