Volume XVI – Number 07 TYPHOON February 2013 IF YOU DON’T ASK THEY CAN’T SAY I YES! V Veterans of Foreign Wars II ASK A WORTHY of the COMBAT VETERAN United States TO JOIN OUR III ELITE Commander VI ORGANIZATION Darin Combs TODAY! "Comradeship IV VII and Service" Commander Darin Combs Comrades, We are on the downhill side of the VFW year and you should be reviewing the requirements for All State and All American. Please do not wait until the last month to verify the requirements. Take note that part of the requirements for All State is to coordinate compliance with the appropriate chairman. It is not the chairman’s responsbility to confirm your eligibility. You should confirm things like your Post Buddy Poppy order, National Military Service donation and the National Home donation. You should also confirm that your Post History has been updated online; not just turned in, but posted as well. With the Post Community Service Reports, you need at least one report every month. It is not too late to post events for past months. I suggest taking a computer to your Post meeting and pulling up the database with your Comrades present. You can input a lot of events in just a few minutes. Don’t neglect your audits. Make sure the Department Quartmaster has all of your audits on file. When you are out recruiting and even among your post members, log onto www.vfw.org and register your membership. This is a good way to keep Comrades informed of what is going on with the organization. It also has some great tools for the Post as well as individual Comrade support. Once you sign up a new member, get them registered so they feel a part of the organization immediately. Be careful not to have them sign up as a New member online because they will be put into Members At Large and not assigned to your Post. This goes for New Annual as well as New Life memberships. Don’t forget that your District may earn money for signing up new or upgrading Legacy Life Memberships. If you have new or upgrades in Legacy Life Membership equal to the number of posts in your District, you are eligible for a monetary award. As I have said before, I am not looking for a blowout year membership wise, but if we can simply maintain, we will do fine. Every Commander should at least try to obtain 100%. If you want to go above and beyond in order to earn awards like All American, that is great, but let’s at least maintain our numbers at all levels. We are on the downhill side of the year and there is still a lot to be done. YIC and Service, Darin Combs Department of Pacific Areas Page 1 Volume XVI – Number 07 TYPHOON February 2013 Jr. Past Dept. Commander Jim Oden Comrades of the Pacific, The holidays are behind us including the Super Bowl, sorry about that SF, everyone is on track to finish the year with margin to spare. The year is more than half gone and it’s time to look at where we stand as a Post, District and Department and ensure that we have completed all our programs and have membership under control. Have we have completed all requirements for All-State and/or All American. Don’t leave anything to chance or for others to accomplish. Make sure you have all requirements completed and drive home with margin to spare. While doing all the great things that VFW asks from us, don’t forget the active duty personnel and veterans that have made it all possible. Make an effort to visit hospitals and units to thank those from past conflicts and those currently in uniform. It really means a lot to so many of them to be recognized for what they do or have done for our country. These visits provide you an opportunity to share the VFW story and what we can do for them and our communities. Many do not know about our elite organization of combat veterans.” Make a difference in your community through your continued service as Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Continue to have a great year!! Jim Oden USA – USAF – USN – USMC – USCG Sr. Vice Commander Shawn Watson Comrades, I would like to correct an oversight in my article last month. I missed spelled Gasper’s name, and would like to apologize to him for this. Have known Gasper for many years and know that his name starts with a “G” and not a “J”. Sorry Gasper. The Department is at 96.71% in membership. There are 8 Posts at or above 100%. We only have 5 