The Official Voice of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc. ®
An organization chartered by the U.S. Congress
September/October 2002
LEADERSHIP CONFERENCEA Tactical Retreat in Tucson
BY H. AVERY TAYLOR, CHAIR, GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
The Government Affairs and Veterans Health Care Committees held all-day sessions August 12-13 to clarify the objectives and responsibilities of these two committees. We looked at the Strategic Plan and determined that we need to address the first element of our mission: To advocate aggressively on issues important to veterans.According to the Plan, the strategy on advocacy is to identify and prioritize legislative and administrative objectives and to focus the energy and resources of VVA to advocate effectively for the advancement of veterans' concerns. Our mission was to identify and prioritize those issues the membership has identified in VVA's Resolutions.
Based on input from the 16 members and two national staff who attended the meetings, we defined 15 key areas for advocacy that we feel meet the wishes of our membership. We then established priorities for focusing our energies and resources.
During these discussions, other organizational needs and concerns were identified that need to be addressed. These include:
- Define policies regarding duties and functions of committee chairs
- Develop a policy on how to represent VVA when meeting with political entities
- Establish a process for committees to report needs and activities to the Government Affairs Committee.
- Improve our ability to communicate with membership
- Revise the resolution to eliminate redundancy; place in the correct category, and retire or transfer to policy where needed
- Locate and review our policy book and update as needed
- Recommend staffing changes based on capacity to address the priorities of the organizational mission.
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