January 2015 Report Second Vice President, MDSSAR James F. Engler, Sr. (2014-2015) The Second Vice-President shall be the chairman of the semiannual meeting and shall coordinate publicity and public relations matters, including submission of articles and photos to the SAR National Magazine, and will serve as the liaison for and visit the following chapters during his term Sgt Lawrence Everhart, Gen. William Smallwood, Christian Ardinger, Westminster, and Little Meadows. The Vice-Presidents shall also perform such additional duties as requested by the President. Bylaws, Article III (Duties of Officers): Vice Presidents I have been working since taking the oath of office in April 2014 to fulfill the role as described in our bylaws. As such, my report covers my interactions with the chapters assigned me, the Semi-Annual Meeting, Public Relations, and other duties as assigned, in addition to my work with my own chapter. In addition, I am supporting the planning of the Annual Meeting. Chapter Interaction. Since the Annual meeting, I have been working to understand the backgrounds of each of the chapters under my purview. As shown below, these consist of chapters in Western Maryland My interactions with the chapters are as follows: Sargent Lawrence Everhart: I attended the chapter s Annual Meeting in September in Frederick. General William Smallwood: I attended the chapter s June meeting in Bethesda Christian Ardinger: I attended the Chapter s April dinner meeting in Hagerstown. I had a great interaction with the president and past president and volunteered to help with conversion of their Bylaws from a scanned version to a Word document, which I accomplished and sent less than a week after the meeting. Westminster: This is my home chapter, in which I have served as Vice President, Webmaster, Newsletter Editor, and Graves Committee Chairman. I attended the annual Memorial Day Parade in Westminster. I attended the Summer meeting, held in the first week in September, and the Fall meeting in late October. Little Meadows: I attended the chapter s December meeting.
As of today, I have now visited at least once all the chapters in my portfolio. A complete list of meetings of the different chapters, the state and national Societies that I have attended can be found at the end of this report. Publicity The role of Second Vice President includes being responsible for publicity. There are several subcommittees: General Public Relations, Newsletter, SAR Logo Car Tags, Yearbook, and Website. I ve had some success in the role of MDSSAR publicist: MDSSAR President Douglas Favorite has reinstituted the state newsletter, the Old line State Herald, and serves as its editor. To date we ve had three issues, for which I requested and collected reports from chapters, officers and committee chairmen. o Four of 15 chapters supplied materials for the first issue (May 2014) o Six of 15 were in the August issue o 12 of 15 reported in the November issue. o o To date, articles during my term have appeared for 12 of 15 chapters in at least one issue. Articles are due on the 26 th day of the months of January, April, July and October. Gathering articles for the next issue has already begun. We had a banner showing in the SAR Magazine. I requested and collected chapter and state articles submitted by the magazine s deadlines. o Summer Issue: articles on 10 of our 15 chapters. I checked about 80% of the issues since 2001, and that is the biggest showing we had had in all that time. In addition, this included a first time appearance for one of our chapters. Christos Christou indicated he had heard from a former MDSSAR Compatriot now living in another state, who was pleased to see how active Maryland was. o Fall issue: articles from 8 of 15 chapters. While fewer than in the previous issue, this included articles from two chapters that had not graced the magazine s pages before. Comments made to the MDSSAR Brochure Contest Chairman by a national chairman show that MDSSAR s efforts I n youth programs are being noticed o Winter issue: 11 of 15 chapters submitted. o o To date, articles during my term have appeared for 13 of 15 chapters in at least one issue. Deadlines for the magazine are the 15 th day of the months of March, June, September, and December. I drafted a press release on the Sons of the American Revolution Day (30 April 2014) providing a brief description of the history, aims, and composition of NSSAR and MDSSAR. This was sent to the Baltimore Sun on 7 May 2014; however, while it was not published there, the material was used as a basis for an article in Frederick on the SGT Lawrence Everhart Chapter, and is planned for use by the Westminster Chapter in an article celebrating its 30 th anniversary in 2015. I submitted a short article to SAR Magazine covering the wreath-laying by MDSSAR President Favorite and the presidents of VASSAR and DCSSAR at the Jefferson Memorial to honor Thomas Jefferson s birthday. This appeared in the summer issue. I have requested that Carroll Collins give me an update on the Tags, and he expects to have information to me before the January BOM meeting I have concluded that among other duties, which I had not realized I had, is that the Second Vice President should serve as part of the editorial board for the yearbook. Several items, including my own Third Vice President s Report, and a chapter report failed to make it into the last Yearbook, although they were available. I have recommended to the Webmaster that we create a Facebook page to get involved with social media as an additional means of getting our message out. He has created it and work continues to see whether this will be effective.
