This NARFE Legislative Hotline, number 727 was released Thursday, August 26^th.  How to follow NARFE’s 31^st National Convention on the web is the lead.  NARFE’s Meet Your Candidates Month continues.  The next Hotline, scheduled for September 3^rd, will report on the Convention in Grand Rapids.

Daily Reports From Grand Rapids Convention:  The next best thing to attending the NARFE convention in Grand Rapids is the DAILY CONVENTION REPORT for NARFE members.  Each day there will be a posting of the same bulletin read by convention delegates.  Each day the NARFE home page, www.narfe.org, will have “DAILY CONVENTION REPORT” with a Click Here that will allow NARFE members to access the DCR .

NARFE-PAC at Convention:  Our Political Action Committee, NARFE-PAC, is the federal employees and retirees defense fund.  NARFE-PAC will have space at the Convention for NARFE members to make a first or further NARFE-PAC contribution.  Chris Farrell is expecting the generous response to President Baptiste March letter to continue.  Farrell will have NARFE-PAC lapel pins, forms and table signs available.  The annuity you save may be your own.

“Meet Your Candidates Month” Continues:  Executing multi-chapter, multi-candidate forums continues around the country.  Although “Meet Your Candidates Month” runs through Labor Day, we encourage you to hold forums or meetings with your local congressional candidates whenever they are available, now through election day, November 2^nd.  Copies of the planning memo and support documents including NARFE’s “Candidate Questionnaire” and “Fiscal Commission Talking Points” are posted for NARFE members on our web site.  Chapter officers may want to provide copies to their members. (On the Legislation home page, use the colorful Meet Your Candidates Month “CLICK HERE” for all supporting materials.)

Report Meetings with Your Lawmakers:  NARFE member feedback from any meetings or forums with any Member of Congress during “Meet Your Candidates Month” provides exclusive and critical intelligence.  Because this feedback is so vital, www.NARFE.org has added a feature to our Legislative Action Center which allows you to make online reports on your meetings with lawmakers. 

Using www.NARFE.org To Provide Feedback:  Here’s how you do it:  (1) log into the Members Section of the NARFE website www.narfe.org, (2) click the “Department” button on the top of the page and a menu of all the NARFE Departments will drop down, (3) click on “Legislation” to visit our department’s page, (4) scroll down to the bottom of the Legislative page and click on “REPORT MEETINGS WITH LAWMAKERS,” (5) this will take you to our Legislative Action Center, where you will find a “Advocacy Activity Form,” (6) complete the form and then click on the “Proceed” button on the bottom of the page, (7) then you will be asked to check off which lawmaker you contacted, (8) the final form will list the lawmaker’s name at the top of the page, another block is for the date of your meeting and then you can summarize, in 4000 characters of less, your meeting in “comments” box.  (The direct path to our “Advocate Activity Form” is:

http://www.capwiz.com/narfe/lrm/feedback.tt)

Who, What, When, Where and Why:  Let us know who you have met with – the member of Congress and/or their staff - and the subjects discussed at your meeting, any commitments made by the legislator or staff and anything you or your NARFE colleagues are doing to follow up on the meeting (e.g. providing information requested, asking if staff checked with lawmaker on a NARFE request, etc.)  (Phone text: Members unable to report online should send a written report to chapter, federation and regional NARFE leaders and the NARFE Legislative Department, 606 N Washington St, Alexandria VA 22314-1914 or phone the Legislative Department, 703/838-7760 x267).

Obtaining the Hotline:  Thank you for using the Hotline.  This weekly legislative message is available to telephone callers (703/838-7780 and toll free at 1-877-217-8234), posted on NARFE's Internet site, www.narfe.org, made available to NARFE-Net Coordinators; and sent to over 53,000 GEMS e-mail addresses.  Each delivery channel is a service of NARFE, the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.