christmas wish

this is my wish please have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all

next year i will try to post more often than this year

for all veterans all over the world

I want to thank you for all your service too my friends in Vietnam Veterans chapter #17 in Las Vegas NV. thank you for service and welcome home brothers. Please don't forget hug a vet today thank you

my son birthday is today

happy birthday son and thanks for all you do for me and mom

we love you

Beginning of my time on this journey

It all started on June 30 1946 I was born in Punxsutawney PA. I did the things any kid did growing up back then played sandlot baseball and football had fun and made friends.unlike today we did not stay at home and play games on our game systems because they worn't invented yet. We were outside from morning till night. playing our games our war games were played for fun out side. I went to school made lots friends Some were good friends some not so good. i also did many things to earn money to do things with friends go to the movies and dances things like that. One of the many jobs i had I washed the windows at my barber shop and swept the shops floor. My barber was also the movie theater manger when i went to the movies he would not let me us my monies to get in. Witch turned out to be a good thing for because i got lots of dates because i could take them to the movies every weekend. i ended up working at booth theaters in my home town I was a usher and in the mornings i swept up the popcorn from the night before those were some good times.

The next part of my child hood was when i started junior high school and i started to play football our team was made up of a lot  of of the guys i played sandlot with by then we were good  we worked good together we went undefeated our our first year. I played offensives right tackle and defensive nose guard played the hole  game. Life was good i was a jock and got lots of dates with some great looking ladies.Then on to high school learned more things and played football with the same guys i played in junior high buy then we were a excellent ruining football team. Then in 1966 I graduated from school that summer i went to electronic school in Pittsburgh PA. for two years I finished that in the summer of 1968.  When I was home I was drafted that's when I joined the United States Navy. And that is when everthing got real the end

life

Let’s see as I see it life is a journey and this journey started back in September 10^th 1986. That is when Fran and I got married in York PA. We have been friends for about three years when we were in Johnstown PA over the next two years we became best friends. Then on September 10^th 1986 we were married so far we have been married for 26 years of unconditional love. We have had our ups and downs. Over all those years we have moved almost every two years and on September of 2012 we are moving again for the last time to our son’s house. Fran is the center of my universe and I would not change a thing about this journey and I hope and pray that it last for at least 24 more so we can celebrate our 50^th anniversary, and spend more time with our son because he is my hero for becoming the man he is today. Despite all the wrong turns my life has taken.

Fran and Duane I love you both with all my heart.

Nam Jam Las Vegas

Well just to let everyone what a battle plan looks like for planing a annual show here it is

 NAM JAM Las Vegas©    

 © 2012

Ric Besmanoff

Patriotic Powwows

                                                                                              

 SUBJECT: Battle Plan for the 1^ST Annual NAM JAM® Las Vegas                                                                

Mission Statement:                                            July, 2012

       The mission of the 1^st Annual NAM JAM® Las Vegas Theme in cooperation with POWWOWS & OUR PATRIOTS is to provide a premier, high energy, theme fund-raiser and benefit for VVA #17 Las Vegas NV.. Our goal is to provide our guests (veterans, their families and friends) an enjoyable day/night of togetherness and festivities. Our venue and with the assistance of other Veterans organizations, will provide selected entertainment theme and atmosphere that will create a real sense of “BELONGING”. Our concentrated efforts coupled with our “CAN-DO” attitude, will create a happy enthusiastic guests that will provide them with long and lasting memories of this Patriotic Event and Benefit. Hopefully, including @ least one Grammy award-winning group

Purpose:

Is for NAM JAM® Las Vegas (an annual fund-raising and benefit event) to promote and provide a positive impact on our guests and the Veteran community.

1.    Provide cultural and personal & patriotic enrichment.

2.    To generate funding so that we as chapter #17 can assist the disable and needy veterans and their families.

3.    To provide entertainment, care and assistance to hospitalized veterans and members of the United States Armed Forces.

4.    To carry on programs to perpetuate the memory of our deceased veterans, our unaccountable POW’s and members of the United States Armed Forces.

