Getting Started on Transitioning VVA Chapters  

BY TOM BURKE

The National Board meeting took place in October in Arlington, Virginia, and was well attended. In the Board packets, VVA General Counsel Dominick Yezzo included an eight-page document he created titled, “VVA Chapter Transition Strategy.” In part, the document read:

“Should VVA at any point in the future announce a plan to legally dissolve and/or reorganize as a new nonprofit corporation with a focus on national advocacy in Washington, D.C., VVA National must, by law, transfer its assets and service programs for veterans and their families to the new organization. Such action would cause national governance over local chapters to cease.

“There are more than 650 VVA chapters in all 50 states (each established as a nonprofit corporation) with approximately 100,000 members nationwide. Each chapter must determine its own future—either continue or dissolve. This is a difficult decision because it requires legal vision and determination by chapter Directors on what to do with chapter assets: property, bank accounts, files, furniture, etc.—and, perhaps most importantly, how to continue chapter services to the community.”

Legally, VVA chapters are tax-exempt, not-for-profit 501(c)(19) veterans corporations under IRS code. Up to now, chapters have operated as subordinated units under VVA’s group exemption ruling. Once VVA ends, the group tax exemption ends. Chapters that decide to remain active will need to set up their own tax-exempt organizations.

Our advice is for each chapter to engage a qualified nonprofit attorney for specific counsel on whether to become a newly formed 501(c)(3), remain a 501(c)(19), or file for corporate dissolution. The VVA General Counsel’s Office may provide direction, but each chapter must make its own decision on how to remain or dissolve.

We remain unified in purpose even now, and VVA’s goals are to mitigate inconsistent legal practices while we honor the integrity of our mission during the transition. All chapters are different. There are rural chapters with a few members and big-city chapters with hundreds. Services provided to the community and assets held at each chapter vary. Chapters are united in purpose to serve veterans and their families, but they have different models of leadership and direction based on the communities they serve.

The first question facing VVA chapters today is not a legal one. It’s what to do with their bank accounts, real property, leases, furniture, memorabilia, and their community service programs. Space constraints preclude me from including the entire eight pages of the General Counsel’s document in this issue. But I will work with The VVA Veteran staff to get the whole document into the magazine’s next issue. It is available now at www.vva.org/docs/.

The leaders of every chapter should read this document. It outlines issues such as how to dissolve a chapter; how to plan for dissolution and asset distribution, as well as guidelines for legal filings; notifications and final filings with the IRS; and record-keeping.

It also includes a guide to continuing operations if a chapter decides to carry on—along with a lot more material chapters will need to decide their futures. All VVA State Council presidents have copies of the document. Feel free to contact them to get a copy.

Also included in the Board packets was a document produced by our Constitution Committee Chair Leslie DeLong. It contains vital information about compliance with VVA’s governing documents and basic parliamentary procedures for board meetings. It is well worth a read.

This information has not been distributed in this form for some time. I encourage all chapters to get a copy from their State Council presidents, as it will come in handy for parliamentary procedure decisions.

I can also assure you that shouting from the crowd does no one any good. It’s hard enough to run a meeting—let alone to try to understand what different people are shouting all at once.

In other news, I traveled to Los Angeles two days after being sworn in as VVA president. James McCormick and I attended a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee roundtable there led by Rep. Marc Takano on the future of the West Los Angeles VA campus—part of congressional oversight of the campus redevelopment. We made a statement about the West L.A. property that apparently upset some people. But we have seen movement on our concerns, which has resulted in positive change.

I also attended the Texas State Council convention in El Paso in early October and visited the troops at Fort Bliss. It was great to see our service members in uniform. And I’ve made several trips to Silver Spring to attend hearings and work on National office business.

There’s a lot going on. I’ll keep you advised. Thanks for all the support.

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