Category: Post Business

From the Commander (August 2017)

By Pete Krawitz

 

As I write this month’s column, I’ve had the live video stream of the VFW national convention in New Orleans on in the background via the VFW’s Facebook page. Even though I wasn’t able to join our Seattle delegates this year, I can still listen in and see some of the same speakers. It’s encouraging to see the VFW leveraging technology to make these conventions more accessible to folks that are unable to attend.

 

Hopefully, our post will be able to leverage the same technology in the future, making some of our meetings more accessible to those who have difficulties making it in each month. With that being said, I did recently attend (physically not virtually) my first department (Washington State) VFW convention down in Olympia. It was a very positive experience. We were able to meet with some of our comrades from all over Washington state. While technology is great, nothing beats the face-to-face experience of a convention. If you haven’t had a chance to attend one of the state conventions or mid-winter conferences, I highly recommend it.

 

For those of you who were able to attend the business meeting in July, I hope you liked the new format we are experimenting with. For those of you that weren’t able to make it; we are now meeting in the main hall and will be kicking off the first 10 minutes of each meeting with the auxiliary to give us an opportunity to announce and discuss items that impact both groups. We also started using a projector to display the meeting agenda, enabling everyone to follow along with what is going on and to make the most of the hour we get to discuss business together each month. We will still stay true to the VFW rituals and ceremonies, just with a few slight modifications. I truly value your opinions and feedback, so please feel free to reach out to me if you have any ideas or comments on how we might be able to get the most value out of our monthly meetings.

 

One last thing I’d like to touch on is communication. I’ve been working with Adjutant Alyson Teeter to come up with a plan on how we communicate with the post on a regular basis. The post officers are often bombarded via email with offers, solicitations for volunteers, advertisements for local veteran events, etc. While we would love to pass these items along to everyone via e-mail, we don’t want to spam our entire membership base. At this point, we will only be sending you one communication a month (the newsletter), however, we would like to allow individuals to “opt-in” to other communications if they are interested. We often put these “extra” communications out on our Facebook page, but acknowledge that not everyone is on that platform. Hopefully, we will have more information in the next month or two on how you can opt-in for these additional communications.

 

I look forward to seeing you at our next business meeting.

 

Member in Distress: Comrade’s Daughter Fighting Cancer

It was recently brought to Quartermaster Harold Rodenberger’s attention that Comrade Evan Turner’s seven-month-old baby daughter, Lillian, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, Stage 4S in April.

 

Comrade Evan Turner and his daughter Lillian.
Comrade Evan Turner and his daughter Lillian.

Comrade Turner and his wife have started a GoFundMe page, and it says, “Although unexpected and heartbreaking, the cancer was found early. The Doctors are optimistic that Lillian will respond well to treatment and live a long life. Evan and Rachel are prepared to do whatever they have to do for their little girl. Their future consists of surgeries, additional cancer treatment, constant observation by the Pediatric Oncology team at Seattle Children’s, a lot of traveling, various therapies, not to mention the vast amount of unseen costs for potential therapy associated with aggressive cancer treatment in the years to come.”

 

If you would like to donate to Lillian’s cause, please visit her GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/lillians-battle-with-neuroblastoma.

 

Fishing For Members

By Harold Rodenberger

 

Quartermaster Rodenberger with his salmon catch.
Quartermaster Rodenberger with his salmon catch.

Washington State VFW Junior Past Commander (2016-2017) Elmer Clark developed a membership program called “Fishing for Members” as a major goal of his year. He was determined to achieve 100% membership so challenged our members by entering each person who recruited five new or reinstated members into a drawing for an all-expenses paid fishing trip out of Westport.

 

As the end of the year approached, it appeared we would come up a little short but our posts pitched in for a last-minute push and on the last day we made it. For the first time in 15 years Washington state achieved over 100% membership.

 

Our post did its part by achieving 106% membership, well above the goal. Your post quartermaster was lucky enough to win one of the spots on the charter and caught the two biggest fish, Chinook salmon weighing 21 and 19 pounds. The limit is one Chinook so I gave one away.

 

Commander and QM Receive White Hats at State Convention

The VFW’s Washington State Department convened June 21-24 at the Hilton Hotel in Olympia.

 

There were workshops for service officers, quartermasters, and recruiters. The business sessions covered communications from national; proposed changes to our state bylaws; reports and updates from all the

Nestor Tamayao and Harold Rodenberger wear their newly-awarded “White Hats.”
Nestor Tamayao and Harold Rodenberger wear their newly-awarded “White Hats.”

state officers and committee chairs; and nominations, elections and installation of officers at state level.

 

Former Commander Nestor Tamayao and Quartermaster Harold Rodenberger received “White Hats” for completing various reports on time, membership goal achievement, attendance at district meetings/workshops, community activities, and other factors. Post 3063 achieved approximately 106% of the post’s membership goal for the prior year.

 

Around 10% of commanders and quartermasters in the state received the white hat so it’s a big honor and achievement for a VFW post. Kudos and congratulations!