Public Education Matters

Various student voices 0:08
Public education matters. Public education matters. Public education matters.

Scott DiMauro 0:15
This is Public Education Matters brought to you by the Ohio Education Association.

Katie Olmsted 0:26
Welcome back to Public Education Matters. I'm Katie Olmsted, and I'm part of the communications team for the Ohio Education Association and the nearly 120,000 teachers, education support professionals, higher ed faculty members and other public school educators OEA represents across the state. When we asked those OEA members what they wanted to hear about here on this podcast with a survey over the summer, we got quite a few responses from educators wanting to hear about those pocketbook issues, things like financial planning and especially discounts. Lucky for us, we have Guy Kendall-Freas to help us all find some great savings. He's an Affiliate Relations Specialist with NEA Member Benefits, and he helps educate NEA members across a number of states, including Ohio, about things like navigating student loan forgiveness, life insurance benefits and so many other consumer topics that are covered by NEA Member Benefits to help OEA members and their families, including, yes, a lot of discounts for a whole lot of different things. Guy got his start in public education as an educator in Gallion schools, and as he tells us, he left a lot of good benefits and potential savings on the table himself when he was first in that job and chose not to join his local union when he first had the chance.

Guy Kendall-Freas 1:50
40 years ago, I was a first year teacher in the Gallion City Schools, and I didn't know much about the association, but that summer, I got a letter from the president of the Gallion Education Association inviting me to join, and not knowing her or anything about the association, I chose not to right away. She was very gracious, though. She gave me her card and said, You're going to want to hold on to this. You'll need me. Now, honestly, it wasn't any anti-union animus. It was that I inferred from her letter that she wanted to put her hand in my pocket and pull out $285 when my salary is going to be $14,280 that year. And I just didn't think I could afford it. But knowing what I know now, and having the opportunity to actually do the math for a story for the West Virginia Education Association State publication, I've recovered two and a half times what active dues would have been for those 40 years that have that have followed since that fateful day. And you know, there's so much opportunity with NEA Member Benefits. We're not the reason why people should join, but we're kind of like the cherry flavoring in cough syrup. We make that medicine go down a little easier. And you know, some of some of them well, some of them are automatic. You know, NEA members automatically have no-cost life insurance, hence the name complimentary life insurance. But more than half of them have never designated beneficiaries, so they have no paper trail for their family to find, because, of course, they won't be there when it's important to know about that insurance. And of the slightly less than half who have designated beneficiaries, they may have had life events change. And I won't try to speak for them, but in my world, exes deserve nothing more than the sheer joy of our passing. We don't want to leave them with an economic benefit. Yeah, so all members have have that opportunity. And then there are the discounts. Because look, Katie, I am so cheap, I will try to push you off the sidewalk. If I see loose change in front of you, you look like you could scrap with me. So

Katie Olmsted 2:52
I'm feisty. I'll take you.

Guy Kendall-Freas 4:13
I might not be successful, but

Katie Olmsted 4:15
And I can rival you for cheapness, which is why I love anytime I'm going anywhere, I hop on the NEA Member Benefits site. It happens to be one of the perks of working for OEA, and I go, what discounted tickets can I get? You got us discounted amusement park tickets for a family trip over the summer and all sorts of other great things that it just makes sense to go look to see what discounts are available.

Guy Kendall-Freas 4:39
Absolutely, you struck on tickets. You know, any venue that requires a ticket for admission, except traffic court -- although there is a program, the attorney referral program that can that can assist a member who wants to contest a traffic ticket -- But you know, concerts, sporting events, amusement parks, theme parks. You know, I'm a big lover of Pink. Like, the color's very nice, but I mean that singer. Amazing woman. I don't love her $400 a ticket. So last summer, when she came to Cincinnati, I scored tickets through the NEA discount ticket program for $210. Now that was pushing the envelope for me, but honestly, after watching her perform in 95 plus degree heat for three solid hours at the Great American ballpark, I'm thinking $400 was a deal. I also got tickets to see Bored Teachers Comedy Troupe in Cincinnati, and most recently, concert tickets to see Patti LaBelle for $32. It was second row center stage, amazing discounts, and the discount ticket program is just one of those for other types of of consumer needs. You know, I'm a motorhead. Now, if you ask my spouse, they'll say that I'm a hoarder. I prefer collector. If it has a motor and wheels, I'm really into it. But I don't like going to car dealerships because, quite frankly, I don't have to leave home to have insults hurled at me. You know, what do you want your monthly payment to because I look so dumb that I don't know how to adjust my my down payment, or my my terms. You don't have to agree so much there...

Guy Kendall-Freas 6:04
It's an audio-only podcast. No one can see me!

