Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063’s February 2018 e-newsletter is available here. Highlights include: Greetings from the Newly-Elected Auxiliary President; Trip Report: Mid-Winter Conference 2018; Tips From the Post Service Officer; Seven Post Honor Guard Members Participate in Wreaths Across America Ceremony; and The Last Best Place.
Category: Post Business
Trip Report: Mid-Winter Conference 2018
By Harold Rodenberger
Along with four other delegates from our post, I attended this year’s Mid-Winter Conference held in Spokane Jan. 19-20, 2018.
Friday morning Gail Engler, the Post 3063 Service Officer, Joe Fitzgerald, the Post 3063 Junior Vice Commander, and I attended the Service Officer’s training presented by our new Department of Washington VSO, Bill Brown. Bill gave a comprehensive class covering forms, procedures and available resources.
Next on the agenda was the Quartermaster’s Class presented by our new Department Quartermaster, Paul Manley. Paul covered some of the finer points of quartermaster’s duties and answered lots of questions for post quartermasters and other interested people in attendance.
To wrap up the day, I attended Nadine Warren’s very informative and motivating Recruiting Class. Nadine is a great speaker. She showed slides and gave examples of the various techniques to get those all-important younger veterans to join our ranks.
Saturday, we attended the business session. It was a busy day with remarks by the VFW National Representative, Bob Wallace, and reports from the state line officers. In the afternoon, committee chairpersons reported on the mid-year progress of their committees.
Saturday evening was the big event of the conference. Earlier in the day, Patriot’s Pen and Youth Essay
winners were announced and presented with their awards but at the banquet Saturday night, the Voice of Democracy winners were announced and we listened to their stirring essays on the theme: “What does a veteran mean to me?”. Teacher of the Year Awards also were presented at the banquet.
As in past years, at this year’s Mid-Winter Conference our delegates learned some new information about our VFW, the status of our state organization, and returned to our post more enthusiastic, motivated and knowledgeable.
Greetings from the Newly-Elected Auxiliary President: Donna Limric
Hello, my name is Donna Limric and I’m the newly elected VFW Post 3063 Auxiliary President. Thank you to the members of the auxiliary for your votes of confidence. I would also like to introduce our newly elected Sr. Vice President Margo Clutter and our newly elected Treasurer Elizabeth Guncay. I would like to express our gratitude to the past officers for their service and hard work.
Last summer I became a member of the auxiliary to support my husband, Norman Limric. I took the position of president to support the post, which has become such an important role in his life.
There is a great deal of work to be done to make this a functional auxiliary that fulfills its mission to support our veterans and our community.
We need to attract new members. With that goal in mind I have started to build a Facebook page. My next idea is to have a presence at many community events this year.
We are currently working on a project to serve our community. We are collecting prepackaged snacks for social services agencies who outreach to homeless mentally ill people in our community; many who are veterans. We will be handing out a flyer with more information at the next business meeting and social. The collection box is on the table across from the front entrance of the hall.
If you have a family or friend who is interested in joining the auxiliary, please email me at [email protected].
1st Quarter Newsletter Available for Download
Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063’s 1st Quarter 2018 print newsletter is available here. Highlights include From the Commander column; Quartermaster Update; Young and Old Celebrate the Holidays Together at Post 3063; Zoom Software Digitally Connects Members to Post Meetings; and Herb Leake: Engineer, Aid to MacArthur & Devoted Husband.
Quartermaster’s Update (January 2018)
By Harold Rodenberger
The turn of another calendar year marks the midpoint of our VFW year. As with most of my cohort, it seems the years flow by faster the older we get. I’m not sure what I did last Wednesday but I vividly recall earning my VFW eligibility in Vietnam even though it was over fifty years ago.
The year also passed quickly at VFW Post 3063. Some highlights include:
- Another year of membership increase
- Enthusiastic officers filling our organizational chairs
- Many visits to the VA Hospital and other nursing and retirement homes to visit our veteran comrades
- Greater activity on our social media platforms
- A grand fund raiser dinner
- Increasing ceremonial participation by our nicely uniformed color/honor guard
- Greater numbers of diners enjoying the menus at our monthly social
- New meeting arrangements and format for our monthly business meetings
Looking forward, we see both challenges and rewards. On the membership front, we’ve lost several of our older members, some younger members have relocated or otherwise moved on and recruiting new members is slower than usual; our building continues its relentless march toward old age; our budget revenue stream is outpaced by expenditures and the color guard needs more members to fulfil the many requests we receive for ceremonies.
As for rewards, more of the younger generations of war fighters are joining with us and attending meetings; our administrative procedures are being streamlined and updated and more officers are accepting positions of responsibility to work on the many tasks involved in a growing post. As we meet the challenges our rewards will increase.
Back to the calendar year. A symbolic fresh start inspires me to do more for fellow veterans and my community; to find the bright side where I can and accept the not so bright if I must.
I need to make more pleasant interactions and less of the surly kind or, “wag more, bark less” as the bumper sticker says.
Finally, I resolve sometimes to join my little dog, Kuro, and romp in the snow or otherwise relax and enjoy life.