Indiana Veterans’ Service Officers’ - invsoa

1 IDVA s Bill Jackson Returns to WorkAfter an absence of seven weeks, the Director of the Indiana Department of Vet-erans Affairs, Bill Jackson, has returned to work, looking fit-as-a-fiddle and is report-edly very happy to be look forward to seeing Bill at the upcoming IDVA Conference.**Code requires that each county Service officer , in addition to attending a course of instruction, must successfully pass a written examination before the Director of Veter-ans Affairs can certify the Service officer as qualified for this age of litigation, neither coun-ties nor county Service Officers can afford to ignore state certification requirements. All county Service Officers as well as As-sistant Service Officers and secretaries are encouraged to the conference starts on Monday, June 24th, the only required classroom attendance on that day is by newly appointed county veterans Service Officers.

2 The training, lasting from 2 to 5 , will be accomplished by the Indiana veterans Service Officers golfers, The 12th Annual IDVA Open will be held on Monday. Registration starts at 9:00 with tee time at 10:00 The $28 registration fee covers green fees and a golf cart. The outing is open to all conference attendees and guests. The tournament is a scramble format and will be played at the nearby Grandview Golf Course. Directions to the golf course and an entry form were included with a packet sent out by general agenda of the training is as follows. A more detailed agenda will be available at time of : travel, registration and new Service officer : registration, classes and lec-tures, annual invsoa : classes and lectures, in-formal : class, test, dismissal.

3 **IndianaVeterans Service Officers Association ( invsoa ) MeetingThe Annual invsoa Meeting will be held on Tuesday afternoon, June 25th, fol-lowing the end of classes for the day. Classes normally end around 4:00 order of business will be election of new officers for the 2002-2003 period. Association officers are elected for a one-year term and may be re-elected for a sec-ond proposal will be made to exempt the Secretary-Treasurer from the two-term lim-itation, as long as they are willing to remain in the position. The position, by far, re-quires the most time out of one s daily work schedule and it is difficult to find someone willing to tackle the job. The present secre-tary-treasurer, Norm Sullivan, has agreed to stay another year if the members so voteVSO annual dues can be paid during the conference.

4 We encourage Service Offi-cers to send the dues in advance of the conference to Norm at his office. That way he can have your new membership card and a receipt for your dues ready to hand to you at the conference. The receipt is so you can get your dues back from the county . Re-member, it was voted last year to raise the annual dues to $15 per year, starting this year. Send check or money orders, payable to invsoa to Norm Sullivan at:Greene county veterans Office217 E. Spring Street, Suite 4 Bloomfield, IN 47424-1469** Edition 2002-003 The Newsletter of the Indiana veterans Service Officers Association June 10, 200257th Annual IDVAC onferenceThe Indiana Department of veterans Affairs has announced its annual training conference will be held this year in the Anderson, Indiana Holiday Inn over the period 24-27 county Service officer is re-quired by Indiana State Law to undergo a course of training.

5 The Administrative Tom, March 15, 2002 Well another session is over and we were successful in a couple of areas, but not so much in remission of fees bill passed the last day along with SB 100 changing the qualifications for Superintendent of the In-diana Soliders and Sailors Children s Home in Knightstown. We were also able to eliminate the admission committee estab-lished in 1995 which was slowing up the admission , HB 1079, the High School Diploma bill did not receive a hear-ing in the Senate, even with the 100 co-sponsors in the House. For some reason, the Republican-controlled Senate would not agree to give it a hearing, which was un-usual since the bill was sponsored by a Republican in the House.

6 We tried to get it added on as an amendment on two bills but the Senate stripped them off as non-ger-maine. Representative Frizzell tried very hard and was disappointed but I m sure he will try again next year in the long have never worked so hard on trying to get legislation passed that was non-con-troversial and should have passed early in the session. I guess I should feel lucky we got the two bills passed, because most agen-cies got thought I would let you know what happened because I know how hard you ve been working on this project. If you have any questions, I will try to answer [Jackson]Note: The High School Diploma bill was tacked on the end of another bill and passed as Enrolled Act 1108 which is effective July 1st, 2002.

7 Thanks to Bill for all the work he put in on this. Ed.** From the PresidentWell, our yearly seminar is a few weeks away and I will be looking forward to seeing everyone. I just wanted to write and thank everyone who trusted me with the position of being the President of our would like to thank Randy Fairchild and Norm Sullivan who have been the other officers the last couple of years along with me. I would like to thank Tom Applegate for his support and all the hard work of doing the Eagle and the veterans Digest for us guys that use it as a tool to get informa-tion out to the veterans wish I could have done more but it seems to me like we are at the bottom of the pole. This past year we were never informed when the legislative committee was meet-ing, nor were we informed of the dates of IDVA Commissioners meetings.

8 We would have liked to was informed by VARO Director, Jeff Alger, that there was a trainer available to conduct training for us, but we couldn t that off the ground. There was a possibility that we could have gotten copies of DD Forms 214 which are sent to the state upon discharge of a servicemember, but nothing came of that either. I was even disappointed in our inability to get the Lt. Governor s office involved in our wish next year s officers well. If we don t get assistance from downstate then let s work together to help ourselves. Re-member Omar Bradley s quote, We are dealing with veterans , not procedures; with their problems, not ours. God bless all of Whitehead**NIHCSA nnouncesEnrollmentLimits in CBOC sNorthern Indiana Healthcare Director, Michael Murphy, announced in an April 19th letter that enrollment in the South Bend and Muncie Community Based Outpatient Clinics would effectively be suspended until further stated that unprecedented growth was occurring at all four of the Northern Indiana Healthcare System (NIHCS) sites, however, enrollment at our CBOCs in South Bend and Muncie has significantly exceeded intended capacity.

9 Murphy stressed that the system would continue to enroll veterans in the VA system at all sites, but new enrollees will be as-signed to receive care at either the Fort Wayne or Marion campuses, as they select. He stated that, we intend, through attrition, to work our way back toward the business plan level of activity at the CBOC. We assume this is Murphy-speak meaning some veterans already receiving care at those CBOCs will eventually be weeded the next article for a related to theEditorVeterans Health Care: Sorry Thanks From NationBy Gary WhiteheadThis Memorial Day, we will take time to think of our brave troops who are defend-ing America s national security, and of the soldiers who have given their lives to de-fend our country.

10 Most Americans would be dismayed and angry if they knew how poorly the veteran s health system serves the men and women who have made such great sacrifices on behalf of a grateful na-tion.(continued on next page)2 veterans Health Care(continued from page 2)Of the nation s million veterans , only about 3 million get health care through the veterans Administration. While there are many dedicated professionals working at the VA, and some people receive very good medical care as a result, the system is failing our veterans . Even though all of Indiana s 567,000 veterans are eligible for health care through the VA, only about 12 percent are able to access medical services because of VA s limitations.