Sons of the
American Revolution
September
2016
Contents
Meeting announcement
Revolution education note
Program Schedule
Vietnam Veterans Recognition
Color Guard Activity
President General Butler Visits Tampa
Chapter
Future Events of Interest
Dues Reminder
Misc. reminders and information
Meeting announcement
and notes from President Klug about meeting:
Meeting
Location - I am pleased to announce the meeting location for our September
17th, 2016 membership meeting. We have reached an agreement to meet in
the Cypress Room at Grille 116 from 11:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Grille
116 is located on North Dale Mabry Highway next to the Carrabbas Restaurant between Kennedy Boulevard and
I-275. The address and telephone number for Grille 116 are: 612 N. Dale
Mabry Hwy., Tampa, FL 33609 and 813-350-0216
The use of the Cypress Room is at no charge. Instead, we will have
to meet a food and beverage minimum of $225. Lunch is optional.
However, for those ordering lunch, we have negotiated a fixed "all
inclusive" price of $16 per person, which includes the meal, drink, tax
and gratuity. Attached is the list of menu items which will be available
for this $16 fixed price. Thus, we will meet our minimum if 15 people
order lunch.
September Program - The program will be Donald Miller speaking on his
new book Lafayette: His Extraordinary
Life and Legacy.
October Meeting - Grille 116 is not available for our
October 15th meeting, but appears to be available for the remainder of our
meeting dates this year. At the end of the September 17th meeting I will
ask the membership to voice their opinion on the meeting location and
arrangements and whether we should hold future meetings there under the same
terms. In the interim, please let me know if you have any comments or
concerns about meeting at Grille 116 for lunch and the set lunch menu.
Officer Installation - At the September meeting, we will also
discuss Officer Installation. For the
past three years we have participated in the American Legion Post #5 (Tampa)
Wreaths Across America Ceremony. In the
past there has been no conflict with our meeting schedule. However, in 2016 as well as 2017-2018, the
WAA ceremony will be on the third
Saturday of December, our usual meeting date.
We need to discuss whether to move officer installation to January and
hold our December meeting as part of the WAA Ceremony or have our officer
installation as usual in December and miss the Wreaths Across America ceremony.
New
Member/Supplemental Certificates from SAR - We recently determined that all the new
member certificates and supplemental certificates approved by National SAR over
the summer were lost in transit to the Tampa Chapter. We are not sure how far back this goes. The Florida State Secretary has been notified
and he is finding out how many are missing and how we get replacement
certificates. Hopefully we will have an
answer by our meeting date.
Prospective
Members - We
have had a number of inquiries about SAR membership over the summer. All have been forwarded to Registrar Alan
Bell or one of his assistants. They have
all been included (hopefully) to the Newsletter e-mail list and are invited to
attend this and any future meetings as we work together on their
applications. For any prospect who has
not shared his ancestry information with anyone in the Tampa Chapter, feel free
to bring it to this meeting so we can start the discussion.
Florida
Patriot Magazine electronic version - The FALL 2016 Issue of The
Florida Patriot is
ready for members and friends to read at the link (http://flssar.org/FLSSAR/Docs/PatriotMag/46-3-E.pdf) on the Florida
website.
Glenn Clepper - It is my sad duty to report that on July 15 we
lost Compatriot Glenn Clepper, at age 83. Glenn had not been a member of SAR for very
many years; however, he was a great patriot, a veteran and an active member of
the Tampa Chapter when he was able to attend meetings.
Revolution Note:
Since the 229th
anniversary of the signing of the U S Constitution falls in September, it is
the natural topic for this month’s newsletter.
One of the main reasons many people do not understand the
(big C) Constitution is they do not know what the word (small c) constitution
means. The word constitution (small c)
simply means the rules for government.
That is, it is the rule book the members of government are to
follow. When the delegates met in
During the debates over ratification of the new rule book,
the issue of the powers to be granted was hotly debated.
In my classes I use the following example to illustrate
this. It is simplistic, but it makes the
point. The baseball rule book says three
strikes and you are out. No one would
ever think of saying to an umpire “where does it say I don’t get 4 strikes?” or
5 or 6 or 7 etc. The rule book doesn’t
list how many strikes you do not get, it lists what you do get, 3.
Thus we have the confusion of many people today. Their
incorrect conclusions related to constitutional issues stem from the fact that
they do not understand the Constitution as a rule book for government that the
members of the government are to follow.
PROGRAM
SCHEDULE
Below is the tentative program schedule for the remainder
of 2016.
