This Week’s News and Notes: NATCA Scholarship Application Deadline March 1
Thursday, January 10, 2013

The NATCA Scholarship Program is currently accepting applications for the 2013-2014 academic year. Applications must be postmarked no later than March 1.

ELIGIBILITY:

- Spouses, children, stepchildren and legally adopted children of active, retired, or deceased NATCA members.

- Two years continuous good standing active union membership prior to submission of application.

- Enrollment into an accredited college or university.

APPLICATIONS:

- For an application, please click HERE.

- Applicants wishing to receive confirmation of receipt of their applications should send a self-addressed stamped postcard along with the application.

- Applications must be sent to NATCA, 1325 Massachusetts Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005, Attn: Scholarship Fund.

- A notification letter will be sent to all applicants announcing their approval or denial of scholarship funds by April 30.

AWARD CRITERIA:

- Awards will be based on a lottery system.

- Applicants must qualify for the lottery by submitting an application as well as an essay. The essay must follow the outlined question and contain no more than 500 words.

- The National President and Executive Vice President will judge qualifications for the lottery.

ESSAY:

- Please submit an essay of no more than 500 words.

- Please ensure that you send your essay with the completed application; essays sent separately will not be considered.

- In your essay, please describe your career goals and aspirations, and highlight the importance of the union and the labor movement to your family and/or yourself and why you are deserving of a union scholarship.

- Essays must be applicants’ own work.
 

 AFL-CIO Union Plus Scholarship
 
The Union Plus scholarship deadline is January 31.
 
For the past 20 years, Union Plus has awarded union members and their children over $3.4 million to help make college affordable. These are scholarships of $500 to $4,000 that do not require repayment. Please click HERE to apply or for more details.


New ATSAP Briefing Sheet: Beware /Q and /R

The Air Traffic Safety Action Program (ATSAP) has issued a new briefing sheet, entitled “Beware /Q and /R, They May Be Non-GPS.” ATSAP has received recent reports from controllers and pilots identifying a system-wide problem with NAS equipment suffixes. Although airlines are filing correct flight plans, equipment suffixes shown by ATC may be incorrect and misleading, particularly for aircraft showing /Q and /R.

To see the briefing sheet, please click HERE.


Legislative T-Shirt Design Contest    

The National Legislative Committee announces the first "NATCA Legislative Activist T-shirt Design Contest!”  

“We've had so much interest in our current light blue 'Legislative Activist' T-shirt that the NLC has decided to turn the next design over to the membership,” said NLC Chairman Steve Weidner.
    
The rules are simple:

- Entry period runs through February 4th.

- NATCA logo and/or the NATCA legislative logo must be incorporated into the design.

-T-shirt must be legislatively themed.

- No advocating for or against a political party, candidate for partisan political office or partisan political group.

- Must be appropriate for workplace wear (no profanity, no Hatch Act violations).

-Design cannot be so intricate that details are difficult to see.

- The National Legislative Committee will vote on the winning design by February 8th.

- Winner will receive a $100 gift certificate. Second place will receive a $25 gift certificate.

More details HERE in this flyer.


MSY Member Added to VLTP Database; Good News From Detroit TRACON Member

New Orleans (MSY) Member Dar Doublet is recovering from lower back surgery to remove a cyst that was causing an infection. He is in the Voluntary League Transfer Program and in need of any leave donations you can provide.

Dar and many other brothers and sisters from around the country are in need of leave donations. They are listed on our VLTP database HERE.

One of those members is Amy Yahara of Detroit TRACON. Her infant son, Cole, was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease known as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Cole's only hope for survival was a successful bone marrow transplant to rebuild his immune system. None of his family members were a match, leading to a search of the Bone Marrow Donor list. D21 Facility Representative Jeff Blow asked members "to help our sister by donating some leave so she could dedicate herself to caring for her son and not worry about her income. Many of you responded and I can't thank you enough."

Blow is now thrilled to report that "we found a match for Amy's son, Cole, in December and they performed the transplant. Cole was home in time for Christmas.  He is far from out of the water yet, though. He still requires 24-hour care, an unspeakable amount of medicine, and frequent doctor visits and hospitalizations. I must now ask you to dig a little deeper. We only need about 300 hours of leave to carry Amy through to when we expect her to return to work. Even if you donated before, will you please see if you can muster up just a bit more leave? Please go to the VLTP web site and give if you can."

If you know of a member who needs to be added or removed from the list, please contact Doug Church at dchurch@natcadc.org.


New AMAS Quarterly Newsletter Now Available

The Aviation Medicine Advisory Service’s (AMAS) fourth quarter 2012 aeromedical newsletter is now available HERE. It contains a lot of interesting and important information. AMAS is the only board certified aerospace medicine physician group available to provide you the assistance you need.