| Middle Tennessee Chapter Newsletter
February 2012
Editor: Doug Minton
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MOAA Middle Tennessee Chapter Meeting
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MOAA Monthly Luncheon Meeting
28 February 2012, 11:30 AM
Annual Personal Affairs Meeting
“Quality Aging”
Dr. Ruth Garrett, PhD, MPH,
Geriatrics Education Consultant
Old Natchez Country Club
115 Gardengate Drive
Franklin TN 37069
| Dr. Ruth G. Garrett (PhD, MPH, MEd), will be our guest speaker on February 28, 2012. Dr. Garrett is a Gerontological Consultant/Lecturer at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the Director of the Meharry Consortium Geriatric Education Center as well Consultant/Lecturer, and Associate Professor in the Department of Neurology, Meharry Medical College.
Dr. Garrett will provide her insight into quality aging, keeping our minds sharp, and things we can do to remain healthy and capable of remaining in our homes as we age.
Dr. Garrett is a nationally known author and lecturer on the topic; her most recent book is Embracing Aging: Discovering Fulfillment through Coping with Life's Changes.
As an added point of interest, The Geriatric Education Center has asked to conduct a survey of our group. It will not require any personal data, but will be of use in providing data for ongoing analysis at the Center.
After the presentation and questions, LTC Bruce-Graham will provide a reminder-checklist regarding keeping our personal affairs in order and has requested 60 copies of the MOAA booklet "Aging into Medicare and Tricare for Life" for distribution at the meeting.
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One of the goals the board has established for this year is to step up our chapter’s Community Outreach, primarily to veterans and Veterans Service Organizations. This may take the form of keeping the chapter membership better informed about the activities and events of Veterans Service Organizations. (Examples: “Operation Stand Down”, “Not Alone” and “Wounded Warrior”, all of which we have heard from in the form of recent program speakers.) Our hope is that individual chapter members may have an interest in the work of such organizations, and potentially become actively involved. In a few cases, the chapter, acting through the board may provide financial support (Examples: Honor Flight and the Veterans Scholarships we have established at Lipscomb and Belmont Universities.) Occasionally, again with board approval, the chapter may as a whole take on a service project. (Example: Cell Phones for Soldiers.)
Patricia Bergquist has agreed to Chair our Community Outreach Committee, and if the talent and energy she displayed during her leadership of our Cell Phones for Soldiers campaign are an indication, we should see elevated success in our Community Outreach. Please let Patricia know of activities and events that may be of interest to our members.
At the Chapter Organizational Meeting in January, we had several members step forward to assist with chapter activities and on various committees. Thanks to the following:
- Assistant Treasurer (Treasurer Dale Lewelling) Hal Sauer & India Matlock
- The Officer Placement Service (Scott Cantlon, Chm.) Doug Gilbert, Art Jacobs, Doug Minton, & Karon Uzzell-Baggett
- Community Outreach (Patricia Bergquist, Chm.) John Burns, Doug Gilbert
- Membership (Dana McLendon, Chm.) Hal Sauer, Joe Dougherty
- ROTC Liaison (Karon Uzzell-Baggett, Chm. & Gary Edict, Co-Chm. For JROTC) Hal Sauer, Larry Cotton, John Burns, Doug Gilbert, Joe Dougherty, Doug Minton, & Wanda Bruce-Graham
As of February 5th Patricia has advised that the MOAA initiative resulted in 26,917 phones being collected which has translated into a whopping 1,615,020 free minutes of phone conversation for our deployed service members.
83 Chapters and MOAA HQ participated in the program. Our Chapter was the top Chapter in the nation with 4,606 phones collected. Tennessee Chapters collected 8,148 phones, which was 30% of the total collection effort.
Now it is time to capture the names of groups, businesses and individuals that deserve recognition and thanks for hosting boxes and holding phone collection drives in support of our efforts. We need complete contact information as soon as possible! Please get this information to Patricia when you have it.
The February meeting will be the last collection effort on behalf of the Chapter, but AT&T will continue to collect for the national “Cell Phones for Soldiers” Organization.
Fair Skies and Following Seas,
Dana McLendon
10 Feb 2012
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New Members
Please take a moment at the next meeting to welcome the following new members:
Capt. Ted Bleymaier
USAF
COL Tom Bowden
USA
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Middle TN Chapter Receives Certificate of Appreciation from MOAA National on our leadership in the Cell Phones for Soldiers Program.
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