As of this writing I have been in office 89 days. A lot has happened in this short period of time. So
far it has been all for the good. As you know, I have set two major priorities:
1) Recruiting
2) Lowering the cost of publishing The Graybeards, which is our major budget item.
Before I get into this message to all of you, I apologize to the folks who were in Korea with me recently.
I wanted to spend more time with you, but we were extremely busy. There really was no place for us to get
together just to talk. I want you to know that I was not ignoring you.
Let’s look at the recruiting efforts so far. I formed a recruiting sub-committee and appointed John “Sonny”
Edwards to head it under the direction of the Membership Standing Committee Chairman Tom Stevens. Sonny
is doing a bang-up job.
He has been reaching out to other organizations and working on a methodology that, after it is approved
by the board, will be distributed to the chapters and departments to aid them in their recruiting efforts.
As a result of his efforts, in the last 90 days we have seen an increase of 200 new members according to
the results shown on our website. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Sonny is continuing to find new ways
to recruit new members on a day-to-day basis. Of course, he cannot do it alone. Each of us needs to become
a recruiter. So, if you have any ideas that will help Sonny in his efforts, please contact him.
In addition to creating this new subcommittee, I have also been working personally on recruitment. The
VFW and the American Legion have more Korean War veterans on their membership rolls than we have on ours.
On 26 September, 2012, I met in Washington with the Executive Director of the National VFW to solicit his
aid in recruiting a large number of new members from his organization. I am not suggesting that people drop
out of the VFW, but that they consider belonging to both organizations. I think it is worth a try.
Also, I just returned from Korea, where I had the opportunity to meet with some people who are willing
to help us in our recruiting efforts. Most importantly, I met with Mr. John Y. Lee, who is a member of our
association, an attorney, and a native of South Korea, where he resides. I appointed Mr. Lee as our South
Korean Liaison officer to assist us in recruiting those veterans who married Korean ladies and remained
in Korea after the war. They are indeed Korean War veterans. I was surprised to learn that there is a great
number of veterans in this category. When the IRS begins to recognize the men and women who have served
on the peninsula since 1955 to now as viable association members, Mr. Lee will be of great help in our recruiting
in that area.
Incidentally, after my first President’s message in The Graybeards, I heard that it sounded like I thought
the Korean Service veterans comprised only 10% of our association, to which some folks took offense. I assure
you that I am totally dedicated to the fact that these people are eligible to join the KWVA, and we want
and need them as true members of the KWVA.
I apologize if you got that impression that I did not want more Korean Service veterans in the KWVA.
I urge all of you to contact your congressional representatives and get them to co-sponsor the bills we
have in Congress right now that expands the number of veterans we can include in the KWVA. I cannot put
enough emphasis on the importance of this action.
Now, for The Graybeards. This is a whole different set of problems. The Graybeards is costly to
publish; approximately $175,000.00 per year are budgeted for this magazine. I am working on a grant that
I hope will bear fruit in the next six months. If I am successful in this mission, the cost of The Graybeards
will be lifted from our budget and we will be in much better shape financially than we are now. Don’t get
me wrong: we are in a safe financial situation, and I don’t see any change in that in the near future.
This message, I hope, gives you some idea of what we are up to in my administration. I am also working
with the Board of Directors to move our concentrations from changing bylaws and the SPM manual to working
on things that will insure that the KWVA is in existence for generations to come.
We are a unique veterans association. We should place our attention on two things:
1) Never allow anyone to forget the people we lost or who were maimed or missing in action
2) Remember that because we are unique we should strengthen our camaraderie and spend more time on being
friends and sharing our lives with each other than in arguing about some simple rule or whatever, as
we sometimes find ourselves doing.
We are members of the best veterans organization in the United States. If all of us work together and
support our chapters, departments, and National officers, and enjoy our meetings and annual conferences
and conventions, we will even be a better association and the KWVA “WILL” exist for generations to come.
Thank you, and God bless you all.
James E. "Jim" Ferris
National President, KWVA/US