The Latest STEPS News
11/6/13
For the last 25 years the STEPS program has been up and running under the guidance of Bill Reid, a feeder driver in the Mesquite Hub until 2005 when he retired and then beyond that till the current time. But all good things have to come to an end and so will Bill’s administration of the STEPS program.
Due to the health issues that Bill is having to deal with, along with his advancing age, the prudent thing has always been to find and transfer the administrator duties to someone else. The search for that person has been ongoing for some time because it has always been known that someday the program would either have to be shut down or someone else would have to take it over. The search for a new administrator came to an end early this year when Charles Boddie, a feeder driver and steward who works in the Longview Center agreed to take and learn how to administer the program.
Charles’ involvement with STEPS goes back many years. When Charles learned of the program he took a very strong interest in helping to recruit new members and is single handedly responsible for the growth of a very strong membership in and around the Longview Center. Even after the STEPS program discontinued its special recruitment incentive, Charles kept on recruiting.
When the call went out that someone would have to take the program and run it, or otherwise it would have to be shut down, Charles was the only one who would answer the call. After a long discussion and several meetings Charles has decided that the program should be continued, and with that, has accepted the responsibility of becoming the “go to” guy for STEPS.
Learning the administration of the STEPS program has not, and will not be easy for Charles. He has had to upgrade his computing abilities, and with that, the knowledge of how the actual “nuts and bolts” of the program work.
Bill has agreed to work with Charles for as long as possible in the role of a “consultant/tutor” so that the change over will be as painless as possible, but all the incoming calls for STEPS services will have to be re-routed to Charles.
As a Feeder Driver, and with a package center work schedule, it will be difficult for Charles to answer the phone directly, as has been the case with Bill. There will surely be times that those who are trying to get in touch with Charles will have to leave a message, and Charles has made arrangements for those needs to be taken care of.
The transition process is almost complete, with an expected final changeover by the end of this year. And assuming that all goes as planned, Charles will be in full charge of the STEPS program by the time claims processing and payment rolls around in January.
While we do anticipate that there will be some “hiccups” in the changeover process, we do expect that the overall effect will not be noticed by the members. About the only thing that will be different will be the number they call for service, and the name of the signor of the check they get when a payment is forthcoming.
You may call the new STEPS administrator, Charles Boddie at 903-387-0179 for information about STEPS, and more about how the change over is going… Please allow for his daytime sleeping schedule and leave a message if you don’t get to him right away on the phone. He can also be reached by email at Charles@stepsfund.info .
