Proposing A Work-Around

BY TP HUBERT, CHAIR

In early October I attended the Conference of State Council Presidents and the National Board of Directors meetings in Silver Spring, Md. A major focus of the CSCP meeting was the recommendation from the Suspension Work Group chaired by Sara McVicker, which looked at the failure of 227 chapters and 13 state councils to meet VVA Constitutional and new IRS reporting requirements.

As one of twenty-three new state council presidents at the October 5 meeting, I was quite concerned about the VVA suspension lists. The Nevada State Council appeared on one list and three Nevada chapters failed to file the annual elections and financial reports and were awaiting IRS sanctions. Chapter 545 at the old Nevada State Prison is facing the revocation of its charter due to its closure in May.

The SWG made eleven recommendations to address VVA charter suspension and revocation. Several involved basic information technology issues with VVA’s Membership Department. Another recommendation suggested simplifying the elections and financial forms to one page and being able to file the forms online. It also recommended that the Suspended Chapter List be distributed to state council presidents and secretaries and to the suspended chapters’ officers.

The responsibility for ensuring chapter compliance should rest with the state presidents and their state councils. Currently, regional directors monitor compliance.
The final recommendation addressed the IRS tax-exempt revocation and suggested that VVA Treasurer Wayne Reynolds and CFO Joe Sternburg implement procedures to help chapters and state councils obtain IRS compliance.

After the CSCP meeting, I met with Michael Swift, VVA’s parliamentarian; Leslie DeLong, the Constitution Committee chair; and Tom George, the Nevada State Council parliamentarian, to discuss incarcerated chapter annual financial compliance requirements. Incarcerated chapters may be restricted from filing VVA financial forms and from complying with IRS mandates. Swift said the VVA Constitution permits the Board of Directors to relieve chapters from filing financial reports for the year in question. Similarly, Robert’s Rules of Order provides relief from rules of an organization when adopting them “conforms to parliamentary law or existing rules.” Therefore, as in the case of incarcerated chapters, when rules prohibit compliance, the organization may be relieved of this responsibility. Swift drafted a Resolution for Relief, which was reviewed at the VIC meeting on October 5 and approved as a VIC Motion for the BOD. The motion passed without objection the next day. The VIC will submit a VVA Constitutional Amendment to address this issue at the 2013 National Convention.

The loss of Chapter 545 at the Nevada State Prison closes a unique chapter formed by a group of Vietnam veterans in an attempt to mentor younger prisoners. They started literacy classes, drug prevention classes, and street readiness programs with funds obtained from aluminum can and cardboard recycling and a grant from Nevada’s Bureau of Alcohol and Drugs. They recruited a variety of volunteers from the community and other justice agencies to participate in this venture. The capter blossomed under several wardens, but wilted under another. The innovative self-help programs begun in the ’90s were dropped by new administrators.

Chapter 545 prisoners were “depopped” to other facilities. Several of these prisons do not allow inmate self-help programs and offer few meaningful options.

Despite this setback, VIC Vice Chair Allen Manuel reports that Chapter 689 at the Louisiana State Penitentiary and Warden Cain are arranging to host the Vietnam Veteran Traveling Wall at their sprawling facility in Angola. Ohio President Tom Burke reports the Ohio Department of Corrections’ conversion of four prisons to privatization has been limited to one faculty that has suspended an incarcerated chapter. Larry Holman reports the Pennsylvania State Council continues to work with the Pennsylvania Prison Society to achieve sentencing and clemency relief for veterans incarcerated.

California State Council President Steve Mackey said that Chapter 1065 has been established at Soledad Correctional Training Faculty. Mackey has sent VVA start-up kits to veterans at Tehachapi and the California Men’s Colony at San Luis Obispo. I carried a start-up kit while attending a Veterans Day service as a guest of the Vietnam Veterans Group of San Quentin.

William M. Paparian from Pasadena Chapter 446 and the L.A. County Bar Association’s Armed Forces Committee obtained a rare reversal by the California Board of Parole Hearings for an incarcerated veteran, Rory Folsom. A decorated active-duty Marine at the time of his offense in 1983, Folsom pled guilty to second-degree murder and had been denied parole on eight occasions. Paparian, the former mayor of Pasadena, successfully argued that Folsom had paid his debt to society and has become fully rehabilitated: “It’s time for this Marine to come home,” he concluded. This is an unprecedented victory for those engaged in seeking social justice for veterans confined in California’s expansive prison system.