Bulletins / additional communications

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Special Notice to Elfuns

This is a special notice to our Elfun members that we will be closing (sun-setting) our Northern California Elfun Chapter at the end of next year (2026), as most other chapters have already done. All members of our Elfun Board and most of our Elfun members are growing older and we have no significant pipeline of younger Elfuns to continue to enthusiastically run the organization. Also, the attendance for our Elfun functions has started to decline as our Elfun members have aged and are focused on other activities and interests.

However, we intend to have a great final year in 2026.  We will have events that appeal to as many Elfuns and their families as possible, and we will increase the Elfun event subsidy to make the events as close to free as possible. To help us plan these 2026 events please send us your favorite event choices by January 2026. The Elfun Board is looking forward to working with our members to sunsetting our operation in a manner that benefits the entire membership.

To maintain the same operating procedure, we will continue with the nominal $15 yearly dues for next year. So please plan to pay your dues and maintain your Elfun membership for 2026. We will stay open for a few months in early 2027 to pay our 2026 taxes and complete the legal closure of the organization, but we will not plan any functions in 2027.

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Nuclear Pioneers

Want to stay connected with former GE Nuclear colleagues? Email NuclearPioneers@gmail.com to join the Nuclear Pioneers Mailchimp group and receive periodic updates, news, and shared memories. Reconnect, stay informed, and help keep our community alive by submitting items of interest for distribution

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2-19-2024

Greetings Elfuns,

Our 2024 Elfun Annual Report is below.

Best regards,

Your Elfun Society Board

Elfun Society – California North Inc.

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2024 Annual Report

This Annual Report will cover:

  • Our overall status
  • Member services
  • 2022 & 2023: a look back
  • 2024: a look ahead
  • Other Elfun chapters* in the US
  • A Board request of the membership

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In this report, Elfun ‘chapters’ are actually not-for-profit, stand-alone corporations – 501(c)7s.

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Our Overall Status:

Annual General Meeting & Election of Officers: Per our bylaws, we must hold an Annual General Meeting of the membership, and a bi-annual Election of Officers. The 2024 meeting was held in January as an in-person event, and the Election of Officers, which happens every 2 years, was conducted via email. Following are our current elected officers: President – Yogi Dayal, Vice-President – Jim Leonard, Secretary/Communication – Judy Scally, Treasurer – To be filled.

Membership: At the end of 2023 we had 249 paid members. That represents a decrease in our membership. The decrease is due primarily to members who have not paid dues for 2 consecutive years, or moved out of the area, or have passed.

Dues Notice: Later in 2024, the dues notice of $15 will be been reinstated.  Some other chapters have annual dues up to $50.  Your email address, street address, as indicated on your previous dues notices is the primary way we maintain your current contact information. If you need to update your contact information, please email your new contact information to us at Elfun.Society.NorCal@gmail.com

Funds: Our members’ dues partially subsidize our activities and operating expenses. Elfun operating expenses include 2 liability insurance policies (totaling ~$2,000 per year), printing and postage for dues notices (~$1,200), software & hardware needed by our Treasurer, a Zoom license, and some of our volunteer projects. In addition, the Board has voted to increase the subsidy for Elfun luncheons from $5 to $7 per attendee lunch to cover an increase in the restaurant’s lunch price/attendee since our 2021 luncheon.

Elfun Board:

Your Elfun Board:

  • Coordinates the Elfun Monthly Luncheons and the Annual Meeting
  • Emails updates to the membership
  • Coordinates our insurance premiums and IRS/FTB tax returns
  • Distributes an Annual Report
  • Maintains our Elfun website
  • Coordinates the dues letters and member roster

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Currently (2024), there are 10 Board members supporting items summarized in this Annual Report. Our members are: John Armenta, Terry Chapman, Yogi Dayal ( 2021-2022 President), Treasurer (To be filled), Jim Leonard (2023 President), Earl Nichols, Matt Polomik, Willard Roit, Tom Ruffo, Judy Scally (Secretary-Communications), and Gretchen Zane.

Sandy Delvin recently resigned from the Board.  Thank you, Sandy, for all your Board support over the years.

