VRTA Spotlight

In this Email:

A Message From the VRTA President
VRTA Member Benefits Information
Today's Interest Rates
Six Important Uses for Life Insurance
Let's Broaden Our Advocacy
Important VRTA Dates to Remember

March 2025

A Message from YOUR VRTA President, Karen Whetzel -

Moving Forward Together!

The VRTA Spring 2025 Delegate Assembly will be held on Tuesday, April 29 and Wednesday 30, 2025, at the Doubletree in Midlothian, Virginia. The Executive Committee will meet at 5 pm on Monday, April 28. The deadline for both the hotel registration and the VRTA registration is April 5. The registration form is posted on the website vrta.us and is included in the VRTA printed newsletter! The hotel link is available now: HOTEL LINK Please book your rooms using the online link if possible. If calling to reserve your room, use Doubletree central reservations at 1-800-548-8690, and use the code 90S. Do not book through other agencies or you won’t get the discounted rate. If you are told that no rooms are available in the block, contact me at 540-740-8589 or email me at kswhetzel@gmail.com. I may be able to add a few rooms, but we can’t hold too many or we pay for any not booked.

District Presidents and Committee Chairs are voting members of the VRTA Board of Directors which will meet on Tuesday, April 29, at 9 am. Please arrive early enough to register before the meeting!

One important item of discussion for both the Board of Directors and the Delegate Assembly is the printed/mailed VRTA newsletters which cost almost $15,000 per year to print and mail out. The Executive Committee voted to recommend that the print newsletter which is now mailed out will be distributed electronically only, with the final print issue being mailed in Fall, 2025, with notice that this will be the last paper copy printed, and future newsletters will be published on vrta.us.

Four breakout sessions are planned for Tuesday afternoon, and will be repeated once. The Legislative and Membership Committees will present “Using the new VRTA Benefits Seminar to Attract and Retain New Members.” The Legislative Committee will present “Reflections and Perspectives: A Discussion with Members on the work of the Legislative Committee.” Dave Palanzi, President of the Loudoun Retired Educators Association, will present a breakout session “Cracking the Code: What Do Members Want?” Joyce Williams, President of AARP Virginia and VRTA volunteers with AARP will do a session for districts and local units on working with AARP. Descriptions of each breakout session will be included in the packet received at registration.

On Tuesday night, Committee Chats will be held at which members can learn about what committees do, as well as make suggestions to committees (for example, bylaw changes can be given to the Bylaws and Structure Committee). It will also be a time to meet your officers.

On Wednesday, the Virginia Retirement System presentation will be done by VRS staff. (This is always one of the most popular things at each state meeting! An inspirational talk will be given by Tom Allen, editor of the VEA Journal, who has published two books based on his newspaper columns.

The final thing happening at the 2025 Spring Delegate Assembly is the Delegate Assembly, which will vote on the budget as well as other important business for VRTA. According to the bylaws Article VII Section A: “Voting members of the Delegate Assembly shall be members of the Executive Committee, district presidents, and two delegates from each local unit. If a local unit has over 100 VRTA members, it shall have an additional delegate for each 50 VRTA members or fraction thereof. All voting delegates to the Spring Delegate Assembly shall be members of the VRTA.” (The VRTA bylaws are on the website vrta.us for reference.) Be sure your local sends voting delegates! Local presidents: send delegate names to me by April 5.

Thanks to everyone who has contacted me to offer me support, answer questions, make suggestions, or express concerns! Continue to reach out to me at kswhetzel@gmail.com, 540-740-8589, or Facebook Karen Whetzel VRTA President if you have questions, suggestions, or concerns!

Our vision: All retired school personnel will be safe, productive, informed and financially secure in retirement.

Our mission: to be the voice, resource, and connection for all retired school personnel.

Karen Whetzel

VRTA President

Phone: 540-740-8589

Email: kswhetzel@gmail.com

Scan the QR code on your smartphone or click it to look at Karen Whetzel's VRTA President's page!

If you ever wonder what it means to have VRTA benefits? Visit the website – vrtabenefits.org to see what benefits are available to you.

