VETERANS FOR PEACE, Chapter 23, MINUTES of meeting 6/16/2021

 

Present: Rev. James Swarts, Jeremiah Knowles, Marybeth Knowles, Bruce Pease, Roger Griswold, Jack Spula, Lew Montemaggi

 

Business Meeting

• Reviewed Meeting Minutes from April. 

• Maybeth provided the treasure report. 18 paid members $1,269.68, yet to be extracted on the Deported Veterans mural. Deposited the $60 additional donations for Herb Smith for buggaler for the USS Liberty Memorial event. $100 was paid to Herb from our treasury. Current amount in the account after expenses is $869.68.

• Information for the Quarterly Newsletter was sent out.

• VFP Convention Advertisement was completed and emailed to Marybeth who will purchase the ad.

• Marybeth Knowles and James Swarts attended the funeral for Amanda Tinch and VFP was very well received. 

• Chapter 23 VFP has taken responsibility for the memorial services for the USS Liberty. The leaders of the VFW have recently passed away and are no longer able to continue the memorial service. The memorial service will continue on the anniversary of the attack on June 8th. John Hrankowski is the service member who was able to have the memorial placed. James went to the ROTC office at the UofR and asked if any of the Navy ROTC would like to attend. We had one Lieutenant and several Ensigns. James sent a letter of appreciation to Captain Nathan York and Commander Andrew D’Ambrosio Jr thanking them for the ROTC presence at the memorial service. You can find a copy of the letter here.

• Committee reports:

  • Marybeth Knowles provided a quick update on the Poor People's Campaign. The campaign is moving forward with a new initiative called the Third Reconstruction. More information can be found here. Marybeth and another member of the PPC presented the PPC resolution to Congress Joe Morelle. The office of Joe Morelle responded and indicated that they would support the resolution. June 20th 2022 will be a rally by the PPC in Washington DC and VFP has been asked to support the rally. This year's rally will be conducted in a hybrid version.

  • Jeremiah provided updates on the Membership Committee and the Transformative Justice Committee.

• Bruce Pease will be attending the Chapter Contact meetings moving forward. 

• The Golden Rule will dock in Rochester on August 12th - 16th 2022. The practice will need to plan some things before the Golden Rule arrives.

  • Lodging

  • Speaking Engagements

  • Activities

  • Publicity

• Mike Wells emailed a screenshot from Facebook from David Dornford’s daughter who reported he was in hospice care. His daughter lives in Palmyra and David is currently in Waterloo. He is periodically coherent and the home is taking visitors. David at Huntington Living Center. He will be cremated and buried in the new veterans cemetery in Samson. You can contact the Huntington Living Center at (315) 787-4733. David served in the US Army.