UVLC Minutes of Wednesday, October 7, 2009

• Call to order – 09:30
• Invocation – Chaplain Thompson
• Pledge of Allegiance – Howard Wilson
• Recognition of visitors and guests and Commander’s of VSO’s
• Reports from: Chairman, Jerry Kyser- Vice Chairman Ralph Donais

1. State Agencies and MN Veteran Assistance Organizations

MN Dept of Veteran Affairs – Deputy Commissioner – Mike Pugliese or other Staff

MN Veterans 2009 Legislative Info – Information Officer – Shara Graves

MN Military Affairs – COL Eric Ahlness – Col Ahlness gave members a brief on where all of the units are currently deployed and where they are going in the coming year. It looks like the biggest or largest deployment is still to come. 30,000 man days were accumulated in support around the state this last year.

MN Assistance Council for Veterans (MACV)- Jimmy Collier (Regional Director) – HPRP funding for St. Paul which will be worked out with the Ramsey county VSO (Rentals only). Also HPRP funding was received for Duluth and Mankato from the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO). Kathy Vitalis attended a conference of the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless in Minneapolis. Comedy show was a success and planning has begun for next years show. Annual Holiday party will be held at Bldg 47 on the 4th of December, invitations will be out in a weed or so.

MN Veterans Initiatives Center and Research Institute (VICTRI) – Jimmy Lee Colter,
Chairman of the Board – November 18th work shop being sponsored for business opportunities for veteran owned. 840 Westminster Ave in St. Paul is the location of work shop. Victri.org web site will give details. Jimmy attended Farm Aide and was impressed with programs that were presented.

Air Guard Museum – Things are moving forward on new location on the northwest side of the airport. The Air Museum will be an education facility with programs for school children as well as adults. They hoping to break ground soon with opening coming within nine months. Project is a 2.5 million dollar and sponsors are welcome to help with the funding. Google Minnesota Air National Guard to find the web site. Kyser attended the U of M Vets Tribute Wall Ceremony at the new stadium. The UVLC is displayed in bronze at the wall. POW/MIA will follow the next week. UMN ROTC will continue the program. Thanks goes out to the UVLC members who made this happen.
Honor Fight update – One hundred one (101) WWII Vets, one Terminally Ill WWII and One Terminally Ill Vietnam Vet are leaving Sat, Nov 7 at 0630 on Sun Country A/L. They will be up for 22 hours on their Wash DC Flight and loving every hour of it. Thanks again for the $1000 for this very worthy program.

2. Federal Agencies

VA Regional Office – Peter Panos, Hired over one hundred new hires in the past several month. 41% of workers at the DVA are veterans. Chapter 33 GI Bill had over 289,000 applicants which, jammed up the system. The VA made arrangement to get a check for $3,000.00 for any veteran who has applied for the program, but has not received any funds. Check is issued at the VA office. The funds will come out of their entitlements once they start receiving their checks. A special thanks goes out to the Mpls VA hospital for their quick response to make transportation available.

VISN 23 –Cynthia Breyfogle, Deputy Director –(Handout) William Schoenhard was named Deputy Under Secretary for Health and Management for the VA. Steve Julius M.D. is the new Chief Medical Officer for VISN23. Be aware of scammers trying to get information from you by impersonating VA representatives.

Mpls VA Medical Center – Steve Kleinglass, Director – Flu shot clinic is open daily. 28,000 shots have been given out already. State control tests on H1N1 it is not done at the A hospitals. CBOC clinic is going threw the process by everyone involved. CAT eight veterans still have to go threw the MEAS test to be eligible.

St Cloud VA Medical Center – Rose Blesener Administration Director- Check with your local CBOC or St. cloud for dates and times. On Monday there was a ribbon cutting ceremony in Alexandria for the grand opening of the new CBOC there. Disabled deer hunt was held on the 6/7th of October at Camp Ripley. New elevators are being installed
at the medical center. Three new surgery rooms being constructed for day surgery, which should be open for use by next spring. Second floor of building one is being remodeled for surgical support space. New SPD will be constructed this fall and a new ugent care clinic is also under construction. Up grading of Physical Therapy rooms will start this fall (National Contracted). Geo Thermal heating and a Wind Turbine are under a national contract. Brainerd CBOC relocated to a new space in June 2009. Staffing is up over the last year, but more are needed to keep up with growth. Deer hunt at Ripley went well this past week. Visitors from Norway will be coming to St. Cloud.
New Brighton Vets Center – Brooklyn Center will have a new center soon. Vet Center has a van that allows for their outreach program.

