At last week’s membership meeting, there was a lengthy discussion about our Welfare Fund’s benefits. The nice part was the announcement that, as of July 1st of this year, the new maximum reimbursement for dental is going to $4,000 for each member or any dependent, per year.

The current maximum is $3,000 for this dental year. So, if you are reaching over the maximum right now, you might want to reschedule the dental work for after July 1st.

Orthodontic benefits have also been raised to $4,000 lifetime as well, effective July 1, 2012.

The session on civil service and the moving of civil service lists was well attended last week. A repeat session is due this Tuesday evening. If you have not already registered, please call George at the union office at 212-686-1229 to see if there is any more space.

Also, the general membership meeting is set for this Thursday evening. The meeting starts at 6pm and generally ends before 8pm If you have never previously attended, it is held in Room 707, 220 East 23rd Street, between Second and Third Avenues in Manhattan. We hope to see you there.

Most members should have received the union mailing by now. If you did not, call George at the union office. That way, we can check your address and send out a replacement.

In the mailing is an invitation to a session on civil service lists, hiring pools and the details on how such lists are moved.

For example, suppose you are called to two hiring pools on the same day. Suppose also that you spend the entire day at the first pool and are then sent home without a new job because your number was not reached. Did you know that you will be marked as “failed to report” (FTR) by the staff at the second pool?

It takes a while after the pool for DCAS to be notified of your FTR, but then you will quite probably be removed from the list and receive no more notifications. If you are aware of this possibility, you can guard against it easily, but first to know that it can and does happen.

The session will be led by Sheila Gorsky and questions are always welcome. Please call George at the union office for reservations or download the reservation form by clicking this link.. Complete it and fax it back to the union right away.

The only news this week concerns the Governor’s State of the State address. He is still talking about Pension Tier VI and the New York Post loves him for it. A representative of the Manhattan Institute thinks this is a perfect time to force new employees into a 401k so that they also can get rich in the stock market.

We have our hopes that the legislators in Albany will not agree.

A mailing is due out this week. In it, we offer our own State of the Union essay. You should receive the mail before the January 14/15 weekend. If it does not arrive, call George at the union office so he can send you a copy and update the address. The same information is already up on this website as the January 2012 edition of the OSA Newsletter.

Also enclosed in the mailing and on the Newsletter page is a flyer so you can register for a session on matters related to the recent civil service lists. If your name is on an upcoming list, you probably will benefit from the training session, so please download the form, complete it and reply right away. You may also download the form by clicking this link.