Chapter Meeting Notes - 16 August 2014

Jerry Rainey Scholarship: Sam Morgan, Chair. Committee Gus, Don, Chuy and Ike. We presented 2 recipients $1000 scholarships, after this meeting (one could not attend). They are attending NMSU and UTEP. Jerry Rainey passed away in March 2007. We had the first scholarship in August that same year, so this was the 8th year of the scholarship. COL Thomas E. Munsey, Fort Bliss Garrison Commander made the presentation. Picture at right: L to R: Sam Morgan, Roxanna Valdez, Carol Rainey and COL Munsey.

9th Annual CSM(R) John McLaughlin Memorial Golf Tournament: Scheduled for Saturday 13 September 2014 at the Fort Bliss Golf Course. Wednesday, 10 September we will be packing the goodie bags at Post 812 starting around 1800. If you are volunteering for the golf tournament PLEASE make the Wednesday bag packing because we’ll be going over the assignments as well. All workers are asked to be at the Bliss golf course on the 13th at 0600 to help with the set-up.

Teamhouse Committee: Chairman = Steve Franzoni; Committee = Gus, Brian, Chuck, Tom, Tony and Chuy; the committee is listing requirements for the 2800 sqft steel building (2 bath, office & kitchen). Working on permits and need to get CEMEX to give up the land (To VFW, deeded to SFA9).

Rest and Recreation Center Fort Bliss: PTSD Soldiers still meet with Chuy every Monday from 1100 hrs to 1600 hrs in Bldg. 48 at FT Bliss. Chapter donates $200 each month for arts & crafts. Chuy announced a new class starting soon.

9-11 Celebration: VFW Post 812 will host an awards ceremony on September 11th at 1800 to honor the firefighter and policeman of the year chosen by their senior leadership. The event is open to our members with a meal afterwards. PLEASE contact Moose if you plan on attending so he has an accurate head count.

Isaac Camacho Head Start School: 125 students in the school. Supplies that you wish to donate please bring them to the meetings. Chapter donates up to $100 per month, as needs arise.

Christmas Party: Scheduled for Saturday, 20 December, 7 pm, at VFW 812. Joe “China Boy” Lopez will arrange the Holiday style meal and Trini Peral will do the raffles and decorations. Each Member and one guest will be no charge, any additional guest cost $10 each. Tony will provide the music.

Chapter IX Shirts, Coins, Mugs and Blazers: Shirts, Polo’s, mugs and coins are available. Coins are $10 each. Anyone needing a blazer go to this website and order: Hunter Green = from $110-$180. We have a 36R and a 38R blazer on hand for purchase. We are also selling golf balls for $2.00 each and the new Chapter 9 white dress shirts for $25.00. Ties are also available at $25.

Soldier Mentors Program: Mentors program is in progress with the El Paso Courts system for Soldiers who have no violent offenses for 8-12 months. See Tom Brady.

Chapter Historian: Jerry Campos Historian, Committee Bill Snider and Fidencio Gonzalez. If you have historic information, pictures or memorabilia, please get it to the committee.

Billy Waugh’s book “Isaac Camacho, an American Hero” is available.

SOG EXPO 2015: Ike and Al volunteered to chair the SOG Expo Vendor golf tournament. It was a big success this year and we will repeat it.

New business: New Member Coin: Bill made a motion that all New Members receive a free Chapter Coin. 2nd by China Boy. Passed.

19th Annual Jerry Montoya/Ralph Dominguez Food Drive: Chapter needs to assemble the Committee right away. Jerry Campos will get the boxes. We need a Chair!

Announcements and Good of the Order: AUSA golf tournament will be on 10 OCT.


President's Message:

Greetings everyone. We are on short-final for the golf tournament and it looks good. We have some bugs to work out but it should be a great event. We have 27 teams and plenty of sponsors so this tournament should bring in some profit for the great things that Chapter 9 does. With that said, we are having our last meeting on the tournament on Wednesday the 8th 1800, and if you plan on helping out on the day of the tournament please try to make the Wednesday meeting. We need a lot of volunteers for the inside and outside events. Thank you to all who have secured teams and sponsors for this event.

I want to thank Sam and his committee for the hard work done to choose the two best candidates for the Jerry Rainy scholarship and also to Steve Franzoni for securing COL Munsey to be the guest speaker. I was on vacation but heard the event went very well. Next in the door is the 19th annual Ralph Dominguez/Jerry Montoya food drive. 19 years we’ve been doing this and we need a chairman to step up to the plate and take charge of this year’s event. We’ve averaged 75 boxes weighing in at around 30 pounds of food for needy families so we don’t want this to fall through the cracks. Taking responsibility of a chair position is a time consuming endeavor so if you think you can handle it, let me know. You won’t be doing it alone but you will be leading the charge.

De Oppresso Liber!

Pete Peral