Category: 02 – VCCCDRA News

As we enter the last month of the first quarter of 2019, we have a few changes coming, the end of winter, the beginning of spring and with that because of all the rain, perhaps another Super Bloom event in California, and the beginning of MLB (Major League Baseball). I love wild flowers and it is predicted that this year’s Super Bloom may rival the one we had a couple of years ago. I love baseball, especially Dodgers’ baseball, I definitely am looking forward to the new season. And, one more change, me, adding to a change to the VCCCDRA Blog.

So, … who is “me”, or who am I, to be grammatically correct? Rene Rodriguez invited me, Carmen Guerrero, to a volunteer position as your new Blogmaster (well the ‘master’ part is open for debate, LOL).

As a way of introduction for those of you who do not know me, I retired from Oxnard College in 2015 as Dean of Career and Technical Education. I began my career in VCCCD as a student worker at Moorpark College working for Cheri Ziegler in the Technology Division. Thru the years I worked through many levels, as a classified employee, secretary for Bill Lawson, Voc Ed Dean at Moorpark; a non-tenure track full-time faculty working at the Fillmore-Piru Vocational Center, reporting to Carlos Ramirez, that transitioned into a part-time teaching position in the Bilingual Vocational Education Program at Ventura College where I reported to Rene Rodriguez; then a full-time tenure track faculty position at Oxnard College reporting to Tanya Burke. After a few years as a tenured professor in Business, I accepted the dean position; then finally, retirement. Because some of these faculty positions were part-time, I also worked in the aerospace industry until I was hired at Oxnard College.  Altogether, this was a 47-year journey, yet it seems like only yesterday that in 1968 Moorpark College was still, sort of, brand new and I registered as a student in its second year of existence. Time does fly!

As retirees, this blog belongs to us. I would love to know what items of interest you would like to see included in the blog, such as happenings (events, performances, etc.) around the college district as well as happenings around the county. What about items regarding retirees themselves, such as significant birthday and other celebrations; hobbies, etc.?

I hope to hear your thoughts.

To visit the VCCCDRA website click here.

How often do we hear this now trite expression, but yet so true in so many situations. More recently, in reading the AARP Bulletin (Feb. 2019), the table of contents featured, “People with untreated hearing loss have a 52% greater risk of dementia,” and an article on p. 4 followed.

Without reading the article (yet), the prognosis makes sense in this regard. If a person cannot hear the gist of what is going on in a conversation, how can they participate? How can they make use of their brain to process and assess what is being discussed if they are not following the conversation? Moreover, if they are not following the conversation, their brain is just sitting there idle, unused, and unchallenged.

The “use it or lose it” bromide is normally applied to physical activity, but just as physical exercise is important to keep your body functioning properly, mental activity is just as important to keep your mind functioning properly.

In a separate article, I’d like to share my personal experience in how I treated hearing loss, but here I want to focus on encouraging retirees to keep making use of their mental faculties.

All VCCCDRA retirees have an opportunity to play a leadership role (elections coming up in March) and/or to participate in any of its various committees, or communications vehicles such as the newsletter, the website and this blog.

I retired in 2004 (difficult to believe it’s been that long), joined the VCCCDRA in 2005, and in 2006 got a call encouraging me to become more active. I’ve been on the Executive Board since then and have participated in every committee except for a more recently established one. I decided we needed a website so I created one in 2006, and much later this blog, which I consider to be in its infancy. I’m also thinking of creating a listserv for retirees but that’s another story.

Because of my activity with the VCCCD Retirees’ Association, I credit it with helping me keep mentally fit. I noticed early on that words weren’t as readily available to me, but as time went by this diminished. My memory improved as well as my ability to express a thought. So I decided to become as involved as possible, not only with the VCCCDRA but with other organizations. There are all kinds of opportunities to make use of your faculties and to share your knowledge and experience.

Next week I start reading applications for scholarships through the scholarship committee of the Ventura College Foundation. This will be my third year of participating. THIS KIND OF ACTIVITY IS OPEN TO ALL RETIREES. GET INVOLVED! IT’S GOOD FOR YOU, AND IT’S GOOD FOR THE COMMUNITY!

If I felt that teaching at a community college was the best job in the world, I now feel that working in a community college setting is the best environment to work in because of all the great people involved, each with their own stories to tell.

