As of today, 8 July, 2012, I have been President for 14 days. By the time this gets to our editor,
I will have been President for 20 days. When I sat down this morning to begin writing this for The Graybeards,
I wondered what I can tell the membership after a mere 14 days in office.
I began to think of the many things that my transition meetings with our Past President, Bill Mac Swain,
and our new Vice Presidents, Larry Kinard and Roy Aldridge, brought forth. The meetings and the men were
a great deal of help to me, and I know that with the continued support of Bill, Larry, and Roy, we can do
what the membership has asked us to do.
First, I thank all of you who voted for me. I hope that over the duration of my term in office I will
not let you down. For those of you who did not vote for me, I hope that I can change your minds. As you
know, you gave me approximately two thirds (2/3rd) of the votes cast for the office of President. This tells
me that you read my resume, agreed with what I said, and want me to do what I said. I can’t promise you
anything other than that I will do my best to do what I have mentioned in that resume.
The top priority I mentioned was “Recruiting, Recruiting, Recruiting.” I have served under several Presidents
as a Charter Member of the National KWVA. To my knowledge, none of them put any significant priority on
this subject. I am not criticizing them; they all had their own priorities and handled them as they saw
necessary.
I have made some preliminary, but very necessary, appointments and outreaches to begin the recruiting
process. I have appointed from the rank and file Sonny Edwards, of Virginia, to head a sub-committee under
the membership committee chaired by Tom Stevens. Sonny is a “go to” guy. I am satisfied with this appointment,
and I know Sonny will do a great job.
The committee he is working on is new. Someday I hope to make it a standing committee. What the Board
of Directors and I need to do is give Sonny all the latitude and resources he needs to make this effort
successful.
When Bill 5903, now in Congress, goes through all the gymnastics that it must go through to become law,
we want to be in a position to begin a larger and broader recruiting program. There are 2.1 million Korean
War veterans in the United States who do not belong to the KWVA. I venture to say that a great percentage
of these men and women belong to other veterans associations, such as the VFW and the American Legion. I
am working on that level to obtain new members. As things develop, I will let you know.
There are thousands of men and women who have served in Korea since 1954. When Bill 5903 is passed, they
will become eligible to join the KWVA. I know there are people who do not consider these men and women Korean
War veterans. However, if we wish to survive and to continue to honor the men and women who died, were maimed,
captured, or missing in action, and not allow their memories to fade, we must make sure that the KWVA remains
a viable organization for generations to come. Therefore, we need to recruit the Korean Service veterans—
and there are no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Incidentally, I have asked our Past President Bill Mac Swain, who has worked very hard with Congressman
Johnson on this bill, to stay on this project and see it through.
I mentioned in my resume that The Graybeards is our most expensive item in the budget. We are allocating
approximately $170,000.00 dollars for the editing, printing, distribution and postage this year. We receive
a very small amount of advertisement money; we also receive a few donations to The Graybeards, which means
that the majority of the $170,000.00 dollars comes from our membership dues. I wish to change this.
I am working on a few theories. But, at this time I do not have enough information on which to comment,
except to say that I have asked our Second Vice President, Roy Aldridge, to look into some avenues to increase
our income from The Graybeards. This is a very high priority on my plate today.
I mentioned in my resume that I would reach out to the members to be more involved in the workings of
the organization. So far, Billy Scott, of Virginia, has agreed to take on the job of Legislative Director.
Mike Trapani, of Auburn, NY, will be our POW/MIA coordinator. Bill Burns, of Syracuse, NY, has agreed to
be our Judge Advocate. Garry Rockburn, of Kirkville, NY, is our Treasurer. John Barwinczok, of Auburn, NY,
has agreed to be Asst. Treasurer.
Frank Cohee, who has served as our Secretary with Past President Bill Mac Swain, has agreed to stay on,
a position I hoped he would accept when I decided to run for President. Jake Feaster has agreed to stay
with me, too. But we need more volunteers. I ask any one of you who is interested in serving on any of the
committees to contact me, and we will discuss it.
Finally, I congratulate Sal Scarlato of Long Island on his election to the Board of Directors. Sal is
a very hard working Korean vet, and I look forward to working with him. J. Tilford Jones also won his bid
for election to the Board. We know how valuable Tilford will be to the organization. Ezra “Frank” Williams
and Luther Dappen won re-election and will continue to be very valuable members of our Board.
By the time this is published we will have completed our Board meeting in Washington. I am sure I will
have much more to report in the next issue of The Graybeards concerning that meeting, the Gathering, and
the events that took place in DC.
I promise I will try to keep you all informed. Meanwhile, the website is an excellent place to go for
information.
For the good of the KWVA,
James E. "Jim" Ferris
National President, KWVA/US