5.    To sponsor and participate in activities of a Patriotic & community/neighborly nature.

6.    To provide social and recreational activities for veterans, their families and members of the United States Armed Forces.

7.    To believe in our credo: “NEVER AGAIN WILL A GENERATION OF VETERANS                          ABANDON ANOTHER”.

8.    USO @ McCarran airport + eventual USO tour with some Grammy-award winning groups.

9.    Successful annual “Concerts: POWWOWS will enhanced Vets image + higher profile + increased (P.R.)

Objectives:

n  Capitalize on our location at XXX XXXXXX XX that will offer more to our guests and their families.

n  Start to publicize the venue (NAMJAM®) Las Vegas in Sept 1 2012 through aggressive campaigning.

n  Maintain tight control of costs, operation and cash flow through diligent management.

n  To exceed all annual fund-raising proceeds by aggressively obtaining sponsors, donations, and enthusiastic volunteers.

The key to achieving these objectives are to provide an exceptional event that will leave a long-lasting impression. This can be accomplished through entertainment. NAM JAM® Las Vegas is all about the Vietnam-era and the music of that period will provide a nostalgic atmosphere of the 60’ and the 70’s. This type of music enhances the mood of a picnic-like environment with sounds of Motown (MEGA OLDIES), a mixture of Classic Rock and Latino rhythms Combined, this will create an atmosphere for our guests to reflect on old memories of past events and the creation of new ones. It will make this a successful event. In addition, we must manage our internal finances and cash flow to enable us for upward capital growth through strict controls of all costs at all times, without exception.

NAM JAM® Las Vegas Summary

The key elements of the NAM JAM® concepts are as follows:

1.    Patriotic and entertainment based theme – the event will focus on themes that have mass Patriotic appeal

2.    The distinctive design features of XXXXXX XXXXXX Las Vegas – NAM JAM® Las Vegas will be characteriz by a setting that can accommodate 6000 people. The area offers spacious room with built-in concession stands that have easy accessibility. The entire park presents an inviting and relaxing atmosphere. With all the built-ins available in this park, it will allow the event volunteers to set-up quickly and easily. All that the event NAM JAM®) Las Vegas has to offer will be displayed for our guests to view. As our guests stroll along the parks sidewalks they can visit our traveling Vietnam Museum and Memorial and see Vietnam - era artifacts, see the display of military vehicles, a gathering of Veterans (past and present) will be available to discuss their experiences with our guests. Concessions stands will have a board range of military memorabilia, a selected food and refreshment theme will be available for all our guests. This park has ample space for a children’s area with a play set of swings, slides and we will provide jumping castles, a children’s train, face painting, balloon people to ensure the little ones are also looked after.

3.    Location, location, location – a major advantage over our last location at Reid Park, is the ample parking available to our guests. Easy accessibility from major streets and the easy off and on from Interstate 19, makes this venue’s location easy to find..

4.    Entertainment – NAM JAM® Las Vegas is all about having selected Las Vegas  bands that plays the nostalgic music of the 60’s and 70’s. The music played throughout the day’s event will present an inviting and picnic like atmosphere. This year special is “STEEL RIBBON IN CONCERT” a two hour wall to wall musical presentation by Jim Randall (former VVA 106 Chapter president) and band performers.

5.    Quality of food and liquid refreshments – All would be lost without special attention being paid to the level of food and refreshments quality. NAM JAM’s Las Vegas food vendors will provide a simple menu offering many choices of foods as those served at premier venues. Traditional food and appetizers will be on hand for people craving these food items. The food vendors will be providing a mixture of culture foods. From Mexican, Asian, snacks, (Nachos, Taquitoes, Pizza, Burgers, Hot dogs, hot Chili to name a few). Our refreshment assortment will consist of beer, soda, water, tea, and coffee.

6.    Exceptional service – In order to reach and maintain a unique image of quality our NAM JAM® Las Vegas volunteers must provide a CAN-DO attitude to all of its NAM JAM® Las Vegas guests. This will be accomplished through thorough briefings and training of all NAM JAM® Las Vegas committee chairs and directors. This training will pass forward on to our volunteers. To avoid any mis-understanding, the chain-of-command must be followed within each committee group. Time will be invested in this critical area, for without enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers; this venue cannot succeed in achieving its goals.

