Tampa Chapter

Sons of the American Revolution

Meeting Notice, September 2008

Compatriot,

It is time to begin our chapter meetings for 2008-2009. The next meeting of the Tampa Chapter will be held this Saturday, September 20^h 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 Vice President, Bob Yarnell, has secured a speaker for the meeting and assures me it will be an excellent program. We hope to see you this Saturday to hear of your summer adventures.

Please remember that guests are always welcome. Even if you haven’t finished up your application for membership you are most welcome to join us for the meeting.

Regards,

Kevin Yarnell

Secretary, Tampa Chapter

FLSSAR Summer State Meeting

As you may know our secretary also serves as the secretary for the Florida Society. He has extra copies of the reports submitted by the various state committees for that meeting and will have them available on Saturday for those who are interested.

New Members

Thanks to the efforts of our Registrar, Luke Lloyd, we hope to induct three new members at this meeting. Join us in welcoming Paul Christian, Robert Koehler, and Ralph Lloyd to our chapter. We also have a small, but well deserved, surprise for Luke.

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 May 17, 2008 meeting of the Tampa Chapter SAR

President Bell called the meeting to order at 12:01. The secretary offered the invocation. Bob Yarnell led the pledge to the flag and the president led the pledge to the SAR.

Members present:: Cy Gamber, Marty Miller, DeVaux McClain, Walter Lane, Alan Bell, Robert Yarnell, and Kevin Yarnell.

Welcome guests: Scott Aikens- member of SAR in North Carolina, Jane Lane, Carol and Allyson Bowers.

The guests were introduced by various members.

The minutes of the April meeting were approved with a correction emailed to the secretary by John Skillman.

The secretary passed on greetings from several members who were unable to attend and noted that Richard Hardesty would be 75 next week. At the state meeting the chapter was recognized on three occasions. First, our poster entry won third place in the state contest. We picked up a yellow honorable mention ribbon in the Chapter Challenge Contest and in a bit of a surprise, for the second year in a row, we won first prize in the State Newsletter contest. It turns out the judging was based on our fall issues and so Ken Skillman’s fine work was rewarded again. The honor came with a $100 prize which has been deposited in the chapter treasury.

The treasurer reported a balance of $2,592.94

Luke Lloyd sent word that a new membership application was forwarded on to the state registrar.

Different members gave brief reports on their ROTC presentations. The secretary thanked the members that went out to the schools to make presentations of our members. Dwight Tetrick sent a note giving the details of his work with the senior ROTC units and thanking the chapter for allowing him the opportunity to do this work. Bob Yarnell is compiling a small database regarding the different presentations.

Allen Bell reported that the Color Guard will be participating in the July 4^th parade in Lutz.

Under new business the secretary brought up the issue of name tags for the members. After some discuss of the possible options DeVaux McClain moved that the chapter provide the members with nametags purchased from the National Society. Marty Miller seconded the motion which passed.

The meeting recessed for lunch.

Following lunch the President introduced Vice President Bob Yarnell who, in turn, introduced our speaker Allyson Bowers. Allyson is currently a student at FSU. She shared with the members aspects of education in Colonial times. In the southern colonies education was primarily private consisting of tutors or other home instruction. Education was more organized in the north. In Massachusetts, for example, towns with populations over 100 were required by law to provide a public school. Public and private education was for boys only. In addition, wealth mattered as poorer families needed the boys to work on the farm. Thus, in reality, only the boys of more prosperous families had access to formal education.

A typical school day was longer than we have currently running from 8 in the morning until dark with a break for lunch. The main subjects studied in grammar school centered on languages. The students learned Latin grammar and translation. This knowledge was used when their studies moved to classics written in Latin. Once the student mastered Latin he moved on to Greek. Other subjects, math for example, were also taught but still had a classical base.

The next step in a student’s education was university. Universities taught no trades and so were mainly for clergy and statesmen. Trades were learned primarily through apprenticeships. University education too had a classic base and involved the use of the Latin and Greek learned in grammar school. Many of the founding fathers attended university and clearly thought this was a good thing as they subsequently then sent their sons to the same or similar institutions.

Allison pointed out that the education received by the founders clearly influenced their thoughts and decisions especially with regard to the framing of their government.

Allison fielded a number of questions from the members.

Kevin Yarnell won the 50/50 drawing and donated the winnings to the treasury which was thus enriched by $10.00.

President Bell led the recessional. The secretary gave the benediction. The meeting adjourned at 1:10 pm.