Valorie Wrinkle

3855 NW Montgomery Avenue

Redmond, OR 97756

541-678-3894

vjwrinkle@gmail.com

2024-2025

NOVEMBER

 Happy November everyone! I hope you are all enjoying our beautiful fall weather. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I can’t help but think about things I am thankful for and one of those things is the Veterans of Foreign Wars Auxiliary and its members. I could not have continued to function after losing the love of my life in December of 2022 without the help of my friends and family and by family, I mean those related by blood and those related by love. So many of you have become family to me and I don’t know what I would do without you!

I want to talk about something right now that is not so pleasant. There are a few Auxiliary members that think they should be able to run their meetings and do their own thing without regard to our bylaws. If there are issues, they want to blame others instead of looking at their own attitudes or practices for the cause. Instead of asking questions, they wait until the problems are out of control, then blame the very people who are trying to help them. I hate to think that not every Auxiliary is going to be a success story, but if you allow personal issues or grievances to affect your attitude and are unwilling to listen to your leadership, or you go to people outside the organization to get the answers, you have little chance of being successful.

I bring this up to remind you that the Department is here to help you, but we cannot help if you do not communicate with us. If you have an issue or a question, be proactive and contact us. If you need to call multiple times with different issues or even the same issue that you struggle to resolve, do it! We are not here just to hold a title. We are here for you, but just like any other relationship, we need open communications to be successful. Also, keep in mind that we are partners to the VFW, but we are not the same organization and we each have our own Bylaws, so going to them to find out how to handle a situation is not always helpful. Our chain of command is listed in the yellow pages of your Bylaws book if you are not sure who to talk to. Please refer to it before taking your problems to the VFW.

In closing I want to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving and I thank you for all you do every day for our veterans and our organization. You are definitely one of the blessings I will be thankful for this year.