All,
ALLEGEDLY the toilets will be back in order by 1pm today. Having the water return to a drinkable status will still take a few days after that so please take advantage of the bottled water scattered around the building. The timing on the toilets is good because we have 600 nuggs from Chik-fil-a showing up at 12:30 for the all members meeting that starts at 1pm.
We will be discussing:
Our Budget
Bidding
Upcoming Events
Convention
See you then!
Drew
Bidding
It looks like bidding has been going off with almost no issues. Most areas are nearly done with Round 1 of leave. Next step is for the area reps to meet with their respective OMs to reduce/remove leave slots. As always, they will target summer and all the training dates. As soon as that’s done, we will roll right into round 2. Trainees, your area reps are finalizing your schedules to best align with OJTI resources. Those should be out shortly too.
We will work on getting the OT MOU finalized this week, as soon as it’s done then we will more than likely have briefings to ensure everyone understands the new rules and how the new “available/limited” list will work.
UNUM Open Season / NATCA Benefits Visit **TOMORROW AND THURSDAY**
UNUM open season is upon us. If you don’t recall, this is the disability insurance offered for NATCA members. While no one plans on getting a long-term illness, this service will allow you to focus on healing with the assurance that your bills will be taken care of. Lance Liberty will be in the facility on 11/12 and 11/14 and will be set up in the cafeteria. He will also be answering questions about the alternatives to FEGLI (federal life insurance). All employees sign up for FEGLI when first employed with the FAA, but it quickly becomes the more expensive option. Please stop by and talk with Lance to start the process of getting moved over.
NATCA T-Shirt Contest
This Friday the 15th will be the next NATCA T-shirt day. Find a rep and get your raffle ticket. Don’t forget to put your name and area on it before you put it in the black box by the mailboxes. This month the winner will have a choice between Bigfoot Java, McLendon Hardware or The Rock.
Facility Water Shutdown
They will be doing a temporary shutdown of the main water supply, which will occur on November 18th, beginning at 0500L and lasting for approximately six hours, but drinkable water will not be available for multiple days.
The main water valve supplying the facility will be closed, isolating and draining the main line to allow for valve replacement. Once the valves are replaced, the water will be turned back on, and the system will be purged of air and sediment before reopening the building’s isolation valves.
During the shutdown, no commercial water will be available in the facility. Portable toilets ("Honey Buckets") and handwashing stations will be provided, with a map of their locations to follow.
After water service is restored, samples will be collected for testing. Potable water will not be available until testing confirms water quality, which may take up to three days. Bottled water will be supplied for use in the interim, and signage will be posted on all drinking fountains until testing is complete.
All,
As some of you are quickly finding out, you will need a My NATCA account to bid. This is because BidATC is no longer its own entity and is now owned by NATCA. So please go to bid.natca.org/zse and login. If you cannot login, you will need to set up an account. If you need your member number, you can get it by going HERE. As always, reach out to your reps with questions, happy bidding.
Drew
All,
That subject line is about bidding, by the way. Enough of you have attended the briefing for us to be comfortable commencing the bid, so your area reps are free to begin the bid at their discretion. You should be hearing from them shortly. If you have questions, please ask your area reps before bidding.
So that you may brief yourself, I have attached the PowerPoint used for the briefing HERE.
You can find additional resources at on our local website HERE.
Please be kind to one another and bid when as soon as you can.
Drew
AL/BWS MOUs have been signed! Briefings will start Monday, and we will start bidding as soon as they are finished. As a reminder, you will only be bidding the BWS line initially. We will start round one of annual leave after BWS is done, perhaps sooner if the BWS bid goes smoothly. That will be left up to each area rep to decide for their area, but the main goal is to get the BWS bids back to the scheduler as soon as possible. OT MOU is basically agreed to, but it will be a couple of weeks before that one is finished.
All Members Meeting
Our next All Members meeting will be Monday, November 18th, at 1pm in the E/W Conference room. Agenda Items currently include:
Finance update and 2025 budget
Events Committee Update
NATCA Constitution Amendments
Please reply with any agenda items you wish to add. We will have lunch at 12:30. Not sure what we’ll be able to grab for this lunch but if you would like to volunteer to pick up something, we would gladly welcome the help!
2025 Calendars
November 8th is the last day to change your calendar preference in myNATCA. If you need help with navigating that website, please let us know.
Member in Need
Most people are aware of the Voluntary Leave Donation Program, it is intended to supplement someone’s leave balance when they have had to deplete it due to family or personal circumstances. We have someone in the facility who could use your help, Kieth Priebe has been approved to be on this program. He gave me permission to share his story:
“In August, I suffered a heart attack. I exhausted my leave relatively quickly and have spent the majority of the time I was out recovering on LWOP. Any help would be both incredibly generous and greatly appreciated!”
Thanks for reading Kieth’s story. Please consider donating any leave you can by accessing the link below behind an FAA firewall.
All leave donations must be made from an FAA computer https://ahrweb.faa.gov/ovltp/.
I will be at New York Center next week as part of team helping to review their training program. Drew will be the acting FacRep for the time, and I will be back next week.
Amy Sizemore
