Mideast Division Bulletin July 2015
This Mideast Division Bulletin is to provide communication on administrative policy and pending events within the division. These are areas that I want the Departments and Detachments to focus on to ensure the Mideast Division complies with directives from MCL National HQ. Disseminate this information to all detachments. Departments are requested to submit any information on scheduled events within their area to the Division Adjutant, Roger Ware at and Division Web Sgt, Robin Elder at
. The Division web site is: The Chain of Command is: Individual - Detachment - Department - Division - National.
Mideast Division Officers:
NVC: Mike McLain: Home: 304-464-5049
Assistant NVC: Bruce Rakfeldt: Home: 336-578-9446 Judge Advocate: Gerard F. Devlin: Home: 301-262-1696
Jr. Past NVC: Arvel “Bud” Raines: Cell: 301-697-9994
Chief of Staff : R. Frederick Wise Home: 410-213-2543
Adjutant: Roger Ware: Home: 304-636-4365
Paymaster: R. Frederick Wise: Home: 410-213-2543
Chaplain: Lee Taylor: Home: 540-297-4633
Aide-de-Camp: John “Jack” Severn: Home: 301-865-1962
Sgt-at-Arms: Charles Minton: Home: 252-452-0728
Sgt-at-Arms: Jeffrey Jones: Home: 252-205-0627
Web Sergeant: Robin Elder Cell: 804-814-8284
Marine For Life: Don Coons: Cell: 757-510-0435
W- Warriors: Don Coons: Cell: 757-510-0435
VAVS: Roger Ware: Home: 304-636-4365
Legislative: Gerard F. Devlin: Home: 301-262-1696
Toys for Tots: Bruce Vanden Bos: Home: 301-994-1343
Ambassador: Guy Hall: Home: 410-946-2399
Historian: Evelyn Remines Home: 443-243-2430
Fund Raising Chairman: James Brady Home: 410-551-3069
NVC ANVC Adjutant
Mike McLain Bruce Rakfeldt Roger Ware
159 Kittle Street 2717 Clifford Ray Road 181 Weese Street Williamstown, WV 26187 Haw River, NC 27258 Elkins, WV 26241
Department Commandants:
Department of Delaware
Commandant: Raymond P. Snyder Home: 302-588-1542
Department of Maryland
Commandant: Craig Reeling Home: 443-477-0670
Department of North Carolina
Commandant: Charles Minton Home 252-452-0728
Department of Virginia
Commandant: Don Coons Cell; 757-510-0435
Department of West Virginia
Commandant: Richard L. Shank Cell: 304-633-1814
Capital Marine Detachment 516
Commandant: Chuck R. LaBerge: Home: 352-391-9259
National Capital Detachment 382
Commandant: John Kovalcik: Cell: 843-333-4618
London UK Detachment 1088
Commandant: Mark Scher OIP :248-823-5942
------Mideast Division Membership
Here are the total paid membership of the Mideast Division since 3/31/15
6/30/15 3/31/15 12/31/14 9/30/146/30/14 3/31/14
6188 6281 6360 6416 6459 6418
Here are the totals for the Division as of 6/30/15
PLM: 3534 Paid: 2654 Total Paid: 6188 Unpaid: 1167
Here are the changes since the 3/31/15 membership roster:
PLM -20 Paid: -73 Total Paid: -93 Unpaid: +79
Here are the Department totals:
Dept: PLM Paid Total Paid Unpaid
DE 208 129 337 55
MD 718 416 1134 174
NC 1215 1170 2385 495
VA 864 596 1460 324
WV 466 266 732 90
Nat HQ MCL 15 10 25 3
District of Col 48 67 115 26
London 14 10 24 3
Sierra Alpha 1 0 1 0
Total: 3534 2654 6188 1167
National: 34437 25703 60140 10343
Unpaid Totals 3/31/15 10,005 (8,251 Reg; 1,754 Assoc & Multi)
Unpaid Totals 12/31/14 9,939 (8,194 Reg; 1,745 Assoc & Multi)
Unpaid Totals 9/30/149,491 (7,816 Reg; 1,675 Assoc & Multi)
Unpaid Totals 6/30/14 9,333 (7,726 Reg; 1,607 Assoc & Multi)
MCL National HQ has sent the Quarterly membership listing as of June 30, 2015 to
every Detachment Paymaster and every Department Commandant within the Mideast
Division. This roster lists the total paid, and unpaid members for each respective Detachment within each Department. Upon receipt of this Quarterly membership listing, Department Commandants are directed to review this list and make contact with those Detachment Commandants in their departments and task these Commandants to do what they can to reduce the number of unpaid members in their detachments. Membership is the driving force for the Marine Corps League and every member in the Mideast Division is a recruiter and we all need to do whatever we can to keep our members and recruit new members. National is focusing on all these unpaid members and has directed every Division to see what can be done to encourage these unpaid members to pay their annual dues. A personal telephone call or directive from the Department Commandant to the Detachment Commandants can often make a difference. Let’s see if we can increase the number of paid members in our Division.
