Author: ateeter

Auxiliary President’s Update (April 2019)

By Donna Limric

 

I would like to introduce myself as the current President of the Auxiliary to Ballard-Eagleson V.F.W. Post #3063. We have a new slate of officers: Senior Vice President Margo Clutter, Treasurer Liz Guncay, and Secretary Suzanne Potts.

 

With your help we can do many things to help our veterans and our community. We have vets in Seattle that are living on the streets, vets in hospitals who need diversion and fun times. Each May our post hosts a Bingo game for patients at the Puget Sound VA hospital.  National Home needs financial support.  Here is the link to to find other programs that need support: https://vfwauxiliary.org/what-we-do/.

 

Most importantly we need members to step up and participate.  Did you notice the word ‘Ladies’ is missing from our name?  Two years ago the membership requirement changed so we now accept men into the Auxiliary with the same eligibility as women.  Sons, brothers, fathers, grandfathers, and husbands of eligible veterans are now welcome into the Auxiliary.  Do know someone who is a spouse, widow, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild or sibling of someone who served their country during a foreign conflict?  Just ask, it can’t hurt.

 

We want individuals who are interested in participating in our National and Local Programs: Hospital, Americanism, Community Service, Legislative, Publicity, Scholarship, Sunshine and Youth Activities.

 

If you know anyone who is interested in becoming a member of the VFW Auxiliary, please forward my contact information to them.  If you are a member who has not been active in a while, please come see the new and exciting plans that will revitalize this organization.  In May we intend to have an open house and book sale during Ballard Nordic days.

 

The first Thursday of each month is our Auxiliary business meeting at 7:00 pm. Please come learn about the exciting new changes and plans we are making to continue the good work of support for our veterans and our community.  We strive to keep the business to under an hour.

 

I would like to invite you all to come join the 3rd Thursday of each month for the VFW social.

 

Please contact me if you have any questions. I can be reached by phone at 206-852-5434 or e-mail at [email protected]. You may send mail to 2812 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107.

 

Mid-Winter Conference 2019 Recap

By Harold Rodenberger

 

Our Mid-Winter Conference was held in Yakima this year on January 11th and 12th. Representing our post were Sr Vice Commander Joe Tiffany, Jr Vice Joe Fitzgerald, Quartermaster Harold Rodenberger, Service Office Leo Potts, Surgeon Tiffany Cavin, Officer of the Day Anthony Rose and Past Commander Nestor Tamayao.

 

On Saturday, there was training for Quartermasters and Service Officers along with the regular business meeting.

 

One highlight of the conference was the presentation of certificates and $100 checks to those posts achieving 100 per cent membership by December 31, 2018. I was proud to see our post represented in this small group.

 

Another highlight was the awards banquet featuring winners of the Voice of Democracy, Patriot’s Pen and Youth Essay contests. Entrants from our post didn’t win at the state level but our Teacher of the year and VOD entries both won at the District level. Our VOD winner, Kate Cavanaugh, read her essay during the December business meeting and received a standing ovation. Her essay is posted on our website at http://vfwseattle.org/index.php/2019/01/31/voice-of-democracy-winners-essay-why-my-vote-matters/.

Post Members Build Community, Raise Money with Stew & Music

 

S&S Band
Post supporters listen to one of the bands and enjoy eating stew.

Comrades Potts and Tiffany organized and held two fundraisers at the post Mar. 16, 2019. The first fundraiser was an Irish stew feast that included game hunted by Potts in Texas. Chef Kay and her team of volunteers cooked the stew and fixings. Proceeds from the stew feast were to benefit a group of veterans traveling to Washington, D.C. in May.

 

The second fundraiser, aptly called Shamrocks & Shenanigans, featured three bands. Proceeds from the concerts benefited Post 3063’s Relief Fund, which benefits a variety of causes for local veterans in need. Overall the events were a success not only for raising money, but bringing members of the community together for a couple of good causes.

Building Project Update

By Commander Pete Krawitz and Quartermaster Harold Rodenberger

 

If you refer to the 2018 Q4 newsletter, you’ll recall that the post membership voted to work with consultants from a local architect firm to review the current state of our building. While there have been a few minor updates in the subsequent newsletters, Comrade Quartermaster Rodenberger and I wanted to provide the post members with a more comprehensive update on the current state of this project, which is getting closer to completion.

 

First off, we’d like to thank the house committee for their hard work (Doug Maines, Jordan Houghton, and Aly Teeter-Baker). These individuals dedicated many additional hours of their free time over the last few months to help see this project through. These individuals have acted as a critical advisory and steering committee for our hired consultants.

 

During this period, the house committee has monitored the development of four tentative options, ranging from minor, mostly cosmetic improvements to sale or redevelopment of the property.

 

As these options have been fleshed out, we’ve visited venues in central and north Seattle to see how other owners manage meeting halls and rental spaces. At the same time, a focus group composed of house committee members plus some volunteers from our post and auxiliary have met with the architects to furnish input and give feedback to help them aim the options toward our goals as a growing and modern VFW post.

 

To aid with planning we met with the city planners for guidance on how an old building such as ours can be updated to meet current usage and code yet meet fiscal constraints. We’ve also had a hazardous materials survey done to find out what we don’t know about the existence of asbestos, lead and other toxic materials in some of the old building materials.

 

Finally, the architects will provide us with some “rough order of magnitude” estimates for the costs of the various options.

 

Once the consultant’s work is completed, what’s next? Well, we know this will help us answer three questions that have been a central theme during our work with the consultants:

 

  • How can Post 3063 maintain a physical presence in Ballard so that we can continue to serve veterans, their families, and the community?
  • How can we reduce and/or eliminate any risks associated with failing building systems?
  • How can we reduce ongoing building operating cost AND increase rental income?

 

Bottom line, we don’t know exactly what the “how” will look like just yet. There is still a lot of discussion and analysis that needs to take place within our post, however, we are confident that our current and future members and leadership teams will be equipped with information that will allow us to be more proactive rather than reactive about our building’s future.

 

We look forward to providing you with additional updates in the coming months.