Our election process has begun. The CPA has been instructed to honor any ballots that are received with a
member’s name and/or with their membership number written on it.
It was unfortunate that the peel-off labels were not put on the magazine as requested. The peel-off labels
sent under separate cover arrived after some members had already received their magazine. Others received the
labels before their magazines were received. I also received many calls from members who complained that the
peel-off labels they received were very hard to remove.
The ballot voting will be finished by May 15, 2012. Those elected will be notified as soon as possible and
will take office on June 25, 2012. I hope you have taken the time to vote for those you wish to represent you. I
was hopeful that a Congressional Bill Number could be placed on the KWVA Website in February. However, the House
of Representatives has delayed that possibility since additional requirements took a higher priority at the
beginning of the New Year.
I have contacted the person who will be in charge of obtaining the bill number. He said it would be in the
March time period now for the bill to be ready with a number. With that in mind, we must wait a short period
later before we can start a campaign to get the bill passed to change the Internal Revenue Service definition of
a Korean War veteran.
All Life Members, POW, MOH and Gold Star members will receive a letter in April asking them to respond so our
database can be brought up to date. We will be asking all those members contacted to return a special request
card mailed to them so we know they are still with us. This is a very important step designed to help us save
funds now spent on printing and postage for our magazine.
Your cooperation by answering the request will help us save wasted funds. We have already cancelled sending
out many magazines to others who are not members in order to maintain our expenses on our printing of additional
magazines and the foreign postage costs to non-paying individuals.
The KWVA Board of Directors is scheduled to have a Board Meeting in Washington, DC. They will be attending
“The Gathering” on July 24–28, 2012. During this meeting the Board will attend the commemoration ceremony of the
July 27, 1953 signing of the Armistice. All of this information will be placed on the website when plans are
completed by the DoD 60th Commemoration Committee. Any Korean War veteran and KWVA members are invited to attend
“The Gathering” in July. This will be the 28th meeting of this group.
As a reminder, the 2012 KWVA Membership Meeting will take place in St.Louis, MO during October 10–14, 2012.
The hotel will be the Doubletree Hotel St. Louis at Westpoint. A chapter is setting upthe various events and
will also set the required costs of the different events. This information will be available in the May–June and
July-August issues of The Graybeards, and on the KWVA website from May through August.
In the January, February, and March timeframe, required reports were sent to all those states in which the
KWVA does business to fulfill our being a Foreign Corporation in that state. Also, an audit of our finances has
been contracted and is now in work for our report to Congress, along with our accomplishments as a Congressional
Chartered Association. Liability Insurance for our Directors and Officers, as well as our Media Liability for
the website and the magazine, have been renewed.
It is a very busy time for our Treasurer and President, who are responsible for these items being taken care
of and ensuring that our Internal Revenue 990 Form and other paperwork is correct and signed and submitted on
time. During this period we are a little behind in answering questions of the membership, so we request that you
give us a little leeway regarding answers.
We made a personnel change at the Membership Office. Our previous Administrative Assistant resigned in
February and moved to a new state where she could no longer serve the membership. Our new Administrative
Assistant has been contracted and trained and is now doing all the necessary membership data processing. If you
call the Membership Office you might say, “Welcome, Jamie.” (Yes, her first name is the same as the previous
assistant’s.)
Thanks to all our members who work in their communities to show that not only did they serve in the military
in defense of the United States, but they are now serving in VA hospitals and clinics and “Telling America” that
the Korean War was a major war that stopped communism from ever spreading in the world.
William F. Mac Swain
National President, KWVA/US