learning something new with aarp

Yes, indeed, I got schooled today!

As a volunteer with AARP-GA, there were several of us from the Savannah chapter there at Savannah Technical College at 11 AM.

Never mind that it was a Tina Tuesday!

Not that anyone there was aware of any such thing, so there's that.

The four-hour seminar was titled "Savannah Volunteer Portal Training", but it was not by any means an in-depth class.

The purpose of the in-person training was to teach us how to edit our contact record, how to access the help videos and tip sheets, how to create and submit a reimbursement request, and how to set up direct deposit.

That was all.

There were three 'Portal Champions' - Romelle, Lauri, and Charlene - that had been called in from Atlanta and North Carolina to train the nine of us.

Seriously.

I had thought that was overkill, but there were only three of us who had any familiarity at all with the AARP website.

That would be me, Jeanette Bacon, Herb Singleton, and Lillian Brown.

I had actually been shocked to see those last two there for the training.

They've been AARP-GA volunteers for more than 9 years!

However, Brenda Singleton and Caroline Burnett, who are also long-timers, were just as lost with the software as were newcomers Connie Cooper and Felicia Shuman.

Seriously. 

However, as we have several events coming up in October, Gabrielle Richardson had deemed it vital for as many of us as possible to take this class.

I'm glad she had believed that!

I had no idea that I could get reimbursed for mileage, just for coming to this class today - and I'm going to get $6.08 for my efforts to get here.

 

Plus I had a nice, hot lunch about halfway through the class!

No one seemed to know who had catered it, but it may well have been the cooking school at the college.

I'd like to have the recipe for the spicy yellow dressing I chose for my salad.

That was certainly tasty!

After that break, it was back to the task of using the Wizard to take us through the steps of creating a reimbursement request, editing it, and making sure it was actually submitted.

Success!

Yes, I know it looks like I flubbed the assignment, as my request is listed as "not submitted", but that's because I want to set up direct deposit first.

Otherwise, I'd be getting a little bitty check that I'd have to arrange to get deposited at some point in time - no thanks!

One of the others is doing like me: setting up the direct deposit first.

She's also going to wait until after the Oct. 2nd "Movies For Grown-Ups" event that we're hosting, which is a good idea.

Yes, I like the idea of submitting three small requests at one time, so a more substantial deposit follows!

Such a nice perk for volunteering my time and presence and energy!

 

Now, I'm about to go see "Practical Magic 2", as I thought it would be advisable to see it before I'm in charge of handling it for my chapter.

And, look - there's a poster for the next MFG event here this month!

Sweet!

I haven't heard back from Gabrielle about who will be leading this team event, but I look forward to "Sense And Sensibility".

Should be fun for me and my friends!!!