News

Quartermaster’s September Update

By Harold Rodenberger

 

School vacations are finishing up, Labor Day is just around the corner and the Harvest Moon will be sailing high on the sixteenth of this month. It’s time to get back to school, back to work, and back to enjoying some camaraderie and volunteer service at your local VFW Post.

 

School classes along with his young family and full-time work schedule leave Jon Guncay with very little additional time for VFW activities so he is postponing his progress through the chairs until later.  Our Junior Vice Commander, Pete Krawitz, moved up to Senior Vice and we elected Joe Tiffany as Junior Vice Commander to serve for the remainder of this year.

 

If the weather is favorable, we plan to have another US Flag retirement ceremony in our parking lot from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm on September 18. We will be retiring unserviceable flags with an appropriate ceremony. All who wish may attend and observe or participate.

 

Fall is cleanup time. As a community service we are offering to dispose of latex paint, so check your basement or garage for old or unwanted water-based paint. Bring it to the post during our regular office hours (1-5 pm) on September 1, 3, 6, 8 or 10 and we will dispose of it properly.

 

At 10 am on September 5, our surgeon, Justin Mamallo, will be leading members of our post to visit patients at the Seattle VA Hospital to pass out monetary chits and bring them some conversation on Labor Day. If you would like to join this visitation please meet at the Emergency Room entrance at 10 am. The new parking garage is convenient and it’s just a short walk to the ER entrance, so come out and celebrate Labor Day by bringing some cheer to the patients.

 

On September 24, District 2 post and auxiliary members will meet at our post for a joint meeting. In addition to the meeting there will be a school of instruction. All members, and especially post officers, are encouraged to attend. There will be lunch ($6.00) at 11:30 am and the meeting starts at 12:30 pm.

 

Our post has recently lost a couple of old time members. To make up that loss, and to build for the future, we need to recruit more new members. As you go about your daily activities keep an eye out for potential recruits.

Save big bucks with a lifetime VFW membership

By Harold Rodenberger

 

Every once in a while it’s good to review our membersLife membership logohip requirements and various membership options.

 

As you know we are the Veterans of Foreign Wars. In order to join our organization a potential member must show documentary evidence, usually a copy of DD Form 214, of service in a designated war zone. They must also be a Citizen or National of the United States. The only other requirement is an Honorable Discharge.

 

Most people join as annual members, paying dues at the going rate each year. Currently our dues are thirty dollars which is the combination of National and Department (state) dues since our post, unlike most, does not charge any additional dues.

 

As you can see by doing some simple math these annual dues add up over the years so I encourage our annual members to consider taking out a life membership. We have one person who has been paying annual dues for 69 years. Imagine how much he could have saved if he had converted to life membership early in this period.

 

The fees for life membership are age based and they presently range from $450 for those up through 30 years old to $170 for those 81 and older. The fee can be paid as a lump sum or spread out over a year using the Life Installment Plan.

 

To get a real bargain on a life membership, once you attend three business meetings you become eligible for the quarterly drawing when we award a free life membership to a lucky annual member who is in attendance. This is your chance to save big bucks so plan on attending our regular meetings.

 

If you have questions or are interested in converting to a life membership send an email, call 206-782-8618 or come by the office during our regular hours.

 

Shredding event scheduled for October 2nd

As a community service to our members, Post 3063 is having a shredder party on October 2, 2016. The truck will be in our parking lot from 2 – 5 pm so you can bring papers you want to shred during that time.

 
If you have papers to shred but can’t make it on that date and don’t mind leaving the papers in our secured storage room, you can bring them by anytime during normal office hours and we will dispose of the papers on the appointed day.

 
Since this is the first time we have offered this service we don’t know what the response will be so please limit your shreddable papers to five banker boxes or equivalent. If there is enough demand we will sponsor a similar event in the future.

 
There is no charge but donations to our relief fund would be appreciated.

Quartermaster’s August Update

By Harold Rodenberger

 

Last year was a good one for our post. We passed one hundred per cent membership in early January and ended the year at 107.81 per cent of our calculated membership for the previous year.

 

Our post shared in a special honor when our outgoing commander, Aaron Stoltz, was selected as an All State Commander. The white hat that goes with this honor is the first won by any commander or quartermaster of our post during the thirty-five years I have been a member. Congratulations Commander Stoltz!

 

In addition to those mentioned in last month’s column, other milestones marking the past year:

  • We made some necessary repairs to our old building and it continues to serve us as a good post home which is the envy of many VFW Posts who don’t have a place of their own.
  • We rebuilt the wooden stairs leading to the upstairs office and completed the remodel of that office space so it is now ready to be leased, preferably to a non-profit looking for some prime Ballard office space.
  • Our newsletter, Ballard Eagleson Patriot, under the editorship of Charles Anderson, was awarded second place in the medium size post category. Quite an honor for the first year of publication.
  • Our Post lending library is well organized and has grown under the watchful eye of Librarian Bill Hoeller.
  • We hosted two very successful fund raising dinners, the St. Patrick’s Day dinner chaired by Georgia Warrix and the May 1st Spaghetti Dinner chaired by Russ Seelig.
  • We have helped the residents of the homeless tent city next door with many gifts of food.

 

Not to rest on our laurels, we look forward to even more activity:

  • Our Service Officer, Gail Engler, in addition to being available in our own office, will be staffing an office in the Ballard Senior Center once a month to help veterans in this community.
  • Even more visits to local hospitals, nursing and retirement homes.
  • More Flag retirement ceremonies.
  • Occasional visitations to other posts to attend their meetings and share lessons learned.
  • Some special events at our post to honor our local first responders.

 

In addition to these plans, we will see more fund raisers and other special dinners this year as we raise awareness among our members and in our neighborhood that we are a growing post involved in doing good for veterans and our community.