Dear Veterans For Peace,
It has been two months since we concluded our first ever online convention and business meeting, and the Board of Directors wanted to give our membership an update on the status of Veterans For Peace with a lot to be grateful for: stabilizing finances and fundraising plan, increasing membership, new working groups and Be The Change book club, update on member misconduct and code of conduct, and 2020 ballots are in the mail!
First of all, thank you to all of our members who have donated money, time, and energy to Veterans For Peace. Although we were not confident about our financial situation at the beginning of this year, your kind donations and a very profitable online convention have stabilized our financial status. We have also been on a campaign to increase our monthly sustainable donations to cover our monthly operating expenses, and we encourage members and thank them for stepping up to be monthly sustaining donors. Patrick McCann has stepped up as our Board of Directors’ Treasurer for the remainder of his final year on the Board, and the Board of Directors is working with Hazel Diaz, our Resource Development Director, to solidify the Board’s fundraising role.
In other great news, our membership roles are once again increasing - particularly among post-9/11 Veterans. This is a truly encouraging sign, as younger generations are stepping forward to ensure that the important work of Veterans For Peace continues for as long as is needed to achieve our mission and goals of peace.
Following the convention a number of working groups started, to include a working group on China and another on Climate Change. For more information on these and other working groups and ways to get involved, please visit our webpage. Another outcome from the convention was the establishment of a VFP book club, Be The Change. The first book that we are reading is White Fragility by Robin Diangelo, a book that was recommended to members during the convention workshop, Veterans For Black Lives Matter. As part of the book club, members meet every other week to discuss chapters and how the reading has impacted us. We will be continuing to discuss White Fragility through the beginning of November. If you would like to join the book club for future books, please submit your request to join the group here. If members are unable to attend the book club meeting, it is still possible to participate. We are following a study guide that can be found online here (reading guide will automatically download). Please feel free to read the book and follow the guide at your own pace. We are working on setting up an online discussion board to help increase avenues of participation.
As many of you are aware, the Board of Directors has also been involved in investigating instances of member misconduct by Tarak Kauff over the past three years. Some members who had concerns about this process had submitted a resolution to censure the Board of Directors, but during our convention these members agreed to withdraw that resolution and instead asked the Board of Directors to censure Tarak Kauff for conduct unbecoming a member of VFP. The Board of Directors and Tarak Kauff agreed to this compromise, and Tarak has been reinstated as a member of VFP, with agreed upon provisions to maintain his membership. The Board of Directors thanks everyone who worked to make this compromise possible, in the interest of promoting a healthy environment within our organization in support of our important work. The Board is also working hard to improve our policies and procedures in VFP to make them more transparent and easy to access. Please check out VFP’s Policy and Procedures Handbook and Code of Conduct for information about how we can all support each other in a more mindful and caring way. As part of this process the Board is discussing an update to our Membership Committee, that would involve forming a Code of Conduct committee, that will be specifically tasked with supporting a healthy environment within VFP as well as investigating instances of misconduct, allowing the Membership and Chapter Development Committee to focus on supporting our members and chapters in getting the work done. We will keep everyone up to date on this process as it unfolds.
This week our members should begin receiving ballots in the mail to participate in this year’s election - so keep an eye out for yours and make sure it is postmarked before November 30th. We also hope to ensure VFP has an online voting system set up for 2021. With the success of our Zoom Convention, and the ease of members voting online during the convention, we might be able to bring our voting process back into our annual business meeting with full participation possible by all members. Now that we have to embrace online technology, and with Yahoo Groups going away, we will also be looking into alternative communication platforms so that our members can share ideas with one another. There is a great likelihood that next year’s convention will be held online, as COVID is not expected to calm down before we have to make a decision about our convention plans.
We will keep you updated on these and other important matters that are all part of our responsibilities as a Board of Directors to support the functioning of our organization in support of our members, chapters, and staff in helping to bring peace in our lifetimes. This has been a challenging year, but as always, our members are finding ways to rise to the challenge. We always encourage members to join our board committees, in the interest of transparency and involving our membership. If you would like to participate in a committee, please contact the President of the Board of Directors, Adrienne Kinne.
Peace,
Adrienne Kinne
on behalf of
The VFP Board of Directors