NCRGEA Completes Successful Celebration of Public Service Week

LivingPower Newsletter, July/Aug. 2022

A week-long virtual event just for retirees? That’s exactly what NCRGEA hosted with its Celebration of Public Service Week, June 6-10. Designed for North Carolina government retirees, pre-retirees, and benefits specialists, the conference is one of the few offered strictly for retirees’ benefit in the United States. With sessions reflecting the needs and interests of this demographic, over 900+ people registered to learn more.

During the conference, we were fortunate to hear from a number of North Carolina dignitaries, including Congressman Greg Murphy, Governor Roy Cooper, and State Treasurer Dale Folwell, as they recognized the important work and dedication public servants provide for their communities. Our service + benefits sessions ranged from Social Security updates and information for 2022 to preparing Power of Attorney and other documents in preparation for unexpected events. Attendees also heard from retirees who described how they are reimagining retirement by remaining active through physical fitness, volunteer work, bonus careers or developing new skills.

Whether it was the low-impact soup can workout or the chance to meet others in their NCRGEA districts, conference participants had a variety of experiences during the week. The conference came to a strong close with several presentations surrounding advocacy. Topics included specific ways in which retirees can successfully communicate with legislators, the implications of the Lake Case ruling, and an interview with NC State Representative Erin Paré.

Other Celebration of Public Service Week highlights included Clifton Blake Metcalf being named the first recipient of the NCRGEA Lifetime Public Service Award (pg. 3) to the announcement of Tim O’Connell as the new Executive Director of the organization (pg. 8). To learn more about either of them, be sure to read the articles included in this newsletter.

So, what did we learn from our first week-long conference? First, putting an event on of this length involves incredible preparation — from lining up presenters and coordinating the technology — to marketing the event and preparing staff to provide support. It’s amazing what a group of dedicated individuals will do to support North Carolina’s public servants. Second, we learned that attendees preferred to watch session videos later in the day or evening vs. attending live events. This data, and the rest we’ve gathered, are important because the information will impact when we offer programming in the future. For NCRGEA, it’s all about meeting our members’ needs, and it reflects, once again, how retirees are living busy lives that may leave them little time during the day. In fact, survey feedback from those who didn’t attend indicates that the most common reason was the session timing. Third, we learned attendees found the sessions to be of excellent quality, with the vast majority rating them a 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale. This information means our selected topics were mostly on target to meet retirees’ needs and interests.

Thanks to all who attended Celebration of Public Service Week, whether live or later, and to those who answered our survey with regard to nonattendance. There’s also still time to participate in the survey at bit.ly/NCRGEACelebrationSurvey. If you didn’t get a chance to participate in the conference, then the session videos are available on NCRGEA’s YouTube channel at bit.ly/ncrgeayoutube.

NCRGEA Members Who Referred the Most Conference Registrants – $50 gift card

Conference Participation Winners – $25 gift card

Trivia Winners – $25 gift card