1/16/2012
Hello from Oklahoma. Time flies when you are having fun! It has been an eventful year for SMW. We had to say good-bye to GEN William and Linda Matz. I attended their retirement dinner at Fort Belvoir in June and in lieu of the traditional gold watch I presented a small crystal clock. We hope they are enjoying those grandchildren. However, along with the sad news of their retirement, we had good news of the arrival of GEN Jack Klimp as the new President of NAUS to fill the position. He was gracious enough to attend our Convention and was keynote speaker at our Welcome Dinner. He captured our attention and our hearts. Jack Chmielewski, the Chapter Manager for NAUS also came and gave the NAUS Workshop. Sad to say Jack left NAUS in November to be married and move to Florida. As of this writing we do not have a Chapter Manager at NAUS.
We had our convention in Las Vegas in October with a few mishaps (lost items, flowers not delivered on time, etc), but all in all we did what we went there for and had a good time. We had good speakers and the meetings ran smoothly. We are all looking forward to the next Convention/CRUISE. We will be on board the Carnival "Dream" for the Eastern Caribbean from 6-13 October 2012. We will visit Nassau, St Thomas, and St Maarten. REMINDER: Down payment must be made by 1 April 2012. The Chapter Presidents have the Registration Form and it is also on the militarywidows.org website. We can only get inside cabins or balcony cabins. We need your registration as soon as possible as they will not schedule our meeting rooms until we show a number of reservations. There can be no last minute registrations on this as they need the reservations in order to market the rest of the cabins. No last minute plans. Buy now…. there is insurance included if you get sick.
As you know we have been losing members through death, (46 I believe was the count at the Memorial Service in Las Vegas), old age and illness, so many are unable to participate any longer. Well, I have some good news for SMW. Janet Snyder is forming a new SMW Chapter in Nevada. We are still in the process of setting it up and congratulate her on her work there. We look forward to working with her and the new chapter.
I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas holiday and that you have a wonderful, healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. Make at least one New Year's Resolution AND KEEP IT.
Jessie
