June Meeting Reminder

Shipmates,

We want to let you know our next in-person meeting is on for Tuesday, June 14. We will meet at VFW Post #2995 (4330 148th Ave N.E., Redmond WA 98052) at 6:00PM.

Base Commander Mike has a video presentation for us that will be interesting.

We will continue with our zoomcast of the live meeting so we hope to see those of you who can’t make it on our 60 inch monitor.

Please watch your email or contact one of the base officers to get the link for the Zoom meeting (we aren't posting the link to avoid issues with unwanted guests). 

We how to see you in person or on Zoom. 

May Meeting Recap

The May meeting was a hybrid in-person/Zoom meeting with 12 members in-person and 4 on Zoom.

The meeting started off with Tolling the Boats lost in March, followed by birthday wishes for our members, the officer reports, and then introductions.

Old Business
The base float needs maintenance and upkeep including a new battery, work on the masts, and touching up the paint job. A motion was made and passed to look into obtaining of a bubble machine to add to the float. 

The Seattle Base float during parade season

New Business
Larry A reported back from The USSVI Western Region Roundup, which was held in Reno NV. He gave an update on upcoming changes to the USSVI Charitable Foundation. This will be a consolidation of the former individual fund groups including; General Fund, Scholarship Fund, Brotherhood Fund, Museum Boat Fund, Monument Fund, Kap(s) 4 Kids Fund, Library Fund, and Building Fund. It was felt that it would be better to have our member make a few larger donations, instead of spreading the donations out over many funds. The foundation will send out a letter of thanks to each of the donors, which can be used for IRS tax contributions purposes.

The Bremerton Armed Forces Day parade was on Saturday May 21, 2022 and all members were invited and the Silent Service Motorcycle Group was planning to attend.

The 2022 National Convention website is up and ready to take convention and hotel reservations. It also has additional information about area and convention events. Note that the links from the USSVI national website are not working right now. You can go directly to the convention website at: ussviconvention.org/2022/.

Ric Hedman advised that his book “A good and Favorable Wind” should be coming out some time in June.

There are still openings in our organization for a Secretary and a Chaplin.

Binnacle List
Please keep the following brothers in your thoughts and prayers:
Jerry G: Suffered a stroke a a few months ago. He is currently home and undergoing therapy.
Dave S: Currently in a second round of chemotherapy treatment.

Cabela's Event Returns

Hey Shipmates!

We have some good news. We just learned that we can display our float and get to explain submarine life to the public at Cabela’s Tulalip store (9810 Quil Ceda Blvd, Tulalip, WA 98271) next weekend - Saturday, May 21st and Sunday, May 22nd.

We'll get the same royal treatment by setting up the float at the front door. We need people on both days. Lunch will be available and it’s always a fun event.

Photo from an earlier Cablea's event

Start time is 8:00 AM on Saturday and a little later on Sunday. We should have at least 4 people each day. If you would like to help, let Steve or Mike know, or just show up. 

The float is in ok condition with the new battery installed, a little elbow grease and fussing will help. We will decorate her up, so will look great for her first public appearance of the year. 

Reminder - May Meeting

 Shipmates,

We want to let you know to mark your calendars for our next in-person meeting on Tuesday, May 10.

We will meet at VFW Post #2995 (4330 148th Ave N.E., Redmond WA 98052) in Foley Hall. The doors open at 6:30 PM and the meeting starts at 7:00 PM.

The bar and restaurant will be open topside for food and drinks.

We will be scheduling events for the summer and fall calendar.

Seattle Base float at the 2019 Tolling Ceremony

We will simulcast a Zoom meeting for those of you who cannot attend. If you plan to Zoom in, please contact us and we can forward the meeting link.

We hope to see you in person or on Zoom.

March Meeting Recap

The March Seattle Base meeting was a hybrid meeting with 10 people in attendance at the Redmond VFW Hall and 4 joining via Zoom.

The meeting started off with Tolling the Boats lost in March, followed by birthday wishes for our members, the officer reports, and then introductions.

R-14 under sail from PigBoats.com website

Ric Hedman let us know about a new book that he and Dave Johnston (partner at the PigBoats.com website) wrote entitled “A Good and Favorable Wind." The book is about the submarine R-14 which had run out fuel while at sea and the adventures of getting her back to port. The book, published by Nimble Books, will be available for purchase on May 3, 2022. We'll provide links to the book after it is available.

We discussed moving our meetings to Saturday. However, while all agreed that it was a good idea, no one volunteered to check into it. The subject was tabled till next meeting.

We talked in length about getting together to refurbish the float was discussed at length. In addition to general clean-up, we are looking into refitting the motor drive for the masts and the klaxon. We'll follow up on this at future meetings.

We are looking into attending the Kirkland 4th of July parade. We will provide updates as we get them.

We are still looking to fill the Base Chaplin and Base Secretary positions. Volunteers are needed and if you are interested, please contact one of the Base Officers or mention it at the next meeting.

Reminder - March Meeting

Shipmates,

We want to let you know to mark your calendars for an in-person meeting on Tuesday, March 8!

We will meet at VFW Post #2995 (4330 148th Ave N.E., Redmond WA 98052). Social hour starts at 6PM with business meeting at 7PM.

The meeting will also be simulcast on Zoom for those that cannot attend in person. Watch your email for a message with additional instructions.

Some of the agenda items for the March meeting are: 

• Changing our monthly meetings to Saturday
• A work party for float maintenance
• Upcoming events
• And more

We hope to see you in person or on Zoom.

January 2022 Meeting Recap

We held our January meeting via Zoom on January 13th. We had 12 members and Western District Commander Jim Demott. 

Once everybody was on board with Zoom, Base Commander Doug opened the meeting with a few comments of appreciation of keeping this organization together during this pandemic crisis.
 

A screenshot from the meeting.

The Treasurer’s Report was given by Steve S. indicating that our organization was still solvent. He also talked about the success of the Christmas luncheon. He asked the question if we should schedule next year’s Christmas luncheon with the Nile Country Club for Saturday 12-10-2022. Those in attendance voted yes, unanimously.
 

Next came the nomination of officers was discussed and after some dialog it was determined and subsequently approved by those in attendance that Mike D would be the new Base Commander, Larry A would stay as Sr. Vice Commander, Earl G. would stay as Jr. Vice Commander., Steve S. would stay as Treasurer and blog master, and that Larry A. would take over the duties of Secretary until a replacement can be recruited.
 

Jim Demott addressed the upcoming USSVI Western Region Roundup to be held in Reno, NV on April 25 thru 29, 2022. Registration info can be found on Facebook or on the website https://wrroundup.com/

Due to the time limit on the meetings for the free version of Zoom, one of our members agreed to convert his Zoom account to the pay level. This will allow us to have unlimited time for our online meeting and share screens and videos. Because of this, it has also been decided to continue the Zoom meeting access even when we return to live meetings. This will allow members to join the meeting from wherever they are using a computer, tablet, or smart phone.
 

Our next Seattle Base meeting will again be a Zoom meeting and is scheduled for February 18. We will put out more information about the meeting soon and will have a practice session scheduled ahead of time for those that need to test it out.
 

We hope to have our first in-person session of the year on March 8, 2022 at the Redmond VFW.