RETIRED MEMBERS NEWSLETTER             April 2011           Issue 1

Hi,

My name is Steve Beckley and I have taken on the rolls of Retired Members & Pensions Officer for the branch.

Ian McKenna has relinquished the rolls and I, volunteered!!, to take them on at the Branch AGM. 

Just to fill you in on a bit of my background;  I retired from the service last year after 30 years service, I have retired a couple of years early because my back and joints have given out on me. Not unusual for our members to retire early.

I see from the Retired Membership list that a large number of our members are younger than me and must have also had to retire for one reason or another, and now the government wants us to work longer! The case for front line

ambulance staff to retire at 55 is, in my view, as strong as it ever was, but sadly another dream of our past, I think.

I started with the Ambulance service in London and transferred up to

Norfolk in 1979.  I soon became a union representative and was the Branch Treasurer from 1995 until I retired in 2010 from Potter Heigham Ambulance Station where I was a paramedic.

I want to send out a copy of the Branch newsletter to everybody on the retired members list, those of you who have been receiving it will see that it is aimed at staff still working for the service, but still of interest to most of us, I think. The newsletter is edited by Eric Miller, former branch secretary and another retired member. 

I also intend to produce a Retired Members Newsletter (this one) hopefully about once a quarter, that is aimed at

retired members.  At the moment we have 114 retired members in the branch, so we are a fairly large group, probably representing about 5% of the branch membership, and growing.  If you carry that thought through to the population then you can see that pensioners are a big group and we should be organised to use our power to influence the way society treats us. (they haven't taken our vote away from us yet!)

I will pass on anything I pick up that I think will be of interest to you and try to keep you informed of your rights and opportunities. I would also like your input on what you would like to see in this newsletter, and would be really happy to receive and print any items of interest that you want to send me.

I am thinking that it would be nice to publish the names of anybody who retires and maybe not so nice, but

 nonetheless important, to print the names of any of our members who have died.

If there are any social groups in your area that meet, it would be good to list what is going on for anybody who is

interested.

If you have a villa in Spain to rent, or something that you would like to buy or sell, I would be happy to advertise that for you.

It is my first principle now to make a profit out of the pension scheme (I think we need to live to be about102 years old to be able to do that!) But that in its self is not enough, we also need to try and remain mentally and physically fit and that means doing stuff.  Can anybody write a crossword for us to struggle over each quarter? (I might be able to put up some prize money if you could)  Does anybody have the skill and knowledge to start up a walking group?  Lets go and do the three peaks, I’m up for it, we can easily get hold of a bottle of oxygen and some salbutamol!!
So, if there is anything that you want me to include in this newsletter, either let me know and I will try and find it.  Or, better still send me stuff to include and I will publish it in the next issue.  My contact details are:

              Steve Beckley

              Retired Members & Pensions Officer

              Threeways House

              The Street

              Catfield

              Norfolk

              NR29 5AZ

              Phone 01692 582913

              Email; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it