My goal in this role is to have published during my term over the four issues of the state newsletter and of the SAR Magazine at least one article from each chapter including chapters who have not previously reported. Thanks to the chapters, MDSSAR is well on its way to fulfilling that goal. Semi-Annual Meeting The Semi-Annual meeting in October 2014 was one of the main efforts for my office. I have accomplished the following: I reviewed past semi-annual events (as extracted by my metrics efforts last year) to get an idea in the venue requirements of how many Compatriots to expect. I contacted Dave Embrey (Chapter President, Charles Carroll of Carrolton) for suggestions, with the thought that a venue in Howard County might be appropriate. I contacted several candidate venues in Howard County and did a site inspection of one of them I contacted the Maryland State Archives about the possibility of having the meeting in the Old Senate Chamber, where MDSSAR was founded 125 years ago. The chamber is being renovated, but an alternative site (Miller Senate Office Building) was identified, along with an offer for guest activity and lunch-time speaker. While the room and the speaker were free of charge, it was later learned that since the meeting was on a Saturday, we would have to pay for the security guards. I sought quotes from different caterers (several venues had no on site catering) I selected a site and caterer for best price I set a price point based on all quotes with the objective of having a minimum of 24 attendees to not have a loss on the event I announced the event I continued tracking the attendees with input from MDSSAR State Treasurer Gary Neal I supported the set up of the site on the meeting day I continue to track the final invoice for the security provided on the meeting day The meeting place was the Miller Senate Office Building, catered by Paul s Homewood Café. There was a guided tour of the State House for our guests in the morning during the BOM meeting and was well received. Our lunchtime speaker was the Maryland State curator, talking about the renovations in the State House Annual Meeting The Annual meeting is one of the main efforts for the First Vice President and serves as the inauguration of the First Vice President as the new MDSSAR President. At the request of the First Vice President, who has decided to not pursue the office of President at this time for personal reasons, I have been working on the Annual Meeting and accomplished the following: I reviewed past semi-annual events (as extracted by my metrics efforts last year) to get an idea in the venue requirements of how many Compatriots to expect. I contacted several candidate venues in Howard and Carroll County based on their being candidates for the Semi-Annual meeting and for the June 2013 BOM when I was Third Vice President. At the time of this report, I am finalizing the comparison of the venues and making a decision on venue, to be announced at the January Board of Manager s meeting. Other Activities I was assigned to investigate or chose to take on a number of other activities:
Documenting the Tasks and Processes of the Offices of Vice Presidents. Committee Participation Perform an evaluation of MDSSAR Chapters Health Attendance as a State Officer at State, District and National Events Vice President Documents Having just completed the duties of Third Vice President (3VP), I felt that it would be advantageous for MDSSAR to have a set of descriptive materials that could help an incoming 3VP in successfully executing his role. To this end, I: Created a draft document, wising my final report as 3VP as a basis Sent the documents for review to those Compatriots who have served in the office of 3VP since the adoption of the Bylaws in which the chapter assignments were made Provided a draft copy to 3VP William Smithson. I have now drafted similar documents for the other offices in the MDSSAR cursus honorum, as a means of making the expectations of the roles known and provide guidelines to make the execution of these roles more consistent year to year. The document for the Second Vice President was based on my experiences so far this year, and I drafted one for the First Vice President; both have been submitted to First Vice President William Batton and President Douglas Favorite for comment. Committee Participation I served as a member of the Patriot Ball Committee, the Awards Committee, and an ad hoc committee related to chapter development. Patriot s Ball I worked with the committee, chaired by Compatriot Ed Foreman. Key activities included: On the Patriot Ball, I attended the 27 May 2014 telecon and planning session. I arranged and attended the planning committee meeting in Eldersburg on 28 Jun 2014 The Committee received financial reports of past Patriot s Balls from Barrett McKown. I extracted the information from the PDF files and created annual summaries, from which to determine financial trends and a potential budget. These I sent out to the other committee members. I attended the site inspection on 25 August 2014, where final meal costs were itemized. I created a budget for the event and monitored the expenses and income being received I put out a call for donations to