Epsilon
Sigma Phi Newsletter
Winter 2001
In This Issue
President's Message
ESP Changes Membership Rules
Legislative Tax News
Missouri
ESP is on the Web
Courtesy
and Memorials
Catherine
May Continues to Practice her Extension Skills as a Volunteer
Long
Term Care: Part 1
Retiree
Committee Plan of Work
The
University Outreach and Extension Retiree Directory
National
ESP Tidbits
2000-2001 Board Members
For More Information
President's
Message
by Gail Carlson, ESP President
The more I get involved in ESP the more I value the importance of that
involvement. Like
most of you I’m bombarded with opportunities to become a member of
professional associations within Extension and related to my area of expertise.
Sometimes it means making tough choices.
Are the benefits worth the cost and the time commitment?
From my perspective, membership in ESP is worth it and the benefits range
from the less tangible to the very concrete.
Probably one of the less tangible benefits is a renewed sense of purpose.
One of my most prized possessions is the “Extension Workers Creed”.
It hangs on my office wall.
I saw the creed for the first time in the office of an extension
colleague when I first started my extension career.
I remember asking about it and being told about Epsilon Sigma Phi.
The Creed had meaning then and it still does.
I am not going to quote the whole creed but I would encourage you to
reread it. Its
opening paragraph states,
| I believe in
people and their hopes, their aspirations, and their faith; in their right to
make their own plans and arrive at their own decisions; in their ability and
power to enlarge their own lives and plan for the happiness of those they love. |
On
the other end of the spectrum, one of the most concrete benefits of membership
is the Epsilon Sigma Phi Scholarship Program.
ESP offers scholarships for first time attendees at the JCEP Public
Issues Leadership Development conference.
There is also the Professional Development Scholarship.
This $500 award can be used
on a professional improvement project of the member’s choice. Four awards will
be given out this year.
Other awards include the Life Member and Administrative Leadership
Scholarships that can be used to attend national meetings.
The deadline for these last three scholarships is March 1, 2001 and the
applications can be found at http://esp-nat.tamu.edu/pds2001.pdf.
Life members without access to the Internet who would like more
information about the Life Member Scholarship can contact me at 573/882-4107
Another benefit is the opportunity for professional development.
Along with University Outreach and Extension, the Missouri Chapter of ESP
has hosted the National ESP Satellite conferences.
Over the years these conferences have provided opportunities to hear from
nationally known speakers and learn about successful Extension programs from
across the country.
In addition, the National ESP Conference and the JCEP Public Issues
Leadership Conference are wonderful professional improvement and networking
opportunities.
This year, the PILD conference will be held the end of April and the
National ESP meeting will be in September.
Another
important benefit of membership is recognition.
Members have an opportunity to be recognized at the state, regional and
national level.
This past year we recognized a number of our colleagues at the state
level. Beth
Burke’s nomination for the Distinguished Service Award will be submitted for
consideration at the regional level as well.
The most recent example of recognition at the national level was the
“Water Quality in the Classroom” project, which was awarded a gold medal and
included in the “Programs of Excellence” satellite conference.
Membership
also brings opportunities for involvement at the national level.
This ranges from sharing your expertise through a concurrent session at
the national meeting to serving on national committees. If you are interested in
presenting at the 2001 ESP National Conference in Albany next September, the
call for proposals is available at http://esp-nat.tamu.edu/
prop2001.htm.
The deadline for proposals is Feb.15, 2001.
If you are interested in getting involved in national committees you can
get more information at http://esp-nat.tamu.edu/
natcom01.pdf and the deadline for applications is March 1, 2001.
Finally
there are also opportunities for involvement at the state level. We have six active committees – Membership (Rex Ricketts),
Professional Improvement (Joan Hickman), Awards and Recognition (Brenda Procter)
Loan and Fellowship (Pat Snodgrass), Courtesy and Memorials (Wilma Jean Lower),
and Retirement (Barb Froke). If you
are interested in getting involved e-mail or call the committee chair.
There is nothing like involvement to understand what membership in ESP
really means.
ESP
Changes Membership Rules
At
the annual meeting of the Alpha Tau Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi, bylaws
revisions were adopted that change the qualifications a person must have to be a
member. That change reduced
the number of years a person must have had an Extension appointment from
five to three years (see enclosed by-laws, Article III Section 1).
