Veterans Employment Committee Of San Mateo County Inc.

Business Meeting Minutes: 09/17/07

Held at the PeninsulaWorks San Carlos Facility, Winter Conference Room

 Recorder: Rose Sutton

Meeting called to order:  3:47 P.M. Helen Wong led Pledge of allegiance and welcome.  Roll called.

Roll call of officers:

Chairperson                                         Sheryl Shaffer         Excused           AMVETS Post 34

1^st Vice Chair/Treasure                       Helen Wong                Present             AMVETS

2^nd Vice Chair/Correspondence           Phil Kurokawa             Excused           AM LEG

3^rd Vice Chair/Special Projects            Joseph Cody                Excused            World of Veterans

Recorder                                             Rose Sutton                Present             Next Step Center

Others:

            Frank Sherr                         Excused                     AMVETS Post 53

            Michael Taylor                    Excused                      EDD  San Carlos

            Jim Kenney                         Present                       SMC Vets Ser Officer

            Col. Nick Itsines                  Present                       AMVET Post 53

            Lucio Vera                          Present                       EDD San Carlos

Minutes of last meeting:  approved with no corrections.

Correspondence:  Helen Wong shared general correspondence including the announcement of a Tax Seminar for non profits. 

EDD:  Lucio Vera shared information regarding the expanded area to be served by the veteran representative, which includes San Francisco.  The state is in process of assigning an additional representative to the San Carlos office.

Secretary/Treasurer Report:  Copies of financial status was provided by Helen Wong.   

Next Step Center: Rose Sutton updated the group on the status of current grants and informed the group that the number of Iraq Veterans who have sought services at Next Step Center has slowly begun to increase.

The non profit, Swords to Plow Shares is the featured guest for September’s T.V. Show, “Veterans Helping Veterans”.  The focus will be on the agency’s planned events for November and a new source of funding received, to provide services to Operation Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans.  The new feature spot, “Job Announcements” is going well and there has been positive feed back from viewers.

World of Vets Report:  Excused absence.

County Veterans Service Officers Report:  Jim Kenney shared county plans to hire additional staff / veterans service officers.  Additional staff will support the county’s goal to reduce the wait time for case completion and support plans for outreaching.  The county will possibly hire three additional benefits analyst by November 2007.  Jim will be moving his current office location to 400 Harbor Blvd. in Belmont (San Mateo County Services buildings).   

             Discussion: 

·         Col. Nick Itsimes shared the passing of a bill by congress that allows veterans out of uniform to salute the American flag 

·         A process to minimize mailing expenses was discussed.

·         The necessity of  determining a new second signature on checks.

Next Meeting:

Tentatively (due to Thanksgiving holiday) the next meeting will be on November 5, 2007, at 3:30 P.M.  Planned location is Peninsula Works, 550 Quarry Road, Winter Room, San Carlos.  Meeting Adjourned:  4:30 P.M.

We would like to hear your preference for receiving Veterans Employment Committee meeting updates.  Please direct an email to rsutton@vietvets.org with an instruction to continue to mail to you via U.S. Postal Service or to send the updates to your email box.  

BUGLE CALL:  Volume 15, Issue 4                                                                  

                 P.O. Box 25540

           San Mateo, CA 94402                                                             www.vecsamnet.org