Guy Kendall-Freas 6:16
For the last six vehicles that I purchased, I use the NEA Auto Buying program. It's been amazing. The the ease of the that benefit. I never have to see a salesperson until I go to pick up the car. And my savings have varied depending on the time of year and the model and what was going on in the economy. The last car was in 2020 and that was pretty modest savings of $1,200. But in 2015, picked up my car at Bob Boyd Chevrolet there in Columbus, and and that salesman wanted to argue a little bit about the price because it was $7,200 off sticker. Those kind of savings are huge. When I go to insure the cars and my home as well, I use the NEA Auto and Home Insurance program that has special rates because we're a conservative group of people. You know, it's more likely that at five o'clock tonight, our members are going to be doing school related stuff, and I have some relatives who might be at happy hour somewhere, and you don't want to be in the same risk pool as they are. So having that separate risk pool and the benefits for us that are exclusive to NEA members can really save members a great deal. And as you may know, we transitioned recently from California Casualty, our last provider, from that program, to the Travelers. And I was a little concerned, thinking I can't really compare to last year's premium, because insurance rates have gone crazy. But the Travelers came in at slightly less than last year's premium from California Casualty. And I'm hearing that from lots of members that the savings are there.

Katie Olmsted 8:11
And I am not on the NEA member benefits auto plan, and realizing that my premiums just keep going up and up and up. And why have I not looked into this like this is this is that moment where I kick myself every time I talk to you? I'm like, What am I doing, Guy? Why haven't I been shopping around? I have the access to the website, just like any other NEA member, NEA member does. Just click around, see what's there, and then shop around, see how it compares

Guy Kendall-Freas 8:40
Absolutely. You know, West Virginia had their Delegate Assembly late this year. They had it in June, and there was a member there who just, I wish I could have captured their words. We were talking about the new NEA wireless program. And, you know, in West Virginia, like it, like so many areas, getting, keeping a cell signal can be a challenge in the mountains. I personally, I find it amazing that we could talk to people in the space station, but I'll have some dead zones between here and Columbus. But we were talking about the program, and it's provided by Consumer Cellular, so they don't have their own towers. You're not locked into your providers signal. You simply transition to the strongest signal from the major carriers that they they lease towers from, so you have greater coverage. And then when it comes to the cost, because that member was mature enough to be an AARP member as well, you can stack the NEA discount on top of that, so two lines of service with unlimited talk, text and data for $55 a month. That member said, If my wife and I switched from Verizon, that's our WVEA dues, the savings alone. That's huge. That is the medicine that makes or that the cherry flavoring that makes that medicine go down a lot easier.

Katie Olmsted 9:58
So you have, in the course of your work, you go and talk to members all over the place. What are some of the most surprising discounts for them, or some of the most surprising benefits where they're like, I had no idea that was even possible?

Guy Kendall-Freas 10:13
Travel, by far, any a travel program, the provider that we work with, promises the lowest available rate on airfare, car rentals, hotels, resorts, cruises and guided tours. But they offer that to all of their customers, so any members need something special, and what we get as special is $500 of credit. We call it travel dollars that they can use to further offset the costs of hotels, resorts and rental cars, cruises, the value for some of these cruises is amazing. In fact, the president of the Jefferson County, that's Louisville Metro Area Kentucky Education Association, shared that his wife took their daughter for graduation from college present last year on a seven day, six night, all inclusive resort in the Dominican Republic, the only thing they had to pay for was premium liquor. And his wife said, if we're going to mix it with fruit juice, we're going to go - Why go premium? But the total cost less than $300 because they could apply their travel dollars. That's less than a weekend to go to Chicago. Yeah, that's just amazing. And you know, members who what they don't use of those 500 travel dollars expires after 12 months, but the very next day, we're going to replenish their account and and even if we're not going to travel, you just don't know when an emergency will come up, because in the middle of the pandemic, when parts were in real tight supply, the turbocharger and my car went out and I needed to get a rental car, because they don't do loaners for the seven weeks I had to wait for parts to come in. So each week, I shopped a different rate. I turned that car in because I was able to find different rates, and it made that a little less painful.

Katie Olmsted 12:05
And just so I'm clear for the travel dollars, that's included. You don't have to pay money to get those or anything?

Guy Kendall-Freas 12:11
Absolutely, that's just part of an NEA benefit. We don't really share when members have travel dollars because we randomly select - we just recently did 20,000 members. So when I was at the NEOEA Summer Leadership Conference, someone came back after my session and said, I have 800. How did that? Should I spend it before they find out? We want members to sort of organically find it and be pleasantly surprised, and they are.

