North Star makes plans for April's annual convention
My goodness, one month of the new year is already gone! It is true that the older you get, the quicker the months go by. Winter also seems to have arrived. Do I say finally or not? On New Year's Eve, in Biwabik, we ended up with more than 10 inches of snow. And now, a week later, the colder weather is taking over.

Apologies need to be made to Howard Maki for my misreading AVON when I typed up the ads for the Christmas supplement. Be sure to check the supplement ad (Section 2, page 10) and call Howard for any Avon products you might need.

The Feb. 9 meeting of North Star Region will be hosted by Buhl/Kinney Senior Center. Lunch reservations need to be made to the center at 218/258-3978 by noon, Monday, Feb. 5.

Our regional convention will be held in April. Volunteers are needed to set the date, location and make plans. If you would like to serve on the convention committee, call me at 218/749-2912, ext. 202 or 800/662-5711, ext. 202). It doesn't come together on its own; we need you to make it happen.
Muriel Pehle, office manager

Buffalo Ridge will  promote MnSF at Life Connections
On Dec. 14, MnSF-Midwest, Minnesota Valley and Southwest regions met for their quarterly meeting at Pizza Ranch in Montevideo. After discussing the regular business and budget information, we focused on the future.

The group decided to participate in the annual Life Connections event at Willmar Civic Center April 19-20. We will develop information papers on our main issue for this next year - property taxes. We will also have information on the Federation, Senior Partners Care, Health Care Choices, Senior News and more. We need to make sure we have "plenty of stuff" available for people to take home with them and read. This event generates more and more interest in the Federation every year so we feel it is a very worthwhile venture.

We next talked about our annual convention. It was decided to hold the convention at Prairie's Edge Casino in Granite Falls. We felt that the price was good and access to the conference center was very user-friendly, right off the parking lot on the main level and nowhere near the casino. Our goal is to acquire speakers on the property tax issue, and home and community-based care. We also agreed to send individual invitations to all members, not just to affiliated clubs and groups. We want everyone to take advantage of the opportunity to speak up on issues and take part in their organization.

To prepare for the convention, issues and resolutions, groups will begin discussing these two issues and set their strategy chart accordingly. Please bring this information to your individual clubs and start discussing resolutions for the 2007 convention.

For the next few monthly meetings, members are asked to go to their local county offices and request a copy of their "field card." This is a complete explanation of their property taxes owed and how they are distributed. Please bring the information  to the January meetings. Also, bring a copy of your county or city budgets. These have been published in local newspapers and we can use this information to compare individual taxes to what is needed throughout the counties. We will also put together a list of legislators at the state level involved in the tax system. We can then target those legislators locally and present our views. 

On our strategy chart, we have already identified some areas to begin working on: A uniform system for all assessors throughout the state, a statewide forum, curbing nepotism, a true county system, removing the school tax and putting it back on the state system, and the renters credit (change or remove). We will review county, city and township budgets to see where and on what programs our tax dollars support. Our contacts will begin with legislators, county commissioners and township boards.

Under home and community-based care, we will start by acquiring price lists for in-home services from our counties including employee pay scales to compare the charged price to the pay for actual caregivers. We will also get lists of what alternative care grants are still available.

We have a lot of work to do so help us by attending your regional meetings and voice your opinions. Nothing gets done until someone speaks up!

Last but not least, a very special thank you to the following members and affiliates for their monetary donations: 
        George and Ruth Clemens
        Janice Garrett
        Robert and Darlene Haak
        Joan Hawkins
        Victor Koch
        Hallis Matson
        Ivey Vonderharr
        Edgerton Senior Center
        Hancock Senior Center
        Slayton Senior Center
Lets all have a productive and prosperous year, but most of all, let our voices be heard.
Sue Johnson, director

South Central to start sending quarterly report 
South Central Region is looking forward to a spring schedule of speakers and a trip to the Minnesota legislature sometime after the weather warms up. We have three new legislators in the Mankato area, and we plan to make contact with them later in the session. We also plan to mail out a quarterly newsletter beginning in March where you will find more information about activities in upcoming months. 

Remember to put our monthly general assembly meeting on your calendar. We meet at 9:30 a.m. on the fourth Monday of each month at Moose Lodge in Belle Mar Shopping Mall on North Victory Drive in Mankato.
Lynn VanDervort, director