Live Like You’re Retired with RESDC

You don’t need to wait for retirement to enjoy some of the benefits. Active employees can join the Retired Employees of San Diego County (RESDC) to take advantage of the many perks it offers its 6,500+ members.

RESDC Executive Director Mark Nanzer said the nonprofit has evolved over time from a largely social group to an organization that offers benefits, discounts, representation, advocacy, and of course, fun.

“Our goal is to watch over and protect the interests of County employees and retirees, and ensure they stay connected and informed,” Nanzer said.

Start planning for your retirement today.

Discounts: A variety of discounts are available to members including trust and estate planning services, tickets to movie theaters and amusement parks.

Events and Social Activities: RESDC hosts a theater outing, a trip to watch the Padres at Petco Park, an annual summer Flag Day celebration, a health fair and picnic, and a holiday luncheon each year. The organization also holds general meetings highlighting relevant retiree issues through professional speakers including representatives from Aging and Independence Services.

Advocacy and Representation: RESDC is not to be confused with San Diego County Employees Retirement Association (SDCERA), which administers retirement and associated benefits for eligible employees of the County.  RESDC also works closely with the Board of Supervisors and statewide county retiree associations on behalf of retirees.

Benefits: When you actually retire, RESDC offers group benefits including dental and vision programs, travel insurance, pet insurance and discounted home and vehicle insurance.

Scholarship Program: The organization offers five Merit Scholarships annually. The scholarship program is open to RESDC members’ immediate family who are outstanding high school seniors planning to attend college.

Volunteer Opportunities: Because some retirees are more active than ever, RESDC also helps connect members with volunteer opportunities with the AARP Foundation Experience Corps and the Support the Enlisted Project.

Informed: RESDC distributes a newsletter to keep members up to date on actions of the SDCERA Board of Retirement, pertinent legislation, upcoming meetings and activities. The newsletter—The NETWORK—is available in print and online. Plus, the organization is on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Membership is $5 per month or $60 per year. For more information on becoming a member or the benefits that RESDC provides, visit resdc.net or call 866-688-9229.

Take the EcoChallenge to Reduce Wasted Food

40% of food in the United States is thrown away. That’s like leaving the grocery store with five bags and throwing two into the trash before even getting to your car. 

You can be the change.

The County of San Diego is excited to partner with the San Diego Food System Alliance on the Save the Food, San Diego! EcoChallenge campaign. Employees who sign up will get a free food scale and be asked to track wasted food at intervals throughout the year.

You can join one of the following on-site events to sign up for the EcoChallenge, pick up your scale, and start making an impact!

County Operations Center, Main Plaza 

Monday, Jan. 13, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

County Administration Center, West Plaza

Tuesday, Jan. 14, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

If you can’t make it to those events, you can sign up by contacting Domingo Vigil at Domingo.Vigil@sdcounty.ca.gov or Nicole Jaramillo at Nicole.Jaramillo@sdcounty.ca.gov.

As an EcoChallenge participant, you will:

• Understand food waste as a social, economic, and environmental issue

• Learn strategies for meal planning, cooking, storing, and sharing food

• Create impact by tracking and reducing wasted food

The County will be sharing information and strategies through emails and InSite posts, and there will be additional opportunities for engagement with the San Diego Food System Alliance throughout the campaign.

200 More Volunteers Needed to Help Count People Experiencing Homelessness

HHSA employee norma velasco participates in last year’s count.

 Last call. We still need 200 more volunteers.

To date, about 500 County employees have signed up to count people experiencing homelessness. Another 200-plus are needed to reach the number who signed up last year—about 700.

The annual Point-in-Time Count will take place Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020 from 3:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. Volunteers are being asked to arrive at 3:30 to allow time to become familiar with a new mobile app that will be used for counting. Use of the app will be optional. It will provide a tool to assist in a more accurate count.

The deadline to sign up is Monday, Jan. 20 at 5 p.m., and employees are encouraged to register for the count as soon as possible.

This is the seventh year the County has supported the annual count. During the span of several hours, volunteers count and survey the homeless they see in a certain area.

The Board of Supervisors believes this is such a worthy cause that County employees who participate can do so on County time.  

If you are interested in participating, review the FAQs and then obtain approval from your supervisor via the supervisor approval form.

