Department of Maine Veterans of Foreign Wars
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Department of Maine Veterans of Foreign Wars MARCH 2008 GENERAL ORDERS No. 9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ** SPECIAL NOTICE ** SPECIAL NOTICE ** 1. ABSENCE OF THE COMMANDER: During the period of March 1-6, 2008, State Commander Bachelder and Department Officers will be attending the Community Service/Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. Anyone having any questions and/or business are directed to contact State Adj Andre L. Dumas at 207-496-0071, cell 551-8586 or email [email protected]. 2. READING OF GENERAL ORDERS: Per order of State Commander James E.N. Bachelder, District Commanders are now required to read the General Orders at each District meetings. ***************************** 3. APRIL 2008 CoA MEETING/STATE COMMANDER TESTIMONIAL: Will be held 12-13 April, 2008 in So. Portland. Headquarters hotel will be the Best Western Merry Manor Inn, 700 Main St., So. Portland, ME 04106. Tel: 207-774-6151. Rates will be $67.00 + 7% tax. Cut off date for reservation is 20 March 2008. Budget/Audit Cmtee will start at 12 noon followed by the Convention Cmtee. Location for the CoA meeting will be announced at a later date. Banquet tickets for the testimonial may be purchased by completing the application form as enclosed in these GOs. 4. STATE CONVENTION: Will be held in Lewiston on June 13-15, 2008. Headquarters Hotel will be the Ramada Inn, 490 Pleasant St., Lewiston, ME, tel: (207) 784-2331. Rates are $74.90 + 7% tax for 1-4 persons. List of motels, banquet ticket application and pre-registration forms are included in this GO’s. Please make sure that when calling any one of the motels that you tell them that you are with the VFW State Convention. 5. CONVENTION BOOK ADS SOLICITATION: Consult Telecommunications, c/o Vince Marchetti from Londonberry, NH is doing convention book ad solicitations throughout the State of Maine. They are the only agency to do this as approved by the Council of Administration. Please note that we have run into a problem in that the information is not being forwarded from the Posts to the businesses in the affected localities. If you receive a call from one of the local businesses, ask them if they have asked if this is the company that is with the Department of Maine. Vince will be forwarding to this office an email as to the locations his people will be calling into and this will be forwarded to the entire Department of Maine. Finally, this is a major fund raising for the Department of Maine to both have a successful convention and raise funds for the Department to continue our programs. 6. EASTERN STATES CONFERENCE APRIL 2008: The Department of Maine VFW and LAVFW will be hosting the April 2008 Eastern States Conference in So Portland on April 25-27, 2008. Hotel information is as follows: a. Headquarters Hotel: Wyndham Hotel Portland Airport, 363 Maine Street Mall Road, So Portland. Rates are $99.00 per night + 7% tax. Tel # is 775-6161 or 1-800-325-3535. More information will be forthcoming in a few days. b. Overflow Hotels are as follows: (1) Fairfield Inn Marriott/Marriott Mall, 2 Cummings Rd, Scarborough, ME 04074. Rates are $89.00 per night, tel # 883-0300 or fax 207-883-0572. (2) Hampton Inn, 171 Philbrook Ave, So Portland, ME 04106. Rates are $94.00 per night. Tel # is 773-4400 or fax 207-773-6786. c. Banquet Tickets: Enclosed is the banquet ticket application for the ESC Conference. Please note the deadline for the purchase of the tickets. 7. DISTRICT CONVENTIONS: IAW Section 405 of the National By-Laws, each District shall hold an annual District Convention for the purpose of electing District Officers and for the transaction of Business; such Convention to be held not less than (10) days, nor more than (75) days prior to the convening of the Department Convention. 8. POST NOMINATION/ELECTION/INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS: Section 217 of the National By-Laws and Manual of Procedures states: Post officers shall be nominated, elected and installed as prescribed in Section 217 of the Manual of Procedure. Post officers shall be elected in April. Post officers shall be installed in their respective offices prior to the convening of the Department Convention, but shall not assume their duties until the Department Commander is installed. An officer-elect who may be absent for good and sufficient reason or cause may be installed at any regular or special meeting prior to the Department convention. If not then installed, the office will automatically become vacant. 