SET-UP Budget Requirements (Estimates) Subject to adjustments

Audio/Lighting/Rental/DJ                                                                                           ~ $2500

City of Tucson rental of park                                                                                             825

Booths rentals with keys **                                                                                              2000

City of Tucson Police (Security)                                                                                      4500

Traffic control barricades                                                                                                   900

Portable Lighting for parking area                                                                                     990

Park Permits (Beer, Liquor, Vendor) **                                                                              475

Arizona State Liquor permit **                                                                                            45

Pima County health permit **                                                                                             50

Event Liability Insurance ($1,000,000) **                                                                        1800

Security Radios **                                                                                                            175

Product sales, patches, hats, etc..**                                                                                 475

NAM JAM® T-shirts **                                                                                                     2995      

Printing, advertisement, posters, brochures, etc.…**                                                        700

Mailing (postage) **                                                                                                          400

Office supplies **                                                                                                              350

NAM JAM®  food and supplies for resale  **                                                                     900

Truck rental                                                                                                                        150

**these items must be pre-paid

Approximately cost--total                                                                            $20,660     

Services

This venue will specialize in high-energy themes, games for the children, dancing, music and a picnic like atmosphere. We will offer beer, non-alcoholic beverages such as soft drinks, juices, coffee, tea and bottled water, A casual food menu consisting mostly small entrees and appetizers ranging in cost from three to six dollars. The initial hours of operations for this venue will be from 10:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M.

This venue will attract veterans (past and present), families and friends from Tucson, while attracting others from surrounding areas. This will be accomplished through aggressive advertising and word-of-mouth.

Kennedy Fiesta Park can accommodate 7500 people, with easy in and out access off the major roadways. There will be ample parking for both automobiles and motorcycles. This location will have mass appeal to our guests because of the way the park is designed. Its looks tidy and well laid out and organized. The concession stands are built-in and will provide easy access for our wheel chair bound guests. The restroom facilities can accommodate a large crowd and the handicap. Wrought iron fencing is permanently installed and will provide the NAM JAM® security force better control of entry and exit of our guests. The general appearance of this location is clean, open and pleasing to the eye. The openness of this park will provide our security force a boarder view of the crowd’s activities.

Entrancing our guests with high-energy sounds of music and interactive entertainment will provide this venue high cash flow and customer satisfaction. Studies have shown that the average person will spend three to five hours in this type of environment and will spend an average of twenty to fifty dollars in that time frame. Our venue will start at 10:00 A.M. and end at 9:00 P.M., and within that period, this event can achieve gross revenues from $25 - 35 thousand dollars. The primary source of income is high volume traffic, coupled with comparably nominal spending. In addition, to the sale of alcohol (beer), we will be able to generate substantial revenues from food, souvenirs (T-shirts, hats, NAM JAM® pins, patches) raffles, donations, sponsors, and the sale of booth spaces.

Strategy Summary

In order to place emphasis on exceptional guest satisfaction, our main tactics are to ensure that we have a highly informed and motivated volunteer force. Our second strategy is emphasizing entertainment. The tactics are interactive entertainment, constant sensory appeal and unique event viewing. Our specific programs for interactive entertainment appeal are nostalgic classic rock music of the 60’s and 70’s era, coupled with Latino and Motown. Our big give-a-way announcement will be in the evening as all the winners of the raffle ticket holders will be announced. The Director of entertainment will ensure that this is fitted into the programming. The entertainment director is in charge of all NAM JAM® Las Vegas stage programming.

Our overall strategy is our most important. The necessary tactics are ongoing briefing and training of our committee directors and volunteers. A strong chain-of command and staff will ensure that we will have a continuous and never ending success story. It is crucial that we go beyond the mere sound of music and the serving of food; we must create a long-lasting impression.