What
does this mean? Well, it means
there are a lot of Extension employees who are now eligible to become members of
Epsilon Sigma Phi who previously would not have been. Please take some time to think about some of the newer
employees in your county or region. Have
they been employed three years? Have
you invited them to join Epsilon Sigma Phi?
Legislative
Tax News
by Gene
Olson, ESP Retirement Committee
Missouri
State Income Tax Exemption for Retirees.
For the
fourth consecutive year, legislation has been introduced in the Missouri
Legislature to exempt retirees from paying Missouri State Income Tax on
retirement income derived from pensions and annuities.
This year the legislation is filed as House Bill 59, by Bill Boucher of
Kansas City and co-sponsored by 38 other State Representatives.
HB-59
is directed to those retirees who are 65 years of age and older.
It includes all retirees, public and private.
All Missouri retirees will want to contact their State Representative and
State Senator to encourage their support of HB-59.
Long Term Care Insurance Premiums.
Long term care insurance premiums are now a deduction from Missouri
Adjusted Gross Income on the front page of the “MISSOURI STATE INCOME TAX FORM
1040.” A
worksheet is provided that allows 50 percent of long term care insurance
premiums to be subtracted from Missouri “Adjusted Gross Income”, without
itemizing or qualified deductions.
This is a new deduction for Missouri taxpayers.
Missouri
ESP is on the Web
by Bob Schultheis, ESP Annalist
At
the ESP Annual Meeting last October, members voted to assign the duties of ESP
website manager to the Annalist. Over the upcoming months, the website will
become the repository for historical Missouri Epsilon Sigma Phi information, as
well as
the
current news that members can use. So check out http://outreach.missouri.edu/esp
to see listings of the state officers and committee chairs, both on-line and
downloadable versions of member newsletters and board minutes, plus links to
other professional associations. Requirements
for scholarships, loans and mini-grants are listed under the benefits section.
Current and past bylaws changes are the latest addition to the website.
Anyone
with corrections or suggestions on ways to make the site more user-friendly can
e-mail me at schultheisr@missouri.edu. Please
send any information you wish to contribute in e-mail or Word format, if
possible.
|
Courtesy
and Memorials
Please remember to share pertinent information
about your current and former colleagues with the Courtesy and Memorial
committee. Information can
be submitted to:
Wilma Jean Lower
471 Highway 32
Fair Play, MO 65649-9546
(417) 654-2496 |
Catherine
May Continues to Practice her Extension Skills as a Volunteer
By
Dick Lee, ESP Retirement Committee
Although
she retired in 1979 Catherine May continues to carry on in the mode she
practiced during her professional career as an Extension Home Economist.
| Although
she retired in 1979 Catherine May continues to carry on in the mode she
practiced during her professional career as an Extension Home Economist.
Her 32-year career as an extension worker began in Georgia in 1947, with
a move to Kentucky in 1952 and to Missouri in 1969.
She spent the last 10 years of her professional career as a nutrition
specialist with the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education program in Jackson
County.
As an extension specialist, Catherine used her knowledge of nutrition and
ability to prepare good, nutritious, low-cost meals in her EFNEP program. She has continued to use those skills as a volunteer leader
in her Kansas City community centered around Central High School and her church
– the Jamison Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.
Catherine’s
volunteer work is varied.
|
 |
| Catherine
May, at 77, still shares extension-learned skills with those in her
Kansas City community. |
At
the present time her greatest effort is with the Eagles Rest Ministry carried
out at her church. It is a program
for Central High School students having academic and personal problems.
The
program includes a mid-day meal at the Church followed by tutoring sessions
intended to encourage students to stay in school.
Catherine,
already serving as the director of health ministry, was asked to take charge of
the program when it began five years ago. She
recruits volunteers – 20 to 25 – to do the cooking and tutoring for the 70
to 80 students taking part in the program.
In addition she plans menus and is usually present every day serving as a
cook or providing rides for volunteers.
Catherine enjoys sharing her money-saving nutritious recipes – such as
home-style fried chicken, pimento green beans, beef corn dandy, mackerel
croquettes, Brunswick stew, sweet potato pudding, and chess pie – with others.
Her coworkers claim that “Catherine can feed you for a dime.”
