What Will VVA's Future Look Like?   

BY JACK McMANUS

The beginning of this new year is a critical time for us to take stock of our current situation and determine to what extent VVA members have the desire and capability to participate in the organization’s future activities.

VVA state councils and chapters are independently organized and self-governed. Each must decide whether they will continue to exist indefinitely or whether they will dissolve in a legal manner with an orderly transition in adherence with the VVA Constitution. Some councils and chapters are discussing this decision in earnest. Others are engaging in informal dialogues.

Based upon Resolution GA-23, Last Person Standing Organization, adopted at the 2021 National Convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, the inclusion of younger generations of veterans into our membership or the ability to restructure under a new name are unlikely. We are going away at some point, and now is the time to prepare.

VVA Working Group 1 “Strategic Plan for Dissolution,” has been a great resource at the national level. It addresses the legal requirements associated with the dissolution of VVA and provides critical and valuable information and guidance for national actions needed to go forward.

I urge you to read this well-developed document, generated by VVA volunteers. It is an excellent resource for state councils and chapters as they make their decisions for their future. It is available at https://vva.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Final-VVA-Strategic-Plan-for-Dissolution-04.12-1.pdf

In this issue of The VVA Veteran, Vice President Tom Burke does a terrific job articulating our need to take actions at all levels if we are to expect an orderly transition to the future.

Several items described in the Strategic Plan for Dissolution require action by delegates at our next few Conventions through proposed changes to the Constitution, new Resolutions, and national BOD actions. To my knowledge, we have yet to receive recommendations from any VVA committees or membership about any of these considerations. Please submit your ideas so the committees can move forward with your input.

Since the 2021 Convention, the national Officers have been addressing several issues set forth in the Plan for Dissolution with input from key individuals on staff, our funding partners, and adjunct service organizations. Through strategic alliances, legal contracts, and memoranda of understandings with other organizations, it is very feasible that we can continue to offer quality veterans programs and services to our members on a national level, while extending the VVA spirit to future generations of veterans at the local levels. This can be accomplished while still providing robust organizational and financial support to state councils and chapters.

We will bring a logical concept for VVA’s future to the National Board of Directors in sufficient time to allow discussions at the April 2023 BOD meeting and for revisions to be made prior to presenting the material to the delegates at the National Convention in August 2023.

There are no guarantees, whatever that eventual presentation looks like, that it will be accepted or modified by the membership-elected delegates at the Convention. Our democratic VVA processes will determine that direction.

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