MONROE COUNTY VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS AND AUXILIARY

NOW HEAR THIS

County Council Meeting, Tuesday, March 4th, 2008, 7:00 PM at County Headquarters, 200 West Ave. Rochester, NY.

County Council Auxiliary will meet at 12:00 Noon, on March 4, 2008 at the County Headquarters, 200 West Ave. Rochester, NY.

COMMANDER’S MESSAGE

The Mid-Winter, Legislative Conference held in Albany, NY on the 23-25 of February will probably be the last one as a combined conference. The powers in place decided to go back to 1 Spring and 1 Fall Conference. The complete details will be decided and published at a later date. The conference went well. Rumors were spread about Commander Barnhart running again as State Commander, which will break up the rotation cycle in place today and has been in place for years past. His answer, when asked at the Council of Administration meeting was he didn’t think the line officers in place were fulfilling there obligations in carrying out his agenda. He didn’t think they were giving 100% effort in their elected positions. We will see what happens at the State Convention in June.

The meeting with the IRS on the 990 form reporting went well. All VFW Post and Auxiliaries will have to file this form. There is no getting around it if you want to maintain your Tax-Exempt Status. First you must have a tax exempt number to begin with. If you don’t have one, one can be obtained by notifying an IRS Agent. If your post handles less than $25,000 gross in post receipts, you will have to file a 990 EZ form online. This is the only way you can file. All other posts and auxiliaries will have to contact the IRS to determine their filing status. If you haven’t file this form in the last few years, you will have to file no later than November 15^th, 2008 or you will lose your Tax-Exempt Status and will have to re-apply. Don’t wait to long to fulfill this tax problem. The Department will repeat the class again at the Fall Conference in October.

The Department winners for the Patriot’s Pen and Voice of Democracy were present and each recited their essays at the Gold Chevron Ball Dinner. The Patriot’s Pen winner was an eleven year old, 6^th grader and barely tall enough to reach to podium. He was good enough to finish 34^th in the National finals. The Voice of Democracy winner for the Department had practically everyone there in tears. She was excellent in every phase of the contest. Her delivery, poise, content and speech was very good. She has a chance to win the $35,000 Scholarship in Washington next week. State Chairman, George Whitfield will be there to cheer her on.

Well here it is the end of February and all our Auxiliaries in Monroe County are doing well. The following have reached above 85% in membership- Auxiliaries # 412, 4658, 6105, 6703, 8495 and 9251. 8495 and 6703 have reached 100% in membership as of January 31, 2008. We now have to get the reports in for our Chairmanships.

We had a wonderful dinner at the Wishing Well Party House on February 17^th. It was an Awards Dinner for Post Commanders, Auxiliary Presidents, and Post Quartermasters. Presidents from 412, 4658, 6105, 6595, 6703, 8495 and 9251 all got an award, Every auxiliary was represented. Good work Sisters!

The Spring conference was in Albany February 23-25. I hope many of you were there.

I would like to see many of you sisters at our county meeting on March 4^th at 200 West Ave. Rochester at 12:00 Noon.

The next meeting of District 8 VFW Ladies Auxiliary will be March 9, 2008 at VFW Post #6433 in Waterloo, NY Hope to see you there.

At the recently held mid-winter conference in Albany, New York, the convention site selection committee accepted the bid of Rochester, Monroe County Council (Eight District) to host the VFW Convention June 2010.

The Delegates for both the VFW and Ladies Auxiliary will be housed at the Clarion Riverside Hotel. The hotel is under going 15 million dollars in remodeling and renovations. This will be the first time both units will be housed in the same hotel. The joint opening will also be held at the hotel instead of the War Memorial Building. All 465 hotel rooms will be locked in for the VFW. County Commander, Richard Gross has appointed, Frank Nicolazzo, to chair the convention committee until Corporation Officers are elected. Although the convention date seems a long way off, plan now to offer assistance.