These 6 Moose Staffers are Constantly Looking for Ways to Make Your Membership Worth MORE!

Moose International’s Member Benefits Team (clockwise from top left) co-leader Charlie Palochko, Darrell O’Brien, Robert Zaininger, Teresa Ehlert, Jan Pedersen and co-leader Tonie Ewoldt.

They’re Moose International’s Member Benefits Team, which in just two years, has generated savings for YOU in prescriptions, travel costs, telephone service, insurance and more. All you need do is take full advantage!


By MICHAEL McCULLOH

> By simply joining the Moose fraternity, members can save an average of 20 to 25 percent through a special prescription drug program, can reduce their long-distance bills and can even cut travel costs through hotel, airfare and rental car discounts.

The growing program of Member Benefits is just one of many good reasons to join the Loyal Order of Moose or the Women of the Moose—yet, two years after the introduction of the program, few members have truly tapped into the savings they can enjoy with their Moose Member Benefits.

Member Benefits Team co-leader Charlie Palochko said he is convinced that if details of the Member Benefits program were better known, the rate of new-member applications into the Moose would surely increase.

“We just need to get the word out,” Palochko said.

Although many members may not yet know about all the benefits available to them, this team was born two years ago only after a survey of Moose members clearly indicated that members wanted a useful benefits program as a value-added component of Moose membership.

“The survey is what really prompted us as a benefits team to start the search and fulfill the needs of our members and help them in their day-to-day life,” said Grand Chancellor Tonie Ewoldt, co-leader of the Member Benefits Team.

Because the average age of Moose members is mid-50s, and a significant percentage are retired and/or without comprehensive health-insurance coverage, the prescription drug program was high on the list of benefits the members wanted the most, so it was tackled first by the committee.

Depending on how many prescriptions they have filled, members can save anywhere from 15-20 percent on their prescriptions through the Scrip Solutions program, Ewoldt said. This can equate to many hundreds of dollars a year for some people, she noted.

Palochko said the prescription program has been relatively well-used, but could be even bigger if more members knew about it. Through the program, “we’re currently filling about 7,000 prescriptions a month—but it’s growing,” he said.

Benefits Team member Darrell O’Brien added that the discounts on prescriptions are better for the consumer than those of competitors—including organizations aimed specifically at retired persons.

“People (who are familiar with both plans) say the Moose always gives them the better discount,” O’Brien said.

There are times when the cardholders may run into problems and their prescription card isn’t honored. When and if this happens, you should call the Moose Benefits Hotline at 1-888-299-5383; you’ll be connected with a representative who will investigate the matter until it is straightened out, Palochko said.

The prescription program’s only major drawback, Palochko said, is its lack of advantage for Canadian members, for whom it is difficult to get discounts better than they get with Canada’s national health system.
Unfortunately, “this makes it difficult to cover all our members,” Ewoldt said.

Families today also face telephone costs that often increase faster than the inflation rate, so committee members were pleased to offer phone discounts through the Powernet Global Phone Service.

O’Brien is especially pleased with this particular perk.

“People should take advantage of this. It has done a world of good for me,” O’Brien said. “Some people have said they made more off their benefits over the cost of their dues. I am saving $15 a month over what we were paying with AT&T.”

O’Brien has also heard from members who have been pleased about the savings they have encountered through lodging discounts which can help people save from 15 to 30 percent at any of 17 national hotel/motel chains, including AmeriHost, Days Inn, Knights Inn, Howard Johnson, Ramada, Super8, Travelodge, Villager, Wingate, or any of the eight chains in Choice Hotels International.

Other benefits include savings on moving van lines, vacation timeshares, and even popular gifts such as Hickory Farms cheese trays. (For the current full array of Member Benefits, see the Members Only portion of www.mooseintl.org.)

As an additional benefit to the Moose organization overall, Ewoldt noted that the “tie-in” agreements with various benefits providers have brought roughly $60,000 to Moose International so far—but that’s neither the point nor the objective. “Our main goal is certainly not making money; but rather, providing the best available benefits for our members,” Ewoldt stressed.

Although the committee has already tackled issues such c as prescription discounts and travel (two areas most often mentioned by members) they are constantly eyeing new products and programs to help benefit members. Sometimes though, they’ve come across stumbling blocks.

Restaurants have presented a problem: typically, nationwide chain restaurants such as Olive Garden or Denny’s would reach a majority of the country—but they do not generally offer a fixed-percent discount.

“They have offered us the chance to purchase their giftcards and resell them, but nothing where a member would present their ID card and get a 10-percent discount off a meal, as we would prefer,” O’Brien said.

Another possibly future benefit to members is working with national book and CD retailers, or even nationally known amusement-park concerns, Zaininger said.

But this may be a tougher sell with such corporations, because many of these organizations work more through other corporations and might not understand fraternal groups.

Additionally, Palochko said, franchise-type operations often don’t necessarily have to participate in discount programs, so it’s proven tough to work with organizations such as McDonald’s on a national level.

This does not mean the committee has given up on working with such national retailers; simply that it may take some time to educate their leaders on how steady traffic from Moose members could be a benefit to their bottomline, O’Brien added.

The Member Benefits Team is occasionally approached with offers, and schedules meetings to carefully consider whether a specific offer is something that the fraternity’s members could benefit from, and would use.

Also to be considered is Moose International’s prudent insistence to not be made financially liable for any problems which might be an outgrowth from any organization with which the fraternity does Member Benefits business.

All program proposals are reviewed through the Moose International Legal Department before contracts are signed. “There are the usual disclaimers that separate us from actual providers in the contracts we are party to,” O’Brien said.

“There were a couple of products that have been offered to us; after legal investigations we decided to step back,” Ewoldt said. “We have tried to be careful on every product we’ve offered, because we don’t want to put our members or the Moose organization in a difficult position.”

The benefits are not simply decided and added to the list either, O’Brien said. Any recommendations from the Team for a benefits program first go to Fraternal Operations and Business Operations for review, and finally to the Director General and the Supreme Council.

Ewoldt said the Member Benefits program will continue to evolve; the committee is considering an online newsletter and home mailings in the near future.

“This is an ongoing program and is not going away,” Ewoldt said.

The committee is looking at four or five additional benefits to roll out in the near future. “We are always trying to come up with better benefits,” Palochko said.


Ft. Hood, TX: Iraq Combat Vets Join Moose To Enjoy Travel Benefits

> Moose International Director of Membership Bill Airey spoke April 10 to newly-enrolled Moose members, all U.S. Army Iraq combat veterans from 2nd Platoon of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, based at Ft. Hood, TX. The men said they wanted to join nearby Killeen-Harker Heights, TX Lodge 2179 for two basic reasons: because of the many gifts and kindnesses that the Lodge had extended to the servicemen and their families during their deployment—and because of Moose Member Benefits they’ll now be able to use, in discounts on hotel rates, car rentals and air travel. At above right, members of the platoon signed a U.S. flag, which they asked Airey to bring home to present to the students of Mooseheart.

		Mooseheart Chapter 3001 Member Terry Ann Smout (left) listens as Muriel Hewitson explains the savings on prescriptions she has enjoyed through her membership.