BCMOAA President’s Message – December 2018
Merry Christmas to everyone and I hope you will have many opportunities to be with your families and friends during this holiday season. I sincerely miss the opportunity to greet each of you this month but I look forward to starting 2019 with many of you at our first meeting of 2019 at the Gift Horse Restaurant in Foley on January 17th for dinner. In addition to having Chris Elliot, the newly elected state senator from District 32 (mostly Baldwin County) as our guest speaker, our newly elected 2019 Board of Directors for our chapter will be installed by LTC Dave Jensen the President of the Alabama Council of MOAA Chapters. The Gift Horse always has great food and is a good venue for visiting with other MOAA members and spouses.
As we conclude 2018, we can look forward to new opportunities for our chapter in the coming year. Our goal for 2019 is to improve our communication to current and potential MOAA members keeping them informed of active and retired military life issues, and to experience good camaraderie with fellow members.
I recently notified you that our chapter was named as a defendant in a claim resulting from injuries sustained in the February 28, 2017 Mardi Gras Parade accident in Gulf Shores. Again, I want to reassure you that it is the Baldwin County MOAA Chapter that is named in this suit and not individual members. In addition, the BC/MOAA Chapter is registered with the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Alabama as a non-profit corporation, which limits individual liability, including Board members. Our legal counsel feels confident the case against our chapter will eventually be dismissed, but the legal process is slow and may take many months to conclude.
As new information is available, you will be kept informed.
We owe much gratitude to Ken Cooper our webmaster for his diligent work and continued improvements to our award-winning website, bcmoaa.org.
A big salute is also due Frank Connell, our chapter’s 1st Vice President, who was selected as Fairhope’s Veteran of the Year, a very well deserved selection. Frank is a true soldier.
Most of all, I thank each of you for your continued support of MOAA and especially our chapter. I am proud to serve with you! May God bless you and your loved ones and may God continue to bless America.
Jerry