OCTOBER 2007

Calculating cost of Food:

An effective tool for calculating cost of food for Soldiers and their Families can be found at www.cnpp.usda.gov under Official USDA Food Plans.  The chart is broken down by weekly and monthly costs as well as for individuals and families by age and gender.  The chart is periodically updated to reflect rising costs. 

Commanders Referral:

 Installation Commanders and AEROs who have educated Company Commanders/1SG on the Commanders Referral program are doing an excellent job of utilizing this new category.  As of the end of September, approximately 24% of all assistance provided Soldiers has been within this category.  This represents $10.9M in distributed funds and the 2d highest category in reasons for assistance. The highest currently being Rent at 26%, representing $12.4M in assistance.  The flexibility provided immediate Commanders and the expediency in which local AER sections issue these funds have undoubtedly been the principle reasons for the success of this program.    

In processing these cases, HQAER has noticed some discrepancies and would like to remind AEROs of the following requirements: 

Spouses are not eligible:

 -  Existing loan for Commanders Referral must be repaid before additional assistance in this category is authorized

- There can be no more than two AER assistances a year under this category

 -  Soldier must be able to repay by allotment

 -  Requested amount and current balance cannot exceed $2000

 -  Soldier can not be on AER’s restricted list

 -  Assistance will always be as a loan, no grants are authorized

 -  Repayment must be prior to ETS but no more than 12 months from date of loan issuance.

 Should you have any questions concerning procedures regarding this program please contact the HQAER Assistance team.  

 AER Grants provided to other Service Members:  

Grants provided to service members through another military Relief society are to be coded accordingly; ie, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard.  The system will not allow you to process a grant for a member of another society; therefore, the case has to be coded as a loan.  The system also does not allow you to process the repayment (remember this is a member from another society), so you need to browse after doing the check, then click on the printing icon to print the check.  Should you encounter difficulties working with other society cases please contact this HQs ATTN: CSM® Perez.  Failure to follow these procedures will result in HQAER being unable to correctly bill the other military Relief societies for reimbursement.  DO NOT WORRY ABOUT PROCESSING THE GRANT AS A LOAN; THE OTHER RELIEF SOCIETY WILL ADJUST THE CASE ACCORDINGLY. 

 AER Operations during Holiday Season:

 AEROs are reminded of AER operations during the holidays and our agreement with the American Red Cross (ARC).  The ARC is not to be contacted with a request to cover AER operations during normal duty hours because your office will be closed for a party, training holiday, holiday celebrations of any kind, meetings, etc.. The existing Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) signed in 1997 between the ARC and AER provides a valuable service to Soldiers and their Family members.  When this agreement was signed it contained a listing of each military installation that had a military relief society office (AER, AFAS, NMCRS) that was participating in the after hours agreement.  The listing also contained each office’s operating hours.  Duty hours are defined as hours of operation listed in the original agreement, Monday through Friday.   Non-duty hours are those hours outside the office’s listed hours of operations, all National Holidays, and weekends.  Should your AER section be closed outside the agreed upon time with the ARC, they will not provide after hours coverage because they are not staffed to provide such services.  Therefore, please do not contact the ARC with request for coverage during the upcoming holidays.  Soldiers who make contact with the ARC during normal duty hours due to AER sections being closed will be told by the ARC to contact their Installation Commander’s office for information on obtaining AER assistance.  AEROs needing to contact HQAER during non duty hours may reach an Assistance representative through the Army Operations Center at 703-695-6828.

Education:

 Applications for The MG James Ursano Scholarship Fund and The Stateside Spouse Education Assistance Program will be available on November 1^st for downloading on HQAER’s Web Site, www.aerhq.org; or by mail from HQ, AER.

 The deadline for receipt of complete applications for the upcoming AY 2008-2009 is March 1, 2008.  Mailed applications and supporting documents must be received or postmarked by March 1, 2008 or earlier to be considered on time.

 The POC for The MG James Ursano Scholarship Fund is Mrs. Kasey Phillips, COM: 703-428-0035, DSN: 328-0035, or E-Mail: kasey@aerhq.org.

 The POC for The Stateside Spouse Education Assistance Program is Mrs. Diann Evans, COM: 703-325-2091, DSN: 221-2091, or E-Mail: diann@aerhq.org.

 Campaign:

             All CONUS, Alaska and Hawaii sections were recently e-mailed a copy of the planning schedule for the Retiree Solicitation for Campaign year 08. Your respective Garrison Commanders received this letter in September.

 Each CONUS section must notify HQ AER of your intention either to participate or not to participate in the program for 2008.  Please e-mail campaign@aerhq.org of your intention BY Oct 31.  We will assume that your location does not want to participate in the Retiree Solicitation if we do not hear from your section.

 Sections who chose to participate in the Retiree Campaign Program should expect to receive a copy of the HQAER approved letter for your Garrison Commander’s signature o/a November 15.

 Sections will then be responsible to return to HQAER a copy of this letter signed by the Garrison Commander, printed on garrison letterhead.  This will be due to HQAER  NLT December 15, mailed flat in an envelope, unfolded. 

 Any questions or concerns?  E-mail campaign@aerhq.org

 Samaritan:

 When a soldier or Retiree is place in a cash billing status, please ensure to get a good billing address, current residence, or the address that they are physically at.  The Majority of returned mail is from cash bills. We continue to get bad billing addresses which cause thousands of Soldiers dollars to go into an uncollectible status. Therefore, its’ very important that each section take the time and effort to get the right address.

 When entering addresses, do not abbreviate the following words when they are part of a city, for example Saint Louis, Fort Lee, Mount Vernon. Once these errors are in the Samaritan system, we have to correct each and every one before we can process in our Loan Management System. We have 91 sections, if each section only does this “once or twice” that’s a heck of a lot of errors to be corrected.  HQS would really appreciate your help and attention with this matter.

 Please be sure to add the Widow(er) as the applicant when issuing a loan. The SMs information should be entered as the ‘Sponsor’ when initiating a case in Samaritan 4.1.