Veteran's Club Meeting Minutes from March 13th, 2014
Meeting opened at 1600 with 55 members in attendance. Total club membership is now 152 members.
An informal "Meet and Greet" with refreshments was held from 1600 to 1620.
Formal business meeting commenced at 1620 with the Pledge of Allegiance. Our new “traveling” American flag was on display along with our new service flags representing the Army, Navy and Air Force. We are in the process of obtaining a Coast Guard flag to round out our collection.
The Secretary's Report was presented and the minutes of our last meeting were voted on and accepted as written by the membership.
The Treasurer's Report was presented.
The President’s Report was presented. It was noted that the club had purchased a new laptop computer for our web master to use to maintain our website. Our new web master Marty Spiro has proven to be very savvy in the information technology realm and has been brought up to speed on our website software. All software required for our website operation and maintenance has been successfully downloaded onto our new computer.
An update was provided on our Canned Food and Dry Goods drive that will be held on Thursday March 20th. Collection teams were asked to commence collections around 1300 and to do a final sweep of their areas around 1400 to capture any late donations. All donations collected by the teams are to be brought to 11006 Carmel Cove Circle in Sonata where there will be a trailer to consolidate the collections from across the community and to deliver them to the Wounded Warriors for distribution.
An update was also provided on the progress of our Car Show to be held on April 6th in conjunction with the VR Car Club. All proceeds from the show will go to the Wounded Warriors. Members were requested to talk up the show with car buffs they know and to encourage them to register their vehicles to participate in the event.
Members were reminded to periodically check the “Sick Bay” section of our website and were encouraged to contact members listed there who were recovering from illnesses to wish them a speedy recovery.
It was noted that the Club’s By-Laws were recently updated and streamlined. A copy of the original and the revised By-Laws will be posted on our website to enable a side-by-side comparison. Members were asked to review them and will be asked to vote on their acceptance at the April meeting.
Jerry Edisis has been recruited to serve as our new Sergeant-At-Arms. This billet was filed in order for us to be fully compliant with our By-Laws.
Members were asked to consider signing-up to do a five to ten minute “Mini-Presentation” at our next meeting on any service related experience that they would like to share with the Club. Ideally we would like to have 5 to 6 members speak briefly at our April meeting.
Members who have not yet created a profile for themselves in the “Join Our Club” section of our website are encouraged to do so as soon as possible so that a current profile of all members with accurate contact information can be maintained. Only 22 of our members have not yet entered their information.
The President provided an update on the flag pole sponsorship issue. Discussions with the Men’s Club last year set the stage for a joint Men’s Club/Veteran’s Club donation of a lighted flag pole for the Valencia Reserve Clubhouse. Earlier this year the Men’s Club unilaterally decided that they desired to fund the flag pole themselves and “disinvited” the Veteran’s Club’s participation. No reason was provided by the Men’s Club for their decision. Subsequently, the Men’s Club put the entire flag pole project “on hold”, again without indicating a rationale for doing so.
After much discussion, the Veteran’s Club Board of Directors unanimously voted to recommend to the membership that the Veteran’s Club be the primary club to sponsor the flag pole project, subject to a vote by the general membership to move forward with the project on this basis. This proposal would welcome any donations from other clubs including the Men’s Club and would list them on the project’s brass plaque.
The proposal was put forth to the Veteran’s Club membership for a vote at the meeting and was unanimously passed with no dissenting votes. Accordingly, a petition to the new HOA for the Veteran’s Club to sponsor the installation of the flag pole at the VR Clubhouse will be filed.
Guest speaker Rayna Leits was introduced. Rayna is an Army veteran and is the Assistant Director of the National Cemetery in Lake Worth. She made an informative presentation regarding burial services for veterans at the national cemeteries. In general, veterans with an honorable discharge and at least one day of active duty (exclusive of active duty for training) and their spouses are eligible for internment in a national cemetery. She noted that the new South Florida National Cemetery at Forth Worth was one of seven national cemeteries in Florida. Florida’s other national cemeteries are: Barrancas, St. Augustine, Bay Pines, Sarasota and Jacksonville. Her session was very well received and was followed by a question and answer session. She distributed South Florida National Cemetery brochures after her presentation. Additional information can be found on the National Cemetery Administration website at:http://www.cem.va.gov/
Following is the schedule of Veteran's Club Meetings for 2014. All meetings will be held in the Social Hall. Please note that there are no meetings scheduled for July and August.
April 10: 4-6 PM
May 8: 4-6 PM
June 12: 4-6 PM
September 11: 4-6 PM
October 9: 4-6 PM
November 13: 4-6 PM
December 11: 4-6 PM
The President noted in his concluding remarks that our next meeting would be held on April 10th in the Social Hall.
The 50/50 drawing was held.
