NARFE - Dulles Chapter 1241

President’s Greeting

Welcome to the Dulles Chapter of NARFE. Our members are located around the town of Herndon in both Fairfax County and Loudoun county Virginia. Our membership is divided between two congressional districts, the 11th to the East which is represented by Congressman Gerry Connolly; and the 10th to the west which is represented by Congressman Frank Wolf. Both congressmen are good friends of NARFE and fully understand the needs and importance of government workers. As a chapter we try to help our members understand and work with their representatives in congress with issues of legislation that pertains to Federal Employees and annuitants. We are a chapter of approximately 800 members . We publish a newsletter monthly, except in July and August when the chapter is dormant. We try to make our monthly newsletter informative and useful to members. We hold a luncheon meeting monthly except during July and August where we can get together and where we have invited speakers who can help our members better understand issues of importance. Typically we have members of the Virginia Assembly to speak in the spring about the recent State Legislative session and in even numbrerd years we will host candidate forums in the fall for persons running for the two Congressional seats where our members reside.

The dire economic conditions that are prevalent around the country appear to be driving people to look for someone to blame, and many politicians are only too happy to direct this anger towards federal employees and retirees. The mass media is only too willing to feature the mistakes by a few misguided federal employees, but seem to find no news value in stressing the productive efforts of the regular federal worker. To counter this misdirected anger, each of us needs to stand up and educate our relatives, neighbors, and the community at large about the importance and value of the work performed by the federal employees, the experience and education requirements to become a federal employee, and how federal employee and retirement benefits are funded. This information has not been very well presented.

NARFE national, has taken the lead in trying to articulate this information with the “Heartbeat of America” program. You can help by providing your story, and every federal employee and retiree has a story to tell. We became federal employees to fill a need and provide a service, and most of us labor or labored in obscurity to serve our country and the public. What would have happened without us? For example, would the U.S A. have been able to send astronauts and missions to the moon and beyond. Would technological developments that resulted from these missions be so readily available to the general public? Would there be an internet? Would imaging devices that now take digital photographs be available? Would the drug thalimide, that caused birth defects, still be in use? Would any drugs be safe to use? Would it be safe to eat the food produced in the U.S.A. and other countries? Would there be any water safe to drink? Would there be safe methods of traveling by land, air, or sea? Would you get dependable and relatively low cost mail delivery? Would there be any National Parks to visit? Would there be anyone to fight forest fires? These and other stories of the work of federal employees need to be presented.

We are proud of being NARFE members and are willing to tell everyone that are member, especially those political candidates, both federal and State, who contact us seeking our support in the coming elections. Please consider joining our group. Of our 800 members only about 40 to 60 attend a monthly meeting, but all get the newsletter either by snail mail or by e-mail. There is always room for more members and the larger our numbers the greater weight we have with congress.

--Bill Schmidt, Dulles Chapter President
April 2012

At the bottom of every press release from the national office of NARFE,
the following paragraph describes the mission of NARFE:

NARFE, one of America’s oldest and largest associations, was founded in 1921 with the mission of protecting the earned rights and benefits of America’s active and retired federal workers. The largest federal employee/ retiree organization, NARFE represents the retirement interests of nearly 5 million current and future federal annuitants, spouses, and survivors.

One of the great benefits of NARFE membership is the many discounts available to members. Just look in the back of your NARFE Magazine for a listing of everything available.

You will find discounts on insurance, travel, car rental, hotels and many others items. Also there are ways to earn more on savings accounts. Check out some of these and take advantage of them.