Vietnam Veterans of America National Convention Reno, Nevada, August 17-20, 2011

Jay Roberts' Report of VVA National Convention - Reno, NV

At the recent Vietnam Veteran Convention in Reno, the delegates spent approximately four hours having a discussion about the legacy of the VVA. We discussed the issue from many points of view. From the initial view of last man standing turn out the lights, to ways not only to sustain our organization but to grow the organization.

If you are a proponent of the last man standing concept, you probably won’t want to read any further. I personally do not agree with that thought process.

Jack Divine stated at the beginning of the discussion, someone suggested we approach the issue as if we were doing estate planning.

The discussion covered issues such as Agent Orange and its’ effects on veterans, off springs and future generations of descendants. We discussed PTSD both as it deals with Vietnam Veterans, Iraq Veterans and Afghanistan Veterans.

I spoke twice on the issue. My first comments were about family and the support I received from my family upon my return from Vietnam. It really was the only support we had. I owe them more then I can ever repay. I’m not sure what if any problems my children or grandchildren or great grandchildren may develop related to my exposure to Agent Orange. I want to do everything I can while I’m still here to insure if they need support in the future it’s there for them.

Other speakers related their comments to issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder {PTSD}, others spoke to our slogan, “Never again will one generation of veteran forget another.” We discussed the problems facing today’s veterans when they return and the support currently available to them. Much of that support is the direct result of the efforts of the VVA.

I was the last person to speak on the issue. I started my comments by reviewing the topics of our discussion. I asked a simple question, “How many Vietnam Veterans had a son or daughter or knew a Vietnam Veteran who has a son or daughter who has served in a military conflict since the end of the Vietnam War? Just about every hand in the room went up. I then suggested we take the steps necessary to review our articles of Inc. to see if they can be modified to read, Vietnam Veterans, Era Veterans and their Military descendants. By doing this we address all issues discussed. First we have a means to sustain our organization. Secondly we have a means to grow our organization. Thirdly we provide a home for the modern day vet with them having the ability to lean on us while we educate them on the methods proven successful for us in gaining the recognition for the medical and psychological problems from our war.

What better way to grow and sustain our family, then with family.

Jay Roberts, President Chapter 528

Bill Boudreau's Report of VVA National Convention - Reno, NV

Being selected to replace an elected Chapter 528 as a national convention delegate who could not attend was both an honor and a challenge as I had other duties at the Convention. The convention has and does have a great approach to understanding Vietnam veteran’s concerns and attitudes. In addition to the general sessions that all delegates attended, I attended the Vietnam Veteran’s of America Resolutions Committee Meeting, and Represented Chapter 528: The Convention Opening Ceremony. The Constitutional Resolutions Committee Meeting. The Region 5 “Talk to The Delegates” were with Delegates from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and of Course Michigan Chapters talked and questioned from VVA. The second Region #5 meeting to listen to remaining 2 out of 3 Candidates and discuss the best suggestions to vote for candidates, and remaining issues and Resolutions. I attended the final Convention Floor issues and lectures from the J-PAC organization for recovering ALL MILITARY MISSING for ALL sides with Vietnam, Japan, Europe, and Korea- Councilor Of Vietnam and Retired Army General headed this project and they have had a good success recovering remains of both sides. I also attending the Closing Ceremony that ended the Convention. My wife and I attended the Awards Banquet Saturday evening and The VVA Honored Johnny Rivers & Mickey Jones, Vickie Lawrence, Gloria Loring, for their USO Tours to Nam. Author Diana Dell MC’d by Pat Sajak by Video feed. A nice speech by Re-Elected President John Rowan and wonderful Band: The Groove Thang. The Resolutions Committee Highlights: 1. The resolutions to change wording in VVA Constitution: form should include an AVVA Member on Chapter Boards of Directors NON-Voting status. To WILL include an AVVA Member, after application and paperwork filed. 2. The resolution to: Reduce the National Board of Directors from 24 to 18. 3. Committee recommends adding the words "email or other electronic means" after "in the mail" and "by first class mail". These resolutions were debated and scrutinized to almost boredom. But never the less, most would be brought to Floor of the Convention. I attended this with Chapter President Jay Roberts.