In addition to the Eagles Rest program Catherine served as nursery home
ombudsman for eight years; is active in Church Women United; cooks for the sick
and shut-ins; and prepared meals for her husband, Raymond May, who was on a
restricted diet prior to his death in 1994.
Also, her home serves as a gathering place for neighborhood youth who
want someone to talk with about their problems.
“I always try to be positive in my talks with youth,” she says.
Catherine was born February 8, 1924 and grew up in
Dyersburg, Tenn. As a child she
suffered with typhoid and malaria and was put on a restricted diet.
She was soon doing her own cooking on a strict three-meal-a-day program
that resulted in a life-time interest in human nutrition.
She attended Spelman College in Atlanta and received a degree in home
economics in 1947. Her first job
was as a county home demonstration agent with Georgia Extension Service. Catherine moved to Hickman, KY, in 1952 as a home
demonstration agent. She later
started a nutrition program in Hickman and Fulton counties.
In 1969 she married Raymond and the couple moved
to Kansas City. Her Kentucky
supervisor wrote a letter of recommendation for Catherine and sent it to Mary
Nell Greenwood in Missouri. Shortly
thereafter in 1969 she started work as an EFNEP nutrition specialist for
Missouri Extension in Jackson County.
“I loved my work with extension and the EFNEP program,” Catherine
says. “I had the good fortune to
work with Ella Stackhouse until she retired in 1971.
My work provided a lot of personal satisfaction.”
She also recalls by name many of her coworkers in the West Central Region
– Grace Wright, Ruth Reynolds, Wana Bergman, Ruth Pirch, Harry Vieth, Harold
Smith, Al Black, Linda Byers, Gail King, Nancy Flood, Jan Clark, Kenneth Walkup,
Bill Maxon – to name just a few.
Long
Term Care: Part 1
by
Joyce Cavanagh
This article is the first in a series that will
discuss the issue of Long Term Care. Results
of the ESP Retiree Survey indicated that a majority of those responding were
interested in learning more about long-term care.
In this and future articles, we will examine what long-term care is and
how to pay for it.
Long-term
care refers to the type of medical and personal care services you need if you
become unable to care for yourself because of chronic illness, disability, loss
of functional capacity, or cognitive impairment. Long-term care services help a person maintain his or her
ability to function, perform normal daily activities, or maintain as normal a
lifestyle as possible.
For
a long time, most of us thought of long-term care as nursing home care for older
people. Long-term care services
include a variety of private and semi-private care services, including personal
assistance or skilled care provided in your home, an adult day center, an adult
family home, a nursing home or an assisted living facility.
While the focus of this article will be on long term care needs of older
adults, it is important to remember that stroke, accidents, disease, etc. can
strike at any age resulting in a need for long term care – and a corresponding
need to pay for it. Saving regularly during your working years can help you
accumulate the financial resources necessary for retirement and any long-term
care needs you may have throughout life.
Basically,
there are three ways to pay for long-term care – patients and/or their
families pay out-of-pocket (typically referred to as private pay), Medicaid, and
private long-term care insurance. Long-term
care is expensive. A year in a
nursing home averages $50,000 depending on location.
At-home care can run $36,000 and up, assuming two visits a day from a
home care aide. 24-hour care can
easily cost more than a nursing home. The
average cost for an assisted living facility is around $26,000 a year.
Given these costs, it is easy to realize that paying for care and
services out of pocket can take a sizeable portion of the patient's or family
member's income and quickly deplete savings.
Medicaid,
the federal and state funded health care program for low-income Americans, is
the single largest payer of long-term care services. Over 50% of the nation's long-term care costs are paid by
Medicaid; and at any given time, around 70% of nursing home patients are
receiving Medicaid assistance. About
half of those who receive Medicaid long-term care benefits were low-income when
they entered a nursing home, and the rest became eligible because the cost
exceeds their income and over time, their savings were reduced to pay the
difference between the cost and their income.
To
qualify for Medicaid nursing home coverage, you must meet specific eligibility
criteria related to income and assets.
To determine whether a person is eligible for Medicaid, it is important
to visit with and Adult Caseworker at the Division of Family Services.
- Any income a Medicaid patient receives (Social Security, pension, IRA,
401(k), etc.), minus a 'personal needs allowance,' currently $30 per month,
must be used to pay the nursing home cost.