Fort Snelling Cemetery – Art Smith – Director – Total interments for September 377, WWII 114 Korea 46 Viet Nam 51 OG 0 Active duty 1 Dependents 156. Total interments FYTD to date 4,279, Total 187,336 at the cemetery. Cremation rate will extend space at the cemetery. 2048 is the current projection for the cemetery use.

Vets Employment Center (VETS) – Jodi Bean – FY09 35 cases were reviewed with 25 cases being closed. Process takes about two months to complete. Four cases had merit with several cases being transferred to other regions and one case had no merit. Many don not understand what the USERRA covers. Eleven Veteran’s preference case were
reviewed with none of them having merit. VETS will be at the Women’s Veteran Summit will be held on the 16th and 17th of October. Fliers were given out.

3. Federal Congressional Senators and Representatives
Senator Amy Klobuchar –Greg Swanholm – Past August hosted a veteran’s GI Bill summit. Attended grand opening of the Alexandria CBOC and is working with Representative Peterson to have the clinic named in honor of Sgt Max Bielke. The Senator is continuing working on Veteran’s benefits. The office has worked on around 600 cases in the last month. Senator Al Franken – Nicole Ly – No Show

7th District Representative – Collin Peterson- Al Loehr – Thanks to Senator Franken and Representative Walz for attending a meeting at the St. Cloud VMAC. CBOC at Alexandria opening was a well attended event. Representative Peterson and Senator Kobuchar have introduced bills to name the clinic after Sgt Max Bielke.

1st District Representative –Tim Walz – John Pierce – Representative Walz has a bill to include Reserves for VA purposes. Reserves who served for twenty years or more that were never called up to active duty will be considered the same as active duty retirees. Congressman is having an Afghanistan town hall meeting in Winona.

2nd District Representative – John Kline – Chaz Johnson – National Defense Bill will be coming out this week. Cases being referred to the Regional VA office has been working well and the VA is doing a great job.

3rd District Representative –Erik Paulsen – John-Paul Yates – Academy night was held last week. Thanks to Margaret Cavenah for her great program. Special thanks Congresswoman Betty McCollum for her office’s help. Thirty five applicants attended. Congressmen attend 934 return ceremony and thanked unit for their service. Bill in work to give any currently deployed service member or a member who was deployed in the past year to take advantage of the first home buyers program.

4th District Representative– Betty McCollum- Connie Haddeland – HR3590 will extend to take advantage of first time home buyers is being discussed on the floor. Also bills to take care of the VA. Bill for better physical exams prior to discharge from military.

5th District Representative –Keith Ellison – Mike Siebenaler – No Show

6th District Representative- Michele Bachmann – Tara Westby – Veteran Health Care Reform bill is supposed to be out today. Several academy nights were held in the congresswoman’s district. CBOC in Elk River area is still under discussion with no date set for announcement of award.

8th District Representative – James Oberstar – Melisa Jabas – Congressman attend 128th Civil Engineers from Duluth ceremony for upcoming deployment. 90 members are being deployed. CBOC in Hibbing next month. Also will be looking at and working on Defense Bill.

4. Announcements –

Representative who represent organizations at our meeting need to understand what their organizational representative have to do at our meetings. The issues presented at our meeting are voted on and the majority rules. If an organization doesn’t agree that is their right, but we have to present legislative issues that the majority voted on. Information will be mailed out to the each organization that describes the responsibility. TREA has a scholarships available. Go to trea.org for details

5. Meeting in Recess for 10 minutes

6. Old Business –

Treasures report – $3,846.50 only one outstanding dues. Honor Flight $1,00.00, CVSO Conference $123.00/food & one night stay.

General business – Nomating Committee Chairman Ralph Donais, 1st Vice Jerry Kyser
Secretary: No one at this time. Discussion was held to have a transcriber hired type our minutes. Motion to hire a transcriber by Tom Shaw, second by Lawrence Dean. Motion carried. A job description will need to be address. Secretary will monitor transcriber’s work. Julie Jenson will attempt to check on a transcriber. Discussion held on nomination for Secretary.

7. New Business –

Election will be held at the January meetin. Veteran’s Day on the Hill date to be presented at next meeting.
Adjournment/ Next Meeting 9:30 AM – Wed, NOV 4, 2009 Building 9 Auditorium
Mpls Medical Center Campus, Mpls, MN

There were 51 People in attendance.