Katie Olmsted 12:41
Incentive to keep looking at the deals and keep - honestly as I'm talking to you, as school is getting underway in August, it's something to be dreaming about, looking forward to those vacations and continue shopping and looking and making plans.

Guy Kendall-Freas 12:56
Absolutely, earlier this week, I was in Ashtabula, and I got to speak to their ESP group, and for those part timers, just the travel dollars alone exceeds the cost of dues. So that means their membership is really net zero or net gain for them. And on top of all of the professional benefits that we know membership entails.

Speaker 1 13:24
In the last couple of minutes that we have, the discounts are a huge part of NEA member benefits for somebody who's cheap, like me, it's fantastic, but it is just a small part of what NEA member benefits offers. A lot of it is about consumer education and making sure people have the services that they should have. What can you tell me?

Guy Kendall-Freas 13:44
So I've spoken to a lot of new hires this this fall, and I stressed to them the need to think about retirement now, because I was blessed at 22 before my first student came to my classroom to have my mentor, who I didn't think would even be my friend, come to me and scare me into starting a supplemental retirement savings program. I never would have done that at 22 because retirement was for old people. And you know, I blinked a few times and I'm there starting early has such an advantage simple things like accidents when, when I was younger, I could jump off the barn roof and we'd see who go the farthest. And if I were to get on the floor, Katie, I'd need your help to get up.

Katie Olmsted 14:31
And I couldn't get up either.

Guy Kendall-Freas 14:32
I love the NEA Accident and Injury insurance that that pays for the supplemental expenses that come with any kind of an accident, but like the last time I fell off the roof, cleaning the gutters, I broke my collarbone.

Katie Olmsted 14:47
Oh my gosh, Guy.

Guy Kendall-Freas 14:48
My manager explained that I had all this sick leave accrued, and I should just take all the time I need, but I really need you to be in Columbus tomorrow for that meeting with Central, and I drove a stick shift car. So I had to pay someone to drive my car and me to Columbus, and that was out of pocket. This accident injury insurance is so great because the coverage for my spouse and myself total $12.50 a month for the for the two of us, that's huge just the one time one accident would be enough to cover that premium for a couple of years.

Speaker 1 15:24
Yeah, and considering how accident prone I am this, what am I doing with my life, Guy? Why am I not taking advantage of these things?

Guy Kendall-Freas 15:31
Well, often even even being involved for 40 years, it's easy to overlook because we're we're not, we're not promoted on television or streaming media. We, we don't come up that often in Google searches, but for our members who are aware and do take advantage, it's an absolute godsend, you know, and it increases loyalty to the association. In our member loyalty surveys, what we found is that members who are involved in member benefits programs and services score 13.6 points higher than those who don't, and that's on a zero to 100 scale of the likelihood of maintaining membership. So member benefits can be a real tool to recruit, reclaim and retain members in the association.

Speaker 1 16:23
And, what a godsend to the members who are using it. The money that's saved makes it so that you have that much more money to to live your life and live your best life.

Guy Kendall-Freas 16:33
Absolutely and it's available for family members of NEA members as well. Most of our benefits are applicable to your spouse, your parents, your parents in law, and your children, even if they're grown and away from home. So when we got our son on our cell phone plan, you know, it only cost $15 to add another line, but we told him it was 25 it's time to make a little money on this deal.

Katie Olmsted 16:58
You weren't kidding about pushing people off the sidewalk for their change! Well, Guy, thank you. I truly, I really appreciate you taking the time and walking us through some of these awesome benefits. It behooves us all to just talk to you more obviously, and to just go to the website and take a look around. It is amazing what is on there.

Guy Kendall-Freas 17:21
Thank you, Katie, it's been a real pleasure to talk with you today. And members can get more information by going to www.NEAMB.com/start, S, T, A, R T, and learn more about the 60 plus NEA member benefits available.

Katie Olmsted 17:42
Long time Public Education Matters listeners may recognize Guy's voice from earlier episodes we've done with him in seasons past, most notably talking about the Federal Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program. That student loan topic seems to be one that changes by the day, so if you haven't checked in on it in a while, it is worth taking advantage of the NEA Member Benefits resources to see if you're eligible for some relief. Of course, we hope to have Guy back on this podcast this season to make sure we're all up to date on that topic. So stay tuned for that. I will tell you, after my conversation with Guy for this episode, I went straight to neamb.com and put my travel dollars to work to save on a hotel for an upcoming trip. Woohoo. Don't worry, though, while I may have some travel dreams, the podcast isn't going anywhere. New episodes drop every Thursday this season to bring you insightful conversations about the things shaping the public education landscape in our state every day. and we will see you right back here next week, because in Ohio, public education matters.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai