Minutes: 23 January 2021

Saturday, January 23^rd 2021

The business meeting was held at the Goshen VFW Post – 985, 1201 W. Pike St, Goshen Ind. Social distancing was maintained due to the on-going Corona Virus threat. The meeting started at 3:00 PM and the meeting was opened in due form by President K Holmes.

President K Holmes gave the opening prayer.

President K Holmes declared the business session open.  

1. Roll call of Officers: Completed by Secretary Jeff Schrock.
2. Reading of Membership Applications: None
3. Reading of the minutes: Secretary J Schrock read (emailed) the minutes from the last meeting, and asked if there were any corrections or amendments. Seeing none Treasurer A O’Toole made a motion to accept the minutes as read. E Dir S Holmes seconded the motion and the motion passed.
4. Treasurers Report: Treasurer A O’Toole reported that we have (redacted) in the bank and (redacted) in the Pay Pal account. H/R Dir J Schrock made a motion to accept the report subject to audit. E Dir S Holmes seconded the motion, and the motion passed.
5. Bills: Treasurer A O’Toole reported that there were no bills since our last meeting. H/R Dir J Schrock made a motion to accept the report. E Dir S Holmes seconded the motion, and the motion passed.

Unfinished Business: President K Holmes brought up 1) the fundraiser/benefit Dinner. The date was set to be Saturday, June 5^th 2021. This would put the dinner directly between Memorial Day and the observance of D-Day. It was thought that we could have Julia James perform soft dinner music again, and another band for dancing afterwards – TBA. The MC would be Casey Hendrick, the doors would open at 5 PM for “happy hour” and dinner would start at 6 PM. The evening would wrap up around 10 PM and the FS gang could clean up and be out by 11 PM. The colors would be Black and Gold, and the Theme would be: Remembering. The money donated would be used for helping veterans in need, such as: resume’ writing, martial arts classes and uniform issue the Toe-Bac, helping vets with the necessities of life such as previous donations of clothing, food, furniture, electric powered wheel chair, etc. The following tasks were assigned to each BoD member.

H/R Dir J Schrock: food, table linen, glasses, plates and silverware

Obtain the Hall from the VFW

Bar in the Banquet room – and bartender (Ana Schue) $125 for her

50/50 drawings (tickets and get permission from the VFW)

Volunteers, via Toby Crowley; thought 5-6 should work – free dinner each

Guest Speaker – Chaplain Jim Bontrager

E. Dir S Holmes: Merch table and merch; auction items, shot glasses, t-shirts

Schedule set-up and break-down, dates and times

Set-up Sat 10-Noon; everybody back at 3 PM to assist/complete

Break-down/clean-up 10 PM to 11 PM (Sat)

Open the hall after dinner to anybody, $5 entry donation

Open Item(s): keg(s), $150 each

President K Holmes: Do a new video as a presentation

Website and FB update/postings

Tickets & roster

 2) A change to the P.O. Box; during a lengthy discussion it was decided to not renew the P.O. Box. Costs have gone up and we so little “official” mail coming in it seemed a better option to change the mailing address to the Holmes home address. The change will appear on the website, but not be printed on the business cards, etc. President Holmes is going to look into how to “secure” the home v. business address on the internet; so, they don’t both show up for security/privacy issues. The FS forms (etc.) will note to check the website for a US Mailing address. 3) H/R Dir J Schrock noted the FS shot glasses at the VFW, how they have sold out all the sets of glasses; but singles are left. E Dir S Holmes suggested taking the singles home and making them into sets. Everybody thought this was a great idea. 4) Treasurer A O’Toole reported on the bicycle program. With the pandemic still in full effect, this project has been sidelined; but he is still working on getting bikes donated and refurbished to give to vets. Once spring/summer hits, he hopes to have the program in place!

New Business: 1) President K Holmes asked about the election of officers for the new year. President K Holmes opened each office in turn, by asking for nominations. Once all nomination(s) were made, he closed the office by rapping the gavel three (3) times. Each nominated officer accepted the nomination, below are the results of said nominations.