Advertising Strategy

Our advertising budget and event promotions are an ongoing process. We will have to depend on radio advertising as our main source to reach our customer base. We start by developing a core positioning message and go directly to other Veteran organizations and advertise-advertise-advertise. NAM JAM® Las Vegas will create an identify-oriented marketing strategy with executions particularly in the radio. Television media alongside printed ads (brochures. flyers, posters) and word of mouth advertising.

We will start to advertise June 2007 to begin the process of selecting vendors for our venue. This campaign will have ambiguous teasers about an “event like no other” in the city’s history. Contests will be held on target radio stations giving away gift-spending coupons valued up to $20 dollars. These coupons that are won by the winners will be able to use them at the event (NAM JAM®) Las Vegas and purchase food and refreshments with them. Other gift coupons in value up to $15 dollars will be able to purchase NAM JAM® Las Vegas T-shirts, NAM JAM® Las Vegas hats, pins and patches. To pay homage to our Vietnam Veteran guests, we will propose that the first 15 Veterans (this offer excludes Tucson Chapter members) who show a lifetime card will be given a NAM JAM® Las Vegas T-shirt. We will be conducting regular local radio and newspaper ads to create our venue (NAM JAM®) Las Vegas awareness. Our radio ads will be concentrated strongly on classic rock, Mega-oldies, Country and Western, and Latino AM and FM stations. Through commercial repetition, a teaser campaign and the use of catchy phases, we are anticipating in attracting larger Veteran participation. The NAM JAM® Las Vegas director of Advertising will be responsible for on going radio and newspaper ads with time donated to this venue.

We will advertise directly to other Veteran organizations within the city of Tucson and surrounding areas to attract them to our event. Through the use of fliers, printed ads, posters and word-of-mouth, we hope to create their awareness of our location and event promotion. Promos such as “show your life time VVA membership card and get a free NAM JAM® Las VegasT-shirt” will create enthusiasm among the Veterans. The director of advertising will be responsible for all advertising and will have a vehicle maintenance expense budget of $100 dollars per month due to fuel costs. The mile stone date to launch our advertising will be June 01, 2007, 120 plus days prior to the event.

Sales Forecast (anticipated source of revenue)

Beverage sales (beer)                                                                                          $15,000 

Food sales (hamburgers, hot-dogs, nacho’s, Chile)                                                 3,000

Products sales (T-shirts, hats, patches)                                                                    5,000

Raffle tickets                                                                                                             1,500

Donations at entry points                                                                                             500

Museum donations                                                                                                       300

Sponsorships                                                                                                               250

Contributions                                                                                                               250                        

Concession vendor stands (booth space sale)                                                         3,000

Total forecast receivable sales                                                                  ~~    $29,200

It is anticipated that non-profit 501c’s organizations will not be charged for the use of space on the condition and that they will not be SELLING any type of products and must furnish volunteers to assist with our set-up. All other non-profit Veteran organization that requires a booth or space and are going to sell products, will be required to provide payment as a regular vendor and obtain all necessary vendor permits.

Direct cost of sales                                                                                           ~$20,600                                                                              

(see set-up budget requirements on page 3)

NAM JAM® Las Vegas Committee Directors Summary

The NAMJAM® Las Vegas committee director’s management team is an especially close one. All team members have many years of experience in putting this type of venue together since its inception in the 1980’s. Together we have focused on a single vision: To provide an everlasting and unique experience to our valued Veterans, their families and friends. This can be accomplished with our CAN-DO attitude and working together as a team.

NAM JAM® Las Vegas MISSION SUMMARY

This venue (NAM JAM®) Las Vegas will be one of a premier, high-energy, thought provoking Patriotic event in Tucson, Arizona. Our goal is to remain a step ahead of previous NAM JAM® Las Vegas events through exemplary wiliness and a “CAN-DO” attitude. We want our fellow Veterans, their families and friends to enjoy a picnic like atmosphere of fun and a genuine sense of togetherness. A simple, yet unique theme menu of music, food, and a Patriotic environment will create that special feeling of “BELONGING”.

Our operating CREDO is:

A well organized event that has enthusiastic and motivated volunteers will ensure a successful event.

