Vice President’s Report

BY FRED ELLIOTT

October started with a National Board meeting in Silver Spring. While there, I attended the Agent Orange Committee meeting, where discussions were held on having chapters conduct surveys of their members’ health; the development of talking points on AO; and the twenty-seven town hall meetings conducted to date. At the BOD meeting, it was decided to remove the age 50-55 category from Life Membership and add a 72+ category for $100.

During the lunchtime meeting of the Committee and Task Force Chairs, the chairs recommended that the Chair of the Conference of State Council Presidents should be a part of the Government Affairs Committee; that an organization chart is needed to define the chain of command and lines of communication; that there should be more communication between BOD meetings; and that VVA should do a better job of recognizing the efforts of its many volunteers.
On October 14 I took a guided tour of the former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, N.Y., with my wife and our friends, Joe and LuAnne Peck. Joe Peck was stationed at the Depot during his Army days. One of the most interesting facts to come out during the tour was that the Army used Agent Orange to defoliate certain areas on the site.

I went to the Pennsylvania State Council meeting, where a proposed change to the VVA Constitution was discussed—Article II (State Provisions), Section 4 (Officers), paragraph B: to allow an appointment to fill a vacancy rather than a vote of the delegates to the council. They also talked about the perceived “black hole” at the national office, where items sent from state councils and chapters disappear never to be seen again.

Two local college student volunteers interviewed me on November 6 for the Monroe County Public Library’s Oral History Project. For the past two years, student volunteers have been recording interviews with local Vietnam veterans to create a permanent resource at the library.

Veterans Day found me in Washington, D.C. I represented VVA at The Wall for Veterans Day and the 30th Anniversary of The Wall. It was a great honor to place the VVA wreath at The Wall on this occasion. Fortunately, we had great weather with lots of sunshine, which made the event even better.

While waiting for the ceremony to begin, I ran into my friend Steve Mros, who served with the First Cavalry in Vietnam and was seated with members of his unit. I also spent time at the VVA Membership Tent on the Mall greeting people and spreading the word about VVA. I even got to talk to a group of Boy Scouts from the Philadelphia area about what it means to be a Vietnam veteran.

Then in December I helped wrap gifts at the Canandaigua, N.Y., VA Medical Center for more than eight hundred patients and also helped distribute those gifts and sang Christmas carols to the patients.

In 2013 I will continue advocating for veterans and their families. As always, I can be reached by email at felliott@vva.org or on my cell phone at 585-317-7619.