Phone (540) 722-2529

Toll-Free (800) 467 5425

Email: savenow@creeksideadvisors.net

Troy Newbraugh

540-722-2529 ext.202

troyn@creeksideadvisors.net

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LET’S BROADEN OUR ADVOCACY

VRTA’s advocacy focuses on issues that affect education, children, the health and well-being of retired teachers, and retirement issues, mainly within the state. However, actions on the federal level recently have made it evident that our advocacy must not ignore activities that directly affect us. We are grateful that AARP, with approximately 38 million members, 850,000 of whom are NRTA members, are representing us by lobbying Congress and the Administration. Last week AARP issued a public statement saying they have “heard from thousands of older Americans confused and concerned about their Social Security payments…” We thousands of retirees must support their efforts by contacting our congressmen ourselves!

That may not be as easy as it once was. Every congressman has a website with a convenient email form. A constituent of my 6th District Congressman was told by a local office staff person that they don’t monitor those. This flippant attitude makes one wonder if they read letters or have phone calls accurately relayed to them. Trust, like many other valuable intangibles, is hard to get back once it’s lost. But this must not be an excuse for not trying to make our voices heard! Surely, this is not general practice.

Across the state, there have been demonstrations at the offices of congressmen. Anyone physically able should participate. Some are held in large areas where attendees are seated. The House leadership has told congressmen not to hold town halls because of the many complaints they have gotten. Most congressmen schedule office hours to hear personal requests from constituents. Drop in at one of these open-office hours and take a letter about your concern to be given to the congressman as well as discuss it with staff. Go individually or with someone, but not more than three or four at a time. This method makes it more difficult for the congressman to brush these voices off by insultingly claiming they are paid activists. Numbers are important. Perhaps a stream of people to the office would be as important as a large gathering of protesters.

Last week the Social Security Administration announced plans for a “massive restructuring of its operations that will include significant workforce reductions.” It set a target of reducing its staff from 57,000 employees to 50,000, a 12% cut. We have been told that Social Security will not be touched, but such a reduction in staff seems like more than a touch for an agency whose workforce will be cut by 7,000 while there is a growing customer base requiring services. Backlogs and wait times are increasing. Hold times for callers to the SSA’s national 800 line have averaged 40 minutes and wait time on an application for disability benefits is over seven months, and more than 1 million such claims are pending.

Because of the strong economy of the last couple years, the trustees of the SS program reported last May that the SS trust fund reserves would be depleted in 2035, one year later than the forecast the previous year. That doesn’t mean there will be no money at all to pay benefits. The trust fund reserves, currently $2.78 trillion, would be depleted, and the program would be funded only by the payroll taxes, which would only be enough cash to pay 83% of what the benefit should be. That is equivalent to a 17% cut in benefits.

There is no single fix to funding Social Security. However, there are several improvements that could be made, all of which require that Congress make it a priority and have the political will to do the right thing for the people. Allowing people who have no understanding of the Social Security programs, the information technology in use, or respect for the purpose of the programs, to arbitrarily slash staff and demand access to the most sensitive personal data of American citizens will produce even more problems. Giving false information and misinterpretation of facts, exaggeration and fearmongering never produce positive results. All the congressmen will say they want to protect Social Security. We must ask them how.

Bea Morris

VRTA Legislative Co-Chairperson

Email: beam1340@verizon.net

Important VRTA Dates to Remember

Saturday, March 1, 2025: Deadline for submitting applications for new units or districts to join VRTA IRS umbrella.

Saturday, March 1, 2025: Deadline for submitting name/address changes for IRS e-file contact person to VRTA Treasurer who reports to IRS.

Monday, March 10, 2025: Deadline for Spring Newsletter articles

Saturday, April 5, 2025: Deadline for hotel and spring conference registration. Check vrta.us for registration information.

Tuesday, April 29, and Wednesday, April 30, 2025 - VRTA Spring Delegate Assembly at the Doubletree by Hilton in Midlothian, VA.

Tuesday, September 16, and Wednesday, September 17, 2025: VRTA Fall Conference: at the Doubletree by Hilton in Midlothian, Virginia. (The Executive Committee will meet Monday, September 15, 2025.)