As the US - and indeed, the world - faces up to the devastation caused by hurricane Katrina, overseas Americans empathize with the loss of life and property and the suffering of thousands in the states along the Gulf of Mexico, and most strikingly in New Orleans. Remember also that victims will need long-term support, psychologically as well as financially. Sites listed below are a sampling of those which can help you focus your help to approved charitable groups:

• www.redcross.org
• national.unitedway.org
• www.GuideStar.org

Unfortunately, the evident need for large-scale relief and the well-known generosity of individual Americans has also led to numerous scams. Be cautious of new sites established specifically for Katrina relief.

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ACA member Lou Berman of Annecy, France, is a US Department of Transportation Civil Aviation Expert providing technical advice and assistance to NATO's Brussels based Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Center. The Center works to coordinate the movement of NATO members' goods offered in assistance to the US government for hurricane Katrina response.

Lou reports, "In this present case Nations are in the process of responding to US emergency requests for donations, and my role and that of my colleagues is to arrange air lift to the US of various supplies. These mainly consist of Ready to Eat Meals (REM), pumps, generators, blankets, tents, plastic sheeting, bottled water, fuel, etc.... Basically it is a matter of logistics."

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While ACA's messages sent to its old address are for the moment automatically forwarded, please note and mark down our new email: For technical reasons, mailings you receive will still come from our old email address.

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What is the WEP ("Windfall Elimination Provision"), and when can it reduce your Social Security benefits? Social Security benefits are calculated as a percentage of a worker's pre-retirement earnings, with complex formulas designed to ensure that lower-wage earners receive a relatively higher percentage of pre-retirement earnings as Social Security benefits than higher wage-earners. Categories of persons, including those who work for a government agency or an employer in another country, may arrive at retirement qualifying for Social Security, but with much of their earnings not having been subjected to Social Security taxes. Based on Social Security calculations, they appear to be low wage-earners, and thus eligible for relatively higher benefits.

To eliminate this "windfall" income, people with (for example) foreign pensions can have their Social Security benefits seriously reduced (again, subject to complex formulas). Implications for those who live and have worked abroad, particularly those with very limited income, can be painful.

American Citizens Abroad teams up with other groups representing those negatively impacted by WEP in urging its members to write their Senators and Representatives *now*.

• Click here to see the newsletter of the Association of Americans Residing Overseas (AARO).

• the thousands-strong American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) backs elimination WEP, as does the 40,000-member National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE)

• To locate your members of Congress, check this link

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QUESTION: I need to obtain proof of death of an American relative who lived abroad. What do I do?

ANSWER: Copies of the "Report Of Death of US Citizen Abroad" The U.S. consular officer will send the family free of charge up to 20 certified copies of the Report of Death at the time the initial report is issued. Additional copies can be obtained subsequently by contacting the Department of State, Passport Services, Correspondence Branch, 1111 19th Street, N.W., Suite 510, Washington, D.C. 20522-1705, tel +1 (202) 955-0307. Submit a signed, written request including all pertinent facts along with requester's return address and telephone number. Effective June 1, 2002, there is a $30 fee for a certified copy of Reports of Death, and a $20 fee for each additional copy provided at the same time.

This and much more useful information available from the State Department Consular Affairs web site: travel.state.gov.

(Based on questions actually received by ACA.)

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On 22 September 2005: Mr Ted Girdner, Social Security Assistant Associate Commissioner for International Operations, Baltimore, will discuss issues of importance to Social Security beneficiaries residing outside the United States: Windfall Elimination provision, Medicare-Tricare, direct deposit of Social Security benefits, and more. At the American Women's Club of Zurich, 18:30 hours. Reserve by 19 September via email (bernacs@state.gov), telephone: +41 31 357 7235 or fax: +41 31 357 7366.

NOTE: Readers with specific questions they would like answered please send to the above coordinates, and copy ACA An ACA representative will be attending.

1 October 2005: American Club of Sweden presents an afternoon seminar entitled, "A Roadmap for the Future: trends in mobility and communication". Guest speakers include John G. Middlebrook, Vice-President of General Motors. The seminar is followed by an evening Centennial Gala, with speakers including the US Ambassador and the Director General of the Swedish Institute. Advance reservations needed for both events. For full details see: www.amclubsweden.org

6-8 October 2005: The Eight Annual Women's International Networking (W.I.N.) conference. Geneva, Switzerland. Conference addresses issues related to international leadership and women working internationally. For full details visit the conference website at: www.winconference.net

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"Books in the Wild." Ever read a good book and wish you could share it with a kindred spirit? Unable to resist to buying books, although you know you can't provide a home for them? You sound like a candidate for BookCrossing www.bookcrossing.com). You can register and label a book and then leave it … anywhere … for the next compulsive reader to find and pass on. You can trace your book's progress from location to location via the web site. You can check, country by country (Afghanistan to Vietnam and the World Wide Web) how many registered books are "in the wild" at a given moment.

The "3 Rs" as described by BookCrossing…(1) Read a good book (you already know how to do that; (2) Register it online (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book; (3) Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone records journal entries for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!

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This News Update is, like ACA itself, of, by, and for Americans abroad. ACA is staffed through the efforts of volunteers, with its primary income source being membership fees and donations from private American citizens around the world.

WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE HANDS-ON TO ACA WORK:

1. NEWS UPDATE EDITORS. ACA is seeking to supplement its News Update staff. Work involves actually writing the News Update 2 - 3 times a year, under supervision of a Senior Editor, and monitoring raw material considered for the newsletter on a regular basis. Calls for e-mail access and an ability to write/edit succinctly and against a deadline. ACA takes pride in the global spread of its editors.
2. BOOK REVIEWS/REVIEWERS. ACA is interested in discovering books of particular interest to Americans abroad. It also seeks individuals willing to review such books. Reviewers get to keep the book, and to see their contribution in print. Click here for a list of books or contact the ACA office.

WAYS TO CONTRIBUTE TO ACA'S FINANCIAL SUCCESS:

1. ORDER YOUR PUBLICATIONS THROUGH THE ACA WEBSITE and we get paid for your business - at no cost to you. Go to the Book Review section and click on any link to amazon-com (USA) or amazon-UK. Any purchases you make when you have entered through the ACA portal, whether of items reviewed on the website or not, will generate a small revenue for ACA; Please make this extra click-to-give gesture to help us continue to help you.
2. JOIN US FOR OUR ANNUAL AUCTION. The FUNdraiser evening produces the single largest annual contribution to ACA's working budget. And the highest bids are for items ingenious and/or exotic. It's a good bet that someone in the attending crowd of internationals will be intrigued by even the most distant and/or unusual of objects or services.
3. IS YOUR MEMBERSHIP CURRENT? Renew by secure online payment or contact the ACA office . Membership is only $40 a year ($30 for seniors). Of course, an outright contribution via check or charge card is the most obvious way to support the work of ACA and its worldwide volunteers working to help YOU. Secure payment via thru PayPal^®, or send a check to: ACA, 5 rue Liotard, CH-1202 Geneva, Switzerland.

Disclaimer: While ACA makes every effort to be accurate in the information it transmits, such information is not to be considered a substitute for specific and qualified professional advice.

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