I know I complain a lot. Life used to be relatively organized. I would do things and be done with them. Lately everything seems to be awry. I do things and they have to be redone.
One of the things I do in November is reserve the meeting room for the following year for my embroidery group. This was relatively simple at first. I would receive the paperwork in the mail early in November, fill it in, have my signature notarized and mail it back - and we had room - free - to meet in for another year.
We had met in a series of churches over decades - back to before I joined the group in the 1990s. (The group is around 40 years old.) We would pay for our meeting room. The group used to be over 400 members. The group would have workshops and interested members would pay for same which would allow the group to pay for a meeting room. Over the years members aged (with the inevitable result) and moved away. Women were working and could not come to day meetings. (A new group had broken off from ours and meets at night in the next county - some members belong to both groups.) Interest in embroidery waned. We were down to around 20 members. I figured out (as treasurer) that in 3 years we no longer would have anything in the treasury and the group would be gone. As I was about to sign the agreement for the next year, I noticed a mailer from the local township. One of the parks caught my eye. I called and asked about the use of a room for meetings. We had just enough percentage of members who were residents of the township for a room - since we are non-profit - it would be free! We were given space at a park other than the one I saw and we have been there for 5 years now. The women who work in the park office have been very nice. The first woman who ran it, however retired. Since then it has been a bit confused in renewing the room. Last year I did not get the form until late so I had made a note for November 1 to check with them.
October 31 I received a phone call asking for the group’s email address. I called back and left it on voice mail. A week later, nothing had come and I had not heard from anyone. I called back in case my voice mail had gone astray and was given someone else’s voice mail and left the info again. Another week - I called and was told that the forms would be out shortly. The next week was Thanksgiving. I was telephoned the day before same by the woman who used to run the department who again asked for my email - I told her the story and she apologized. She called back later to check which park we meet in. Thank goodness it was all finally going to be done with! On Tuesday the next week I received the paperwork by email. I filled it in. Wednesday I went to the bank and had the paperwork notarized and on Thursday mailed it back. All done, finally, how great.
The following Tuesday I had a telephone message when we got home from errands, basically, sorry. another group meets in that room then. Hmmm, we meet in that room then, maybe the nice former director had filled us in already on some chart or form? I called her back the next morning. No - another group was meeting at an overlapping time to ours - and she had a different location for us to met. I questioned how this had happened. The other group got their paperwork in first. I told her the story of trying to get the paperwork and how unfair that someone else had, apparently gotten their paperwork earlier than us and taken our space. I also explained that we were a group of “old ladies” - which we are, at 65 I am the youngest - and I was afraid that finding the other park would be too hard for them. She hmmmed a bit. Then said that since we only meet once a month and the other group meets more often maybe she could get them to give up the room for the once a month. She did and we have the room back for next year.
Totally unrelated - and dealing with the county instead of the township - husband and I are entitled to a reduction in our real estate taxes due to our age and income. I started collecting information for the paperwork in January - well I actually collected some during 2017. I had to telephone our medical insurance companies for last year (which we had 4 of do to R switching to Medicare partway through the year) and get printouts of the premiums paid to them - listed by month paid. Of course one only gave a total and I to keep after them for the correct info. I also had to get listings of what we paid for prescriptions (Walmart pharmacy was the easiest of all the info needed for me to get) and the dentist and doctors from the providers themselves. I did not bother with the doctors as payments to them were minor. We have to get statements from who we paid - canceled checks are not accepted.
In late August I received the renewal papers from the county (we had gone through all this last year for the first time). I filled them in and continued to chase down missing information. While husband was incapacitated I finished the forms and started making the photocopies I needed to give them - photocopies of income, of the medical expenses, etc. I wrote a summary of what I was giving them. I wrote a cover letter. We mailed it out certified mail (almost $7 postage) on November 27 - and received the information that it had been delivered and signed for on November 29. We sat back to wait to hear from the county in April - maybe earlier if they wanted some other information.
Monday night we got a robocall from the county executive that we have not yet filled the renewal for our exemption! We panicked. Tuesday I was taking my mom to her doctor and I called before I left for her house. I got a voice mail setup and left my information and asked them to PLEASE call back and let me know if they were missing our application - knowing that they would not call back. Oh, well, this was better than last year. Last year when I called for information their telephone number was continually answered by voice mail that said, basically, we are too busy to answer the phone - goodby, although after calling for several weeks the message was changed by adding - that there is not enough parking here, so don’t come either. While mom was in with her doctor I called again. This time there was a message that people were called who should not have been called and - the message only applied to those over 65 and if one had receipt from them for the paperwork given, they were fine. It offered a chance to talk to exemptions (overall I was calling the county tax assessor’s office) and I did so - same message as in the morning and I again asked to PLEASE let me know if they have our paperwork - just leave the message on our answering machine, they did not even have to talk to us.
Local news last night talked about the robocall error - it showed the lines that people were on for 2 hours due to the call - as did the local paper today - 400,000 called instead of something liked 50,000! But again it was said that as long as one had a receipt from them there was no problem.
Well, we only have the proof of delivery from the post office. So being crazy people - we copied all the supporting paperwork, reprinted the forms and resigned everything and reassembled it all. Tomorrow morning we will be going to the county assessor’s office. Hopefully the crowds will no longer be there having heard on the news or read in the newspaper what the situation is and we will get in fairly quickly - perhaps even told that of course they have the application and paperwork. But I anticipate a long wait to get in and who knows what has happened to our original paperwork. Husband will drop me off and try to find a parking space - there are a lot of parking lots (free) but in addition to the county office buildings (at least 3 I know of) there are the courts (at least 2 buildings), general office buildings in the area and the train station which serves 2 train lines, so parking is not easy - which is why we mailed it in the first place.
Does this happen to everyone - or just us?
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Always get a receipt. Always follow up. Always make and keep copies (or give copies if you can and keep the originals). Never assume that all is going well. Do this for smaller things also, but especially for big important things.
UPDATE -
Even with all this going on, I managed to take more of my required tax courses and now have finished 14 of the required 20. I have a left a 6 hour (credits) course that has a 3 hour exam. This exam is timed and has to be completed at one sitting, so I will have to set aside an evening alone in our office to take the exam - I do get 3 chances, but I have not yet (in past years) needed more than one attempt.
No comments:
Post a Comment