A publication of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ®
An organization chartered by the U.S. Congress
April 2002/May 2002
AVVA REPORT
Board Meeting Highlights
BY NANCY SWITZER, PRESIDENT
On March 21, AVVA held a full Board of Directors meeting. A lot of work went into this meeting. I thank the Board for being attentive to issues and working hard to bring our organization to a high level. The highlights of the meeting follow:
The Board voted to change state structure requirements on the petitions. In states with 50 to 100 regular members, a simple majority is required. In states with 101 or more regular members, only 50 signatures are required. A state must have no less than 50 regular members to form a State Association.
The Board gave Valerie Mann approval to seek funding for a project with the National Flag Foundation and Time magazine. Vice President Mary Miller and I have been meeting with the Foundation in Pittsburgh to work on teaching our children respect for the flag and patriotism. Time magazine's Time for Kids put in a proposal to AVVA. Their distribution is 750,000, including over 30,000 teachers nationwide. If we can receive the funding, this program will be kicked off on September 11- Patriot's Day - in Washington, D.C. AVVA will have a booth at the National Children's Museum.
The Paper Safe will be reprinted. Valerie Mann also will seek corporate sponsorships. Every VVA and AVVA member will receive a Paper Safe.
Margaret Wojciechowicz presented the 2002 Legislative Agenda for AVVA. It passed unanimously. Soon the state Reps and chapters will be receiving these through the VVA chapter mailing and our new newsletter.
The premier issue of our newsletter is out, and it's outstanding. Suzanne Webber Blohm has done a marvelous job. Anyone can contribute to this newsletter. It is on our web site, so please take the time to look it over.
The Board passed the Fiscal Year 2003 budget. Nancy Montgomery and the Finance Committee team did an outstanding job. We are continuing our Homeless Grant Program. We will be sending this grant proposal out to all chapters. We have also allocated one dollar per member and two dollars per life member to be given back to the states. There will be a policy and procedure made up by the finance team for distribution to the states. The AVVA Board also authorized the payment of each State Rep's registration fee of $85 to the Biennial Meeting/Leadership Conference.
Our membership has increased since last year. We have 6,970 members as of March 21. We are doing great. Marcia Hicks proposed and the Board passed a Membership Discount of two years for the price of one for every new member who joins between April 1 and August 31, and a $25 discount on life membership in August. If you have any questions regarding AVVA membership, please contact: Marcia Hicks, AVVA Membership Chair, mailto:mhicks@avva.org Marcia, thank you for the outstanding work you do in membership.
The Board approved funding for the second Biennial Meeting. The meeting will be held on the Thursday of the Leadership Conference, with elections in the afternoon. The AVVA breakfast will be on Friday morning with the installation of the new Board. We will be hosting a dance on Thursday night.
AVVA will be having a spiritual night during the conference to remember and honor those who have passed. We will be allowing all at the conference and biennial meeting to participate. I have asked Patsy Varnell to spearhead this event. This year, the AVVA/VVA Project Friendship will be helping Sons and Daughters and the Esperanza En Escalante, a homeless residence program in Tucson. Dee Hagge and I will be holding a “Coping Skills for Loving Your Vietnam Veteran” seminar - a six-week program for spouses and significant others. The election committee is gearing up for the elections in August, so please get the information to Kathi Tauer.
Mary Yeomans presented to the Board a comparison report from the Long-range Planning Committee. This paper compared the Board's goals with the goals that were set at the AVVA convention last year. The AVVA Board is on target. This report can be seen on the AVVA web site. I would also like to congratulate Mary on being nominated by Charles Figley for the Golden Key International Honor Society Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Award. This August, Mary will be participating in a program of the Florida State University to study Social Work in Europe.
Those are just a few things that were touched upon at our meeting. Our Board as a team is accomplishing great things, and I thank them all for their hard work.
As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
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