chaptersinaction
Personal Affairs
Chapter-run personal affairs programs serve members in a time of need.
Find out how some tailor their programs to meet members’ needs and
have become valuable local resources for information and support.
M
OAA’s Benefi ts Informa- and family will need, should some- earned by their service. Some chap-
tion and Financial Educa- thing happen to me. Though it took a ters offer seminars for interested
tion (BIFE) Department while to complete, a burden was lifted, groups and even publish their own
provides members with answers to because the important information my chapter-specifi c personal affairs
virtually any question they might family needs now is in one place. guides. Read more about this impor-
have about military pay and benefi ts Chapters will help you do this, too. tant feature of MOAA’s chapter sys-
and offers assistance to survivors Some 265 chapters have PAOs or com- tem — and discover one more reason
of members during the transition mittees that help members take care to take a look at your nearest chapter.
to auxiliary membership. BIFE also of each other. These PAOs sometimes — Col. Lee Lange II, USMC-Ret.
supports a network of personal af- act as family for chapter members Director, Council and Chapter Affairs
fairs offi cers (PAOs) in MOAA chap- who don’t have or aren’t near family
ters who help people at the chapter members. They educate, remind, and
level in communities across America. sometimes nag members into making Helping
As I was writing this column, I preparations for something no one
fi lled out the MOAA Personal Affairs likes to talk about. And PAOs support Members Be
chapter members in a time of need.
This role is important, so MOAA Prepared
started inviting PAOs many years ago
to one of the Council and Chapter Af-
fairs Department’s signature events
— the regional Chapter Presidents’ M
aj. Jim Walker, USA-
Ret., personal affairs
offi cer (PAO) for the
Symposium — where BIFE sponsors a Northeast Arkansas Chapter, was
workshop to train PAOs and provides there to help and support Eula Davis
them with resources to give their when her husband, Lt. Col. Billy
members the best support possible. J. Davis, USA, died Feb. 17.
PAOs also help members fi nd out “I had a stack of life insurance
about their benefi ts and navigate policies here, and I didn’t know how
through dealings with the govern- to cancel them,” Davis says. “I didn’t
ment that sometimes are complex. know how to get my SBP [Survivor
Workbook, part of Help Your Survivors A number of MOAA chapters also Benefi t Plan payments] started, and
Now: A Guide to Planning Ahead, avail- reach out to veterans and survivors there were all of these letters that I
able to all MOAA members. Complet- in their communities who are not needed to write.”
ing the handbook forced me to pull chapter members and might not even Walker and his wife, Gail, sat
together all the information my wife know they are entitled to benefi ts down with Davis and determined
what needed to be done next and in
*
ON THE ROAD: This month, Col. Lee Lange II, USMC-Ret., director
what order. They also provided her
of MOAA’s Council and Chapter Affairs, will visit chapter members
with form letters she could sign and
in Alameda, Calif. Go to MOAA Calendar, page 77, for dates.
mail that notifi ed the Defense Fi-
nance and Accounting Service, the
40 MILITARY OFFICER AUGUST 2008 PHOTO: STEVE BARRETT
AAug_Chapters in
Action.indd 40ug_Chapters in
Action.indd 40 77/7/08 7:18:21 PM/7/08 7:18:21 PM
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