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Member Services:

Communication with members: As with many organizations, the Board has from time to time held ‘virtual’ meetings using the ‘Zoom’ communication tool. Zoom has also been used to make information presentations to the membership. We have begun to resume in-person communications as needed in 2023 & 2024.

Our Great Elfun Annual Shred-Out has started up again in 2023 after the long delay since COVID started  which closed the GE site to all but essential employees.  Thanks to Matt Polomik and John Armenta for setting this up.  The 2024 Great Elfun Shred-Out is scheduled for a Saturday in June 2024.

Our Elfun website (www.ElfunNorCal.org) has been redesigned and is being re-populated with current information.

  • The new website has the following tabs across the top of the home page: ‘Welcome’, ‘Communications’, ‘ Benefits’, Activities’, ‘Community’, ‘Administration’, ‘History’, ‘Articles’, ‘Resources’, ‘You Can Help’
  • We hope you will take the time to check out the new design and information additions. If you have any recommendations, please talk with any Board member.

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2022:  A Look Back:

Monthly Board Meetings were held remotely using the ‘Zoom meeting tool’.  Meeting minutes are available upon request.

Monthly luncheons:

  • were held periodically throughout the year.  Some luncheons had a ‘remote speaker’ due to travel limitations. In those cases, we used our Zoom license to bring the speaker ‘in person’.
  • As noted under ‘benefits’ above, the Elfun subsidy for the monthly luncheons will be $7 per person (to defray the increase in charge/plate by the restaurant.

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Volunteer projects: Many of our standard volunteer projects (with the exception of AARP TaxAide) were put on-hold (due to COVID-19 restrictions) in 2021 and 2022. Listed below are the standard projects that we have participated in for years, and hope to re-start in 2024.

  • AARP TaxAide: prepare income taxes for seniors and/or low-income people
  • Almaden Elementary tutoring: primarily math tutoring
  • Lions Eyeglass collection: collect used eyeglasses & cases for Lions Club to distribute
  • Lego Robotics: mentor & judge Lego Robotics competitions
  • MESA (math, engineering, science & achievement) support students’ skills/knowledge in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math)
  • Engineer for a Day’: introduce students to what it is like ‘to be an engineer’
  • Toiletry collection for San Jose homeless shelters

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2024:  A Look Ahead:

Because our 2021, 2022 & 2023 plans were not at our ‘historically active level’, our members are enthusiastically anticipating what might be offered in 2024, the Board is currently reviewing a list of possible activities which will replenish our calendar. Following are some of the exciting possibilities being considered :

Social possibilities include:

  • Celebration lunch (January)
  • Wine tasting (March)
  • Top golf (April)
  • Luncheon (with speaker – May)
  • Great Elfun Shred Out (June)
  • Ed Dawson financial Presentation & luncheon (July)
  • Picnic – catered (August)
  • San Francisco trip (Sept)
  • Luncheon (with speaker – Nov)
  • Giants Baseball tickets (TBD)
  • Bocce Ball in Los Gatos at Campo di Bocce (TBD)
  • Theatre event (TBD)
  • Lunch in Santa Cruz (TBD)
  • Tech Museum tour (TBD)
  • Livermore Lab tour (TBD)
  • Golf outing (TBD)

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Other Field trips and events possibilities include:

  • Filoli Gardens in Woodside, CA
  • US Geological Survey (USGS) tour or talk
  • Stadium tour of UC Berkely or Levi Stadium
  • Computer Museum in Mt. View
  • Mr. Umunhum

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Note:  The Yosemite Annual Camping Weekend for 2024 has been cancelled due to a lack of interest.  Please refer to future Elfun communications for details.

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Information Talks include:

  • Technical: Challenger Accident (occurred 3/9/22)
  • Versatile Test Reactor (occurred 4/27/22)
  • BWRX 300 (occurred 5/25/22)
  • USGS talk
  • Health: Hearing loss, blood pressure and A-fib, strokes
  • Home/garden): solar panels, refurbishing your garden, water-wise gardening, vegetables
  • (Financial, misc.): finance – market summary, travel planning using PC, home/computer security

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Attention: Using our new Zoom application, we had a presentation on the Challenger Accident for March 9 2022, by Jeff Hren of GE Hitachi.  This was an excellent example of a distant speaker utilizing the Zoom application.

