Category: Post Business

Boy Scouts Receive Donation from Post

By Gail Engler

 

Troop 80 from Magnolia attended the post social Nov. 16, 2017 to accept a $150 donation from Post 3063.

 

The troop was represented by eight Boy Scouts, Post 3063 member Elizabeth Servey, who is the troop’s Advancement Chair, her husband Brian Servey, and Molly Mort, both Assistant Scoutmasters.

 

The Troop is very active, especially during the spring and summer months when they hike, camp, and work on their outdoor survival skills. Comrade Servey said the money will be used to purchase more camping gear, which will be put to good use during their outdoor adventures.

 

On Veterans Day these scouts also helped with the post’s visit to the VA hospital. They are all very eager and enthusiastic!

 

Boy scout presentation
Boy Scout Troop 80 accepts Post 3063’s $150 donation from Commander Pete Krawitz Nov. 16, 2017.

Quartermaster’s Update (November 2017)

By Harold Rodenberger

 

Last week another visitor came into my office asking where to find our clubroom. As always, I tell such visitors we don’t have a bar but that we do many other things for veterans, their families and our community.

 

For those readers who haven’t had a chance to attend meetings or join in our outreach efforts, here’s how our national headquarters describes out mission:

 

Our Mission: To foster camaraderie among United States veterans of overseas conflicts. To serve our veterans, the military and our communities. To advocate on behalf of all veterans.

 

Locally, we help fulfill this mission in many ways.

 

First, we take care of our own members and their families. Last month, for example, we donated from our relief fund to help a member whose young daughter is being treated for cancer; we routinely subsidize the meals served at our social and meeting nights; we maintain a library on military subjects for veterans; and our service officer gives top priority to helping our members get the benefits they have earned from the VA and other government agencies.

 

For other veterans and members of the community we operate a website, manage a Facebook page and publish a newsletter publicizing specialized information for our community; we visit the VA Hospital to bring a little cheer to the patients; we allow other veterans’ organizations to use our hall at no cost and allow nonprofit organizations of many kinds to rent our hall at minimal rates.

 

For the larger local community, we accept unserviceable flags for proper retirement and disposal, we donate food and other items to our local homeless camp and we visit local retirement homes. Our Color Guard has performed color-posting ceremonies in several venues and is scheduled for more.

 

Next time someone asks you what our members do besides drink and tell war stories, please let them know the many ways we support the VFW mission by serving veterans and our community.

 

We have been publishing this newsletter for almost three years now. It draws praise from members, other VFW members and readers in the community but we have found that those who receive the on-line edition don’t read the paper as much as we would like. To encourage more people to read the newsletter we are going to a quarterly printed publication mailed to all our members.

 

Our website and Facebook page will carry breaking stories as they develop. The printed newsletter will consolidate that news and carry it to all members.

 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.

 

From the Commander (November 2017)

By Pete Krawitz

 

November, without a doubt, is one of the busiest times of the year for our organization. Our voicemail, e-mail, and snail mail boxes start to fill up with all sorts of Veterans Day event advertisements and requests. Many of these communications are from groups throughout the local region seeking veterans to participate in everything from speaking events to parades.

 

While I wish our post could send official representation and assist with all of the events and activities, it’s just not logistically feasible at this time. However, I genuinely believe that we’ll be able to significantly expand our reach and capabilities as our member count continues to grow. As we continue to gain new members, we need to think about re-activating many of the post’s programs and committees. We’ve already seen how successful our color guard has been. I hope that we can continue to find members who’d like to lead or be a part of similar programs. I plan to talk about this some more during our November business meeting.

 

The one Veteran Day event that I am proud we regularly repeat during the holidays is visiting our brothers and sisters in the VA Hospital. I’d like to thank Comrade Jon Guncay, who has volunteered to be the coordinator for this year’s Veterans day visit. I look forward to seeing some of you on the 10th of November at the Seattle VA hospital.

 

Switching gears, I’d like to talk about an exciting new opportunity that will allow some of our comrades who can’t always make it into the post to still attend meetings from the comfort of their home, ship, yurt, etc… (assuming they have internet connectivity). During our October business meeting, the post agreed to a limited 3-month trial of the Zoom Web Conferencing service. Zoom will give some of our members the ability to log into a private, password protected website which will be broadcasting our live business meeting’s slideshow and audio content. In the early stages of this test, we are only going to allow 1-way communication. For example, remote participants will be able to hear and see the content, but they won’t be able to communicate back to the meeting (so no ability to vote, etc…).

 

The first Zoom test (November 2nd) will be limited to 5 individuals. If successful, Zoom should allow some of our members, who have difficulties getting down to the post on business meeting days, to still feel involved and keep up-to-date on the latest post events.

 

I look forward to seeing many of you at the November business meeting and social. For those that won’t be able to make it, have a Happy Veterans Day and Thanksgiving.

 

November 2017 Newsletter Available for Download

Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063’s November 2017 newsletter is available for download here. Highlights include Michael Lawrence Receives Legacy Life Membership; Members visit Tacoma’s Horse Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers Museum; Comrade Turner’s Daughter Winning Fight Against Cancer; King County Vets Consortium Chair Discusses Prop 1; VA Hospital Visit Planned For Nov. 10; In Memoriam; and the Veterans Day Events Calendar.