BCmOAA50

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 17^th 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 1^st 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

Presidents Message October 2018

I cannot begin to express my gratitude to the members of our Chapter who have stepped up to become Board members or support the work of the Board in making sure all the work that has progressed these past 6+ years did not disappear. Since our reorganization efforts in May began we have continued to move forward and make improvements in our Chapter.

Please take a look at our entire web site as many areas have been updated or completely changed. Most new information is posted in the “Chapter Highlights” section. We value your input to recommend changes in the website, newsletter, and monthly meetings and also to let us know what we are doing right. If you do not want to put it in writing please feel free to call me [251 517-7950] and I would be pleased to discuss any topic relating to improving our Chapter.

Please note the new article in this website on Name Tags [in Chapter Highlights] and how to request new or lost name tags, selecting from the two types that are available.

Our next meeting will be October 25th at the Blue Marlin Restaurant, please see the website calendar for specifics. On November 15th we will be holding our last meeting of 2018, it is our annual business meeting that is required by our By-laws. At that business meeting, all members will be voting to select the officers and directors for 2019. That slate of officers was developed by the Chapter’s Nominating Committee and was approved by your Board of Directors at the September 20, 2018 Board meeting. You should have received a message with the names on the slate but it is also posted in the “Chapter Highlights” section of the website. If you did not receive the Email message we may not have your correct Email address, please contact Jim Parnell, our Secretary if you did not receive that message. His Email address is: jparnell38@att.net

October 12, 2018 is the date of the FEDVIP Town Hall Meeting at the Alabama Memorial Battleship Park. This information meeting is about the new dental and vision insurance plans from TRICARE. This meeting is co-sponsored by BCMOAA and South Alabama (Mobile) Chapter. CAPT Paul Frost (USN Ret) will be coming from National MOAA to present information and answer questions about the new dental and vision plans for TRICARE eligible retirees. If you have not received information on this meeting please contact me at one of the means posted at the end of this message.

Your Board of Directors has identified all meeting dates in 2019 and has confirmed speakers for the first 8 months. In June it will be BCMOAA’s turn to sponsor the joint dinner meeting with South Alabama (Mobile) Chapter and plans for that meeting have already begun. Please continue to refer to the calendar on this website for up to date information about the next and future meetings.

I pray your families have had an enjoyable summer and are looking forward to the holiday season as 2018 winds down.

BCMOAA President’s Message – June 2018

The month of May has been a challenge for your Board of Directors.  I returned home from an extended trip and almost immediately learned that Larry Rathbun’s medical issues were significantly worse resulting in his resignation as the President of BCMOAA.  Larry’s wife, Charelene, had also endured medical issues of her own and now Larry needs her additional attention.  For those reasons Charlene also resigned her position as 1^st Vice President of BCMOAA.  As 1^st VP Charlene was not only a one person Programs Committee but she was singlehandedly managing publicity of all events.  Additionally, Max Mattox, the second Vice President recently experienced an unexplained sudden loss of vision in one eye.  This and other medical issues have resulted in Max’s resignation from the Board.  The last shoe to fall in May was the resignation of Loretta Ballow as Secretary of the Chapter.  That is the unpleasant news but the good news is that several of our active members quickly stepped up to fill the gaps.  On May 14^th the BCMOAA Board met to discuss and make plans to keep the Chapter moving forward.  For the remainder of 2018 year the Board has approved the following members to serve on the Board of Directors in the following positions:

President                Jerry Davis
1^st VP                      Frank Connell
2^nd VP                     Vacant
Secretary                Sid Vogel (also Legislative Liaison)
Treasurer               Dennis Koppersmith
Director                  Jerry Morrison
Director                  Jim Parnell (Roster Management)
Director                  Elenor Parker
Director                  Jim Wallace
IT Chair                  Ken Cooper
Publicity                 Brenda Wallace
Special Projects     Jack Gifford

Our situation will not be totally resolved anytime soon but I can assure you this Board lives the motto “Never Stop Serving.”  If you would like to learn more or have any questions please feel free to call me or any of the members of the Board, contact information is available on our website (www.bcmoaa.org)

Lunch Meeting May 17^th – Only three days following the Board Meeting a very successful lunch meeting was held at the Fairhope VFW.  Our speaker, Wayne Boulware, a retired Army Chaplin living in Orange Beach, talked about his experiences as a married Army officer with children volunteering to go to Viet Nam and his experiences there.

Email Notification Changes – With the resignation of Charlene Rathbun our Email messages notifying our members of upcoming events and other information will be coming from an ATT Email account.  If you have not received any Email messages in the past few weeks please send Jim Parnell an Email message so we can identify/correct the error.  Jim’s Email is jparnell38@att.net.

Future Group Trip – In the coming months you will be hearing about an overnight trip to The National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

This past year has been an uphill effort for our young chapter and I don’t for one minute believe this is the last challenge but I pledge to you that our Board will always live by the MOAA moto of NEVER STOP SERVING.  BC/MOAA will soon activate the Nominating Committee for the 2019 slate of officers and as away it is very important to keep new blood flowing into our organization so please accept the opportunity to serve if asked.  Thank you for your continued support and I wish you and your families a great summer.

Jerry