The meeting concluded at 1730.
An informal "Meet and Greet" with refreshments was held from 1600 to 1620.
Formal business meeting commenced at 1620 with the Pledge of Allegiance. Our new “traveling” American flag was on display along with our new service flags representing the Army, Navy and Air Force. We are in the process of obtaining a Coast Guard flag to round out our collection.
The Secretary's Report was presented and the minutes of our last meeting were voted on and accepted as written by the membership.
The Treasurer's Report was presented.
The President’s Report was presented. It was noted that the club had purchased a new laptop computer for our web master to use to maintain our website. Our new web master Marty Spiro has proven to be very savvy in the information technology realm and has been brought up to speed on our website software. All software required for our website operation and maintenance has been successfully downloaded onto our new computer.
An update was provided on our Canned Food and Dry Goods drive that will be held on Thursday March 20th. Collection teams were asked to commence collections around 1300 and to do a final sweep of their areas around 1400 to capture any late donations. All donations collected by the teams are to be brought to 11006 Carmel Cove Circle in Sonata where there will be a trailer to consolidate the collections from across the community and to deliver them to the Wounded Warriors for distribution.
An update was also provided on the progress of our Car Show to be held on April 6th in conjunction with the VR Car Club. All proceeds from the show will go to the Wounded Warriors. Members were requested to talk up the show with car buffs they know and to encourage them to register their vehicles to participate in the event.
Members were reminded to periodically check the “Sick Bay” section of our website and were encouraged to contact members listed there who were recovering from illnesses to wish them a speedy recovery.
It was noted that the Club’s By-Laws were recently updated and streamlined. A copy of the original and the revised By-Laws will be posted on our website to enable a side-by-side comparison. Members were asked to review them and will be asked to vote on their acceptance at the April meeting.
Jerry Edisis has been recruited to serve as our new Sergeant-At-Arms. This billet was filed in order for us to be fully compliant with our By-Laws.
Members were asked to consider signing-up to do a five to ten minute “Mini-Presentation” at our next meeting on any service related experience that they would like to share with the Club. Ideally we would like to have 5 to 6 members speak briefly at our April meeting.
Members who have not yet created a profile for themselves in the “Join Our Club” section of our website are encouraged to do so as soon as possible so that a current profile of all members with accurate contact information can be maintained. Only 22 of our members have not yet entered their information.
The President provided an update on the flag pole sponsorship issue. Discussions with the Men’s Club last year set the stage for a joint Men’s Club/Veteran’s Club donation of a lighted flag pole for the Valencia Reserve Clubhouse. Earlier this year the Men’s Club unilaterally decided that they desired to fund the flag pole themselves and “disinvited” the Veteran’s Club’s participation. No reason was provided by the Men’s Club for their decision. Subsequently, the Men’s Club put the entire flag pole project “on hold”, again without indicating a rationale for doing so.
After much discussion, the Veteran’s Club Board of Directors unanimously voted to recommend to the membership that the Veteran’s Club be the primary club to sponsor the flag pole project, subject to a vote by the general membership to move forward with the project on this basis. This proposal would welcome any donations from other clubs including the Men’s Club and would list them on the project’s brass plaque.
The proposal was put forth to the Veteran’s Club membership for a vote at the meeting and was unanimously passed with no dissenting votes. Accordingly, a petition to the new HOA for the Veteran’s Club to sponsor the installation of the flag pole at the VR Clubhouse will be filed.
Guest speaker Rayna Leits was introduced. Rayna is an Army veteran and is the Assistant Director of the National Cemetery in Lake Worth. She made an informative presentation regarding burial services for veterans at the national cemeteries. In general, veterans with an honorable discharge and at least one day of active duty (exclusive of active duty for training) and their spouses are eligible for internment in a national cemetery. She noted that the new South Florida National Cemetery at Forth Worth was one of seven national cemeteries in Florida. Florida’s other national cemeteries are: Barrancas, St. Augustine, Bay Pines, Sarasota and Jacksonville. Her session was very well received and was followed by a question and answer session. She distributed South Florida National Cemetery brochures after her presentation. Additional information can be found on the National Cemetery Administration website at:http://www.cem.va.gov/
Following is the schedule of Veteran's Club Meetings for 2014. All meetings will be held in the Social Hall. Please note that there are no meetings scheduled for July and August.
April 10: 4-6 PM
May 8: 4-6 PM
June 12: 4-6 PM
September 11: 4-6 PM
October 9: 4-6 PM
November 13: 4-6 PM
December 11: 4-6 PM
The President noted in his concluding remarks that our next meeting would be held on April 10th in the Social Hall.
The 50/50 drawing was held.
The meeting concluded at 1730.
Minutes Submitted by Tom Nowak, Club Secretary