Once you get approval, please sign up here. Once you have signed up, you will receive an email receipt for this event after signing up to volunteer. In the email there will be a link to a training from The Regional Task Force on the Homeless for you to review.

Members of the public can also join the count. If you know family or friends who would like to participate, they can sign up to volunteer. 

Year In Review: InSite Polls

Find out how your fellow employees voted in some of the most popular InSite polls of 2019:

County Employees Kick Off 10th Anniversary of Live Well San Diego

Hundreds of County employees rang in Live Well San Diego’s 10th anniversary at the San Diego Gulls game over the weekend.

The game kicked off a yearlong celebration of the County’s vision for healthy, safe and thriving communities, while welcoming the team as the newest Live Well partner.

Share your photos from the game and find out more details about the anniversary celebration.

Karla Lopez, HHSA Agency Contract Support and Claudia Souza, HHSA TB control with the gulls mascot

Live well san diego outreach team

Rasheed Hassan (left), HHSA Human Services Specialist, won a ride on the Zamboni

Deputy, 'Ninja Warrior' Takes on Self-Doubt

Emmi Rose running the course in an American Ninja Warrior competition.

Most of the year, she is a San Diego County Sheriff’s deputy, but once a year, she is a ninja warrior competitor.

Emmi Rose, 29, has been a Sheriff’s deputy for four years, but has competed on the NBC television show American Ninja Warrior and its offshoot Ninja Versus Ninja on and off since 2014. She notes that she has not won yet, but she’s not giving up. She applied for the spring 2020 season but won’t find out until this month if she’s been cast. Rose is thinking positively and so is currently in training for the show.

“People are asked, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And people will pick one thing — but why can’t you be this and this and this?” Rose says with a laugh. “People are not one-sided, everyone has so many gifts and talents.

“Life is short. Why not pursue other passions?“

Fitness has been a passion for Rose nearly all her life. She competed as a gymnast until her junior year of high school, attaining a college-level performance. She is drawn to challenging herself physically and mentally, and that explains her career in law enforcement and her competitive streak. 

Ramping up her year-long training for the show means two intense workouts a day on her weekends. This could include rock climbing in the morning and yoga in the evening, or sprint training and weightlifting, or grip strength training and a run. During her work week, she opts to do yoga before her shift because she wants to be focused on her mindset.

Rose was still in college when she was recruited for the Ninja Warrior show the first time. At the urging of a friend, she had competed in an Alpha Warrior obstacle course at SDCCU Stadium, and she placed second fastest among females and 19th among men and women. This led to a call from a Ninja Warrior competitor who told her she should try out for the show.

The first time she did the show, she didn’t make it very far on the strenuous and athletically challenging course. When they invited her back, she asked herself if she wanted to fail like that again in front of millions of viewers.

She decided that it would be an opportunity wasted not to try since so many people are not even at the level where they would be asked to be on the show.

“It’s not about failure, it’s about doing the best that you can do,” she says. “Failure is like the best thing I’ve ever experienced in my life because it just pushes me to do even better next time.”

Rose says any training she does for the show benefits her job as a deputy sheriff. When she’s competing, she says she imagines she’s at work and got an emergency call she has to get to her partner.

Life is about getting past hurdles and Ninja Warrior is a fun game version of this, Rose says.

“Take control of your thoughts and close your eyes and picture yourself knocking it out of the park and like killing it,” Rose says. “That is such a powerful mental practice. I would just sit there and visualize doing my routine, perfect, perfect, perfect and then I would just do it how I pictured it.”

Visualization is something that can be applied to our everyday lives too, she says. Anyone can do it before they’re about to do a presentation to their workmates or any other task you may be nervous about, says Rose.

Rose says her sheriff’s colleagues encourage her, and her Ninja Warrior teammates are also inspiring to her. When she first started doing the show, there were only a handful of female competitors but that has changed now, and she’s glad for it. She says she was amazed at how close and supportive everyone was of each other even though they are competing against each other.

“I just want people to know that you don’t have to watch someone do something, you can do it too. It’s the whole point of the show. It’s schoolteachers, it’s clerk workers, it’s law enforcement, whatever running the course,” says Rose. “I’ve never competed against anyone but myself. Just trying to be a better version of myself ever year in every way is my goal and physically this show is one of my markers.”

