C. L. Elms Post 9951
Department of Pacific Areas
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the
15 January, 2009
1. CDR Owens ope
2. There was a roll call of officers and all were present or properly excused, Surgeon Rhodes absent. There were 18 members attending and one guest.
3. There were no applications for Membership to our Post.
4. Copies of the minutes of the last meeting were distributed to those in attendance. Advocate Nestle made a motion to approve the minutes, subject to correction, and JVC Key seconded it. The motion carried.
5. Quartermaster Oden gave the QM Report for the period 1 through 31 December 2008. JVC Key moved to approve the report, subject to audit. Comrade Patterson seconded and the motion carried. QM Oden also gave a report on the Trustee 4th Quarter Audit bringing the membership up to date on the past quarter activity.
6. There were no bills presented. However it is known that the website is due for renewal but the webmaster was not present to present his requirements.
7. RAO Officer Dyste gave the SO Report.
8. Comrades in Distress: Comrade Sprague is still in the hospital at Ratchaburi and is stable but not expect to get any better. Comrade White in Kanchanaburi has been in and out of the hospital. Comrade Quinton underwent Heart by-pass surgery and is out of the hospital and back home recovering from the operation. District Commander, B. K. Hubbard had a heart attack but was released and is back in Pattaya recovering. Comrade Hudson is in the hospital with irregular heart beat.
9. Committee reports are: (a) Membership: Our goal for this year is 261. We now stand at 242 members for 92.72%. (b) Bingo: QM Oden reported the post had received Baht 13,510 from games played in the past six (6) months. The funds will be reported in the January QM report. (c) Buddy Poppies: No donations during December, but the donation can and Poppies were available for donations. (d) POW/MIA: Comrade Picha gave short report that JPAC has identified 8 sets of remains from Korea, Vietnam and WWII. (e) Community Activities: JVC Key listed some of the post activities. (f) Independence Day: No Chairman, no report. Webmaster: Yearly hosting fee expires soon, will need to discuss and approve support at next meeting when Webmaster is in attendance. There were comments that the website is still not user friendly and the Webmasters need to look into the problem. Is it the hosting site or other problem?
10. Remembrance of our National Home was at 11:45.
11. Old Business: (a) The proposed Valentine Sweetheart Ball will not happen due to non availability of a suitable facility (b) A drawing was held for two Free Life Memberships in Post 9951. Eligibility for the drawing was all new, re-instated and paid up annual members as of 09 January 2009. The winners were: Gordon Graham and Thomas Sherrill. QM will notify Department of the free membership they are paying for and the post will sponsor the second awarded. (c) Cdr Owens ask that the Post historians, Kurt Petersen, and Wayne Harrison although not present at this meeting to read these minutes and complete the request, and that is to go through the post minutes and select historical events for review and eventual posting on the website. (d) QM Oden gave a short remark on the requirements of the School in Sakaeo Province that the Post had previously donated monies to build a lunchroom. (e) SVC Brose’ and CDR Owens both gave updates on the issue of membership and recruiting. The issue throughout the VFW is obtaining and keeping members. Primary consideration is that after recruiting you must continue to communicate to the new member or you will lose them.
12. New Business: (a) There is a requirement for the Post to have a Safety Officer; anyone interested please contact Commander Owens. (b) QM Oden mentioned we need to move ahead on the selling of advertisement for the 2009 DPA Convention. It is proposed that we convert the net $ amounts due to DPA for the ads to Baht plus a markup for the post and the ad seller. The question of what size of ad should the post insert was also brought up. Discussion was to be finalized at the next meeting when rate sheets could be provided. (c) QM Oden stated that post needs to donate to the National Home for Children at Eaton Rapids, MI. QM Oden motioned that the post donate $50 to the National Home, seconded by Comrade Picha, motion carried. (d) Commander Owens asks for volunteers for the positions of I-Day Chairman and Public Affairs Chairman. The I-Day Chair needs to be filled within the next month as the committee will start meetings in February.
13. Good of the Order: (a) Comrade Ray Papp won the raffle of Baht 950.00 cash and donated it back to the post. (b) Commander Owens read of a list of significant dates in history for January and asks for donations for Buddy Poppies and the Post Relief Fund, he started donations with 100 baht. An additional Baht 480 was donated after the meeting and will be reported in the QM financial for January.
14. CDR Owens closed the meeting at 12:45 IAW with the VFW ritual. The next regular meeting of C.L. Elms Post 9951 will be at 11:00 on 14 February, 2009 in the JUSMAGTHAI conference room.
James Oden
James Oden, Adjutant