Member Services/Benefits:

  • Great Elfun Shred-Out (the site at 1989 Little Orchard St. as of 2023 is now open for the Great Elfun Shred-Out!)
  • Our Elfun website: (www.ElfunNorCal.org)
  • $7 Elfun subsidy per lunch plate

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Monthly luncheon talks possibilities:

  • Technical topics: GE-Hitachi business talks, state of nuclear industry, Chernobyl update, US Geologic Survey, home solar panels
  • Health topics: hearing loss, heart issues e.g. A-Fib, eye health, ‘End of Life’ planning guide
  • Financial topics: estate planning
  • Home/garden topics: warm season vegetable gardening, water conservation

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Other Elfun ‘Chapters’ in the US:

To our knowledge there are still 8 Elfun chapters still in existence (Greater Boston, CA North, Greater Cincinnati, Florida, Schenectady, Syracuse, Utica, and Wisconsin). There is no formal network connecting those chapters. However, links to their websites are available at the end of this report, and in our chapter’s website.

Other Elfun websites: (links are available on our website: www.ElfunNorCal.org)

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Board request of our membership:

The Elfun Board is always looking for: New Board members, project/activity leads (or co-leads or helpers), and new activity ideas. If you are willing (and/or eager) to join in and help, in any of those capacities, please contact Judy Scally (jukacu3@aol.com). Thank you for your consideration.

We hope to see you soon at an Elfun gathering … In the meantime, stay safe and healthy.

Best regards,

Your Board of Directors

Elfun Society, California North Chapter

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Elfun Business:

The Elfun website redesign is complete.  We made great progress, and the results were presented at the February 2022 at the Annual Meeting by Board Member Matt Polomik. Check it out at: http://ElfunNorCal.org.

The Elfun Dues of $15 were waived late in 2023, but have been reinstated for most of 2024.

Community Support:

Toiletries for shelters: As you travel, save your toiletries from the hotels and bring them to our next luncheon. We will take these toiletries to the homeless shelter.

Eye Glass collection: Bring your old (and unwanted) eye glasses and cases to any luncheon. Yogi Dayal will get them to the Lyons’ Club for refurbishment and distribution to needy countries.

Some Past Events:

On October 13, 2021, A picnic was held at the Almaden Lake – thank you Yogi Dayal.

On October 21, 2021, Elfun Society attended the “Hamilton” production at the San Jose CPA – Thank you Terry Chapman.

During November 2021, Elfun Society had its first luncheon since COVID-19. Ed Dawson made a very interesting presentation.

Wednesday, March 9th, 2022 Elfun luncheon, a “ZOOM presentation” on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident was made by Jeff A. Hren (GEH Wilmington).

Wednesday April 27th, 2022 Elfun luncheon, a presentation was made by Garrett Harms on the Versatile Test Reactor.

Wednesday May 25th, 2022 Elfun luncheon, a presentation was made by Willard Roit on the BWRX 300.

Scheduled Events:

For all scheduled upcoming events, look for Elfun communications in your email.

Communications with Wilmington NC:

Our Elfun Society California North President (elected 2023) – Yogi Dayal, had a recent conversation with Catherine Derkosh, who is the Communication Lead for GEH in Wilmington NC.  She has been in touch with Jay Wileman and she says they would like to partner with us, and send us info about GEH and GE that we could share with our Elfun members.  Of course we will keep them updated on what we are doing as Elfuns in the San Jose area.  Catherine has provided us links to pertinent GE and GEH items.  Here are those links:

GE Hitachi LinkedIn page:        https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/ge-hitachi-nuclear-energy/

Jay Wileman’s LinkedIn page:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jtwileman/

Elfun Connections:

Elfun Society California North, Inc., website:

http://ElfunNorCal.org

Elfun Society California North, Inc., mailing address:

Elfun Society

PO Box 41035

San Jose, CA 95160-1035