September Meeting Notes

BLUE STAR MOM MEETING NOTESSeptember 11, 2007

•MEMBERS Present (at Carson Tahoe Hospital’s Aspen Rm): Mary A., Ana A., Carol B., Jeanne BP., Patti C., Yvonne C., Barbara C., Leslie E., Debbie E., Paula F., Marge G., Shelley I., Norma S., Jo S., Suzzie W. GUESTS: Linda W., Jo’s Mom, Betty G. visiting from Meridian, Mississippi & Susan L. (from Senator Reid’s office)

•MINUTES: NOTES from meetings posted as Blogger Update for review. Notes accepted as posted.

•CALENDAR: Monthly Meetings (2nd Tues. 6pm, NEW LOCATION Mi Casa Too, 3809 N Carson St, Carson City, NV Tel: (775) 882-4080) The next two meeting dates: Oct. 9th & Nov. 13th.•TREAS. REPORT: given by President for Treasurer: Balance on Sept. 10th - $1499.22. (Detail to follow body of minutes.)

•UPDATES ON SONS/DAUGHTERS:
oMary says that Chris is not set to deploy at this point for another year and remains at Ft. Bragg with his family. All are well.oAna reported that Gieorag’s boat is finally out of the ship yard and he will be going out soon. She had a nice visit with Gieorag and his wife and the grandkids! Andrew is still awaiting info as to whether or not he will be getting active orders or sent to the reserves. He’s doing the waiting in Italy….not a bad place to wait!oCarol told us that Joe up and joined the Army National Guard a few weeks ago for a 6 year hitch. He’ll be in an MP unit based out of Fallon NAS. God bless you Joe and Carol & family!
oJeanne says Jason has been out almost a year now! He’s doing well at UNR. - Her cousin is still in Iraq helping to train the Iraqi Navy and it looks like her brother in law will be headed to Iraq sometime after the first of the year. Thanks to such a patriotic and serving family!
oPatti tells that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that Nick will be coming home late in the year. There will be very little notice so she’ll have to book a flight last minute. During the holiday season, that can be challenging…but having had to book last minute flights myself to see my military child, I know moms can be rather persuasive and lo to those who try to impede the way of a momma getting to her child!
oYvonne informed us that Tony is at Ft. “Lost in the Woods” – I mean Ft. Leonard Wood, MO attending his Captain Career Course till the end of the year. After that he hopes to go on to join Special Forces. Hooah! Daughter Francesca is her 3rd year residency in Jacksonville at the Naval Hospital. She’s specializing in Family Practice.oBarbara gave us the big news that Patrick is engaged! Wow….and congratulations! They are planning a June wedding in Southern California. An update on Lauren revealed that she is now the personal asst. for an international public speaker and is currently in Australia and will be traveling the globe! Way to go Lauren….you are really going places (no pun intended!)
oLeslie told us that Henry is still at Ft. Stewart, GA but has orders to deploy soon. He’s a sergeant now with four guys he’s in charge of. He’s enjoying the responsibility. Will is at Bethesda learning a lot and doing okay.oDeborah related that Eric is still at Ft. Benning as a cook but is trying to get into Airbourne for some more action. He’s doing a-okay.
oPaula says that Josh is attending Jackson University taking his prerequisites for becoming a physicians assistant. He’s still stationed out of Ft. Drum, NY. Congrats to Josh and his three fellow soldiers for the awards earned for their time spent at West Point this summer training cadets! - Congratulations to Paula on her new grandson born to her daughter in Elko.
oMarge shared happy news of Stuarts beautiful wedding in August. If you haven’t seen any of the pics yet, be sure to ask Marge to see at least a few! The mother of the groom was looking great too! Stuart is still in the inactive reserves until June. In the meantime, he’s at UNR as a Business Mgmt major.
oShelley told us that Sean is still stationed in Hawaii but is in his third week of training in the Mojave desert in preparation for deployment to Iraq later this year. He’s definitely missing the ocean breezes…or any breeze for that matter!
oNorma let us know that she finally heard from Jared! E-mail is up and running - so communication is back. That alone really helps. He’s near Fallujah and doing well.
oJo said it was a great party in September when Mark and EVERYONE came home!! Praise the Lord they all came home and with no serious injuries. We rejoice with you Jo. Mark continues in the Individual Ready Reserves until February ’08 and is currently working with Sen. Ensign’s office.oSuzzie shared that all is well with Jacquie and Tawofik. Both are busy as company commanders of their own commands at Ft. Campbell. Possible deployment for Tawofik late next spring or early summer??? No word on a deployment for Jacquie for the next 12 months. All is well.
oLinda (guest who joined tonight….welcome!) told us about her son Eric who is a Captain in the Army serving as a JAG officer in Iraq helping the Iraqi government write policies. Her nephew, Todd (whom she raised), is on his third tour in Iraq.
oCarol H. sent word via Jo that Brady is at Ft. Bragg teaching special forces.
oJoy sent word that Christopher is in Hawaii awaiting orders. He signed on for 3 more years! (Thanks for your service!) He’s awaiting clearances for a job at the White House.