Following highlights at First Region #5 Meeting were discussed: 1. The Candidates answered questions and told the Region delegates about their qualifications, back grounds and experience and how they would see to the needs of The Vietnam Veterans of America and it's Membership issues and concerns. 2. After and between, various Chapter Delegates gave opinions and enlightenment to some of the Candidates. 3. A resolution instituted by Region 5 Member "concerning the Legacy of the VVA for future children, grandchildren, of Vietnam Veterans". 4. The issue of Modern Soldiers and where do they go for help. Highlights of the Region 5 2nd meeting Thursday August 18th. 5. The delegates heard from the two out of three remaining Candidates Running for Office and with the rest of the Region we discussed all The candidates and remaining resolutions with the idea of an informed way to vote at each delegates discretion. 6. We also discussed the Region and how things can improve, such as Communications.

Friday, August 19th at beginning at 8 a.m. voting began. Saturday August 20th at 8a.m. another Election of Region Directors had to be instituted because a Candidate had been left off the Ballot. The Election was only for Region Directors.

This of course brings to Closing Ceremony and the end of the 15th National Convention in Reno Nevada. Amongst my many other responsibilities I had at the Convention it was still a pleasure to represent the Chapter and work with the Delegates that were elected to attend: Jay Roberts, Bob Dew, Tom Brown, & Ron King I do hope that I was able to guide the two F.N.G s at least a little.

Bob Dew, Delegate VVA National Convention Reno, NV.

As an elected delegate to the 15th Annual Vietnam Veterans of America National convention, I would like to thank our VVA 528 membership for that opportunity. Through the years I have attended many informative business meeting, sales presentations and hardware/software Expos and the national convention was comparative in size. As far as starting times I believe many thought they were in the military again although the actual start of meetings were not too far off target. I did notice there was too much talking in the general sessions showing some disrespect to those fellow members wanting to express their opinion.

My portion of our report has to cover the processing of amendments. The full delegation reviewed five (5) new amendments submitted this year. Forty Five (45) proposed amendments that had been reviewed by committee and recommended for passage and seventeen (17) recommended for closure. As I understand the process new amendments are to be submitted to the National Convention Committee 120 days prior to the next National Convention. They need to be identified if endorsed by a chapter, endorsed by a state council and endorsed by the conference of state council presidents (Yes/No). If the National delegation approves the amendment to move forward the National Officers will assign the amendment to a committee for review and recommendations on how we as an organization can fulfill the amendment. This would include keeping pressure on congress for implementation. Amendments are kept open and followed with Congressional Committees, VA administration until they are satisfied and closed by a future National Convention.

The full delegation spent one full afternoon and partial morning session going over each of the amendments offering everyone the opportunity for Pro or Con comments. At the end of each amendment review comments a vote was taken for each amendment. On the five (5) new amendments one (1) passed, three (3) failed and one was not reported out. On the forty five (45) proposed amendments forty four (44) passed and one (1) failed. The one failing had to do with adding a Native American memorial statue in Washington DC. We also had opportunity to review a few amendments that did not make it out of committee to see if the general delegation wanted to move any particular one forward. Chapter 154 had one worth moving forward but it was denied by the general delegation. I suspect that maybe because the meeting was getting long at the point in time. We also closed thirteen (13) of the seventeen up for closure as four were modified as remaining open.

Anyone wanting specifics can contact me or any of the chapter delegates to review amendments. All in all the convention ran smoothly with the best starting performance being the Elections and re-election (being the only event actually starting on time). I also attending the Open Forum for Agent Orange held Saturday morning that was very moving and informative identifying a need for all chapters to provide some local informative Town House Meetings covering Agent Orange. Vietnam veterans and their families have lived through the affects, challenges and struggles identifying, qualifying and linking illnesses caused by effects of Agent Orange on the human race. It is now our opportunity to provide public awareness about Agent Orange and the devastating affects that will be around or crop up in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh future generations of Vietnam Veterans. The government, military or veterans administration will probably not take on that responsibility once we are gone just as they did not want it identified in the first place. Respectfully, Bob Dew - 2011 National Convention delegate

Ron King, Delegate VVA National Convention Reno, NV.

