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NEWSLETTER – FEBRUARY, 2010
2010 MID-YEAR SEMINARS AND BOARD MEETING Registration information was sent out in early December regarding this year’s Mid-Year. To date, very few responses have been received here in the State Lodge. The cutoff date for hotel reservations is 5:00 p.m. Monday, January 18, 2010, so time is running out! Also, please make sure your lodge sends in registration forms to the State Lodge by the cutoff date of February 1, 2010. This year’s meeting will be held Friday, February 19 through Sunday, February 21 at the Courtyard by Marriott located at 11 Monroe Avenue NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49503. Their telephone number is: 616-242-6000. The room rate is $99 per night plus taxes and parking is $11.00 per day. A block of rooms is being held, so be sure to mention the Fraternal Order of Police when you call.
As a reminder, Friday night (February 19), the Grand Rapids Griffins hockey team is sponsoring a Law Enforcement Night.” This is a charity event, so a portion of every ticket purchased on behalf of the FOP will go to support the Michigan Law Enforcement Memorial Monument. Attached is another copy of the notice regarding this event.
We have invited the Attorney General candidates. This is your opportunity to come and hear what they have to say and to ask questions.
SUPER RAFFLE As of today, only 1,940 tickets (of the 9,119 issued tickets) have been sold and returned for January’s drawing! PLEASE get your sold tickets back to the State Lodge ASAP as the first drawing for the 2010 raffle will be on January 28.
The closeout date for this year’s raffle is March 1, 2010. ALL paperwork, sold and unsold tickets must be received at the State Lodge by that date.
MICHIGAN FOP FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN The Michigan FOP has entered into an agreement with Corporations for Character (C4C) to solicit donations from the public to support the programs of the FOP. The money generated by this statewide campaign is used to fund the programs of the organization. Our statewide 8th grade essay contest, police officer of the year as well as the financial assistance we provide for the families of officers killed in the line of duty are paid for with the money raised by C4C through this fundraising campaign. In addition to these programs, the FOP also uses a portion of the monies raised to support Special Olympics and to financially assist our local lodges in support of charities and youth activities in local communities.
If you have any questions regarding C4C or would like additional information regarding our fundraising program, please call the State Lodge or e-mail us at mifop@aol.com.
2010 STATE CONFERENCE This year’s Conference will be held at the Marriott Detroit at the Renaissance Center, Renaissance Center, Detroit, MI 48243, (313) 568-8000 from Friday, June 25 through Sunday, June 27, 2010. As in recent years, the Conference will begin with the Memorial Service which will be held around noon on Friday and conclude following the Board Meeting on Sunday. Mark your calendars! More information will be available at the Mid-Year meeting next month.
F.O.P. LICENSE PLATES Efforts to “weed out” illegal FOP plate owners seem to be progressing well. We continue to receive emails from the Secretary of State regarding renewal requests for FOP license plates. When we first started this process, the majority of the names of plate holders were not FOP members. Now, however, about 75% of the names on these lists are current FOP members! So, the word seems to be getting around that unless you are a dues-paying member of the FOP that you are NOT getting an FOP license plate.
Note to Secretaries: It is extremely important to get your new members onto the State or Grand Lodge rosters as soon as possible. We are running into the problem of some secretaries holding off on paying dues for new members until the May and November Per Capita payments are due. Dues need to be paid as soon as new members join! Otherwise, if a new member applies for a license plate and dues are not received by the State Lodge, we deny the request from the Secretary of State as the person’s name does not appear on either the State or National roster. Then, the SOS sends the member a regular Michigan plate and a denial letter stating that FOP records show they are not a member of the FOP and gives them 30 days to prove they ARE a member of the FOP. They then call the State Lodge, we then have to call the local lodge secretary to verify they are a member, then payment MUST be received in the State Lodge prior to our notifying the SOS that, yes, this person is a member. It just makes a lot more work for the State Lodge and frustration for the member who paid his dues to the local secretary, but that payment was being held until the next Per Capita comes due.
As a reminder, all Active, Associate and Auxiliary members are entitled to have an FOP license plate. Members that are granted retiree, honorary or life status by their local lodge but do not pay Per Capita dues do NOT appear on the State/National roster. Only members that are in good standing are entitled to have an FOP license plate. In order to be in good standing a member’s per capita must be up to date and his/her name must appear on the lodge roster as a member.