previous MD400 Fund contributors; we successfully met our goals for donations. My efforts were only part of all the tasks that were carried out by Chairman Ed Foreman and the Patriots Ball Committee. With over 90 people attending it was a successful event. Awards and Medals I started working with Chairman Tackitt and other committee members on the creation of a MDSSAR-specific award for long and note-worthy service to MDSSAR at the state level. I conducted a process to reach consensus among the committee members for the name of the Award. To do this, I Expanded the number of candidate names, including pre-revolutionary, Revolutionary, and early MDSSAR figures. I provided pros and cons for each. Conducted three rounds of voting, requesting the top three picks from each committee member, and reducing the number of candidates with each round
Provided additional options for the medal image itself The name has been chosen and the medal in the process of being designed and priced out. Chapter Development President Favorite established a committee to discuss how to support chapter development, and asked me to serve on it. We had one telecom of several hours, in which I provided materials showing the membership distribution in the state, as well as other metrics on chapter activities based on my work on Chapter Health. Recommendations were provided to the President by the Chairman, Christos Christou. Chapter Health Project I continued the efforts begun last year. To this end: I monitored and interacted with most chapters to track their progress on reviewing their draft metrics files, which I sent to them early in April while I was 3VP. I created draft quad charts from the material collected and incorporated the appropriate chapters into the 3VP Documentation I have received the Americanism submittals from the CAPT Smoot and Westminster chapters, which provides an accurate point (2013) for comparison with the extracts.. I have received updates on the extracted materials (which I supplied as spreadsheets to each chapter) from the GEN William Smallwood Chapter and the Westminster Chapter On a related note, I have submitted to all 15 chapters a draft version of their Americanism Score cards based on their submissions for the state newsletter and the SAR Magazine; I m continuing to urge completion of these by the chapters to support the creation of the state society s input to the annual competition. State Officer Representation, State/District/National Levels Besides the May Board of Managers meeting, I have attended: The NSSAR National Congress. This was my first time and found it an interesting and worthwhile event. The Atlantic Middle States Conference. MDSSAR was this year s host. The MDSSAR Semi-Annual Meeting, which I planned (see above). The Patriot s Ball in White Marsh, Maryland in December.
Non-VP SAR Activities I continue to be active in my local chapter. I am also working on an out of state Patriot grave marking. Chapter Tasks I continue to serve the Westminster chapter as Vice President, Webmaster and Newsletter Editor. This year I have done the following: With the help of my chapter Compatriots, I carried out the chapter s first Compatriot Grave Marking after the 2014 MDSSAR Annual meeting. I worked with the chapter secretary to create a press release for the event. I began compilation of the 2014 Americanism Score Card for the Westminster Chapter for consideration for the Americanism and President s Streamer Awards. In the process, I created the versions of the scorecard needed to track our progress and overall activity health. In response to the NSSAR call for SAR Day proclamations, I requested and received from the Commissioners of Carroll County a proclamation declaring 30 April 2014 as SAR Day. I participated in the Westminster Memorial Day Parade and the awarding of Outstanding Citizenship awards to local high school seniors. I have been instrumental in the planning and execution of a Prospective Membership Information Session (working the William Winchester DAR chapter). The event took place in the afternoon of 31 May 2014. We had three attendees and drafted applications for each. Final supporting documentation had been completed on one and his submitted to NSSAR Headquarters. I worked to get executed a Genealogy Workshop for SAR and DAR registrars in the same time frame (working with the Carrollton Manor DAR). The intention of the effort was to accomplish an initiative of MDSSAR Past President Warner, who tried to get a workshop in 2013. It was planned for 21 June 2014, but cancelled for lack of attendance. Further discussions concluded that this approach did not appear viable. If pursued by the chapter, it will be on a local level. I have drafted a set of Bylaws. I based it on a template that meets Maryland tax code and IRS regulations for non-profits. I added to it based on materials sent by the MDSSAR chapters that have bylaws. The draft has been reviewed by the chapter officers and the MDSSAR Chancellor. The bylaws are currently being revised. I have published the Spring, Summer, and Fall issues of the chapter newsletter, The Westminster Associator; I am near publishing the Winter issue. I have updated our website regularly. As part of the MDSSAR