Meet Jennifer Fountain, AMSkier Personal Insurance Agent Partner. Jennifer has three children, a full time job and is very active in her community. She’s a busy bee and certainly empathizes with the struggle to keep a hectic life in balance. She also knows that it is very important, no matter how busy you are, to take the time to be prepared for anything. September is National Preparedness Month so take a few tips from our Personal Insurance Agent, Jennifer Fountain!“Our family has an evacuation plan, just in the case we ever experience a true disaster. We know where we will go, how we will get there, how we will stay in touch and who will know where we are. This plan is spelled out and distributed to everyone in our family. We’ve practiced and rehearsed this plan. It’s important for all families to do the same. To make it easy for you, I’ve created a 5 point checklist below!”

• Designate a place for all family members to meet. Make sure the meeting place is outside the impacted area.
• Map out an evacuation route. Make sure you have alternate routes mapped out in case your main route is blocked.
• Decide how family members will communicate if separated. Have alternate communication plans with which everyone is comfortable in case there is no phone service. Obtain cell phone numbers for texting; often times text messages will go through when cell service is compromised.
• Keep fuel in your car. Determine how much fuel you will need to reach your meeting place.
• Identify a contact person outside the affected area. Give their contact information to everyone in the family so they can serve as points of contact should you get separated.
• Obtain & keep portable communication devices in your survival kit. Be sure your survival kit includes a portable radio or television and fresh batteries to ensure you can get the most up-to-date information if faced with an evacuation.

Being environmentally conscious is important to us at AMSkier Insurance Agency and we know it’s important to you too. We take many steps to ensure the health of our planet around the office by recycling, using paper sparingly, and reusing whenever possible. We do our best to take good green habits home with us too. On the occasion of Earth Day and with Hawley Earth Fest coming to town, we wanted to focus in on one specific and sometimes overlooked way we can be better to our planet: making a habit out of using our reusable shopping bags.

Most of us have at lease a few of these eco-friendly, reusable shopping bags, but what good are we doing if we forget to bring them to the store?

Here are some useful tips and tricks on remembering your reusable shopping bag:

REMINDERS

Remind yourself in a way that fits your lifestyle

• Many of us are fortunate enough to have smart phones with the ability to set location based reminders. Do yourself and the planet a favor – set those reminders up on your phone now. Choose your favorite places to shop and make sure you are reminded to get out your reusable shopping bags when you are in the area.
• Put a reminder by the door or wherever you think you’ll see it most when you are thinking about shopping. We created a pretty printable sign for you to frame and hang wherever you see fit! Reusable Bags Reminder” target=”_blank”>Download the PDF here.
• Place a sticky-note with a handwritten reminder on the dashboard of your car.

EASE OF USE

Make it easy to bring your bags to the store with you

• Put bags in plain sight in your car and on your doorknob.
• Consider getting a few folding reusable bags that can be compacted into a small pouch and carried around in your purse, briefcase or backpack. There are many options available on the market.

INCENTIVES

Rewards for when you do well and some tough love when you forget

• Many stores refund a few cents per bag. Offer to pay this amount to your kids if they remind you to take in the bags before you remember. They won’t need to be asked twice!
• So, you went to the store, did your shopping and realized you forgot your reusable bags in the car. Let the bagger put your items in your cart and then quickly go out to your car, retrieve your reusable bags and bag your own groceries. You will quickly train yourself to never forget your reusable bags again!

At AMSkier Insurance, we know that when we strive for a healthy planet we tend better life choices. Securing quality insurance for your valuables is yet another healthy life choice. Give us a call at (570) 226-4571 anytime so we may find the best fitting coverage on your home, boat, auto, wedding, summer camp, business and more. Have a healthy, happy, green habit making day!

Beginning December 1, 2016, many employers will be required to pay overtime wages to a new class of employees who had previously been considered exempt from overtime laws. Simply put, unless an employee meets ALL THREE of the following tests, he/she must be paid time and a half for any hours worked in excess of forty hours in a week. These tests are:

1. The employee is paid a straight salary, meaning the employee is paid a predetermined and fixed salary that is not subject to reduction due to variations in the quality or quantity of work;

2. The salary is in excess of $47,475 per year; AND

3. The employee’s duties fall under the category of executive, administrative or professional duties, definitions for which can be found at http://www.flsa.com/coverage.html, which also includes a summary of the law.

Please keep in mind that in order for an employee to be exempt, ALL THREE tests must be met. The law also prevents the use of comp time in lieu of overtime pay. Nor can an employer avoid overtime by “averaging” hours over the course of multiple weeks, such as someone working thirty hours one week and fifty the next.

The law does provide exemptions for amusement or recreational businesses that are truly “seasonal.” Because the definition of “seasonal” is based upon a somewhat complicated formula, it usually applies to businesses that are closed for certain periods of the year or that receive revenue during limited times. To determine if your business meets the criteria, you can refer to the Department of Labor fact sheet at https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs18.htm.

Because penalties for non-compliance can be severe, including fines and payment of attorneys’ fees, employers should take great care in making sure they are in compliance with the new regulations.