RETIRED EMPLOYEES OF KERN COUNTY
MINUTES OF THE GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING
September 14, 2004
The meeting was called to order at 12:00 noon. Walter Stewart led the Pledge of
Allegiance and a moment of silence was held. There was 1 new member. There were two guests
at the meeting, one being Dean Gardner, a guest of President, Norman Briggs. The table
numbers were announced and the members went in order after the head table and handicapped
members got their lunch.
Vice-President, Jeanne Berkshire, announced that the speaker for today was to be Barry
Zoeller. Barry is no longer working for the Board of Trade and is now employed by Tejon
Ranch. Jeanne always has a bag of tricks and/or games up her sleeve to entertain the
membership and she did an excellent job of entertaining again. I am not sure but it looked
a little suspicious when her husband won the game. Was there a little inside training
going on?
BUSINESS MEETING:
CRCEA – CRCEA Conference is October 18 – 20, 2004 in Fresno. Everybody is
welcome to attend with a $15.00 fee. Past President, Dave Merritt, will be speaking on the
Ride Across America and President, Norman Briggs, will be in attendance to introduce our
legal counsel. Other counties are interested in how we retained such a prestigious law
firm and what it means for us and possibly for them.
EYE GLASS – Helen Heath reported that she collected 7 pair of glasses and 3
eye glass cases since her last report.
SUNSHINE – Belva Jared reported that she sent two sympathy cards and two
get well cards.
HOST/HOSTESS – Mary Lou Bennett reported that for the month of August there
were 35 volunteers who worked 105.5 hours and assisted 1,322 visitors to the County
Administration Building. Mary Lou is still looking for volunteers to help with manning the
information desk.
NEWSLETTER – A reminder that the deadline is the 15th of the
month. By moving the deadline up, we are able to get it published and mailed on a more
timely fashion. It is also available on the website. Those who are reading it on the
website are saving the organization about $550 per year on postage and this savings which
is increasing each month easily covers the annual cost of our web page of $217 per year.
OLD BUSINESS: Helen Dodd thanked everybody who helped with the July Picnic. She
announced that we served more people this year than last year and did it very smoothly.
NEW BUSINESS:
NOMINATING COMMITTEE APPOINTMENT – The committee members are Opal Hargis and
Walter Stewart from the Board of Directors and the General
Members are Belva Jared, Kathy Ervin and Ellen Calaustro. The five members
were introduced and appointed. The Chairperson is Opal Hargis. At the October meeting, the
new slate of officers will be announced and you can nominate a person from the floor at that
time. At the November meeting the membership will vote and the new officers will be installed
at the December meeting.
COMPUTER DONATIONS – KCERA – KCERA donated 9 monitors and 7 computers to
our organization. Starting in November we will be selling tickets for $1.00 for a chance to
win a computer. Then we will skip December and start again in January giving the computers
away one per month. The $1.00 chance is to help defray the cost of parts that John DeMario is
purchasing to get the computers working. The computers are for retirees who will put the
computers to use.
President, Norman Briggs, announced that AB979 was signed by the Governor on Friday,
September 10, 2004. This was legislation regarding the ability to put the death benefit
into an insurance policy so that each person doesn’t get hit with 25% of it being
taken for taxes.
The attendance prize was won by DeVearl Forrest. There were 29 - $5.00 amounts for the
cash giveaway. After the distribution of prizes, the meeting was adjourned at 1:42 p.m.
Respectfully submitted this 4th day of September, 2004.
Ginger Mello, Secretary
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