In summary the main objectives of our NAM JAM®   Las Vegas event are:

¨       Capitalize on our new location at Kennedy Fiesta Park in Tucson, Arizona.

¨       Launch our venue with a highly publicized event date on July 01, 2007

¨       Maintain tight control of costs, operations and cash flow through diligent management.

¨       Provide an exceptional event that will have a lasting impression on our guests and their families.

¨       have a consistent entertainment atmosphere and good product quality (food, refreshments, product sales and music).

¨       Use this venue to keep our Veterans and their families informed on current issues regarding Veteran benefits.

¨       Last but not least, exceed all revenues generated in previous NAM JAM Las Vegas events by having more sponsorships and donations to enable upward capital growth.

        This is our 1^st Annual NAM JAM® Las Vegas 2012 Battle Plan, lets ATTACK!

        Robert Serge

        1^st Annual NAM JAM® Las Vegas 2012 Chairman

                                      SIN GANAS - NO GANAS

Our arrows will darken the skies; the Spartan replied back and said, “then we shall do     battle in the shade”   --   SPARTANS 300

                                                  

   “LEAVE NO VETERAN BEHIND”  

Nam Jam Las Vegas

Trying to but a Nam Jam Las Vegas is a chore in it self.  Working with Ric is even a bigger chore because he wants to but one on ever month of the year. So now i will have to but together a battle plan for the ever month thing witch is different than doing a annual show. So Her Is The Master plan

NAM JAM Las Vegas©

To all VVA 17 / AVVA Members / Friends                                                       2012

As NAM JAM Las Vegas Chairman 2012, I want to say thank you for the opportunity and the trust your have placed in me.

NAM JAM Las Vegas for our chapter is an important source of funding that we generate each year. Due to less or almost no funding from contributors, the burden has been placed on us to fend for ourselves.

The purpose of a fund raiser, is for VVA 17, a IRC Section 501c (19) organization, to generate as much money as possible. We are a Fraternal Organization where the proceeds benefit the chapter, which in turn may distribute them as the chapter sees fit. For example, profits may be disbursed to the chapter’s general fund in order to promote social welfare of the community (that is, to promote in some way, the common good and general welfare of the people of the community) and to follow the guidelines listed below:

1.    To assist disabled and needy war veterans and members of the United States Armed Forces, their dependents and the widows and orphans of deceased Veterans.

2.    To provide entertainment, care, and assistance to hospitalized veterans or members of the United States Armed Forces.

3.    To carry on programs to perpetuate the memory of deceased veterans, our unaccountable POW’s and members of the United States Armed Forces.

4.    To conduct programs for religious, charitable, scientific, literary, or educational purposes.

5.    To sponsor or participate in activities of a Patriotic nature.

6.    To provide social and recreational activities for our members and their families.

This is what our VVA Chapter is all about: Veterans taking care of Veterans.

Non-Profit fundraising is all about multiple sources of income, so how do we make money for our chapter?? Simple put, when we review our annual NAM JAM Las Vegas Battle Plan together, we need to include as many ways to raise money as possible. Well, you are probably thinking: “That is easy for me to say, but how exactly do we go about it?” EASY! We have to be “smart” about it, with a well thought out plan that doesn’t make too many demands on any one facet of our NAM JAM Las Vegas committee.

All fund-raisers place demands on volunteers, our supporters, and leadership. These demands can be time consuming, expensive, and stressful. The more large scale fund-raisers we conduct in one year’s time, the greater the load we place on people you depend on. We need to be “smart” in how we go about our fundraising. I have four steps that will make our job easier. First, we must think smart, plan smart, work smart and lastly, be smart.

THINK SMART!

Thinking smart means taking the time to review past results and analyze on how to improve on NAMJAM Las Vegas 2012. If we don’t spend some time brainstorming some new and creative ideas to increase our bottom line, how are we going to rise above last year’s results?

PLAN SMART!

Planning smart means taking concrete action to put our ideas into a NAMJAM Las Vegas  battle plan (plan of action, OPS ORDER). YEP, I did say “plan.”

No self-respecting, non-profit fund raiser organization should be without a written plan to guide our fundraising efforts.