President:                      Kenny Holmes

V-President:                   Jeff Schrock

Treasurer:                      Adam O’Toole

H/R Dir – Secretary:      Jeff Schrock

Entertainment Dir:         Sarah Holmes

General Board Mbr:       Jan Santos

Media Coordinator:        Lauren Zeugner

Treasurer A O’Toole made a motion to case one (1) ballot for each non-contested office. E Dir S Holmes seconded the motion, and the motion passed. 2) E Dir S Holmes reported to the BoD that she had applied for a grant like she had said in the last meeting. The Community Foundation of Elkhart County via the “100 Women” group, has approved a grant for FS Inc. The final amount is unclear, but huge thanks to the “100-Women”! 3) E Dir S Holmes continued and reported that Grossnickle (Doctor’s office/company) grant application is due soon. She asked if she should make the application for FS Inc. She was asked to please do so. Last year, FS Inc received $1,000. 4) President K Holmes reported that Jim Metherd, who heads – Get Wet for a Vet approached him. Jim is part of a group that is putting together a “vet village” in Mishawaka. It’ll be for vets, but not as strict as Miller’s in South Bend. Details are pending at this point, but it will be something around eight (8) to ten (10) homes for individual vets. The square footage is unclear, but most likely around 40’ x 50’. Jim thought that we (FS Inc) would like to be involved – but we wouldn’t have much involvement other than our name. They are collecting the funds to build the homes, they are collecting the funds to furnish furniture (in whatever form) for the homes, to purchase the land, labor, etc. It was decided to invite Jim to our next FS meeting and get more information to see how we can help! On a side note, it was thought that this might be something that Toby Crowley and LCI might want to get on board with too. 5) President K Holmes brought up trademarking or copywriting FS Inc. The above is something we should consider, but we need to maintain custody of our name, logo, likeness, etc. President K Holmes will look into this further and report back at the next meeting. 6) President K Holmes then announced an idea – fielded to him by a couple friends. Jim Metherd and another gentleman in Florida (Landis) want to franchise FS Inc. Both love our principals and what we do for our local vets and want to capitalize on it for their communities. Landis wants to market our martial arts program in the Carolina’s for their vets. They asked how much it would cost to get a franchise for each of them. This is another reason (see above) to trademark/copywrite FS Inc and our Project Veteran Relief. FS Inc needs to maintain overall control the name/image/etc. to hold it to the high standard that we do. Operational controls, should match ours and again be held to the highest standards – their franchises being subservient to what could be called the “head office” or “corporate headquarters”. Any FS Inc materials; regardless of being forms, websites, social media pages, business cards and/or all/any other subsequent materials with our name/image/logo/etc would need to be approved by “corporate headquarters”. If they present our overall goal, it will do more than any fee(s) collected. It would also be suggested that as a franchise they represent FS Inc as a untied group at tournaments, meeting up with other instructors and getting help from them to help out the veteran communities and provide their own Project Veteran Relief as our own with the same goals and standards. 7) E Dir S Holmes presented a “watch cap” or “beanie” to the BoD. She suggested having numerous caps made w/the FS logo and selling them; both at the dinner and on our website. Beanies are very popular and we could sell them at a profit at around $8 each! H/R Dir J Schrock made a motion to put this together and go ahead. Treasurer A O’Toole seconded the motion, and the motion passed. 8) President K Holmes brought up changing the night of the martial arts class. E Dir S Holmes made a motion to move the night to Tuesday’s, once it starts back up for the next class. Treasurer A O’Toole seconded the motion, and the motion passed. President K Holmes will update the website and FB page(s), and do a press release too.

Good of the Order:  H/R Dir J Schrock reported 1) that he had been contacted by Toby Crowley and Ed. They wanted to get in contact with a local vet who needed help. It was thought that medical bills, etc would be what they were looking for. Not necessarily to pay rent, car payment, etc. H/R Dir J Schrock knew of a local Army reservist who was in desperate need with medical bills. His info was given to them; but was asked if there were any more local vets in need. H/R Dir J Schrock gave this info to the BoD and asked to look around for another needy candidate. 2) President K Holmes brought up documenting the vets we help. In the past, we just helped them out and reported it at the next FS meeting. We need to do a better job of documentation. When K Holmes and J Schrock bought and delivered furniture for some vets in Mishawaka, no photos or reports/documentation was done. The motorized wheelchair, again, no documentation or photos were done by them. President K Holmes reported that we really need to document these actions/donations. H/R Dir J Schrock suggested making a folder on someone’s computer with another folder/file inside for each donation that FS performs. He is willing to maintain the folder, if people put the documentation together and send it to him. 3) 2021 Calendar

Jan – 23 Jan, VFW, 3 PM                  Jul – 19 Jul, 7 PM, VFW

Feb – 20 Feb, 3 PM, VFW                   Aug – 21 Aug, 3 PM, VFW

Mar – 20 Mar, 3 PM, Adam’s FD       Sep – 25 Sep, 3 PM, VFW

Apr – 17 Apr, 3 PM, VFW                   Oct – 23 Oct, 3 PM, VFW

May – 22 May, 3 PM, VFW                 Nov – 13 Nov, 3 PM, VFW

Jun – 26 Jun, 3 PM, VFW                  Dec – 18 Dec, TBA, Heinie’s

Next Meeting: See above

President J Holmes asked if there was any further business. Seeing none, H/R Dir J Schrock made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Treasurer A O’Toole seconded the motion. The motion passed.

President K Holmes gave the closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned.

J Schrock

Secretary