•NEW BUSINESS:
- Barbara received an invitation from the Sertoma club to speak about our group and its’ mission. She will be giving a 20 minute (approximately) presentation on Oct. 5.
- Leslie is arranging for a special speaker at our next meeting – Mike Gargano – who will present information about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
- Barbara announced the formation of a new committee: Veteran’s Affairs Committee to serve as a spearhead for involvement/support for activities involving veterans. Sally W. is being asked to head this committee as she is very involved with veteran matters.

•OLD BUSINESS
-Correction to the dates for the Candy Dance @ Genoa – actual dates are Sept. 29th & 30th. – We will have a table set up with an opportunity for folks to fill out postcards for Operation Postcard.
- Information was handed out at the August meeting regarding e-mail etiquette & safety and also requests to try and channel e-mails to the appropriate person/committee. This was mentioned again and was agreed that the info would be sent out again with the minutes for September. The information will follow the treasurers report.
COMMITTEE REPORTS:

oDeployment Support:
-Ana shared copies of several postcards and letters of thanks from soldiers who received the care packages from her office.oBSM to BSM Support: No report givenoBlue to Gold:
- Paula shared that she received a very nice letter from the mother of Raul Bravo (fallen soldier from Elko). - There are still 3 or 4 “old” gold star banners to present. Contact will be maintained and the banners are available if/when the family is ready/receptive to receiving it.oWelcome Committee: No report given

oOperation Postcard:
- We will need true addresses for Operation Postcard this year. Please ask your friends, at church and in your offices for addresses of Northern Nevada service persons.- Barbara made available several bundles of postcards for members to take to have filled out/signed.
- Barbara will send out information about Operation Postcard via e-mail. If you did not receive the e-mail or were unable to open access the attachments, please feel free to contact me and I will see that you get them.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned following a closing prayer offered by Leslie E.:

God bless you overseas dear lad
And gird you in your fight
Bring you safely to your home
When he has crowned the right
And give you where your campfire flames
Upon that darkened shore
A vision of that holy star
That glorifies your door

Daniel Henderson
1919

THESE NOTES WERE FORMULATED BY Suzzie, IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, CONTACT her at: TweetySuz@aol.com

. Treasurer Report:

Beginning Balance: Membership:
$1204.22
+ 10.00 New Member Dues 40 Moms
+ 395.00 Donations 2 Dads
$1609.22 1 Goldstar Mom
- 75.00 Reimbursement(593rd Homecoming) 6 Associates
$1534.22 49 Total
- 35.00 National Dues
$1499.22


E-mail Etiquette & Safety

Have you ever thought or heard yourself say, “I have too many e-mails!” It is a sentiment that most of us can relate to.

We are desperately trying to reduce the influx of e-mail to Barbara’s inbox so that she isn’t so bogged down and to speed responses to the senders. Many e-mails that she receives she then has to forward on to other chapter officers or committee members as the questions, suggestions, comments etc. fall under their area(s) of responsibility/expertise. Please review your e-mail and try to send it on to the proper committee for review. We hope to have a person to serve as a clearinghouse for e-mails when you’re not sure where to direct them. You could then send them to her or, at least, shoot her an e-mail asking where to send your info/request.

The following is only a partial list of tips to help make your e-mails safe for you to send & receive:

-Do not forward chain letters.
-If you want to forward information/poems/jokes etc. it is safer
to copy and paste the content into a new e-mail and send
it on to those whom you wish to share it with.
-Never open e-mails from senders you don’t know.
-If you don’t recognize the sender from their e-mail address
but suspect it might be legitimate e-mail, send them an
e-mail to verify identity before opening the e-mail in
question.
-Never open e-mail attachments from senders you don’t know.
-Never access a website from a link in an e-mail, especially a
website that asks for personal information.
-If you have any doubts about the authenticity of an e-mail, do
not respond to it.
-Beware of e-mails with a sense of urgency, attempting to rush
you into action (messages like “Update now or we’ll close
your account)
-Do not reply to spam.
-Do not include personal or sensitive data in an e-mail or in a
response to an e-mail.
-For unsolicited e-mails, do not go through the unsubscribe
process indicated on the e-mail. By responding, you are
verifying your e-mail address.
-Don’t forward virus hoaxes.
-If you doubt the content of a received e-mail, www.snopes.com
is a valuable resource to help check the validity of info.
-Read the mail before you send it! Maybe even save it to re-
read later before sending it. It can save some regrets
later if we send out e-mails in haste.

As mentioned before these are only a few tips to help with e-mail safety. There are many good sites you can use a search engine, such as Google, to find more security info.