Lt. Nathan Gann Chapter

Sons of the American Revolution

Newsletter August 2007

Seems like a long time between meetings, perhaps we should add a meeting to our schedule, in July. Primary reason that I know of limiting the number of meetings is the problem of getting speakers, and since Naranjo is now in charge of programs, I just might suggest going to 6 meetings a year ! Just kidding Neal.

There are several things going on that I need to address. First of all is the pressure from the State Secretary and Treasurer and others for us to host a meeting at the Fredonia Hotel in Nacogdoches. At first they talked about a Board of Managers Meeting (BOM) and then they started talking about the annual meeting in March 2009. I sent out an email asking who would be interested in helping out if we agreed to do this and got no response. I told the state officials it would be too difficult for us to do this in Nacogdoches and as far as I could tell we would not have much support. We may have missed the boat in an opportunity to make money. The latest I have on the subject is that the March 2009 meeting will be at the Fredonia Hotel in Nac and will be hosted by the Athens Chapter. The hotel has offered to provide all the necessary rooms at no charge, they will take the registration for the meeting and will provide assistance in planning entertainment and whatever else is needed. In short, they are going to make it very easy to do the meeting. I'm sure the Athens Chapter will ask I for some assistance but probably not much. Mike Everheart (Tyler-District 10 VP) has experience with these meetings and he has also volunteered to help out. I think it would be good for a lot of us to go to this meeting when the time comes because we will be asked to do it again sometime in the future. Would be nice if Lufkin had a hotel similar to the Fredonia Hotel.

Last I heard about the Fredonia Chapter in Nacogdoches is that 6 members want to get it going again. Not sure who is going to take the lead and get things rolling.

Jeff has transferred some money from the Savings to the checking account and I have been reimbursed for my expenses, which were mostly meals for guests. I believe we have about $1500 in the checking account now. Neal has indicated he can get three copies of the Bill of Rights or Constitution for about $20 (roughly $7 each) and frames for $15 each. We need to go ahead with this and get some in schools around town. I believe the plan is to present one document at a time to a school and perhaps come back later with another of the documents. Schools we will definitely approach now are Pineywoods Academy, St. Cyprians Episcopal and Brookhollow Elementary.

Received a letter from National SAR asking for donations for the new library that is being built. Not sure if we can wait until our September meeting to vote on this or not. They are taking individual donations but thought we might make a donation from the chapter.

War Service medals apparently are only available to those who served in time of a war and were actually in the war zone. I believe this leaves us with two members, Lester Sparks - WWII, and Vance Roberts -- Korean. Will try to get these medals and present at the September meeting. If I missed anyone, please contact me at fpreston@suddenlink.net or 936-366-4228.

Would like for everyone to try and enlist new members. The more members, the more people to do things, more new ideas and the more money. I also think the interchange at meetings is better with more people. Some men who could join or rejoin with no problem are Bill Royle (charter member), Phil Huber and Kevin McKay. There are three or four others who will have more problems with documentation but hope they can also join. Harold Newsom has been reinstated. The chapter now has 35 members. 24 of these live no farther away than San Augustine, Center and Nacogdoches. Of the 24 there are 5 who have not attended at least in the last 10 years. So, we should have about 19 members present in September.

We need to get after the schools this year to participate in the poster contest. Does anyone have contacts at the Harmony Hill Baptist school? Suggest talking to the principal and teacher if possible. Subject for 2007/2008 is 'Molly Pitcher'. Our Nacogdoches members can also enlist schools in Nac. Since we have better luck with private schools, why not go to Regents Academy and see if the 5th graders would like to participate. We also need to start looking for Eagle Scouts that would like to compete for our scholarship award. Only requirement is that they must be an active Eagle at the time of the competition and they must not become 19 years old before January 1^st, 2008. I can provide contest rules to anyone interested for both the Poster Contest and the Eagle Scout Scholarship competition.

Neal is collecting US Flags that are in bad condition. Once we have a significant number we will plan a flag retirement ceremony. May put an article in the paper asking people to give their worn out flags to Neal for this purpose. When we have the flag retirement ceremony Neal and I (and maybe Woody) will be wearing uniforms. If anyone is interested in getting a uniform, I can give you all the necessary information. Cost for the polyester uniform is approximately $500.

Our next meeting will be September 20 at the Golden Corral and the speaker will be Morris Weeks, a noted expert on pre-colonial Indians, Indians of the Southwest and Indian arrowheads. If you have any arrowheads you might bring them to the meeting and perhaps Morris can give you some more information about them. Let's have a record turnout for this meeting.

Fred Preston