Please make all of your members aware that, ONLY MEMBERS OF THE FOP are entitled to have an FOP license plate. Wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, children and parents are not eligible to have the plate unless they are associate or auxiliary members or unless the vehicle is registered to the FOP member.
PLEASE MAKE YOUR ROOM RESERVATIONS AND REGISTER WITH THE STATE LODGE FOR THE MID-YEAR ASAP! Looking forward to seeing you all in February!
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER, 2008 -- NEWSLETTER
NATIONAL BOARD MEETING On behalf of myself, Mary, Shannon and our Executive Board, I would again like to thank everyone that volunteered or assisted at the National Board Meeting this past September in Detroit.
The meeting was a huge success and the State Lodge received many compliments from those attending. We could not have pulled it off without the commitment of our members volunteering their time and talents.
Thanks again to all of you!!!
2009 MID-YEAR BOARD MEETING The 2009 Mid-Year Board Meeting will be held in Clare at the Doherty Hotel and Conference Center. The Dates are Friday, February 27 through Sunday, March 1, 2009. The base room rate is $80 and you can make reservations by calling 1-877-236-4378 or 1-989-386-3441 -- be sure to ask for the FOP block. Cutoff date for reservations is February 6, 2009. (NOTE TO BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND PAST PRESIDENTS: DO NOT MAKE YOUR OWN ROOM RESERVATIONS. YOUR RESERVATIONS ARE HANDLED BY THE STATE LODGE – SEE ENCLOSED REGISTRATION INFORMATION.)
The format will be the same. The Labor Committee will meet on Friday. Saturday we will host seminars and the Board of Trustees will meet on Sunday. A complete schedule of events as well as registration material is included with this mailing.
2009 STATE CONFERENCE The 2009 State Lodge Conference will be held at the Radisson hotel in Kalamazoo. The Kalamazoo Lodge is hosting the event and will be forwarding information soon. The dates are: Friday, June 12 through Sunday, June 14, 2009.
2009 BIENNIAL CONFERENCE OF THE GRAND LODGE Start making your plans. The Grand Lodge Conference is in Long Beach, California from Sunday, August 16 through Thursday, August 20, 2009. We have a block of 60 rooms at the Hyatt . Room rate is $149.00 plus all taxes (current rate is 15.05%). All room reservations must go through the State Lodge Office. The cut off date for room reservations is May 1, 2009. Preliminary information is included with this mailing -- registration and event information will be provided at the Mid-Year Board Meeting.
2009 STATE LODGE RAFFLE PROGRAM As you all know, we have had a considerable reduction to our income through our solicitation program (CDG). I would ask every lodge to really put forth an effort to increase raffle ticket sales to off set the reduction from the CDG program.
If we could get every member to purchase one ticket, we would not only make up the deficit but would show a considerable increase to our income.
We have approximately two months left before the first drawing; please encourage your members to purchase a ticket and to sell tickets to family and friends. Remember that each ticket is in for over 700 chances to win prizes as well as the Grand Prize of a Harley Davidson Motor Cycle or $15,000 in cash. Also, for each ticket sold your lodge receives a share of the sales.
Please help us increase participation. For tickets or more information contact Mary or Shannon at the State Lodge Office.
LEGISLATION While we didn’t elect everyone we endorsed, we came pretty close. We are still receiving thank-you notes and calls from successful legislators.
We are carefully watching this lame duck session for legislation that affects law enforcement. Once the session ends, all of the bills die and will have to be reintroduced in the next session.
The Legislative Committee will be meeting soon to set the agenda for the new session of the legislature.
Please remember to invite your local legislator to lodge events. If you have a Christmas party of an up-coming installation dinner, make sure to include them in your program. Let the State Lodge Office know if you are having an event and expect legislators to attend.
COMPLIANCE ISSUES Lodge secretaries, please make sure that your lodge’s paper work is in order. Incorporation, insurance and financial paper work needs to be up to date. If you have any questions about this process, please feel free to give John Buczek a call at the State Lodge Office.
