Council on Veterans Programs Set to Craft Governing Rules

Posted by Anthony Hardie, DAV-WI Representative to the Council on Veterans Programs

(DAV-WI) - In a step by the Wisconsin Council on Veterans Programs (COVP) that shows its growing recognition of its independence from the Board of Veterans Affairs it advises, an ad hoc committee of the COVP will meet in Madison on Friday to hash out comprehensive new governing rules for itself.

Currently, the COVP is governed by just two paragraphs in the governing rules of the Board of Veterans Affairs -- once seen as the COVP’s parent body -- and a page-and-a-half-“Protocol” document enacted by the COVP in February.

The comprehensive rule-writing effort was initiated by the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), Department of Wisconsin.  At the COVP’s October meeting in Rhinelander, the COVP voted to create a seven-member ad hoc committee to review DAV’s 21-page proposal and work to integrate it and the “Protocol” into a new document to provide comprehensive bylaws and rules for the COVP.

The DAV’s proposed draft is divided into the following thirteen articles: 

ARTICLE I – Principal Office

ARTICLE II – Members

ARTICLE III – Officers

ARTICLE IV – Meetings & Minutes

ARTICLE V – Committees & Subcommittees

ARTICLE VI – Advising the Board and the Department

ARTICLE VII – Reports, Studies & Recommendations

ARTICLE VIII – Educational Materials

ARTICLE IX – Awards

ARTICLE X – Public Availability & Accessibility

ARTICLE XI – Amendments

ARTICLE XII – Custodian of Records & Department Designated Staff Person

ARTICLE XIII – Miscellaneous

The COVP has publicly announced a meeting of the ad hoc committee at 10 a.m. this Friday November 19, 2010 at the WDVA central office, 8th floor Board room, 30 W. Mifflin St., in Madison, Wis.  The meeting is open to the public with an opportunity for public comment.

Members of the ad hoc committee include the following COVP members: 

1. Russ Alsteen – Navy Club
2. Roger Fetterly – Military Officers Association of America (MOAA); COVP Vice-Chair
3. Paul Fine – Army Navy Union; COVP Secretary
4. Mark Grams – Marine Corps League
5. Anthony Hardie – Disabled American Veterans (DAV)
6. Charles Roloff – The American Legion; COVP Chair
7. Tim Thiers – AMVETS

The DAV’s draft proposed rules for the COVP are below.

DAV - Draft COVP Rules and Bylaws -