Commentary

By Charlie Anderson

Recently, Commander Krawitz invited me to test Web conferencing software to view monthly post meetings because we now live in Montana. Later, Pete asked me to write an article about my experience.

On Nov. 9, I sat down at my PC in the den of our mountain home and downloaded the necessary small application. I put on headphones, logged into the conference site and prepared to watch. For the next 90 minutes or so, I heard everything that happened in the post meeting. With a few exceptions everyone who spoke was very clear.

With video conferencing remote users can listen, watch and communicate during the course of the meeting by text or voice. If a secure authentication system were created to verify legal membership it might be possible to participate in votes. Implementing this last feature probably would need a bylaws change.

To use this program effectively you need either a PC or Apple computer, a laptop/pad or Smart Phone. Lacking one of these, you still can listen to a meeting with a landline or wireless phone.

Using conferencing software from your home or office is easy—almost a no-brainer. Given the percentage of the total membership typically attending meetings when I lived in Seattle (around 20% I think), live video meetings could be a way for members who don’t or can’t make monthly meetings to regain some sense of participation. It might even encourage some to get back into active involvement.

Give it a try!

By Pete Krawitz

November, as predicted, was a very busy month for the post. Comrade Guncay coordinated this year’s Veterans Day VA hospital visit. It was one of the biggest turnouts we’ve had in recent years with over 20 volunteers. I’d like to thank all that attended to include our sponsored Boy Scout Troop, Magnolia / Ballard Troop 80, who came out in full force this year. Our color guard was in high demand and took part in a few events. Additionally, some of the leadership team members have been working closely with the district leadership team to plan the future of our Auxiliary.

As many of you probably already know, our longtime Auxilary President, Margaret Phillips, stepped down from her position as of 1-November. We are now looking for someone to pick up where Margaret left off and lead the Auxiliary. There will be a special election held during the next Auxiliary meeting on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 7 p.m. Please get the word out! Remember, it’s not just spouses that are eligible for the auxiliary. Please visit https://vfwauxiliary.org/join-us/eligibility-information/ for the eligibility criteria.

The holidays give many of us an opportunity to slow down a little and spend some time with our friends and family. When Clare and I first moved to Seattle in 2014, our closest family member was over 2,000 miles away. While this was nothing new, especially after numerous overseas assignments, this was the first time celebrating a holiday without our military family. I’m thankful we found Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063. The special holiday social events, in particular, have been the source of some great memories and friendships. Hopefully, many of you will be able to make it out to the post on the Dec. 21.

On a more somber note, our charter will remain draped in December to mark the passing of yet another one of our WWII veterans. Comrade Herb Leake recently passed away. During the holidays, please keep the families of Comrade Leake and many of the other Comrades that we have lost this year.

Clare and I would like to wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

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.

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.

By Pete Krawitz

What a great way to end the summer. We pulled off a very successful spaghetti dinner and raffle event, raising over $4K for our various programs. A huge thank you to all who made this event a success. A special thank you to Comrade Russ Seelig, his wife, Kay, and their friends and family who volunteered a significant amount of time coordinating the event.

I’d also like to acknowledge the great work our color guard is doing. Many of you had a chance to witness the color guard in action during the Spaghetti Dinner. The team looked sharp! As of late, we’ve been receiving many requests for our color guard to conduct ceremonies at various events in the region. We are not only honoring our veterans, flag, and country during these events but are also increasing Post 3063’s visibility in the community. I’d like to thank all of the members of the color guard for their hard work and dedication. I’d also like to thank Comrades Bill Hoeller and Joe Fitzgerald for their hard work in planning, equipping, and leading the color guard. For those who might be interested in joining, please reach out to Comrade Joe Fitzgerald (colorguard@vfwseattle.org).

We’ve also been pretty fortunate to attract quite a few new members over the past few months. Many of these new members have dove right in and have been assisting with some of the activities around the post. To some of the newer members, we still have a few committees that I’d like to see brought online. The Community Activities and Scholarship committees in particular. If you are interested in leading either of these committees, please let me know.

Changing gears ever so slightly, I’d like to discuss one project that we will be working on over the next few months. As many of you know, we’ve been discussing the idea of refurbishing the post for a few years now. The purpose of a refurbishment would be to make the facility more attractive, comfortable, and accessible for our members and also increase the hall’s rental desirability and value. Before we can make any proposals on the refurbishment front, we’ve determined that we need a better understanding of our current situation. Over the next few months, I’ll be working hand-in-hand with the house committee and quartermaster to analyze our facility’s operation and maintenance situation. While the post’s finances are relatively stable, we want to ensure that we are planning accordingly and maintain this stability for many years to come. To keep our finances healthy, especially in this rapidly changing and expensive city, we need to make sure that we can adapt to the changing needs and preferences of our communities, both the veteran community and the Ballard / Seattle community. We will be sharing regular updates as we make progress with our analysis.

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