REMEMBER THAT ALL LODGES HAVE TO FILE WITH THE IRS. The State Lodge Compliance Committee will be conducting an audit next year, don’t wait to make sure that your lodge is in compliance.
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS FROM MARY & SHANNON 1.
Per Capita 2.
Raffle Sales
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The first drawing for the 2009 raffle program is Thursday,
January 29, 2009. (Note: drawings are held on the last Thursday of each
month unless there is a holiday.) Please make sure all sold tickets are
returned to the State Lodge the week of January 19 so Shannon has time to
record all sold tickets and make sure tickets sold and monies received
agree.
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As some of you have pointed out, the tickets state that the
Harley is a 2008 model – it is, in fact, a 2009! Sorry!
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You don’t have to wait until all tickets are sold to send them
in to the State Lodge. You can send them in every couple of weeks or every
month – whatever works for you. However, please be sure that each batch of
sold tickets/money is accompanied by a copy of your Ticket Inventory that
shows the status of every ticket. Also be sure that the sold and unsold
tickets are returned in numerical order.
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Please do not send in cash. Monies should be in the form of
checks or money orders made payable to the State F.O.P. 3.
F.O.P. License Plates 4.
Fourteenth-Annual 8th Grade Essay Contest 5.
Local Lodge Listing
MAY, 2008 -- NEWSLETTER
2008 STATE CONFERENCE The Conference is just around the corner. Enclosed with this Newsletter you will find a Schedule of Events. This is an overview of the Business Sessions and activities for the Conference.
As a reminder, please make sure that you get the names of deceased members to the State Office by June 13 so that we can recognize those members at the Memorial Service. You can call, e-mail or fax the names.
Some of you have asked about changing clothes when check-in time at the Doubletree isn’t until 3:00 p.m. The hotel will make every effort to make rooms available for an early check-in on Friday. They aren’t expecting a high occupancy rate for Thursday, so hopefully many rooms will be available prior to the start of the Opening Ceremony/Memorial Service at 1:00 p.m—but, there are no guarantees. However, if your room is not ready and you need to change clothes before and/or after the Opening, the Wenonah Suite (where our Hospitality Room is located) will be available for your use – so feel free to use it.
I know there has been an issue this year with availability of rooms at the Doubletree. I apologize for any inconvenience, but it was out of our control. For anyone staying at either the 4 Points or Holiday Inn Express in Saginaw, the State Lodge will be providing transportation to and from the Doubletree for you. Transportation details are being worked out and information will be given to attendees staying at those two hotels prior to the Conference.
STATE LODGE STAFF UPDATE As some of you have noticed when you called the State Lodge recently, Jacque Beeson is no longer working in the office. She has taken a full-time job with the State of Michigan where she will be utilizing her degree in criminalistics. She will continue working part-time at the Fundraising Center as the Director – working nights and weekends as needed. We miss her terribly, but wish her the best in her new career.
We were lucky enough to find a temporary replacement for Jacque by the name of Shannon Nosal. She will be at the State Conference so please be on your best behavior as we don’t want to scare her away! She is a hard worker, fast learner and a great help to Mary in this busiest of times! Please welcome her into the FOP family.
NATIONAL MEETINGS HOSTED BY MICHIGAN As you all know by now, Michigan is honored to be hosting the F.O.P. State Presidents Meeting and an Eastern Regional Labor Coalition Meeting in conjunction with the Fall National F.O.P. Board of Trustees Meeting. These meetings will be held at the GM Renaissance Center/Marriott Hotel in downtown Detroit September 3-6, 2008. May Newsletter Page 2
National Meetings Hosted by Michigan (continued) We need your assistance. A number of committees are being formed, i.e., Transportation, Registration, Hospitality and Events, for which we are asking for volunteers to be Committee Chairs and workers. Sign-up sheets will be available at the State Conference along with committee descriptions. If you are not planning on attending the Conference, but would like to volunteer to help, please contact the State Lodge after the Conference for information/sign-up.
This is a great opportunity to showcase our state and the Michigan F.O.P. So, let’s all work together to make these meetings a tremendous success!
2009 RAFFLE The tickets for the 2009 raffle will be available at the conference. The Grand Prize will again be a Harley Electra Glide Motor Cycle. This is a law enforcement motorcycle that will be used in 2009 by an area police department. The bike will have less than 1,000 miles on it and will come with the remainder of the factory 2-year warranty.
