United States Submarine Veterans, Inc.
25003 SE 146th Street Issaquah, WA 98027

Minutes of the May 19, 2004 Meeting

Held at the Redmond VFW Hall, 4330 148th Avenue, Redmond, WA 98052-5152

Vice Commander Karl (Dutch) Krompholz called the meeting to order at 1905.

There were 24 members, 1 new subvet and 1 guest present.

Pledge of Allegiance was led by Erwin Schmidt and Chaplain Don Smith gave the opening prayer.

 

Tolling of the Boats: Ric Hedman led the ceremony.

Members and visitors introduced themselves, giving the boats they qualified on and their resident cities.  A prospective new member, Don Frankie (SSNB 733) introduced himself.

Base Secretary Charlie Ryan was awarded the 2003 Seattle Base Commander’s Award.

The need to update the Seattle Base web site and distribute an up-to-date membership list was discussed.

Binnacle List report: Debbie Householder is in recovery from liver surgery related to her cancer treatment; Jay Davis anticipates knee surgery and Don Smith has substantially recovered from recent ailments.


Secretary minutes were approved; Jim Harper gave the Treasurer’s Report and reported a net balance of $3,638.44 in the Base account; Bill Giese was not present to give a Storekeeper Report and Dave Goodson was not present to give a report on activities at the Cobra.

 

Membership Report: None.

 

USSVI National: National Secretary Pat Householder described a substantial USSVI dues increase for 2005, especially for Life Membership, and said the current Life Membership rate is good through all of 2004.  Seattle Base by-laws need to be amended if Seattle Base does not want to increase base dues in step with the National increase. He reported that Seattle Base had contributed $1,835 to the Charitable Foundation.  Don Gentry is the new national chief technology officer and among other initiatives will create a USSVI  Internet voting system that will save a lot of money.

 

Break at 1947 and Meeting Resumed at 2000

 

New Business and Good of the Order

 

Don Smith is selling a new submarine song CD;

 

Don Smith reported that a new state law officially makes it illegal to impersonate a veteran;

There was talk of a possible trip to visit the Canadian Navy’s Upholder submarine based in Victoria;

 

Subvets of WWII 2005 Calendar was made available for sale

 

Jan Stiffey is organizing another tailgate party for the Tacoma Rainiers on July 10; cost is $15 for ballgame and tailgating; parking is $5 more per vehicle.  Contact Jan to reserve tickets;

 

Mention was made of the July 31 Tolling of the Boats ceremony and December 18 Christmas Lunch;

 

Attendance at the May 31 Tahoma National Cemetery on Memorial Day (May 31) and the Sedro Wooley July 4th Parade, in conjunction with Subvets of WWII was discussed;

 

Pat Householder said new plastic USSVI membership cards will be issued.

 

New Business and Good of the Order

 

Don Smith led the closing prayer and the meeting was adjourned at 2045.  A 50-50 raffle and socializing followed.