Season’s Greetings 2009

 

It has been my personal honor to serve the hundreds of activists within the National Veterans Affairs Council as your President in 2009.  It is hoped in the year 2010 that we will move from confrontation to a spirit of collaboration, in accordance to President Obama issuing an Executive Order on Partnership.

Through it all, the members we represent have had the most important job in the world – caring for the veterans who defend our freedom around the world.  The Veterans Health Administration has rightly been called the best public health system in the world.  Despite increasing loads, the employees of the National Cemetery Service, Veterans Health Administration and Veterans Benefits Administration have worked in a professional manner to provide crucial services to veterans and their families.  We truly live up, every day, to the Department’s motto “to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and his widow, and his orphan.”

So, as we gather with family and friends to observe the holidays, we can look back with pride on our accomplishments in 2009.  But more importantly, we must look forward to an even more successful 2010.  We must breathe life into the President’s Executive Order on Partnership.  We must continue to hone our representational skills through training and best practices.  Working together, building on our past, the future is limitless. 

This holiday season let us rededicate ourselves to the service of those who care for our veterans.  Let us continue the work we have done, and make the Department of Veterans Affairs an even better place to provide world-class service. 

On behalf of the National VA Council, the Executive Board, District and National Representatives and Staff, I wish you and yours the best of the Holiday Season and the Happiest of New Years!