If you return your order form prior to the State Conference, then Mary and Shannon will have time to count out your tickets and print out a sheet with all your numbers on it for keeping track of each ticket. If you do not have a representative attending the Conference, please indicate that on the order form and your raffle tickets will be sent out in July.
2008 RAFFLE UPDATE After a slow start, raffle ticket sales for 2008 picked up and exceeded the sales from 2007. Currently 5,939 tickets have been sold with a few tickets still outstanding. Good recovery, everyone! Lodge subsidy checks of over $53,000 were issued this year.
2008 ANNUAL GOLF OUTING/Hiller Re-election Campaign Fundraiser Thanks to the hard work (for the second year in a row) by Co-Chairs Dave Willis, State Treasurer, and Pat Lemke, District 11 Trustee/President of Lodge 130 and their Committee, this year’s Golf Outing was a HUGE success. This event raised $4,167.64 for the campaign fund to re-elect Dave Hiller as the National Vice President! A big THANK YOU goes out to: All Participants, Corporate Sponsors, Hole Sponsors, Varsity Lincoln Mercury dealership, and Greystone Golf Club manager and staff. A special thanks goes to Dave Willis, Pat Lemke and their entire Committee! GREAT JOB EVERYONE! Dave appreciates all the support!
AFLAC SUPPLEMENTAL INSURANCE AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS We have formed a new partnership with Aflac. The 2 most popular Aflac policies -- Accident and Cancer Policies, are now available to FOP members.
Why Aflac Supplemental Insurance? If you or a family member were sick or injured, WHO PAYS YOU? For over 50 years, AFLAC has been providing benefits to families to help with the unexpected costs of getting better. Even though health insurance will pay all or most of your hospital bills, you still have monthly bills, out of pocket expenses for co-pays and deductibles. What if your income stops? Aflac pays cash directly to you, the insured.
If you are interested in more information or enrollment, there is a link on the home page of the FOP website (www.mifop.com). You may also contact our Aflac Agent, Mary Gardai, at 313-770-4709 or e-mail her at mary_gardai@us.aflac.com.
FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE
STATE LODGE OF MARCH NEWSLETTER
2008 F.O.P. STATE CONFERENCE The 2008 State Conference will be
held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Conference information and registration forms are scheduled to be mailed out the last week of March. CELL PHONE RECYCLING PROGRAM TO BENEFIT
MLEOMM FUND Kathy Cole from Michigan Concerns
of Police Survivors (MI-COPS) spoke at the Mid-Year Seminars and Board
Meeting. She announced that the
Michigan Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Monument (MLEOMM) fund is now
part of the Charitable Recycling program where every time you send in an old
cell phone, a donation of $1.00 is made to the MLEOMM Fund to help build a
State Memorial for fallen police officers.
So, if you have old cell phones just lying around collecting dust, why
not donate them to this important endeavor.
Here is all you have to do:
1) Drop cell phone(s) in an envelope (ONLY the phones—no chargers, car
adaptors, cases or other accessories), 2) fill out the bottom of the
enclosed form (name, address and number of phones--$1.00 is donated for
each phone), 3) tape the pre-addressed top of the form to the envelope
(postage is pre-paid), and drop it in the mail – you have just made a
donation to the Memorial! A
message from MI-COPS: “Thank you for remembering the men and
women who gave their lives in the line of duty in the State of PEACE OFFICER OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS There is still time to submit your nomination(s) for this year’s award. The cutoff date for nominations is Friday, April 11. If you would like another form or more information, give the State Lodge a call at toll free 1-888-367-6424. 2008 ANNUAL GOLF OUTING This year’s outing is scheduled for Thursday, May 8, 2008, at the Greystone Golf Course in Romeo (same location as last year). National Vice President Dave Hiller will be running for re-election in 2009, so this event will be used as a fundraiser for his campaign. Registration forms and sponsor forms were sent out in January and included in the recent issue of The Peace Officer magazine. The deadline date for registration is April 3, 2008, so get those teams and sponsors registered ASAP! Co-Chairs Dave Willis and Pat Lemke have been working extremely hard to make this event even bigger and better than last year’s event. Come join your F.O.P. brothers and sisters for some fraternalism, good food, great golf and a lot of laughs! Besides all of that, it’s for a great cause – getting our own Dave Hiller re-elected to the National Vice President position! 2008 RAFFLE CLOSEOUT March 1st was the closeout date for this year’s raffle. To date 5,864 tickets have been sold statewide which are 21 tickets down from last year’s sale of 5,885 tickets. Please send in your final report of sold/returned/lost tickets to Jacque Beeson at the State Lodge ASAP so she can get the 2008 Raffle closed out! As of this writing 15 lodges still have a total of 970 tickets out. Some lodges are only missing 1 or 2 tickets. If you have any questions as to the status of your lodge, please contact Jacque. Lodge Subsidy checks began being mailed out last week to all lodges that have closed out their 2008 Raffle and submitted their final report.
