Ozark Empire Chapter Newsletter

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This months words from the Chapter President - June 2026

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Once again, welcome back! As you know, we canceled our May 2026 meeting so members could attend LtCol William Pickett’s celebration of life that fell on the same day. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Cathy and the rest of Bill’s family as they navigate a new normal.

Dena Kilgore from National had been our scheduled speaker for May. Of course we notified her of our meeting cancellation. We can reschedule in the future.

Some sad news we received this past week was that Jeffrey Long passed away after a setback following a stroke a month ago. Many of you may not know that Jeff assisted our Chapter’s Treasurer in filing taxes, as well as the State Council of Chapters’ taxes. Our condolences are with Jeff’s family.

Our meeting’s focus this month is on recruitment of new members. We reached out to several hundred members of National who fall within our Chapter’s catchment area (thank you to Steve Vanderhoof who volunteered for this undertaking). Most of these people do not belong to a chapter. So we welcome you, if this is your first time attending!

We will be voting on the rewording of our Chapter Bylaws to be consistent with changes previously voted on and approved. Copies are available of these changes at the back table.

Your Board made a decision at a recent meeting to change our 50/50 contribution from Honor Flight of the Ozarks to the DAV Benevolence Fund. Dean Smith, our current Treasurer, is involved in oversight of the vetting process for this fund, and shared it is tightly controlled. There are several reasons why this seemed like a good move. The Board felt it would be important to involve the membership and take a vote on this issue. We will discuss at our September meeting and then vote.

Chuck Guy and Dean Smith have been appointed to lead a newly-formed committee established to go into long term care facilities and connect with veterans, especially those without visitors/family. Since this is very new, processes will be under development. Chuck and Dean will also offer a short presentation about progress to date.

For all who are Premium or Life members of MOAA, a free Survivor’s Planning Guide is available for download. It can be obtained at www.moaa.org.

As always, our newsletter is freely available on the chapter website: www.oemoaa.org as well as via email to all members. If anyone wishes to receive this newsletter via US Mail, please make that known to a Board Member or the Newsletter Editor, and we will be happy to accommodate.

Becky Hutchings, President