Rene G. Rodriguez

REMINDER: This “blog” belongs to the retirees of the Ventura County Community College District Retirees’ Association. What better place to exercise your noggin than to share your thoughts on whatever topic is pressing on you.

Scrolling Up and Down a Web Page

Instructions for learning how to scroll up and down a page can be found here.  Click on the word “here” to go to a page with instructions.

Linking to a Source

Reading text on a web page can be a much more powerful experience than reading text in a book.  You can actually go to another web page by clicking on a link to a source.  If a word or phrase is underlined and highlighted in blue or some other color, then it is very likely a link to a source.  If you place the moving mouse cursor over the highlighted link, it will change to a hand symbol, which identifies the word or phrase that you are hovering over as a link to a source.  Left click on it and it will take you to that source.

Once at the source page, you may find other links of interest on the new web page and if you keep clicking on links you will move from one web page to another and you may wind up a few web pages from where you started.

To get back to the original web page, click on the “back arrow“ at the top left of the browser, “<-“.  You may have to click on it more than once to get back to the page you want depending on how many links you clicked from the original page.

As an example, in the previous “Welcome…” article, notice the word Welcome is underlined and highlighted in color.  If you click on it with your mouse, it will take you to that article.  Try it, and to get back to this web page by clicking on the back arrow as many times as you have to, depending on whether you clicked on links within the “Welcome…” article.

I would recommend your returning to the first article of this blog, and reading it with new eyes, spotting the links spread throughout the article, and going to those sources, which should enrich your reading experience of the article.

Please note that the NEWEST BLOG ENTRIES ARE TO BE FOUND ON THE TOP (SCROLL UP) RIGHT SIDE OF THIS PAGE.

After each one of our Annual General Meetings, I have often wondered how many retirees walk away with questions on their minds that they didn’t get answered, or formulate questions a few days or weeks later after the meeting.  This “blog” is offered as an experimental service to provide a means for our retirees to communicate with each other regarding questions that may have lingered after one of our meetings.  Of course it can also serve as a communication tool for discussion of any topic of interest that is on a retiree person’s mind, or their spouses and dependents.  This blog could essentially provide a relatively active means for opening up a dialogue among retirees (or potential retirees — active employees are welcome to participate) on topics of common and current interest.  It can also serve as a place where local experts on Medicare, or healthcare topics in general, can submit timely articles of interest, or retirees themselves can write articles about personal experiences that can benefit all of us by knowing about it.

As an example, a common question asked by Tier 1 retirees (those retiring with lifetime benefits) is… should they enroll in Medicare Part B?  These retirees are not required to enroll in Medicare Part B, but should they?  The Benefits Committee and the Exec Board of the VCCCDRA have been looking into this question for a while and are not quite ready to provide a definitive answer.  One of our retirees, Don Medley, did offer up his reasons why he thinks it is a good idea for retirees to enroll in Medicare Part B in The Monitor, Winter 2010 issue of the VCCCDRA newsletter, which we encourage you to read.

But for now, the one category of individuals who we think should seriously consider enrolling in Medicare Part B when they turn 65 are the spouses of retirees with lifetime benefits.   The reason is that spouses of retirees will lose their healthcare benefits if the retiree dies.  The spouse will be covered by the district healthcare plan for only a very brief time afterwards.  Don’t wait to enroll.  There is a 10% permanent penalty that is imposed on premiums for each year a person does not enroll after the age of 65.  Wait three years and pay 30% more on premiums from then on.  See the article “Medicare, Anyone?” in the What’s New web page of the vcccdra.org retiree website for a contact person from Anthem who would be happy to answer any questions you may have about Medicare.

Medicare is part of the retirement healthcare package of Tiers 2 retirees with the district paying the premiums for retirees, so there is no question that these retirees will be enrolling in Medicare.  However, spouses of these retirees will also lose their healthcare benefits if the retiree dies.

Retirees (and their spouses) of Tiers 3 and 4, most if not all of whom are still active employees, will most definitely want to look into enrolling in Medicare at age 65.

Just as Don Medley above has shared his personal experiences with Medicare Part B and feels positive about it, many of you have had your own personal experiences regarding the pros and cons of being enrolled in Medicare Part B, and we encourage you to share what you think in the comment section, or write an article about it and send it to us for inclusion in this blog.  Likewise, if you have any questions or comments on any other topic of interest, please feel free to share them with us.  Articles for this blog may be emailed to me here.

Rene G. Rodriguez