National Convention Notes and Information
Aug. 27, 2007 at 5:11 PM
by Blogmaster
The nation’s largest association of combat veterans has elected George Lisicki its new national commander during the Veterans of Foreign War’s annual convention, held August 18-23 in Kansas City–home of the VFW National Headquarters. A Vietnam War veteran from New Jersey, Lisicki has been involved with the VFW for 36 years. (Click here for bio)In his acceptance speech, Lisicki announced his "Veterans Forever Serving" theme for his year as Commander-in-Chief and challenged VFW members to welcome a new generation of war veterans:
"Today, Vietnam veterans stand proudly beside our combat brothers from previous wars, but I am starting to worry that my generation is now treating current war vets the same as we were first treated.
General Colin Powell once said that leadership is about solving problems … that the day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them because they have either lost confidence that you can help or have concluded that you do not care. General Powell said either case is a failure of leadership.
What signals are we sending to this new generation? We beat down their doors to get them to join … we encourage them to run in Post elections … and then we don’t listen to their ideas? That’s a sure-fire way to lose membership and participation in my book."
(Click here to read Lisicki's acceptance speech)
Other Convention notes:
- C-Span has made available videos of the full speeches of the Presidential Candidates who spoke to delegates at the convention. (Videos may available for only a limited time and require RealPlayer.) Click here for the videos of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Fred Thompson and Barack Obama. (Click here if you have problems playing the videos.)
- Video of President George W. Bush's speech at the convention is now available from Whitehouse.gov.
- A list of actions taken on Resolutions and Bylaws is available here. A corresponding list of resolutions is available here (.pdf).
- A listing of photos from the convention is being maintained here in the VFW WebCOM Membership Forum.