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Mideast Division Conference Summary
The Mideast Division Conference was held June 26-28, 2015 at the Hospitality House Hotel and Conference Center, Fredericksburg, Virginia and was hosted by the Department of Virginia. The following MCL National officers were in attendance:
Mike McLain - NVC Mideast Division
Bud Raines - Jr Past NVC Mideast Division
Gerard Devlin - National Parliamentarian
Jeffery Jones - National Asst Sgt-at-Arms
John Hopkins - National Legislative member
Charlie Minton - National Boy Scouts Committee member
Craig Reeling - National Uniform Committee, National Color Guard Bearer
Jack Severn - National Uniform Committee, National Color Guard Sergeant,
Resident Agent MHM and Editor National Convention Book, Mid-winter Conference Book.
Councilman at Large, Matt Kelly gave welcome remarks from Mayor of Fredericksburg.
Professional Development Training - Marine Four Life presentation was given by
Shannon Eby, Major, Marine Corps Reserves, Marine For Life Representative, Quantico/Stafford Virginia
Adjutant went over the 2015 National Proposed Bylaws changes and talked about voting by delegates for the bylaws and elections. all delegates must ensure they vote the wishes of their detachment. The Board of Trustee’s need to be proactive at the department and detachment level as is their duty to manage the detachment administrative, clerical and financial procedures. Ensure your detachments approve all events and activities at your membership meetings so it’s approved by the detachment as a corporation for legal and insurance purposes. He also suggested to document your professional Development and Leadership training in your monthly minutes as this reminds you to have ongoing training sessions.
When a member transfers to M-A-L status, he has NO voting privileges at the Detachment or Department level and can only vote at the National Convention and can not serve on any committees. If he is a Dual member and also belongs to a Detachment, he can vote that membership in the Detachment and Department. There is no M-A-L at the Department level as it is National only.
A static rotation for hosting the Mideast Division Conference is listed below as this would help all the departments in advance planning for their respective year.
1.Virginia – June 26-28, 2015
2.Delaware – 2016
3.North Carolina – 2017
4.Maryland – 2018
5. West Virginia - 2019
Division MOY Chairman Roger Ware discussed the Board members included himself, Bud Raines, Tony Begenwald and Fred Wise. Also that better announcement of when to submit and address nomination needed in future and that nomination should be about MCL not MODD and should be for life of member in league vice single year. All nominations submitted must be in accordance with the National MOY guidelines insuring that all nominations are sealed in an inner envelopment addressed to the Chairman. A second outer envelope must be addressed to the Chairman at the address listed in the announcement, and that it must be sent Certified, Return Receipt. The criteria for the nomination would be specified with an announcement in a future bulletin or division notice.
The 2015 Mideast Division Marine of the Year: Richard Tanner - Department of Delaware. The banquet speaker was Major Gen James W. Lukeman, Commanding General, Education and Training Command Quantico, Virginia
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Division Financial
The Mideast Division presently has a balance of $1,284.34
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IRS Form 990-N e-file
All Detachments and departments are nonprofit organizations and are required to file an annual IRS Form 990-N return regardless of their income. The fiscal year ends for all detachments and departments on June 30 yearly so you can file your 990 N efile after July 1. Log on and then just follow the instructions to complete the form 990-N. There’s only a few questions. Have your EIN to help log in. You will receive an email acceptance receipt from IRS. National Administrative Procedures Section 800 requires that each detachment and department forward a copy of this acceptance receipt to their Department Paymaster. The Department Paymaster will forward the Acceptance Receipts to National Headquarters , National Adjutant/Paymaster Meg Thoburn at or may consolidate these receipts into a single document showing the name of the organization, the EIN, the submission ID Number, and the date the submission was accepted by the IRS. National utilizes these 990 reports to update the annual report required by the Group Exemption filing requirements to IRS. Failure to file the 990-N to IRS, can subject your detachment to lose it’s exempt non-profit status. Plus if you want to look up an organization to acquire vital information like 990-N go to guidestar.com.
