March 17, 2006

Members, Friends and Veterans—

This article being published on the website today, was prepared for the election issue of The Graybeards (March-April). In this issue you will find information concerning of all the candidates and a ballot. Please be careful to mark and mail the ballot exactly as instructed. Votes should not be wasted because of errors.

At the present time the KWVA has an exceptional system allowing as many people as qualified to run for office and as many people as possible to vote. If you are an eligible voting member, reading this article, you will have a ballot inserted in your magazine. Mark it and mail it in. It will be collected and tabulated by an impartial professional bonded outside CPA. The CPA must receive the ballots prior to midnight, June 10, 2006, to be counted.

The mechanics of the election are fairly easy to carry out. Other things are not as easy.

This past week I received an angry email from a good member. He said, among other things, that his chapter commander had taken it upon himself to tell everyone who to vote for. The member was very angry, wanting to “take the jerk out to the woodshed!” In exasperation he asked if there was going to be a ballot in The Graybeards.

The member’s remarks struck a responsive chord in my spirit as I was surveying much of the unprincipled partisan drivel that is passed around about the KWVA election—and the US election, for that matter. Men have died to preserve the vote; men and women are dying in IRAQ and AFGHANISTAN today to extend the vote, to extend freedom. Anyway, I offer my response to the member as appropriate for an election edition of our magazine.

Dear- - - - - -

Thank you for your concerned email. I do not know any of the personalities involved in your chapter so I am naturally neutral with respect to each and every one of your members. Perhaps after I got to meet each one of you on an individual basis I might feel differently!

- - - - -, within our organization we have a lot of different personalities all of whom have different “say-sos” – in my opinion all members have to be afforded equal time to voice their opinions, even those we may not necessarily agree with. That is the fair way to go. Yet, it is incumbent on a leader to use discretion when it comes to trying to influence a particular position or goal and meet his assigned Mission.

Sometimes, as individuals, we get very hot in our opinions and causes. As an organization, we were forced to do just that in the 2002 election, I believe, when the President of the organization ignored his Judge Advocate, and against the majority vote of the Executive Council became a candidate for an illegal third consecutive term in clear violation of the Bylaws.

His election followed and the woeful inaction and failure by his Executive Council and the membership to subsequently remedy the illegal 2002 election procedure as null and void, led, unfortunately, to many bad effects which linger today, resulting in an erosion of civility between our members.

Because we are an aging membership, for the most part, we are confronted with many physiological problems as well. Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s both cause people to become increasingly combative and argumentative, the older we get. Senility and dementia may do so as well, to lesser degrees. Scientists tell us that all males will manifest more and more of these effects of aging the longer we live.

This, however, does not excuse leaders at all levels of our organization, from doing their utmost to act as leaders should. Robert's Rules of Order, mandated by our Bylaws, protects the rights of both the majority and the minority in any democratic assembly www.rulesonline.com. When these Rules or the Bylaws are violated, members can lodge an official signed complaint with the Chairman of the KWVA Ethics and Grievance Committee.

All members are expected to conduct everything that they do for the good of the Order. If they do not do so they should be challenged to “get themselves in Order.”

As I said, I can understand your frustration. I get a lot of what you are experiencing, every day. I notice that you were a “Cottonbaler;” I’ve never met one who couldn't handle the situation, so I know that you will do so as well.

Answering your initial question, yes, the prescribed Official Ballot will be in the March-April Issue of The Graybeards, exactly as provided for in the Bylaws. By the way, a copy of the Bylaws was provided to every member by an insertion in the November-December 2005 Issue of The Graybeards. A copy of the Annual Report was provided to every member in the January-February 2006 Issue.

Thank you, and good luck. - - - - - - - - -


Louis T. Dechert
KWVA National President