From the Desk of our HR Director

I couldn't possibly write a better announcement about CMCA's health insurance coverage for 2009 so I'm stealing it straight from the horse's mouth. Julie Kratzer, our HR Director sent the following to "All Staff" regarding the value of our health insurance policy and the importance of staff health:

"Each year around this time CMCA’s health insurance plan comes up for renewal. Changes to the existing plan are reviewed and other health insurance options are considered. I am excited to announce that for 2009, CMCA will once again pay the full monthly health insurance premium for our eligible employees. This is almost unheard of among other employers. CMCA will renew the Mercy health insurance plan. This means that the health coverage for 2009 will be the same as it was in 2008. The Mercy health plan is an excellent plan. A summary of plan coverage is attached. For more specific information, please call the member services number on the back of your health insurance card.

While there was an increase in the health insurance premiums, CMCA is not asking employees to pay even a portion of their premium. But rather we are asking that you continue to take care of yourselves, get your annual check ups, and use the preventive care options offered by our health insurance. For those of you who have your children and/or your spouse on the health insurance plan, the new monthly premiums effective January 1, 2009 are as follows: Spouse = $625.16 and children = $317.17 (flat fee for all children). CMCA pays the full employee premium of $509.91 on each eligible employee.

While on the subject of health insurance, please keep in mind that you can get many generic prescriptions filled for $4 or even free. If you doctor is writing your prescription ask him/her if there is a comparable generic available and if so have him/her write the prescription for the generic. You can save money. Walmart and Gerbes, offer many generic prescriptions for just $4. Schnuck’s has at least 13 commonly prescribed antibiotics that they will fill absolutely free when you bring in your prescription. Our co-pay on generic prescriptions is $10. So before you hand over your insurance card to the pharmacist and pay the co-pay, ask the pharmacist how much the drug actually cost – it could be cheaper than the co-pay.

Oh yeah, while I’m at it, eat an apple, quit smoking, and wear your seatbelt. We want you to be safe, happy, and healthy so you can continue to be part of our great team!

Have a great day!

Julie Kratzer

HR Director"

Development and Transformation

I find it terribly ironic that our agency is gaining new resources even as the economy continues to struggle. As we discussed at the board meeting a few weeks ago, more utility assistance (LIHEAP) and Weatherization funding has been appropriated by Congress, an additional $23 million is available to the state of Missouri for Neighborhood Stabilization through the Community Development Block Grant, and our Head Start program has taken on nearly $2 million (over the next several years) for projects around health literacy and healthy relationships. Sadly, much of this funding is a reflection of the fact that more people are struggling to make ends meet. Even with new resources however, we are not able to address all of the causes of poverty by ourselves, much less the influx of families who are struggling because of the current economy. This is all the more reason to continue implementing our transformational plan. CMCA must be about more than providing programs and services if it is truly to be a catalyst to ending poverty in mid-Missouri. Our transformational plan incorporates all of our programs but expands to engage the community to work together to address the root causes of poverty that our individual programs do not. This leads me back to our sources of revenue. We are not funded to implement our transformational plan nor to do much of the work that it outlines. Certainly we will work to maximize our programmatic budgets by looking for acceptable opportunities to braid our funding around certain activities but ultimately we will need new revenue. To fund our plan we will take a three-pronged approach. First, we will continue to look for grants that specifically fit our plan. Second, we will establish a development plan that incorporates events and direct fundraising (see our Development Plan for more details). Third, we are building capital to start a social enterprise that will generate revenue for the agency. For this reason I am all the more excited to get our Development Advisory Board up and running.

Before we get too much further along, I should point out that we have some significant recruiting to do to fill our board back to capacity (21 members). Cooper, Howard, Moniteau, and Osage Counties particularly need representation. Please share any ideas about people that would support our mission and be active board members. The Membership and Training Committee will be meeting on November 13 to discuss the current openings and to discuss recruitment strategies. We will also be discussing a new application process that will allow us to analyze board members’ and recruits’ knowledge, skills, and abilities to help us develop the most well-rounded board possible.