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Paid Life Members - PLM - Audit -
Certification of Life Members
The Detachment Paymaster, along with the Detachment Commandant, will annually audit the Detachment’s Life Members. The Detachment Paymaster will make a copy of the 30 June Quarterly Member Listing (roster). Take the original copy of the roster and verify the PLM members. Using this copy the Detachment Paymaster will annotate any additions, deletions or other adjustments to the Life Members listed. Each adjustment will include the reason and, whenever possible, will cite supporting documentation to assist in correcting the records at National Headquarters. Upon receipt is the best time to do this so it’s not forgotten. These are due at National before Dec. 31. If a detachment does not certify its PLM roster is true and accurate before the deadline, it will not receive its annual residual interest for its life members.
The Commandant and Paymaster must sign a statement on the original that they certify and annotate that the life member list is audited and is true and accurate and that there are no changes. This must also be dated. Make a copy after signing and then forward the original to your Department Paymaster so it can be mailed to MCL National Headquarters to arrive before Dec. 31. Your Department Paymaster will send your copy to the National Adjutant/Paymaster. Ref: National Bylaws Sections 645 and 646.
Note: The 2015 PLM interest amount is per life member on your detachment roster as of 31 August 2013. The PLM interest is always paid for those life member 2 years ago.
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New Email Addresses for MCL National Office Staff
Mike Blum, National Executive Director
Membership Manager
Office Support
General Membership Questions
Merchandise Manager
Merchandise Support
Merchandise Support
Inventory Control
General Merchandise Questions
Veterans Service Officer
Office Support
National Adjutant/Paymaster
Managerial Assistant
General Questions about EIN or 990s
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2015 National Proposed Bylaws Changes
1. Change to allow ANVC to attend NBOT meeting to represent the division, perform additional duties as directed by NVC, have approved expenses authorized by NVC to be charged to NVC account.
2. Change dates for Midwinter National Staff conference to January, February or March as dates for the conference.
3. Change wording for Midwinter National Staff Conference to be March yearly.
4.. Removes a sentence in the Bonding of Insurance as it is confusing.
5.. Life Member fee - National currently retains $50.00 for gold card and admin costs, and this allow National to retain 50% of the life member fee in FY 16, FY 17 and FY 18 to shore up the General Fund due to loss of advertising and expo income. This will be temporary to projected to return 600K to General Fund.
6. Wants to change how new membership numbers are assigned to ensure no previous member numbers are reused.
7. Insurance Bonding Territorial Coverage for existing off shore detachment and new off shore detachments that they purchase their own coverage and add National included as Additional Insured and Held Harmless. These detachments must provide a copy of their coverage to National.
AP 1. Convention registration packet will be given to all advance registrations and all tickets must be purchased from host unit.
AP 2. Allows the delegates to fix the price of the delegate fees for the next convention.
AP 3. Petitioner must post $500 bond for any grievance or DC at Dept level and if charge dismissed or respondent not guilty fee is forfeited and $1000 will be posted if
referred to National level and forfeited if charge denied, dismissed or found not guilty. This will help prevent unnecessary nuisance filings.
AP 4. That petitioner can file grievance with Detachment JA so it can resolve a Grievance and if not resolved then it goes to the Dept JA. Rationale: To induce Grievance resolution at Detachment level whenever possible; to ensure impartial review and determination; to expedite grievance, determination and resolution; and to reduce department grievance workload.
AP 5. Add Stolen Valor as a potential complaint to help reduce growing concern on stolen valor incidents.
AP 6. Rewriting of Chapter 9 to have better organization and details worded to reduce words for more understanding and clarification.
AP enclosure 3 Plain white cotton belt 2 1/2’ with brass MC waist plate 3 1/2’ x 2 1/2’
Associate members may wear when serving as Sgt at Arms or during Honor Guard detail or ceremony
AP Enclosure 3 Defines and gives better clarification for Enclosure 3 - uniform code and wearing of uniform for females more clearly.
AP Enclosure 3 Change to add 2 miniature replica ribbons to blazer
AP enclosure 4 - Change 1 - Recommendation for rewrite of enclosure 4 for MCL awards and ribbons
AP Enclosure 4 Change 2 - Change so that Chapel of Four Chaplains, National, Division, Department or Detachment MOY medal or ribbon can be worn with casual, formal or undress in lieu of the MODD dog collar at the option of the awardees.
