Dear Fellow Retired Sergeant,

This past year has proven to be a most trying one for all of us. COVID disrupted every aspect of our personal, professional, and social lives during 2020. Many of us lost family, friends, and colleagues to this dreaded virus. Many of us fell ill to it. Several RSA board members suffered the ravages of COVID. Fortunately, they have all recovered. The disruption affected the administering of the RSA as well. We were forced to cancel our April 2020, Staten Island meeting and our June Bronx/Upstate meeting. Normally we draw the names of our scholarship winners at the June meeting. We had to hold a board of directors meeting in July at an outdoor location to draw the scholarship winners. We had two RSA members in attendance to witness the drawing. In September, as things seemed to be improving, we scheduled and held our September General Membership meeting in Mineola. We were pleasantly surprised by the exceptionally large turnout. The atmosphere was festive. We had entertaining guest speakers, and our attendees enjoyed the “night out” immensely. With the promise of coming vaccine and the Mineola experience encouraging us we went full ahead to finalize the annual January Florida General Membership Meeting.

Unfortunately, the draconian travel restrictions enacted by the Emperor of New York and his consort, The Prince of the City, made it impossible to travel to Florida to conduct the meeting. At the last minute we were forced to cancel the January meeting. We decided to reschedule the event to the last week of March, hoping that vaccine distribution would ease the difficulty associated with travel and group events. We rushed a cancellation and reschedule notice to our membership via blast email and later USPS. We renegotiated the contract with the hotel, with the assurances that hotel staff would comply with state regulations for spacing etc. We canceled and rescheduled the flight schedules of our board members. In the months since January many of our board members and Membership have received vaccine, the hotel is prepared for our event and the number of members reserving rooms is higher than in past years. Our Florida General Meeting is Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 6:30 PM. Please book rooms no later than March 10, 2021, after that our room block expires. We are planning an entertaining, enjoyable, and informative event for our member attendees. We hope you will plan to attend. Of course, rescheduling creates a domino effect. Consequently, the April General meeting on Staten Island will be rescheduled to June on Staten Island, presuming the Emperor and Prince do not find it politically expedient to create another lockdown.

The Bronx/Upstate June meeting is canceled. Hopefully by September we will again be able to hold our regular schedule Mineola meeting. Our newsletter publication schedule has likewise been disrupted. Normally we would publish in early April to announce the April meeting. This SPECIAL EDITION is published for early March distribution to announce the Florida meeting. Our next issue of the CHEVRON will be in early June. Hopefully, after that we can return to our regular publishing schedule of September and December/ January.

It has come to our attention that some of our members who are trying to sign up with or renew membership in CCW are having difficulty with website. If you experience difficulty, please contact Gary Estridge at CCW; 405-740-7952. CCW Representatives will attend our Florida meeting.

For those who lost spouse or other family member due to WTC illness you have until July 29, 2021 to file a claim. This includes older deaths. Contact Barasch & McGarry as soon as possible for details, (Please see full page ad in Spring 2021 CHEVRON edition). Mike Barasch and staff will attend our Florida meeting.

Finally, if COVID were not enough. Our old friend Shingles has visited us once again. Many have been afflicted with this painful and dangerous ailment. We learned that if you have been vaccinated more than 5 years ago you should be re-vaccinated. There is a new and more potent vaccine available. SHINGRIX. It requires two shots given weeks apart. It has a greater percentage of immunity and lasts longer. Those 50 years old and older are eligible for coverage. Non-Medicare members may secure shots at local pharmacy. Present you medical insurance card (Emblem Health etc.). Medicare eligible members SHINGRIX is covered by the SBA Health & Welfare plan. Simply present your OptumRx card at pharmacy with your co-pay. It is recommended that if you are being vaccinated for COVID you wait a few weeks before you receive SHINGRIX.

The RSA prides itself on its one on one policy. Please do not hesitate to contact any board member as well as the president with any issue you may have. We will do our best to assist. Reminder to our honored widows. You are our treasure. You are cordially invited to any general meeting. Do not stand on registration line. Go to head of line ask a board member to escort you to a special seat.

I hope to see many of our members at the Florida and Staten Island meetings. Thank you for the privilege of allowing me to serve as your president.

Fraternally, Patsy A. Noto RSA President