9. CONVENTION REGISTRATION: Section 222 of the Manual of Procedure requires each Post to register, in advance, at least one delegate to the VFW National Convention by payment of a fee in the amount of $10.00. The on-site registration fee is $12.00. All advance registrations should be mailed to the VFW National Headquarters, 406 W. 34th St., Kansas City, MO 64111, ATTN: Convention Registration, or you may register on-line by going to www.vfw.org. 10. DEPARTMENT BY-LAWS RESOLUTIONS: By-Laws Resolutions for the Department By-Laws must be submitted to the State Adjutant NLT 1 April 2008 and shall be typewritten in order for the By-Laws Committee to review and publish them in the May and June GO’s for all to review prior to the State Convention. You can either email them or send them USPS to this office. Any resolution of any emergency nature may be presented from the floor of the Department Convention IAW Article IX - Resolutions of the Department By-Laws. 11. PROOF OF ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR OFFICERS: All Posts and Districts are reminded of the Provisions of Sections 215, 414(c) and 515(d) the National By-Laws and Manual of Procedures that officers elected and appointed shall not be installed or assume the duties of their office until such proof of eligibility has been submitted to the respective Adjutant for review. 12. CHANGE IN POST ELECTION REPORT: All Department Adjutants have received the new version of the Post Election Report which will be used for this election cycle. The form will be in a pdf format which will allow its user to type in the information. This version also has a “print” button and an “email” button that will direct the form to VFW National Headquarters. Departments have been directed to NOT release the form until after the initial Election Report mailing, currently scheduled for the last week in February. This format was created as a back-up to the online and hard copy version in the mailing. The election report mailing will emphasize using http://vfwpost.vfw.org for election report submissions (this type of submission allows VFW records to be updated automatically). National Headquarters is also in the process of updating many of the forms to this format. 13. STATE BOWLING TOURNAMENT: Will be held on March 29 & 30 at the 1-7-10 Sports Center. All Posts who are sending in a team must have their application into the hands of State Chairman Paul S. Colburn NLT 12 March 2008. In case that he does not have enough teams (8 full teams required) by that date, than the tournament will have to be cancelled. 14. ATTENTION TO DISTRICT COMMANDERS: Is directed to Section 420 of the National By-Laws which provides that the Commander of the District in arrears for poppy money, supply money or other financial obligations, or failing to have the Quartermaster bonded or failing to submit required District Trustees Report of Audit or District Election Report shall be deprived of all representation at Department Conventions. In addition, Districts in arrears shall be deprived of all representation at Department Council of Administration meetings. Such representation shall be restored promptly upon proper adjustment of such deficiencies. 15. Commanders on all levels should begin organizing their 2008 Memorial Day Buddy Poppy Campaign. Every Post is urged to order and distribute VFW Buddy Poppies. 16. Section 220 of the National By-Laws, “Vacancies and Removal of Elective Officers” states that “Any Elective Post officer removed by the Department Commander, by reason of failure to pay current dues or by vote of the Post under the provisions of this Section, shall not be eligible to serve in any Post office in the same administrative year in which the officer is removed.” 17. ARE YOU A MEMBER OF FRIENDS OF FREEDOM? It’s free, it’s easy and it’s informative! Just go to www.vfw.org and find the “Join the Friends of Freedom” button at the bottom of the page. Sign up and you will begin receiving the monthly “VFW at Work” e-newsletter as well as special opportunities to help keep VFW programs strong and healthy. There are many ways to help VFW online - from signing giant cards to be delivered to veterans hospitals on holidays, to signing petitions online, as well as making secure donations online. Sign up today! 18. POST COMMANDERS: Any Posts changing their meeting date, location and/or time are to notify the Department Commander and Department Adjutant ASAP so that the information can be published in the General Orders. Also, any changes of Post Commander, Quartermaster, Adjutant and Service Officer must also be notified to the State Adjutant as soon as the action has occurred. 19. NEW ITEMS FOR THE NEW YEAR: VFW is looking for new items to add to their catalog and online store. If you have any suggestions, please send them to [email protected]. 20. TRUSTEES: Trustees shall not be eligible to serve on committees or as officers whose books, records and accounts are audited by the Trustees.