THE PEACE OFFICER MAGAZINE The Winter 2008 issue of The Peace Officer magazine was just mailed out and we are already talking about submissions for the Spring-Summer issue. The cutoff date will be April 18th. Please get any articles/pictures to the State Lodge by that date for inclusion in the next issue. Also, if you have any suggestions for making the magazine more enjoyable/informative for the membership, please let the State Lodge know. One final note about the magazine -- each magazine costs over $1.00 to mail, so it is extremely important that addresses for members are kept up to date. Please remind all of your members how important it is to keep their lodge secretary informed of all address changes! LEGISLATIVE We will be beginning our endorsement process soon. Chairman Hiller would like to remind lodges that the State Lodge issues endorsement in statewide and national offices; however each lodge is encouraged to provide input on candidates running for these offices. FEDERAL REPORTING Lodges are reminded of the new requirements that all non-profits file with the IRS regardless of income (see enclosed article). The Michigan F.O.P. is proud to
announce the establishment of the MI-FOP Individual Body Armor Purchase
Program. The Michigan F.O.P., in
conjunction with Michigan Police Equipment Co. of Lansing, has negotiated
with BAE Systems for an individual body armor program to offer to our
members. You must be an
Active member in good standing to take part in this program. Completed paperwork must be submitted to the MEMBER BENEFITS At the recent Board Meeting the Board voted to offer two new benefit programs to the membership. 1. Work Style Voluntary Benefits This program offers low group rates for all types of insurance. Every member will be receiving a letter with information on the program along with a contact number and member code. 2. Aflac Tell your members to check out the inside front cover of the latest Peace Officer Magazine. We announced our partnership with the American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus (Aflac). Contact information is listed along with an explanation of the program. In addition to this information, we will also have the contact information and links on our website. A representative from each of these programs is available to come to a Lodge Meeting and explain the programs in person and answer any questions you may have. We encourage the membership to take advantage of these and all of the other programs offered by the State Lodge. If you have any questions on these or other member benefits, contact the office. HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS FROM MARY 1.
Enclosed are the updated Lodge Listing and E-Mailing Listing. Please look over both documents and
make changes/corrections. You
can either mail the corrections to the State Lodge at 2.
Reminder: Since monthly raffle winners are posted
on our website, no hard copies are sent out with newsletters. However, if you do not have access to a
computer and would like to receive hard copies of each month’s reports,
please let me know. 3.
Attached Fliers 4.
F.O.P. Auxiliary is sponsoring a Bowl-A-Thon at Regal Lanes in HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS FROM JACQUE 1.
We are continuing to redesign the web page.
The “Secretaries Only” portion is currently not in use. Please contact me if you need any forms
(e-mail me at jbeeson@mifop.com or
phone toll free 1-888-367-6424).
Work is being done to upgrade this portion and everyone will be notified
once it is up and running. 2.
Second-half Per Capita will be going out to local lodges in the near future. Please make sure your Per Capita is
paid by May 1, 2008. Delegates
to the 2008 State Conference will not receive their Credential Form until
Per Capita is paid. 3. On-Line membership reminder: Please remember to send checks to the State Lodge when you are adding new members. Also, if you are changing a membership status from “inactive” to “active”, you must also send in checks to the State Lodge. If you need assistance navigating through the Grand Lodge on-line membership system, PLEASE don’t hesitate to contact me! I’ll be happy to walk you through it step-by-step. |
