November Meeting Brief


November 26, 2017

Chapter 5 Meeting After Action Keeping Our Members in the know!!!

At our meeting on Saturday November 18th, was a shortened meeting so we could enjoy the Thanksgiving luncheon. For those that attended and those unable to, this is a brief summary of the meeting. We want to keep our family in the know.

What we did/discussed this month:

Once again, we had approximately 70 members attending
• We welcomed several new members and transfers into our family. Welcome to all.
Guest Speaker (before the meeting)
o Russell from Mission Parks Funeral Homes gave a short presentation
o He had a drawing for a turkey which went to one of the new members
Chapter Service Officer (CSO)
o The CSO office at Wayland Baptist University on I35N at Weidner is on Thursday, December 7th
o September we helped approximately 20 veterans and October we help approximately 8
o We gained several new members from this undertaking
o We need more CSO’s to show up
o We could use a couple of volunteers to help sign in veterans and answer generic questions about the DAV/chapter
o These hours go towards LVAP hours
o Please pass the word to any veteran you know
o New diseases have been added to the list of health concerns for veterans that may have spent time at Camp Legeune or Ft McClelland. Some information be found on our website
o I want to caution all CSO’s to be very aware of the FIOA and HIPPA regulations when helping veterans. Contact may have to held in another part of the church or after the meeting. Privacy must be maintained at all times
Volunteers:
o If you volunteered at the Golden Corral, DAV5K Run, Wayland Baptist University please complete your hours worksheet and email it to me by Nov 30th
o Remember as the largest chapter in Texas we have the lowest amount of volunteer hours
o We need to start taking credit for all the Great work we do for our veterans
o The chapter is slowly gaining a great reputation for volunteering
o Volunteer Hours:
 We need to account for all our volunteer hours
 CSO’s need to account for their time assisting the veterans
 Reportable hours:
 Floresville Veterans Home, or any place and spend time with veterans
 Time spent helping with the Forget Me Nots, Golden Corral, etc
 Time mowing/trimming the yards of veterans, driving them anyplace, cooking them dinner
 If you not registered with the state, you will need to complete the Registration form AND the form to submit the hours
 The paperwork necessary to submit volunteer hours can be located on our chapter website
 I am taking the responsibility to be the contact for the monthly report to the state
 Send you information to me in an email or bring it to the chapter meeting and I will combine all hours into one report
o Audie Murphy and the VA in general are always looking for volunteers
o Ft Sam Houston Cemetery is looking for admin volunteers
o I had added a link to Volunteer Hours on the website
o DAV has a scholarship program for high school students. The countrywide awards are based on their number of volunteer hours
o The DAV gives $75K in Scholarships to students every year
o Information may be found here DAV SCHOLARSHIPS
Membership:
o We still need members to meet our recruitment goal for 2017
o As has been reported we have added several new members. Keep up the good work
o I have added a New Members page to the website so all can see (some of) our new members
o Remember to try and take pictures of new members you sign up so I may add them to the website. We want to show the world how we are growing
o There are several awards/rewards for signing up members
o There is a convenient, fast, paperless mobile phone app to help members signup new members
o This link provides more information http://davalamo5.org/membership-sign-up-information/
Women’s Veteran Advocate:
o I have had several updates that have been posted
National DAV 5K Run/Walk/Roll/Ride To Honor Veterans
o This event was a great success
o There were 600 pre-paid participants and lots of participants sign up the day of the race
o Pictures have been posted
o Thank you to all members who volunteered. We had a great chapter showing. More than any other chapter
Golden Corral Veterans Day Fundraising:
o Once again it was a successful event
o We raised more monies than last year
o Thank you, again, to the volunteers over the long weekend
Miscellaneous
o Jon Brown, Duke Hendershot, Kevin Crozier provided a quick benefits seminar to members of Duke’s church
o We donated to Seg4vets.org. They provided Duke with his new wheelchair and over 16,000 Segways/wheelchairs to veterans
• Happy birthday to all November birthdays

Ralph Parris passed away this month. His memorial was Nov 11th
Lula Emery (past DAVA Commander and our Commanders wife) is still recovering. She was able to attend the luncheon. Good to see her
Robert Rayl is recovering
Jim Davis attended the meeting and is doing well. Welcome back Jim
Leroy Rogers is still at home and slowly recovering
Duke Hendershot will have a heart stint put in Monday Nov 20th. He went home on the 21st (update 11/22: He is home recovering and doing well)
Ernest Ybarra’s son is in the hospital with diabetes issues
Joe Noonan’s grandson is recovering well and able to walk some
Amanda Almaraz’s grandma is not doing well at all
• If you know of any chapter member that may be ill, please let one of our chaplains/officers know so we may visit and check on them
• Please keep all our members and veterans in harm’s way in our prayers
 All the officers would like to thank everyone who attended the Meeting on Saturday. We hope this provides more information to those who were there. For those who were not in attendance, it was a great meeting and good food.