Being selected to represent Chapter 528 as a national convention delegate was both an honor and a privilege. The convention is dynamic in its approach to understanding Vietnam veteran’s concerns and attitudes. Moreover, the executive board of officers, the issues committees, and their respective staffs are keenly focused on solving the myriad of issues that either directly or indirectly effect all veterans and their families. In addition to the general sessions that all delegates attended, I attended the Veterans Benefits, Health Care, and Government Affairs committees. Veterans Benefits was a deeply personal meeting to many veterans, and, as expected, the stories were mixed with successful VA claim awards, as well as with several “horror” stories of incompetent VA staff and facilities. The VA is fighting hard to erase the negative VA image. The following highlights were discussed: 1. There still are no clear guidelines relating to Blue Water Sailors claims issues, eligibility, etc. 2. The current claims backlog continues to grow across the country due to increased claims filings and low staffing levels! 3. The VA has stated that there are no plans at the present time to add more diseases to the current 14 recognized "presumptive" diseases. 4. A new "VETPRO" software program is available for VSOs to make claims filing easier to complete and to submit. Highlights of the VA Health Care Committee: 1. Since 1982, the VVA has been a leader in trying to obtain quality health care for all women veterans, especially in gender-specific treatment options and facilities. 2. All veterans have a right to expect the highest quality medical and psychological treatment at no cost to veterans for illnesses and injuries incurred during and/or as a result of military service. 3. VVA urges the Department of Veteran Affairs to establish a National Vietnam Veteran Prostate Cancer Protocol at all VA facilities to establish a comprehensive program to help with Agent Orange/Dioxin treatments, claims, etc. Highlights of the Government Affairs Committee: 1. As many as 20,000 veterans claim Hepatitis C and related diseases, however, they are unable to establish a service connection because of difficulties in establishing proof. VVA urging congress to acknowledge Hepatitis C as a "presumptive" disease. 2. VVA urges each state chapter and council to make themselves aware of the plight of homeless veterans in their state and communities, and to work to obtain housing and care for them. The 20 existing Fisher Houses, (privately funded companies working with VA facilities to provide quality care to veterans) are continuing to grow in the US.

Tom Brown’s Report of VVA National Convention – Reno, NV

President Jay Roberts, Secretary Ron King and myself left Detroit on Tuesday, August 16, 2011 to attend the National VVA Convention in Reno, Nevada. When we arrived at the Reno airport, we were enthusiastically greeted by women and men from local VVA’s, VFW’s, and American Legions. Hugs from the women and hand-shakes from the men. They made sure we were welcomed! We met up with John Riling when we arrived at our hotel. John brought his Michigan State Product Sales to Reno. John showed us where to register for our rooms and where to register for the convention. After unpacking we then met up with Bob Dew who had already arrived one day earlier. The three of us were able to register for the convention very quickly (2 minutes) and then we proceeded to find Michigan State Product Sales. Helping out at Product Sales were Bill Boudreau (Bill replaced Dennis Bielskis as our 5th Delegate), Mary Boudreau, Moe Swope, and two other Michigan VVA members Mike from Dearborn VVA and Ray Essenmacher (Michigan State Council Secretary). The Michigan State AVVA were also set up to sell products and several of our State AVVA women were there helping including: State AVVA President Nancy Diegel, State AVVA V.P. Betty Pike, State Treasurer Cecelia Essenmacher, and past President Penny Meinhard. During the four days Ron King and I helped out Product Sales as often as possible. On Tuesday night we all participated at the “Welcome Home Party.”

Wednesday, August 17th:

The Opening Ceremony started off with the Color Guard. We then were entertained by four singers including Kelly Trudell, who has sung at various VVA functions such as the Side Track Bar in Ypsilanti and at Kokomo, Indiana. VVA National Convention President John Rowan then introduced our Keynote Speaker, Richard Pimentel. By far the best keynote speaker I have ever heard and as a teacher I have been to plenty of conventions. We then found out that we did not win any of the four awards in which I had applied for our Chapter.

After the Opening Ceremonies all five Delegates volunteered to go to three different committee resolution hearings so we could be able to have an active part in discussion of all of the committee hearings. My three hearings included – POW-MIA, Membership Affairs and E.T.B.O. The POW-MIA Committee discussed two different resolutions. The first resolution concerned getting our U.S. Congress to adopt the POW-MIA stamp that was originally issued in 1995. The only thing different about this 2011 design was replacing the money value (.32 cents) with a “Forever” postage. This resolution passed the committee by a unanimous vote. The second resolution concerned with the possibility of strengthening our resolve about being even more aggressive of getting back “Live” POW-MIA’s. This resolution also passed with a unanimous vote.

