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BY ELAINE SIMMONS, PRESIDENT
With the help and guidance from our State Representatives,
Presidents, and Alternate State Representatives, the Associates
of Vietnam Veterans of America, Inc., has set upon a new
and exciting path for the future. The delegates at the
Fifth Biennial Meeting in Greenville developed and finalized
two plans to expand the growth of AVVA.
Plan 1: This plan
allows AVVA members who are affiliated with a VVA Chapter
to continue exactly as they have for more than nine years.
They will continue to elect an Affiliated Chapter Representative
every April to be their spokesperson and to be affiliated
with their VVA Chapter. They will continue to report directly
to their elected AVVA State Representative or President.
Plan 2: This plan allows members of AVVA who
are currently affiliated with VVA Chapters to incorporate
as chapters of AVVA. AVVA Chapters will be independent, will
elect their own full slate of officers, hold their own meetings,
be allowed to maintain and manage their own finances, comply
with all state requirements as a nonprofit organization,
and administer projects and programs of their own. They will
continue to work integrally with their VVA Chapters. They
will report directly to their elected AVVA State Representative
or President.
Additionally,
AVVA has approved a test plan for the next two years that
will allow incarcerated AVVA members to participate and affiliate
with VVA Incarcerated Chapters. This program will give incarcerated
Vietnam veterans the opportunity to mentor younger incarcerated
members of AVVA and also will allow members of AVVA who are
incarcerated to work with VVA Incarcerated Chapters on the
many worthwhile community service programs that they participate
in. This new program begins immediately.
AVVA is excited to announce that we are in the
process of developing two new programs: The AVVA Veteran
Benefit Program and the Leadership Program.
We are finalizing the necessary
paperwork that will be filed with the Department of Veterans
Affairs that, when approved, will recognize AVVA as a veterans
service organization. Once AVVA obtains this classification,
many doors that are presently closed will open to us. One
of those doors will allow AVVA to offer training and the
opportunity to become Accredited AVVA Service Representatives
and Accredited AVVA Service Officers.
At the request of many members, the AVVA Officers
and Board of Directors have created a new AVVA national committee,
the Leadership Development Committee. It will be given the
tasks of examining and describing the roles and responsibilities
of each elected office and preparing written guidelines.
These guidelines will set out when to file necessary reports;
what a successful Affiliated Chapter Representative does
to make AVVA members well informed, excited, and productive;
how to submit proposals to change the National Bylaws; why
it is important to keep in touch with members; and how to
run a productive meeting, among other things.
This committee
also will be available to AVVA members to help with suggestions
on membership recruitment. We are looking forward to several
great new seminars at our next Leadership Conference developed
by the new Leadership Development Committee.
On
behalf of the Officers, Board of Directors, and members of
AVVA who attended the Fifth Biennial Meeting in Greenville,
I would like to thank the Officers, Board of Directors, State
Council Presidents, and the members of Vietnam Veterans of
America for their help, guidance, and support. AVVA also
will be forever grateful for the help that we have come to
rely on from the VVA national staff.
Finally, to the members
of AVVA and VVA in South Carolina who devoted hundreds of
hours of hard work and effort in making every one of us feel
welcome, we will always remember Greenville as a warm and
hospitable, friendly place. Thank you.
BY Mary Miller, AVVA Past President
At the AVVA Biennial Meeting and Luncheon and the VVA Leadership
Conference in Greenville, I received many gifts and honors.
My wealth is in all the family and friends I have made while
serving VVA and AVVA. There were so many names signed on
the cards I received, and I do not want to forget any. So
I am sending this thank-you to everyone. You are dear to
my heart and I thank all of you.
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2008, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8605 Cameron
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