Posts under 90%. We need 357 more members to attain 100% for the Department. Let’s go out and beat the bushes and shoot the last 357. Speaking of recruiting, Gasper is still way out in front on the recruiting with 143 and still counting. Other recruiters are: Cliff Wilsey (37), Larry Lyons (25), Dennis Provencher, Shawn Watson, Darrin Combs each with 15, Eric Larsen (13), Bill Wichmann (12) Brian Merenda (11), and Robert Grant, Richard Hagaman, Pat Higgins, and Dave Teets each with 10. There are another 81 recruiters with 9 or less. Great job guys, let’s not slow down as we near the end. As we round out this VFW year, it is time to review the goals that you have set for yourselves. What is left to do for All American or All State? These deadlines are coming upon us fast. All the requirements are on the Department website. If you have any questions on either program, please email me. Hope you all enjoyed the Super Bowl. YIC and Service, Shawn Watson Department of Pacific Areas Page 2 Volume XVI – Number 07 TYPHOON February 2013 Jr. Vice Commander Bill “Bear” Hudson Post Award Nominations This is a reminder that any award nomination for each of the individual awards for the Posts and key Post positions/activities should be submitted to me NLT 24 May by email to [email protected] , The necessary awards forms for the various nominations are located in the forms section of the DPA website. The types of awards are: •OUTSTANDING ADJUTANT •OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTING BUSINESS •OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTING INDIVIDUAL •OUTSTANDING MEMBER •OUTSTANDING MEMBERSHIP CHAIRMAN •OUTSTANDING POST •OUTSTANDING POST COMMANDER •OUTSTANDING POST QUARTERMASTER •OUTSTANDING SERVICE OFFICER Only the "Complete" column should be filled-in on the submissions from the Post, as the rest will be completed by the Selection Committee. The narratives are quite important, as they explain what good work has been done, making it easier to evaluate. The Awards Committee judges will consist of the District Commanders, who will, individually evaluate all submissions. Their scores will be totaled and the selectees will be the ones with the most total points, as determined by the judges. *For District Commanders – The final selection meeting will be held at 1200 on 13th June in the Convention Hotel, Executive Lounge on the 14th Floor. All District Commanders should be in attendance for this important selection process, recognizing the fine contributions of our fellow comrades within the Department. Community Service Reporting Status Well, we are down to the last three months of Community Service for the 2012/2013 reporting period to National. I am proud to say that you are doing extremely well. However, there are still some of those red zeros in only a few Posts. These can be corrected and updated, easily, by just reporting some of the Community Service work your Post accomplished during those months. The latest breakdown is as follows: Post Dist May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr Total 9723 1 13 16 14 16 17 18 18 21 19 5 0 0 157 1054 55 38 57 78 73 49 49 29 64 8 0 0 500 9555 2 6 4 14 11 16 3 8 12 6 0 0 0 80 9612 25 26 49 71 81 37 46 75 74 0 0 0 484 8180 19 10 4 17 16 0 28 6 2 0 0 0 102 9985 16 14 15 11 12 9 13 7 3 1 0 0 101 10033 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 0 2 1 0 0 7 10215 3 0 0 2 3 4 5 1 0 0 0 0 0 15 10216 11 6 5 7 8 1 11 7 5 0 0 0 61 10223 6 6 10 6 24 9 5 5 3 0 0 0 74 12109 7 3 3 4 4 5 5 1 3 0 0 0 35 727 10 8 7 7 6 6 11 8 6 0 0 0 69 4 9957 4 4 39 30 1 4 5 7 1 0 0 0 95 Department of Pacific Areas Page 3 Volume XVI – Number 07 TYPHOON February 2013 9876 34 35 34 30 37 31 39 32 34 0 0 0 306 9951 20 28 38 49 35 54 42 25 0 0 0 0 291 10217 6 7 16 17 50 61 50 62 40 0 0 0 309 5 10249 2 11 20 11 10 9 6 6 6 0 0 0 81 11575 1 0 3 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 9 12074 16 21 25 35 30 18 23 17 21 0 0 0 206 1509 9 5 6 8 7 11 16 11 4 6 0 0 83 2917 6 5 3 4 2 4 4 4 3 6 0 0 0 35 3457 33 11 14 24 19 18 9 11 1 0 0 0 140 124 17 4 10 10 5 15 8 8 5 0 0 0 82 2485 23 23 25 34 36 36 48 50 47 0 0 0 322 7 9892 69 73 75 97 74 94 89 81 84 0 0 0 736 11447 8 2 6 9 6 5 4 6 4 0 0 0 50 Total 415 358 495 589 578 502 542 490 440 21 0 0 4430 Feel free to contact me at [email protected] with any questions.