It\u2019s the day before Thanksgiving, and I\u2019m already thinking about the
\nturkey and dressing, or is it stuffing? Do you have dressing or
\nstuffing? Around our house, we stuff the turkey with dressing.
\nHow crazy is that? But you have to admit, whether you stuff the
\nturkey or have the dressing on the side, that \u201cstuff\u201d needs to have stuffing
\n(or dressing) all year round. You can buy something out of a box
\nand prepare it on the stove, but it\u2019s just not the same! I\u2019m thankful
\nfor stuffing\/dressing!<\/p>\n
I\u2019m thankful my daughter is with Cheryl and me this Thanksgiving.
\nAlthough she lives only about 90 minutes away (she\u2019s a history
\nprofessor at High Point University), we don\u2019t see her in person very
\noften. We FaceTime and all that, but being together makes all the
\ndifference. Alas, our son will not be with us. He\u2019s in the US Army
\nserving overseas. I thank him for wearing the uniform and serving his
\ncountry. Knowing him, he will find a great way to enjoy the holiday
\nand eat some delicious food. It won\u2019t be turkey, I\u2019m sure, but he will
\nget by!<\/p>\n
Speaking of turkeys, I see where the President pardoned two
\nturkeys. They get to live out their years (I guess they do) on some
\nfarm somewhere. Good for them, but I just wish he would pardon
\nall the federal workers who were let go this year and give them
\ntheir jobs back. America runs on its federal workers, but in this
\ncase, America (the President) ran over our federal workers. We\u2019re
\nthe worse for it!<\/p>\n
As you know, the National Executive Board (NEB) met in
\nNovember. We got a lot accomplished, but there is still work to be
\ndone. The minutes will be out in the near future, and you can see
\nwhat transpired. One thing I will say is that we have allocated more
\nmoney to federations and chapters for membership recruitment
\nand retention. A shout out to the Kentucky and Tennessee
\nfederations for their recruitment efforts (in conjunction with Street
\nLevel Studio (SLS), NARFE\u2019s marketing and branding firm) over
\nthe last couple of months. They increased their membership by
\nover 20 new members, and there is still a month to go in their
\ncampaign! I urge all our members in Region X to increase their
\nrecruitment efforts and contact SLS on how to start a successful
\nevent. You might even want to contact Linda Heaton, TN
\nFederation President, or Steve Saylor, the KY Federation
\nPresident on what they\u2019ve done to help kick-start your own
\nprogram!<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re reading this, you know the Region X website (microsite) is
\nup and running! I want to give a shout-out to Debbie Fisk, the VA
\nFederation President, who is our Webmaster. She has done a
\nremarkable job setting it up and keeping it up to date. Also, we
\nneed to recognize Peter Eckhoff, the Region X member of the
\nConfiguration Advisory Board (CAB) for his technical expertise in
\nthe behind-the-scenes work necessary to get the website up and
\nrunning. Region X is fortunate to have them working with us!
\nI can\u2019t let this edition of Little Bobby\u2019s Babblings go without
\nreflecting on the Region X Conference held in Pigeon Forge, TN,
\nback in October. We had over 60 attendees who were fully
\nengaged. They made the conference a success. We had
\nexcellent, dare I say superb, speakers. We had some terrific
\nbreakouts on membership, advocacy, and IT, led by Bob Hardesty
\nof West Virginia, Doug Clapp of North Carolina, and Debbie Fisk of
\nVirginia. We had a great time, and we even have pictures! You
\ncan find them here on the Region X website! I\u2019ve even arranged
\nfor the group picture to appear in the NARFE magazine, hopefully
\nin March. As successful and fun as the 2025 conference was, I\u2019m
\nconfident the 2027 event in Virginia will be even more exciting.
\nVirginia, the ball is in your court!!<\/p>\n
I will end by saying 2025 has seen NARFE and Region X accomplish
\ngreat things! Together, we saw the end of WEP\/GPO. As
\negregious as the government layoffs, firings, and RIFs were, and
\nas preposterous as the government shutdown was, we are still here,
\nfighting to protect our earned rights, pay, and benefits. The road
\nmay be long. It may be full of potholes. It may seem like our
\nefforts are wasted, but NARFE Region X continues to lead the
\nway! NARFE Region X\u201318,000 Voices Strong!<\/p>\n
Little Bobby
\nRegion X Vice President<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking of turkeys, It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and I’m already thinking about the turkey and dressing, or is it stuffing? Do you have dressing or stuffing? Around our house, we stuff the turkey with dressing. Who KNEW!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2118,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"kp-content-permissions":[],"class_list":["post-2117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/99\/2026\/01\/turkey.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2120,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions\/2120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2117"},{"taxonomy":"kp-content-permissions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/region10\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kp-content-permissions?post=2117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}