Even if you aren’t ready to do something really challenging just yet, Rose advises people to prioritize self-care.

“You have to value yourself and you’re important. Carve out an hour for yourself. I wake up every day and pray, I read a devotional, I do yoga and meditate on what I pray about. I start my days intentionally every single day.”

PerkSpot: Join the Gym for Less

Stay financially fit by signing up for a gym membership through PerkSpot.

Get deals at 24-Fitness, Equinox, Gold’s Gym and more. Perks range from waived registration fees to discounted monthly memberships.

PerkSpot offers benefits and discounts through more than 400 service providers and retailers. Go to sdcounty.perkspot.com and shop. If you are new, click on “Create an Account” to register.

Each month, one of the most popular PerkSpot deals will be highlighted on InSite.

InTouch – Taking a Decade View

Happy New Year, everyone! And new decade!

When the calendar turns, we often pause to look back before looking ahead again. You reach a new decade and you get a longer view. Taking a moment and thinking about the changes I’ve had, and we’ve all seen over the last 10 years, I’m blown away.

(Quick aside: I know you can argue the decade doesn’t technically start until next year, but come on, everyone is talking about “end of the decade” this, “coming decade” that. So even being a stickler for details, I’m going with it.)

At a personal level, I’ve passed so many of life’s milestones in the 2010s. Four graduations and one child married. I started this job. I lost both parents and beat cancer. I adopted two dogs and recently welcomed my first grandchild! Incredible highs and lows. I know you’ve all been through lots of changes of your own, many no doubt more dramatic than mine. Ten years of challenges and, I hope, many celebrations.

And the world around us has seen so much change. So many things about daily life are different from a decade ago.  

Smartphones went from being the exception to the rule. We rely on mobile apps for rides and meal delivery and countless other tasks. We stay in Airbnbs, share everything on Instagram, pay with Venmo. We started asking Siri, Alexa and Google for help – and they answered.

Amazon delivers nearly instant gratification – and entertainment. It’s pitted against many rivals in “streaming wars” that are heating up. Podcasts existed, but then erupted in the 2010s. Spotify became our infinite jukebox. Drones, electric cars and scooters offered new forms of movement. 

It’s not all tech and gee whiz. Marijuana is now legal in California, and same-sex marriage is nationwide. “Me too” and the rights of transgender people brought difficult topics into the open.

I could, of course, go on. But you get the drift that much has changed in 10 years. While some trends were projected, no one in 2010 painted a picture that included all the things I mentioned.

That’s what we need to keep in mind as we turn to the decade ahead. We’ll plan as best we can – and we work really hard at planning at the County. But we’ll be surprised. We’ll be amazed and challenged. New technology will bring us new opportunities, and new ethical questions. Political and social landscapes will forever shift.

We’ll plot our course, then adjust, adjust, adjust. I’m not going to try to guess exactly what we’ll be doing or talking about in 2030. But as we enter the next decade, will you resolve to eliminate homelessness, treat mental illness more effectively, advance social and justice reform and reduce our carbon footprint?  I say YES!  And let’s do it with unity and respect for all members of our workforce and the diverse community we serve.     

We have about 3,653 days this decade. Each is a gift, an opportunity. The future is full of surprises, but it’s also waiting for us to shape it. Let’s all be thinking how we want to spend this span of time, envision what might be, then get to work on making it happen. I’m pumped about the possibilities and the chance to move forward with you all. Let’s go!       

Share Your Resolutions

It’s a new year and new decade! Do you resolve to travel to new places, try meditating, drink more water, or spend more quality time with family and friends in 2020?

If you have a New Year's resolution you'd like to share with your co-workers, you can post one below. Comments will be reviewed before appearing.

Pet of the Week – Sadie

Meet Sadie (Tag #N9010), a 2-year-old boxer mix looking to ring in the New Year with a new home.

Sadie is a great companion! She loves to go for walks, play fetch out in the yard, enjoys human attention, and is ready to be the greatest sidekick. So let’s get her adopted!

You can see Sadie at the Department of Animal Services’ shelter in Carlsbad or visit sddac.com to give another animal their furever home.