AP Enclosure 4 Change 3 - Ceremonial Guard Ribbon recommendation
AP Enclosure 4 Change 4 - Ceremonial Guard Medal and Ribbon Proposal
AP Enclosure 4 Change 5 - Make change so Certificates can be used for some awards to accompany medal
AP Enclosure 4 Attachment 2 - Make award recommendation form easier to use for write ups.
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Dues Transmittals
National Membership Manager Johanna Hill sent the following memo to al Paymasters. This memo is being sent to advise all Paymasters that we are experiencing a shortage in transmittal forms. Please note that they are on order and once received our membership department will work promptly in sending replacement forms to al paymasters. In the meantime, you will receive your copies back and if you have any questions or need additional information regarding the time frame contact our membership department at 703-207-9588.
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IRS Forms Coming to Retirees
Beginning in January 2016, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) will provide the appropriate IRS Form 1095 to all retirees, annuitants, former spouses and all other individuals having TRICARE coverage during tax year 2015 to prove they have minimal essential health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The forms will be reported with the 2015 federal tax returns. All customers should ensure that the U.S. Postal Service address DFAS has on file for them is current by checking their latest Retiree Account Statement or calling DFAS at 800-321-1080. People with a myPay account should logon and ensure their email address is current as well as make an IRS Form 1095 delivery method election. More information about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on federal income tax is available on the IRS website at
Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), all Americans including all military members (active duty, retired, Selected Reserve, or Retired Reserve) and their eligible family members must have health care coverage that meets a minimum standard called minimum essential coverage or pay a fee. Your TRICARE coverage meets the minimum essential coverage requirement under the ACA.
"The term "active duty" means full-time duty in the active service of a uniformed service for more than 30 consecutive days".
Beginning in January 2016, DFAS will be providing IRS Form 1095-C to all U.S. military members, and IRS Form 1095-B to all Retirees, Annuitants, former spouses and all other individuals having TRICARE coverage during all or any portion of tax year 2015. An IRS Form 1095 documents you (and your family members, if applicable) have the minimum essential coverage. More information will be forthcoming about the delivery method of these forms.
These forms will document the information that DFAS will provide to the IRS on yourself and your authorized family members. The forms will be required to be reported with your 2015 federal tax return. DFAS will provide you with IRS Form 1095 series forms no later than Jan. 31, 2016
You can find more information about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on your federal income tax at: or
You can act now to make sure your forms remain secure once they are available using myPay. Just look for the link to "Turn On/Off Hard Coy of IRS Form 1095" in your account and select Electronic Delivery Only. Your information will remain safe until you need it.
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Bylaws and Rules
Every department and detachment should maintain a copy of the National and Department Bylaws and Administrative Procedures. Since detachments have to be incorporated they are required to have their own Detachment Bylaws which are not inconsistent with the National and Department Bylaws and Administrative Procedures. In the event of a conflict between the National Bylaws and Administrative Procedures and the Department Bylaws and Administrative Procedures, the National Bylaws and Administrative Procedures shall take precedence. The policies and procedures within the National and Department Bylaws and Administrative Procedures must be followed as there is no deviation. They also have to be in compliance with the state corporations laws and file all required reports. The rules contained in the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the MCL assemblies in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent or in conflict with these Bylaws and Administrative Procedures and any special rules of order that the MCL may adopt.
The Detachment Charter is its Constitution and it has established bylaws and administrative procedures to govern its mission and purpose. Guidelines on how to amend the bylaws should always be included in the bylaws. Any suspension of the bylaws should be written specifically for within the bylaws. Bylaws, except those pertaining to business procedure, can not be suspended, unless they expressly provide for their suspension. Bylaws in the nature of rules of order may be suspended by a two-thirds vote. At any meeting standing rules may be suspended by a majority rule, or they may be amended or rescinded by a two-thirds vote. Any motion that conflicts with the MCL bylaws is out of order, and if approved by unanimous vote is null and void. When members chose someone for a position, they have faith and trust in your integrity to honestly and faithfully perform your duties and responsibilities to vindicate that faith and trust. During the oath of membership, new members pledge to uphold and defend the laws of the Marine Corps League. If they become an officer they pledge to enforce, uphold and obey the laws of the League.