The Membership Affairs Committee discussed how to be even more affective in making sure more Vietnam Veterans are aware of the VVA and how we have to be more aggressive in adding more members to our local chapters. I personally brought up the fact the National VVA Website is four years behind with the State and local Chapter locators. I reported that more than 50 percent of the URLs links to chapters were no longer available on the web and that more than 100 new links to chapters are not even listed on the National VVA Chapter locator. I also told them I reported this at the Louisville National Convention in 2009 and then again at our VVA National Conference in Orlando in 2010. The Chair said he knew that this problem existed. I told him the problem could be rectified with either the I.T. person deleting old links and placing new links or they could have a link to our Chapter’s website where I have placed all VVA Chapters with websites and Facebook pages and that I check the URLs out every month. Hopefully, the Chair will report this problem. I ended my discussion with asking the Chair how can we grow our membership when our National VVA doesn’t keep an up-to-date locator for possible new members as well as current members. And how can chapters communicate with one another when many contact persons and email addresses have changed.

E.T.B.O. Committee The first thing we discussed is E.T.B.O has changed its name to Economic Opportunities. We also discovered a few word changes within three resolutions. Most of the changes concerned the adding the word STATE after Federal. But besides changing the name the biggest change is: “ VVA calls on each state’s Congressional delegation jointly sponsor, no less than every other off election year a program in their states that brings every federal procurement officer for every federal agencies that does business within their state to train veteran owned business in how to work with their respective agencies.”

We then discussed what we need to make sure in our own state that returning vets be placed at the front of the line for employment and that instead of receiving minimum wage we need to change this to “A Living Wage” one which a single worker can support himself, his spouse and child.

Near the end of our meeting I brought up Lynda.com and suggested to the Chair that he check out this fantastic website. Lynda.com is the present and future of online video training for more than a 1,000 different tech programs including Word, Access, Power Point, Excel, Web Page, learning how to use a “Smart Phone” and Photo Shop etc. -programs which will give veterans and family members the chance to broaden their skills so they will have more doors open for employment.

Thursday, August 18th:

We reconvened our General session at 9:00 a.m. Our first guest speaker was Congressional Medal of Honor and Vietnam Veteran Paul “Buddy” Bucha. Our second speaker was Paul’s brother Ken Fisher who is chairman of Fisher House. The next speaker was Cecil Roberts, President of the United Mine Workers and a Vietnam Veteran. Our final guest speaker was The Honorable Eric K. Shinseki a retired general and Vietnam Veteran. He was the Army Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2003. He was chosen to serve again as Secretary of Veteran Affairs by President O’Bama and he told the crowd that our President is letting him be totally in charge of the VA. Secretary Shinseki reported many things, but what stood out for me was the fact that 29,000 homeless vets have been recently helped and by 2014 all homeless veterans should no longer be homeless!

During the afternoon session we began discussions on half of the committee resolutions. We were able to vote on more than half of our resolutions. Bob Dew will be reporting on these resolutions.

At 7:00 p.m. we attended our Region 5 Caucus that was chaired by Tom Meinhard of Michigan. The first 30 minutes we heard the last three people to be running for 10 open seats on the VVA National Board of Directors. Then for the next 30 minutes the meeting was out of control until Jay Roberts and Bill Boudreau spoke up and basically got the caucus back to the business of having the five experienced members who knew most of the 16 candidates to inform the rest of us about what their opinion was for each person running for office. We spent a very productive hour learning about all delegates as well as those people who were running for the four executive positions and for our own Region 5 Director.

Friday, August 19th:

All five of our Delegates voted early on Friday morning. Unfortunately, there was no candidate receiving a quorum of the votes for Treasurer – basically because there were three candidates for this office. We all had to vote again on Saturday morning. Friday’s General Session didn’t start until 10:00 a.m. The entire morning session was spent finishing up with the rest of the committee resolutions and voting on each. In the afternoon the entire time was spent on “Our Legacy”. Speaking up for our Chapter was Jay Roberts, who in my opinion did the best job out of the dozens of delegates who spoke.

Friday night we were entertained by a group of musicians who imitated The Rolling Stones. I could only stay for one song because my ears are extremely sensitive to loud noises – I suffer from tinnitus.

Saturday, August 20th:

Jay, Ron and I left on Saturday morning after we voted. Bob Dew stayed behind as well as Bill Boudreau. The only thing we missed was the Special Dinner and entertainment planned for the evening.

Regards,
Tom Brown