Well old man winter has hit Abilene with a fury. I returned home from Mid Winter on Sunday. On Monday I got my laundry done and did some grocery shopping and I am glad I did as Monday night it rained, sleeted, snowed and I have been in the house ever since. I hate being cooped up in the house. With all the clouds and cold all I have wanted to do is sleep. I am really looking forward to the return of the sun so we can get out of this house. Now back to the business of the Ladies Auxiliary. I really enjoyed the Mid-winter conference the weather in Austin was great and I was able to walk back and forth between the Ladies hotel and the VFW hotel. The programs were very informative and I could tell there was a lot of planning that went into it. We had several of our Ladies Auxiliary chairman in attendance and I hope they will share their information with you at the next meeting.

Activities for this month include the following:
February 5th 8:00 PM......... Dance at Post ( Band will be Texas Crude) after being cooped up for the last 4 days I know you will want to get out and enjoy yourself.
February 8th 6:30 PM ........ Pot Luck Dinner Roast Beef will be the meat.
February 8th 7:30 PM .........Our monthly business meeting
February 14th 6:00 PM .......Valentine Day dinner, ladies are asked to bring desserts
February 14th all week ........Hospitalized Veteran's Week. If you can stop by one of the local nursing homes and visit with one of our veterans that would be so nice. Just be sure and report it.
February 15th all day..........Remember the USS Maine (win a free drink). Details at our meeting.
February 19th all day ..........District 8 meeting all members are invited to attend. We are asking the ladies to furnish desserts
February 27th 1:00 PM .........Chairman's meeting (must attend)

Officer and Chairman’s Report :

Secretary
Christene Funderburg

Please be aware of this updated information from the Mid-Winter Conference .  All Chairmen need to give the Secretary a copy of your report each month.  Please hand them in before the meeting.  Please hand in all vouchers before the meeting.  The IRS requires these records be correctly included in the Minutes of each meeting.  All monies must be accounted for, Auxiliary treasury and donated funds.  The IRS is cracking down on all charities, especially the large nonprofit organizations like us.  Let’s not give them any reason to go digging into our records.

There must be a copy of all Community Service Reports in the Minutes.  Please help the Chairmen get ready for the meeting by giving your information to them early.  Then they will be able to give them to the Secretary before the meeting.  These do not have to be formal.  Mainly, who, how many workers, hours, miles, and money. If this is an ongoing program, its name will be sufficient.  If it is a one time program, please give a brief description.

Your help in this matter will be greatly appreciated by the Chairmen, Secretary, and Treasurer.  We are trying to do a good job for the Auxiliary.   Auxiliary means YOU.

Membership
Trish James, Chairman

Well, hope everyone has made it through the February “Ice” week safely.  Mid-Winter was done just in time.  We qualified for each drawing in membership but just weren’t lucky enough to have our number drawn.  Please remember that dues are now $20.00.  A new member’s dues are $25.00. This admission fee keeps us in accordance to our National Bylaws, Section 103-Admission Fee and Dues:  The Auxiliary shall fix an admission fee not less that $5.00 per member.  This entitles each new member to a membership pin and a copy of the current Bylaws and Booklet of Instructions.  When signing up a new member, please remember to fill out all of the blanks on the application, have the applicant sign the front of the card and the back of the card.  Make sure to put your name as sponsor so that I can put your name in the drawing for the free life membership in June.  Also, remember to ask for an email address.  You can just write it on the back of the application.  I have compiled a short welcome packet that I will mail with each new membership card.  This information is just a small attempt to help new members know meeting times and procedure.  If you see a new member, please introduce yourself to her and offer assistance.  I will be asking a member of the membership committee to be a “buddy” to new members but we need everyone’s help in making our new members feel welcome and comfortable.  We don’t want to overwhelm them but if we ignore them, they will just go away.  Once they get to know us, they gotta love us. Right? Thanks to everyone for your continued membership and for all that you do for our organization.

Buddy Poppy
Trish James, Chairman

Mid-Winter was fun, wearing our hats and seeing everyone else’s.  We didn’t win anything but had fun participating.  Hopefully, we can have another Buddy Poppy hat contest next year at our Post.

We have the dates for our Memorial Day and Veterans Day Buddy Poppy drives at Walmart.  The Memorial Day drive will on Saturday, May 28 th and Sunday, May 29 th.   The Veterans Day drive will be Veterans Day, November 11 th, and Saturday, November 12 th.  I know that is pretty far down the road but please mark you calendars and make plans to help this year.  I will be reminding everyone and will be checking on the dates at the base. 

We have had Buddy Poppy decorations and displays for just about every event this year. We need to keep working to teach just how important the Buddy Poppies are and what they stand for.  If anyone is interested in taking Buddy Poppies and literature to a classroom, please let me know.  I will get you the Buddy Poppies and materials to do so.  Just give me a call at 325-280-2275 or email at patricia.james@suddenlink.net.

Other things that I know will be taking place in the next few weeks are:
The afghan that was donated by Anna Johnson will be given away at our Valentines Day dinner. Be sure and by a ticket or more. Proceed will go to Cancer Aid and Research.
Continue to bring your coins for Cancer Aid and Research to our meeting.
Continue to bring Campbell soup labels for National Home
Continue to bring coupons to send to Military commissaries overseas
I think I heard Susie say she is going to have a food drive in March so clean out your cabinets and bring in those non perishable food item next month.  

One more thing, when you sign up to cover Bingo just put your name on one date until the calendar has had a chance to go to all members attending meetings. This way it will give everyone a chance to cover bingo the required number of times in order to be reimbursed for attending our State Convention.

Until next month we will continue to serve our “VETERANS & OUR COMMUNITIES”
 “UNITED BY LOVE FOR OUR VETERANS AND COUNTRY”

Jeanie Bell
President, Ladies Auxiliary to Post 6873