Sept
— Donald Miller speaking on his new book
Oct
— Law Enforcement/Fire Fighter Commendation awards
Nov.—
First Thanksgiving controversy revisited—Compatriot Bob Yarnell
Dec,
- To Be Determined
Vietnam Veterans
Recognition
Both the Tampa Chapter and the Florida Society are
Commemorative Partners in the Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the
Vietnam War. There are many and varied
recognitions of veterans who served on active duty during the Vietnam Era,
which is defined as November 1, 1955 through May 15, 1975. Any veteran serving during this time period,
regardless of where they served are eligible for recognition as part of this
Commemoration.
Florida
Society -
As part of the Fall Board of Management Meeting in October, the Florida Society
will recognize those SAR members who served in the active military during the
Vietnam Era. We have submitted nine
names from the Tampa Chapter. If you are
a current member of the SAR and an eligible veteran and you are not sure if
your name has been submitted, please see Dick Young at this meeting or contact
him by e-mail at dyoung22@aol.com.
Tampa Chapter
- A local
DAR Chapter has asked to recognize Vietnam veterans at our November meeting, as
part of their Commemoration and in conjunction with Veterans Day. Their recognition will not be limited to SAR
members. They will recognize anyone who is
able to attend our November meeting and is a veteran of that era. No proof of service is necessary. This covers members, prospective members,
spouses, other family members, friends and neighbors. The names of Tampa Chapter members will
already be available; however, for any others, please get the word to Dick
Young, to include your branch of service.
He must get this information to the DAR by the first of November.
Color Guard
Activity
On June 7, the Tampa Chapter Color Guard joined the
Clearwater DAR and met the return of the Honor Flight at the St.
Petersburg/Clearwater airport. This
flight included veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam. We were recognized in the latest issue of the
Florida DAR Magazine for joining the DAR Clearwater Chapter in this event.
The Color Guard plans to again join the Clearwater
DAR to meet the return flight on September 20.
Everyone is invited to join us.
You do not have to be in uniform to welcome these veteran guys and girls
back home from their long trip to Washington to see the WWII Monument and many
others.
Pictured below are David Bryant, David Chestnut
(St. Petersburg Chapter), Dick Young and Commander Alan Bell at the June 7
Honor Flight.
President General Butler Visits Tampa
Chapter
At our last
meetng in May, former SAR President General Judge Edward Butler visited the
Tampa Chapter to make a presentation "Without the Assistance of Spain, We
Would Still be Under the British Flag".
PG Butler based his presentation on his book Galvez: Spain - Our Forgotten Ally In The American Revolutionary
War: A Consise Summary of Spain's
Assistance. He enlightened the
Chapter with many facts and statistics related to General Galvez' leadership of
the Spanish assistance to the Colonial cause for independence. The meeting was (appropriately) held at the
Tampa Bay History Center. The Chapter
purchased two copies of PG Butler's book for presentation to the History Center
and the Hillsborough County Public Library System. After the presentation, Judge Butler and
Robin joined some of the members and guests for a relaxing lunch at the
Cloumbia Restaurant inside the History Center.
Future Events
of Interest
September 20 Honor
Flight - St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport
October 14-15 Florida
Society Fall Board of Management Meeting (new location)
(see
the www.flssar.org website)
October 22 Family
Heritage Festival - John Germany Library
November 1 Honor
Flight - St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport
November 11 Veterans
Day
December 17 Wreaths
Across America
Dues Reminder
It is that time of the year again. Dues for 2017 are payable soon. This year the total bill for dues is $80,
broken down as follows: National $35 - State $20 - Chapter $25. As always the Chapter welcomes any extra you
may want to pay as a donation to the Chapter Treasury. The Tampa Chapter is an IRS recognized
non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, therefore any donations are eligible for
deduction on your personal tax return.
Junior members (under 18 on January 1, 2017) have no dues.
Active military members do not pay Chapter dues,
but must pay National and State dues ($55)
Make your check payable to "Treasurer - Tampa
Chapter, SAR" and bring it to the September or October meeting. This will save us the time and expense of
mailing you a hard copy dues notice.
Misc. Reminders and notes:
Chapter Website— Remember you
can find information about the chapter and programs on the chapter
website. www.tampasar.org
Compatriot Kevin Yarnell is
working on an update to our webpage so you might want to check it out in a week
or so.
One of the duties of the
Chapter Chaplain is to send cards to our members that are sick and sympathy
notes to the family of a member who has passed away. If you know of anyone for
whom a card should be sent, please mention it to Chaplain Sessums or President
Klug at our next meeting.
Chapter officers and
committee chairman are encouraged to send to the editor any pertinent
information they wish included in the newsletter.
Florida Society website -
www.flssar.org
National Society website -
www.sar.org