website upgrade, the chapter s website URL has also changed, and is now http://westminster.mdssar.org In addition, on 21 October 2014 at the chapter s Fall Meeting, I was elected as the chapter s next president. Installation will be at the chapter s Spring meeting in March 2015. Out of State Grave Marking I started working in September 2013 on getting marked the grave of CAPT Joseph Ogle, my patriot ancestor through whom I became a member of SAR. Raised in Maryland, he served in the Virginia state militia for Ohio County (now part of West Virginia). I am the Immediate Past President (President 1 Jan 2003 to 31 Dec 2009) of the Ogle/Ogles Family Association, a family genealogy group. O/OFA will be holding its triennial convention (September 2015) in St. Louis, Missouri, just across the Mississippi from where my Patriot is buried in Illinois (he was an early settler to the area, arriving in 1785). I am currently in correspondence with the local SAR and DAR chapters to coordinate performing a joint Patriot Grave Marking service among the three groups during the O/OFA convention. The main challenge at the moment is finding his actual grave. We have lots of boots on the ground trying to find its location, but the local Methodist Church (Joseph Ogle is believed the first Methodist baptized in Illinois, 1787), where he is reputed to be buried (but for which there is no record of burial) has a plot for a suitable cenotaph, which O/OFA expects to erect using donated funds. This will be an on-going activity for me, but so far,
St. Clair County, Illinois s county government, which manages the cemetery where CAPT Ogle is reputed to be buried, has donated a plot for the marker. I have been working with the Belleville Chapter DAR to get the specifics of the DAR marker worked out. I continue to keep in communication with the Lewis and Clark Chapter SAR on their efforts to identify CAPT Ogle s actual grave site. I created a mockup of the monument and submitted it to two companies for quotations. This design was approved by the O/OFA Board of Directors and the vendor has been selected I worked with a brass foundry for the creation of the brass marker for the Ogle/Ogles Family Association, which is the coordinating organization for this effort. The brass marker will be part of the monument, along with a DAR plaque and an SAR large lug-style marker. I created a schedule for the tasks required to meet the dedication date. Conclusions I have already learned much as Second Vice President and continue to find exciting challenges in the work. Respectfully submitted, James F. Engler, Sr. Album Presiding above at the marking of Compatriot Richard Hyson s Grave, 12 April 2014 (Photo courtesy of Brian Quillin) Participated above in the Westminster Memorial Day Parade with other Chapter Compatriots in one of biggest recent turn outs Pictured at left with MDSSAR Orations Contest Winner Avellina Balestri at the NSSAR Congress
Meetings Attended Below is a list of the meetings and events I have attended. Date Location Description 4/12/2014 Hampstead Cemetery Westminster Chapter Compatriot Grave Marking for Richard Hyson Hampstead, MD 4/29/2014 Nick's Airport Inn Christian Ardinger Chapter Meeting 14548 Pennsylvania Ave. Hagerstown, MD 21742 5/17/2014 Small Meeting Room, Eldersburg Branch, Carroll XOM County Public Library 6400 W Hemlock Dr. Sykesville, MD 21784 5/26/2014 Monroe Ave. Westminster, MD March with Westminster Chapter SAR in Westminster, MD Memorial Day Parade 5/31/2014 Fifth Regiment Armory MDSSAR Board of Managers Meeting Baltimore, MD 5/31/2014 Large Meeting Room, Westminster Branch, Westminster Chapter SAR Prospective Member Information Session Carroll County Public Library 50 E Main St. Westminster, MD 21157 6/4/2014 Liberty High School Award for Senior Nigel Young of the SAR Outstanding Citizenship pin and certificate 6/5/2014 Aldo's Restaurant GEN William Smallwood Quarterly Dinner/Business Meeting 4515 Willard Ave. Chevy Chase 6/15/2014 Turf Valley Resort & Spa Site inspection as potential Semi-Annual Meeting Venue 2700 Turf Valley Rd Ellicott City, MD 21042 6/28/2014 Small Meeting Room, Eldersburg Branch, Carroll Patriot's Ball Committee Meeting County Public Library 6400 W Hemlock Dr. Sykesville, MD 21784 7/18/2014 Greenville, SC 2014 NSSAR National Congress To 7/24/2014 8/8/2014 Hunt Valley Inn 2014 Atlantic Middle States Conference To 8/10/2014 245 Shawan Rd. Cockeysville, MD 21031 8/25/2014 Hilton Garden Inn Site Inspection for Patriot's Ball White Marsh, Md. 9/4/2014 Buttersburg Inn Westminster Chapter Summer Dinner/Business Meeting 9 North Main Street Union Bridge Maryland 21791 10/2/2014 Dutch's Daughter SGT Lawrence Everhart Annual Meeting 581 Himes Ave Frederick, MD 21703 10/21/2014 Carroll Non-Profit Center Westminster Chapter Fall Meeting and Elections 255 Clifton Blvd. Westminster, MD 21157 10/25/2014 Miller Senate Office Building 2014 MDSSAR Semi-Annual Meeting Annapolis, MD 12/6/2014 Perkins Restaurant Little Meadows Chapter Meeting 24584 Garrett Highway McHenry, MD 21541 12/13/2014 Hilton Garden Inn White Marsh Patriots Ball 5015 Campbell Boulevard Baltimore, MD 21236 1/17/2015 Maryland Club 1 East Eager Street Baltimore, MD 21202 MDSSAR Board of Managers Meeting