Come, Join the Two Rivers Chapter

While it's true that PERS survived the 2009 legislative changes relatively intact, PEPB took some major hits to member health insurance subsidies. During the June meeting one member asked why we should continue to meet since the legislature isn't. At face value that was a good question since RPEN is not a social organization, but I was reminded almost immediately via a Las Vegas Review Journal article that the SAGE commission made some inroads towards changing our benefits and they are not planning on resting for the next two years. They were excited to have made even a small impact on public employees and implied that they would continue the attack until successful. Earlier in the session, I spoke with one of our volunteer lobbyists and was told that he had faith in MOST of our legislators, assuring me that most of them were reasonable and prudent. Our adversaries, which include some of our elected representatives, aren't resting and our State RPEN Board won't be taking the next two years off either. If we expect our State to honor the adage "A promise made is a promise kept", we must aid the watchdog efforts of RPEN and not leave the fight entirely up to others. Each RPEN Chapter must make efforts to overcome apathy and develop active members willing to join the fight to protect our benefits. It needn't be a full time job, but it is a worthy endeavor.

As previously mentioned, the Two Rivers Board will be implementing a few changes to encourage the membership to become active participants. We now hold meetings on the third Tuesday of each month, and will hold a 50/50 raffle at the door. One half the proceeds will be used for Chapter refreshments and the other half will be paid to the winning contestant. We will continue to schedule speakers who educate us on retiree interests. In September of 2010, Two Rivers is sponsoring the State RPEN Board meeting in Mesquite and we will be recruiting members to assist in the planning and registration for that event. We will also hold elections for our Chapter positions in the coming year. We encourage you to attend our meetings and be active in protecting our benefits. The next four meetings are listed in the article below.