If the patient has a spouse living in the community, there is a
provision that permits setting aside some or all of the patient's income for
the community spouse. The
community spouse must have income below the Minimum Monthly Maintenance
Needs Allowance (MMMNA). The
allotment can be no more than enough to bring the community spouse's income
up to the MMMNA. The amount of
the MMMNA varies depending on the individual situation and falls within
limits set by law. For a
community spouse with no dependents, the MMMNA can vary between $1407 and
$2103.
- Asset
restrictions must be met to be eligible for Medicaid.
A single person can have resources (assets) no greater than $1000; a
married person living with their spouse can have no more than $2000.
Certain resources are exempt from this limit.
Exempt resources include the home in which the person and his/her
spouse live, personal household goods, one car, an irrevocable pre-paid
burial plan or $1500 burial trust, and certain other property.
When a married person enters a nursing facility, a
special provision may help protect some of the couple's resources for the
community spouse. A Division of
Assets should be requested. (FYI,
a Division of Assets should be
requested whether or not the person being admitted to the nursing facility
plans to apply for Medicaid immediately or not until some time in the
future.) Without a Division of
Assets, all of a couple's non-exempt resources would be counted toward the
resource limit. A Division of
Assets determines the 'spousal share' of the couple's assets.
All non-exempt assets belonging to either spouse are added together.
One-half of the total (but not less than $16, 824 and not more than
$81,960) is considered as the spousal share for the community spouse.
Any portion of a couple's assets above the spousal share must be
available for paying nursing home costs.
Resources above the spousal share would be used to pay the difference
between the nursing home cost and the patient's available income (after any
allotment to the community spouse to meet the MMMNA.)
In
most cases, Medicaid applicants will be subject to a 'lookback period.'
If it is determined that an applicant transferred assets before
applying for Medicaid, he/she may be determined ineligible for Medicaid for a
certain period of time. The lookback period is generally three years but is five
years if assets were transferred to certain types of trusts.
For example, say you gave your daughter $20,000 in 1999.
In Jan. 2001 you require nursing home care.
Three years have not passed since you gave the money to your daughter.
To determine how many months you must wait to be eligible for Medicaid
(assuming you meet all other criteria) you would divide the $20,000 transfer
by the monthly cost of nursing home care, say $2500.
You would need to wait for 8 months.
Anyone
considering the transfer of assets to others should work with an elder or family
law attorney who is experienced Medicaid and estate laws in Missouri.
The last thing you want to do is relinquish financial control of your
assets prematurely or cause you to be ineligible for Medicaid when you need it.
Experts warn parents not to be too hasty in giving assets to children or
others prior to entering a nursing home.
Anyone receiving money is under no legal obligation to give it back or
help you out if you need it later. If
you read Ann Landers like I do, you have read or heard about unfortunate cases
where children do not do the right thing. In
addition, any assets you transfer to children are considered their assets and
subject to creditors if financial problems occur and to divorce settlements if a
marriage ends making them unavailable for a child to use for your care even if
they wanted to.
Many
people believe that Medicare will pay for long-term care.
Medicare coverage for long-term care is extremely limited and should not
be counted on. Medicare covers care in a skilled nursing facility in order
to receive skilled care or rehabilitative care and services.
Solely custodial care (help with basic activities of daily living such as
bathing, dressing, toileting, eating) is not covered my Medicare.
You must have had a prior hospital stay of at least 3 days prior to being
admitted to the skilled nursing facility and within 30 of hospital discharge. The care you require in the skilled nursing facility must be
for the same condition for which you were hospitalized. If you qualify, Medicare will pay for 100% of covered
expenses for 20 days; days 21 – 100 require a co-insurance amount of $99 per
day. A patient's Medicare
Supplemental Insurance may pay the co-insurance, depending on the policy. No benefits are available beyond 100 days in a benefit
period.
Medicare
also covers some home health care, when prescribed by a physician and considered
medically necessary, for beneficiaries that are homebound.
Medicare will cover part-time or intermittent skilled nursing care; home
health aide services; physical, occupational, and speech therapy; medical social
services; medical supplies and 80% of the approved amount for durable medical
equipment. Some Medicare
Supplemental Insurance policies may offer enhanced home health care benefits
and/or the 20% co-insurance for durable medical equipment.
