Readers in Action 2005: Plus secure your SSN

Oct. 1, 2004

Publisher's Sign-off

Readers in Action 2005

Plus . . . secure your SSN

By Greg Napert

October 2004

Thank you for the entrees for the RAPCO photo contest. There were many great submissions, and it will be difficult to pick a winner. Look for the results in the 2005 Calendar which will be inserted in the November/December issue of AMT.

Don?t put your camera down yet, however. We want to announce another photo contest: Readers in Action 2005. In celebration of our 15-year anniversary (AMT?s first issue was November 1989), we want to have another contest showing our readers in action.

Send us a picture of yourself and/or a co-worker at work. And ? have fun! If you remember the original contest, we want to see you or your co-workers on the job. Selected photos will be printed in the January/February issue of AMT. The winning photo will be on the cover of the magazine. (Note: It helps if a copy of AMT magazine is included somewhere in the picture.)

The best photo will be selected by the staff of AMT and the winning photographer will receive $250. Deadline is Dec. 3, 2005. Here are some guidelines: Print or slide photographs or digital images will be accepted. Digital images should be high-resolution (300 dpi).

Send photos to:

AMT Readers In Action
1233 Janesville Ave.
Fort Atkinson, WI 53538
Or e-mail to [email protected] with ?Readers In Action? in the subject line.

On a more serious note ?
I want to pass along a tip that I heard while at an IA renewal symposium in Atlantic City, New Jersey, last week. I was reminded that thousands of techncians are still using their Social Security number as their A&P certificate number.

For those of you that use your certificate to sign off logbooks, that means that your name appears with your SSN in potentially thousands of logbooks around the country.

So what?s the problem with this you might ask. The problem is that identity theft has become a real problem in recent years ? and all it takes for someone to begin wreaking havoc on you financially is to get ahold of two pieces of information ? your name and Social Security number.

There?s nothing you can do, of course about the places you?ve already left your information, but you can put an end to it by writing to the FAA and requesting a new certificate with a unique ID number. The easiest way to do that is to register on the FAA?s Airmen Certification web site http://registry.faa.gov/amsvcs.asp. At this site, you can establish an account and request removing your SSN. While you?re at it, take the time to update your address if it has changed, or order a replacement certificate and update to the new format. If you don?t have computer access, you can write to the following address and request removing your SSN:

Airmen Certification Branch, AFS-760
FAA
P.O. Box 25082
Oklahoma City, OK 73125-0082
Or call: (405) 954-3261 for more information.

Greg Napert
Proud to be an A&P