Thank you for all you do!

Mission Report:

We have been busy! Figures are from 1 January thru 30 September each year.  Our Vet Home visits and other official events are included in the overall mission totals:

                                                            2011                   2012

KIA/MIA                                            31                       7

Active Duty                                        14                       15
Veteran Mission                                  133                     169
Welcome Homes                                 17                       40
Deployments                                       48                       8

Overall Mission Totals:                       341                     329   

Financials:

Everything is on plan and to budget.  So far this year we have brought in $67,000 and donated/spent $60,000.  Our expenses for Veterans Home and Hunts is about $11,000 and donations and grants are about $42,000.  The rest of our expenses are operating needs such as insurance and Mission needs. 

The majority of our income is from the Patriot Ride.  Without the Patriot Ride income of $48,000 we can’t run the programs we support today.

State Leadership Meeting

Several topics were discussed at the State leader meeting on 27 Oct:

-  Mission reports will be added to the end of mission calendar postings.  To read the mission reports, go to the date of the mission, find your mission and scroll to the bottom of that specific mission to find the mission report.

- Leadership voted to retain the Non-MN PG calendar.  We will be re-naming the calendar to avoid any potential confusion.  The Non-MN PG calendar is only for events that support our military and/or veterans, but have no official MN PG participation.  It is strictly for member use if they wish to attend on their own as a private citizen.  Events that could violate our 501c3 status will not be posted on the calendar.

- Safety of our military is priority.  Mission postings should not show number of military member movement, flight numbers, family arrival times, etc.  Information may come from the press, but it should never come from us.

- Mission safety - RCIC needs to consider safety factors for members, i.e., bad weather, high traffic, heat/cold weather related injuries

- George Winslow, National PGR President briefed us on the current trademark issue.  There has been no change since Dec 2011.  Still in waiting mode.

- The MN Patriot Guard, Inc (MNPG) and Patriot Guard Riders (PGR) are two different groups.  The MN PG/Board of Directors deals with the money that Minnesota raises, deals with financial risks, and if state policies are needed to protect us from those risks.  The PGR is national and is responsible for doing the missions.  The State Captain is part of the National PGR’s leadership team and is held accountable by the National PGR for missions.

- Open discussions were held:

            - Northern Region SRC Rick Johnson led the discussion on the current mission scope.  It seems to be the consensus of leaders that the mission scope remain the way it is (no additions/deletions).

            - SRC Craig Ugland led discussion on the Non MN PG calendar on whether to keep it or remove it.  It was determined to have a Leadership Advisory Council (LAC) vote, which was accomplished by Survey Monkey, with a vote of 22 to2 in favor of keeping the Non MN PG calendar.

            - Metro Region SRC Ernie Johnson led discussion on engaging members.