As you can see, Medicare covers short-term services designed to
rehabilitate a person, not long-term care custodial care.
Look for Part II in the next issue where we will
look at long-term care insurance.
Retiree
Committee Plan of Work
by Barb Froke, Chair, ESP Retirement Committee
For
its second year plan of work, the Retirement Committee will continue to work on
plans that emanate from the survey done of all ESP Life Members, conducted in
the Year 2000.
Retirement
Committee members include:
Barb Froke, Chair
Dick Lee
Gene Olson
Joyce Cavanagh
The
committee plan of work is as follows:
-
Send
a congratulatory letter, certificate and invitation to become a life member
to recent retirees
-
Include
a retiree feature story on a retiree in each issue of the ESP Newsletter,
nominating one of those featured for the ESP Retiree Award
- Communicate
committee work and retirement issues through the ESP Newsletter
The University Outreach and Extension Retiree Directory
by Barb Froke, Chair, Retirement Committee
The University Outreach and Extension Retiree Directory, which appears in each issue of
the annual Life After Extension publication, is a valued source of information
for retirees and their friends and colleagues. Eileen Bennett, Extension
Communications Officer, has responsibility for keeping the retiree directory updated; she
and her partner, C.W. Browning, work hard to keep this information update, but they need
your assistance. Please contact Eileen at 817 Clark Hall, University of Missouri,
Columbia, MO 65211 (Tel: 573-882-0604; E-mail: BennettES@umsystem.edu) or C.W. at P.O. Box 643,
Warrensburg, MO 64093 (Tel: 660-747-2954; E-mail: browningcw@earthlink.net. They would
appreciate knowing about new retirees, change of address for retirees, notice of the
passing of any retiree, or any other change in the status of our retiree colleagues that
would keep the retiree directory up-to-date.
National
ESP Tidbits
National ESP
Headquarters Moves
The new location
of our national office / contact is:
Linda
D. Cook, Executive Director
Epsilon Sigma Phi, Inc.
PO Box 357340
Gainesville, FL 32635-7340
Phone: 352-378-6665
Fax: 352-375-0722
E-mail: ldcook@mail.ifas.ufl.edu
Thank You from
Carlsons
At the National
Conference, special recognition was given to Carl and Judy Carlson.
In
addition to a cash gift, each state was asked to bring a Christmas Tree ornament
that represented the state. (Missouri's ornament was a small state seal obtained
from the Cole County Historical Society.)
These ornaments were collected without Judy and Carl's knowledge and all
50 states responded. They were delighted.
The following is a note from them:
January
26, 2001
Dear
Gail and the Alpha Tau Chapter of Epsilon Sigma Phi,
Thank
you to each of you for your part of the recognition of
appreciation given us during the recent National Conference.
We cherish the memory of everyone's cooperative spirit.
With
Appreciation,
Carl and Judy Carlson
Upcoming Events
- North
Central JCEP Leadership Conference, Des Moines, Iowa, February 25-27
- Public
Issues Leadership Development (PILD) Conference, Crystal City,
Virginia, April 29 – May 2
- National
ESP Conference, Albany, New York, September 20-22
- UOE
Annual Conference, October 29-30
|
¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨
Epsilon Sigma Phi
Alpha Tau Chapter
Board Members
2000-2001
| Officers |
|
| Gail Carlson |
President |
| Georgia Stuart-Simmons |
President-Elect |
| Roxanne Miller |
Secretary |
| Thomas A. Henderson |
Treasurer |
| Robert Schultheis |
Annalist |
| Karla Spencer |
Past President |
| Committee
Chairs |
|
| Rex Ricketts |
Membership |
| Brenda Procter |
Awards |
| Joan Hickman |
Professional
Improvement |
| Pat Snodgrass |
Loan and Fellowship |
| Wilma Jean
Lower |
Courtesy /
Memorials |
| Barbara Froke |
Retirement |
| Karla
Spencer |
Nominations |
For More
Information
For newsletter items or information, contact:
Georgia Stuart-Simmons
Johnson County Extension Center
135 W. Market
Warrensburg, MO 64093
Phone: 660-747-3193
Email: stuartsimmonsg@missouri.edu
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|
Web Manager: Bob Schultheis
Webster County Extension Center
Email comments to: schultheisr@missouri.edu
Last revised:
11/05/09 |