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61st Co-Chair Offers Praise
Thanks to all who made the BVA 61st National Convention such a success. The adventure was a team effort, including the great weather that we had! I hope that this issue of the Bulletin has captured the essence of the event. There is also additional information and photos on the BVA website.
The staff of BVA National, especially Convention Coordinator Christina Hitchcock, was always available to answer our regional group’s questions as the convention neared. She was also always accessible to all of the attendees throughout our week at the Adam’s Mark.
Elaine Powers, VIST coordinator at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, spearheaded the work in the local area. She did some advance work with the media and was instrumental in soliciting the local UAW to sponsor the barbecue Friday evening aboard the retired destroyer The Sullivans. Co-Chair Richard Buscemi and Joe Cioppa successfully worked to obtain donations from local merchants. Outstanding music came from Fred and Penny Knapp on our National Anthem although the piano was out of tune (Sorry about that, Penny!). Charlie Severino did an outstanding job playing taps.
My wife, Marilyn, was always at my side helping me and volunteering at the convention even as she ran a fever near the end of the week. Of course, how and what would a BVA national convention be without the support and help of all of the volunteers? Thank you one and all!
Dennis O'Connell
Floral Park, NY
61st National Convention Co-Chair
Bulletin Intro Too Repetitive
The reading of all of the names at the beginning of the audiocassette version of the BVA Bulletin should be stopped. It takes more than five minutes to read roughly 35 names, and some of the position titles were repeated when the articles were read.
Instead of giving every name in every issue, I would prefer that something like the following be read: “For a list of Bulletin staff and officers, please call 800-669-7079.” I don’t believe that you will receive too many requests. You could then use titles whenever a staff member, Board member, Field Service Representative, or Auxiliary officer writes an article. Doing so would save time on the cassette as well as time for the individual reader.
Maurice Thibodeaux
Metairie, LA
Feedback Requested on Web Conference Room
I now have access to a 100-person web conferencing room. BVA is able to use this at no cost. If anyone from our membership would be interested in sessions that we could call “Meet the President,” “Current BVA Issues,” “BVA Forum,” and so forth, please let me know.
The Board discussed this and other related uses of the conferencing room at our meetings in Buffalo. We could hold our own meetings on the site instead of telephone conferencing. District Directors could also use this new technology to meet with regional group officers.
Please send me an email at lrb@satx.rr.com, and let me know if you are interested in any of these ideas. The 100-person conferencing room could also be used for a variety of educational and informational purposes.
Larry Belote
BVA National President
San Antonio, TX
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