The Alexander Hodge Chapter #49 Business Meeting was held August 29 th at 1:00 P.M. at the Spring Creek Barbeque located, at 4895 Highway 6, Missouri City, TX. Carl Hill President called the meeting to order.
Attending the Business meeting was Carl Hill (President), Steve Barber (Secretary), Don Rollins (Sgt of Arms, Phil Whitley (Chaplain), Jim Penny (Webmaster), Lovell Aldrich and Kevin Buford (Prospective New Member.
Additional Secretary Report: Two existing SAR members are requesting transfers into the Alexander Hodge Chapter.
Mr. Lyndon Alex Smith, from the SAR Paul Carrington Chapter, #167193. Alex has requested to have his membership transferred to the Alexander Hodge Chapter N0. 49. Alex is the son of our chapter member
Lyndon Smith National #204715. That on-line transfer request has been submitted to the State SAR. In State transfers are quite simple to complete with a short online form to complete.
Out of State transfers are a whole different ball game.
Robert Walzel- National #218804- Has moved from Lawrence, Kansas. Bob was a member of the Charles Robinson Chapter of the SAR in Kansas. He was requested to transfer to the Alexander Hodge Chapter. The State Secretary of Kansas has requested the NSSSAR Transfer form be submitted for this transfer. The form has been given to Bob to submit to the State of Kansas SAR office, which will then be submitted to the State of Texas SAR Secretary to verify his membership is in good standing. That completed certification is then sent to NSSAR to complete the transfer.
New Contact Information:
Robert Walzel
2906 Wild Olive Way
Richmond, TX 77469
phone#: (801) 209-5025
email: robert.walzel@gmail.com
Bob has been invited to attend the Alexander Hodge Chapter meeting while this transfer is being completed.
Presidents report on unpaid membership dues. Originally 13 members were reported not paying their dues for 2023. Either an E-mail or Text was sent out to those members by the secretary of Alexander Hodge Chapter. Of the fourteen, one member was deceased (Leonard J. Williams,) and one member transferred to the Paul Carrington Chapter (Christopher Herewitz.) Of the 11 others, two now live out of State, five no longer live in the Houston area and one (John Hensley Jr. contact information was no longer effective. Lovell Aldrich volunteered to try and follow up on those 10 members that have not paid.
The secretary will provide the list of those 10 members.
Carl Hill reported that SAR dues will be going for 2024 from $35.00 annually to $50.00. New application fees will be going from $190 to $210.00 for each new application. It was noted notices for the dues will come out from the State SAR office,
Treasury reported $9,436.45 on account with now only one outstanding scholarship check for $500.00 outstanding. We are still waiting for a $329.00 reimbursement from the State SAR for 17 metals and certificates awarded this last school year to JROTC members. State is asking for a proof receipt, but the metals were not initially mailed out and then mailed with no receipt. Looking at providing the cancelled check as a receipt for proof of purchase and reimbursement.
Registrar’s Report in that there have been several new applications that have been submitted. First, there were several expense receipts submitted for approval associated with these applications which Lovell Aldrich and Steve Barber signed and approved for payment. Lovel Aldrich proposed that a petty cash fund should be set up for such expenses. That proposal has been tabled for now.
The following applications have been submitted for new SAR members for the Alexander Hodge chapter: Don Burns, Robert Graves, Alan Bougard, Steve Sanders, Kevin Buford, Richard Colwell, Scott Hutchson, Christipher Owens, John Placette ,Robert Godwin.
Of these ten applicates, only one has been returned for clarifications. (Robert Goldwin) We are still working on applications for the following prospective members.
Son of Allen Bougard, Son of Kevin Buford, Richard Laughlin, David Linder, Chris Pettitt, Charles Garten, Scott Hutchinson, Fred Louen.
New applications have been coming in at record levels, challenging the Registrar’s Committee. Mike Green said that the registrar function is probably the most time consuming. It is working well as a committee with Carl Hill and Mike Green working together with one taking care of administrative matters and the other performing the genealogical research. If anyone is interested in assisting in new application registrations to the SAR, please let one of these gentlemen know of your interest.
The application fee was $190.00 per applicant with $15.00 coming to the Chapter for each new member.
As mentioned above, application fees for new applicants are going up to $210.00. It is not clear yet if any of this increased fee will be coming back to the local Chapter.
Social Chair Report: George Theater September 6 th through Oct 1 st , 2023. “Forever Plaid” Barber Shop musical. Performance Wednesday through Sunday until October 1 st . Purchase Tickets by calling Box office 713-526-2721 or website adplayers.org. Let Sharon Aldrich know if you would like to join a group to attend this performance. Sharon and Lovell’s number 281-491-1542.
The Texas Tenors event at the Staford Center on September 23, 2023, is also available but tickets for this event costs are around $98.50 if you buy directly from the Staford Center. Ticketmaster is higher.
Carl Hill discusses various essays and or poster contests that could be promoted in the next school year.
The Essay competition was for high school JROTC candidates, and the poster contest was for middle school students. In the past, the Chapter also donated books on historical people and asked for essaysdescribing who that person in the book was in our history.
Carl had a sampling of Flag Cards handed out to all present. The cards are a giveaway for recruiting andexplaining who the SAR is and how to join.
The Aug 29th Business Meeting was called to a close by President Carl Hill.
END OF REPORT