Tampa Chapter

Sons of the American Revolution

Meeting Notice, May 2008

 

Compatriot,

 

            The next meeting of the Tampa Chapter will be held on May 17th in the private meeting room of the Piccadilly Cafeteria, located at 11810 Dale Mabry Highway North, Tampa, Florida (813-963-1660). Meetings begin at noon but members arrive as early as 11:30 for a time of camaraderie.

Our May speaker will present a program on Colonial education. It promises to be an excellent program and we hope to see you this Saturday.

 

Regards,

 

Kevin Yarnell

Secretary, Tampa Chapter

 

Upcoming Meetings

            As you may recall we do not meet in June, July, and August. We trust you’ll have a nice summer and look forward to seeing you on September 20th when our meetings resume.

 

Poster Contest

For the first time the Tampa Chapter sponsored a local Poster Contest for 4th and 5th graders. Luke Lloyd was able to secure the cooperation of a private, Christian school in his area and this netted us 17 entries. Luke, Jack Bolen, and their wives judge the entries. We had hoped to present the first through third place awards at our May meeting but the students are engaged in another activity. Jack has agreed to attend an awards ceremony at their school and make the presentation there on our behalf.

 

In addition, our winning poster placed 3rd in the State Contest held May 2nd. So our winner earns an additional $50 prize, certificate, and ribbon from the Florida Society.

 

FLSSAR State Meeting

The Tampa Chapter received a few accolades at the recent Board of Management Meeting. At the annual awards banquet we picked up a yellow streamer for our work in the Chapter Challenge Contest and the prize for best newsletter for the 2nd year running. With regard to the latter the award was for the newsletters Ken Skillman published in the fall. He did a great job and we’re grateful for the honor he gained for the Tampa Chapter.

 

ROTC and JROTC Update!

Thanks to the members that helped us with all aspects of our ROTC program. Our April luncheon meeting was a great success in large part to the willingness of the members to mingle with the cadets (and pay for their lunches!). Several men have attended ceremonies at the local high schools to present our award – Jack Bolen has been particularly busy in this regard- and Dwight Tetrick handled the Senior ROTC units (colleges and universities) in his usual, efficient manner. You can view pictures of the presentations at the local universities at our website www.patriot-web.com. Click on the link in the ROTC article on the home page.

 

Please accept my personal thanks for all this help. It doesn’t take much to send out some letters and emails and coordinate dates, but all the other work is clearly beyond the scope of any individual. This is our 9th year of hosting the luncheon and presenting medals and one of our best so far thanks to the combined efforts.  Kevin

 

Our Website

Remember that you can always read the minutes of the last meeting and get other current information on the Tampa Chapter by going to our website: www.patriot-web.com.

 

Minutes of the April 19, 2008 meeting of the Tampa Chapter SAR

 

President Bell called the meeting to order at 12:03. Chaplain Lloyd offered the invocation. Cadet Alex Robbins led the pledge to the flag and the president led the pledge to the SAR.

 

Members present: John Sessums, Marty Miller, Jack Bolen, Luke Lloyd, Alan Bell, Robert Yarnell, and Kevin Yarnell.

Welcome guests:  Scott Aikens- member of SAR in North Carolina, June Bolen, Jeanne Lloyd, Eight JROTC cadets and their guests. Total in attendance was approximately 37.

 

Members’ wives were introduced and the cadets introduced themselves and their guests.

 

The minutes of the March meeting were approved with a correction emailed to the secretary by Ed Neugaard.

 

The secretary had no report. Treasurer reported a balance of $2,527.46

 

Luke Lloyd gave a brief report on his work as registrar. Cy Gamber’s supplemental has been approved and will be available for presentation at the May meeting.

 

Allen Bell reported that the Color Guard has been approved to participate in the July 4th parade in Lutz and is looking into participating in the larger parade in Brandon instead. We may ride rather than walk the route.

 

Luke Lloyd gave a report on the results of the poster contest. There were 17 entries. Luke explained the rules of the poster contest and gave a brief background on how the winners were determined. The three winners will be invited to the May meeting to receive their awards. The winning poster will be taken to the next Florida Society meeting in May by Compatriot Yarnell for entry into the state contest.

 

The meeting recessed for lunch.

 

Following lunch the President reconvened the membership and introduced the secretary Kevin Yarnell who gave a presentation entitled “Communication: A Look Through Time”.

 

Compatriot Yarnell devoted the first section of the presentation to communication at the time of the American Revolution. The separation from England was only possible when enough people were able to share in the ideas of the Revolution and the people, despite their extremely diverse backgrounds, had formed a new “American” identity.

 

The distances involved in communicating with England and other colonies presented a significant obstacle. But by the time of the Revolution printing in the form of newspapers, pamphlets, handbills, and the like was widespread and this medium probably did more to spread the ideals of the cause than any other. As an example Thomas Paines’ “Common Sense” sold 500,000 copies in the first year- a fantastic number for the times.

 

Communication in the 1800’s improved due to railroad and telegraphs. Every improvement simply made it easier and quicker to spread information.

 

The telephone was the next innovation discussed. This allowed for two stories directed at the cadets in attendance. The first illustrated the value of taking education seriously. The second, hopefully, allowed the cadets to better appreciate the technological wonder that is their cell phone.

 

The presentation concluded with a look at modern communications. In short we are able to communicate with a world wide audience almost instantly and the Internet makes it possible to find a truly enormous amount of information. While all of this can lead to greater communication among individuals and classes of people it can just as easily be little more than electronic babble. With this in mind, Compatriot Yarnell closed by asking how our ancestors might view modern communication. The founding fathers were men of ideas; had a focus; and spent time on their communication. Perhaps we might learn from this and lift ourselves above the overwhelming amount of information we access to look at the larger picture and thus form the key concepts and ideas needed to guide our lives and society. Then, as our ancestors did, we need to make the best use of the communication technology available to accomplish that task.

 

Following the presentation President Bell presented each cadet with their medal and framed certificate.

            James Thomas, Bloomingdale High School

            Adrian Alvarado, Hillsborough High School

            Ronald Shamblen, Alonzo High School

            Patrick Henderson, Brandon High School

            Davy Rodriguez, Freedom High School

            Christian Burgos, Wharton High School

            Alexander Robbins, Middleton High School

 

We also honored Cadet Richard Colhouer from Hillsborough High School who is the Tampa Chapter candidate for the “Best of the Best” JROTC contest. Richard has strong credentials and wrote a very nice essay. We’ll find out in May if he was successful at the state contest.

 

Jeanne Lloyd won the 50/50 drawing and donated her winnings to the treasury which was thus enriched by $28.00.

 

President Bell led the recessional. Chaplain Lloyd gave the benediction. The meeting adjourned at 1:35 pm.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Kevin Yarnell

Chapter Secretary