Our plan should spell out roles and goals with detailed instruction on how we will get there. It should be grounded in the past and targeted at the future. Each non-profit fundraising activity should be broken down into the necessary action steps that will produce the highest level of results with the most cost-effective effort. All committee members must know exactly what will be expected of them. A well organized team must understand their function(s) in order to be able to execute their mission flawlessly.

WORK SMART!

Working smart means taking our plan and putting it into action with an eye towards getting the most bottom line results from all of our efforts. We can get best long term results if we stay focused on not overburdening our volunteers, our supporters and the leadership. Overworking volunteers will ensure that many will not be around next year. It is important that we keep everyone fresh and motivated; let’s do that by having a well thought out plan that maximizes the value of everyone’s time, energy, and contributions.

BE SMART!

Being smart means taking the time NOW to begin a “Get Smart” effort about our non-profit fundraising course of action. We begin by setting a date, set-up a budget, location, get all necessary paperwork, involve other organizations, plan for publicity (contact local press and radio) obtain funding (if possible) etc.…then follow-up, follow-up and follow-up some more! Fundraising events have one drawback - they take time. We need to build activities around people who want to do them and have the necessary skills and support to help organize a successful event.

            A good idea + good organization + hard work = SUCCESS

This may be a lot of useful or useless information, but I believe in keeping all the troops informed. Remember: there is no such thing as a dumb question or idea, only the dumb or no response you get.

                                                 “SIN GANAS, NO GANAS”

  Our arrows will darken the skies – the Spartan response was “than we should do battle in the shade”

Robert Serge

Robert Serge

NAM JAM Las Vegas 2012 Chairman

E-mail: rserge@live.com

Cell: 702-715-0558

Any SUGGESTIONS i could use some help 

pin dorp

These are good

JFK'S 
Secretary of State, Dean Rusk, was in  France  in the early 60's when 
DeGaulle decided to pull out of NATO. DeGaulle said he wanted all  US  
military out of  France  as soon as possible. 


Rusk responded,

"Does that include those who are buried here?" 



DeGaulle 
did not respond.

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

When in  England ,

at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the 
Archbishop of  Canterbury  if our plans for  Iraq  were just an example of 
'empire building' by George Bush. 



He answered by saying,

"Over the years, the  United States has sent many of 
its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom 
beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for 
in return is enough to bury those that did not 
return."

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a conference in France

where a number of international engineers 
were taking part, including French and American. During a break, 
one of the French engineers came back into the room saying, "Have you 
heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft 
carrier to  Indonesia  to help the tsunami victims. What does he 
intend to do, bomb them?" 


A Boeing engineer

stood up and replied quietly: "Our carriers have three 
hospitals on board that can treat several hundred people; they are 
nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to 
shore facilities; they have three cafeterias with the capacity to 
feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand 
gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a 
dozen helicopters for use in transporting victims and injured to and 
from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships;

how many does  France have?"

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A  U.S. Navy Admiral

was attending a naval conference that included 
Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian, Australian and French 
Navies At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large 
group of officers that included personnel from most of those countries. 
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a 
French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many 
languages, Americans learn only English. He then asked, "Why is it that 
we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than 
speaking French?" 


Without hesitating,

the American Admiral replied, "Maybe it's because the 
Brit's, Canadians, Aussie's and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't 
have to speak German."

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AND 
THIS STORY FITS RIGHT IN WITH THE ABOVE... 


Robert Whiting,

an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in  Paris by plane.

At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport

in his carry on. 


"You 
have been to  France  before, monsieur?" the customs officer asked 
sarcastically. 


Mr. Whiting

admitted that he had been to  France 
previously. 


"Then 
you should know enough to have your passport ready." 


The American said,

"The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it." 


"Impossible.. 
Americans always have to show their passports on arrival in  France  !" 


The American senior

gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he 
quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at  Omaha   Beach  on D-Day in 
1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen 
to show a passport to." 

You 
could have heard a pin drop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If 
you are proud to be an American, pass this on! If not, delete it.

I am proud to be of this land, AMERICA