| Retired Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin |
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DAVE WENZEL, SECRETARY - TREASURER S68 W17281 ROSSMAR CT. - MUSKEGO, WI 53150 262-679-3212, ddrywl@sbcglobal.net July 2009 Members & Spouses Here we are half way through summer already, I hope all of you are enjoying it. The mosquito's just started getting bad around here the last few days. We had only 31 golfers for this year's event at Baraboo Country Club we had hoped for many more. Next years outing will be June 28, 2010 we will give it one more try but we need to get the numbers higher so if you're a golfer mark that date down and watch for our flyer. For those of you who are computer savvy please visit our website at www.rpffw.org. We can save some money if you sign up on the website for email notices. You can also find out what is going on in the RPFFW and order clothing. At this years conference we will be holding elections for President and two board members. President Bosanko and Board Members McIntyre & Placek will be seeking re election if anyone else is interested in running please contact me. Much to my chagrin I had to drop another 67 members this year for non-payment of 2009 dues so our membership is down to 760. The PFFW passed a resolution encouraging all locals to pay first year dues to the RPFFW. We did pick up some new members because of that. We also have 95 members 80 years old or older and 27 surviving spouses who pay dues. The May pension reduction hurt everyone and those in variable got a kick in the groin. Because of the 5 year averaging the ETF uses the future is not bright for the core fund. There is $18.6 billion of WRS investment losses to deal with in future years. If the SWIB earns 7.8% over the next 5 years here is what the returns will be, 2009 (-3.4% to -3.8%), 2010 (-3.9% to -4.3%), 2011 (-5.7% to -6.1%), 2012 (-6.6% to -7%) and 2013 (+0.4% to +0.8%). If the earnings are higher the returns will be better and thusly if the returns are lower the numbers will be worse. It will take a gain of 27.9% to 30.7% to avoid a negative return next May. Enough bad news, the other evening I received a phone call from a friend I don't want to use his name to avoid embarrassment so I will just call him Bo. He called me and said 'Dave you have to help me, I'm ridding a big white stallion and to the left of me is a steep drop off, to the right of me are ostriches being chased by lions, in front of me is a herd of gazelle that I can't quite catch and coming up behind me is a herd of stampeding horse'. 'Dave' he said 'I could be killed, what should I do'? I said 'Bo get your drunken ass off the Merry Go Round and call Maggie for a ride home'. Until next time, stay healthy. Dave |
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