Task Force Meeting Minutes — April 10, 2018
World War I Commemoration Task Force
Meeting Agenda
April 10, 2018
5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
2100 Clarendon Blvd
311 Conference Room
Acceptance of January and March Meeting Minutes (5 minutes)
Welcome and Announcements (15 minutes)
Recent Event Recaps:
Poetry Event at the Library 30-40 attended, poet laureate will be available later but maybe at the Armistice Celebration
Annette Benbow Lecture to be rescheduled (snow)- will be later in the year
Arlington Historical Society Essay Contest – April 15th is due date, have had more interest this year so hoping for a good turn-out
Virginia and WWI Tourism Grants- Zenia was not present but will reach out virtually about this later in the week.
Remember to Announce all WWI-related events to Task Force- just a reminder to do this
Announcing events to national WWICC calendar
Participation in events- please publicize to your memberships
WWI Task Force membership update- Mitchell is moving out of Arlington so he is leaving the task force.
WWICC Grant Update- cue the champagne! (15 Minutes) – We won one of the 100 Cities Grant in the amount of $2,000.00. We will match it with our funds. This gives us money we need and will provide us with a national profile. We will have a close timeline but we need to stay on top of our timeline. Next Steps: Cynthia will share draft with Cynthia and Sarah for feedback. Grant will be used for the monument plan at the WWI site. The overall budget is approx.. $11,500 total for design and creation. The County Board will need to accept the money for us to use it. Cynthia will work with county on communication. Our goal will be to spread the word and link it to the Event in June. The winning of the grant might be a good lead-in to doing a podcast. A decision on this will occur in May. Next steps
WWICC Podcast Opportunity – see above
Fundraising Event to Support Plaques at Clarendon Memorial—Frank (15 minutes)
June 28th at the Navy League, 2300 Wilson Blvd. starting at 5:30. We hope to have Opera Nova as our singing group. There will be a reception in the atrium. A professional caterer will be doing the food. Partnered with Sonia Johnson/John Marshall Bank is contributing $2000.00 for the event. Frank is meeting with the president of the Navy League and we are hoping rental space is free. One plan is to have the eight minute video looping in the atrium during the event. One consideration is to have DID YOU KNOW questions and answers shown throughout the event (The Benbows will be leading this). Attendance is free but there will be donation opportunities at the event. After one hour reception, the event starts at 6:30 and there will be a showing of colors (hopefully in doughboy uniforms), pledge, sing God Bless America, Over There, introduce dignitaries, welcome from the President of the Navy League, recognition of the AHS essay winners, remarks from Allison, and keynote of Mark Benbow.
Fundraising progress- $6,500 pledged already, Frank will deposit and notify the president, Tracy Hopkins, and treasurer of AHS to deposit these funds. Some fundraising for the event include:
Asking people for specific donations for specific items like food and drink
Providing coins for people who donate $50.00. Sarah and Allison and Frank will talk with the designer (Kevin Reardon) re the coin design. Cost will be approx. $5.00 for a profit of $45.00. Coin cost will be donated by Frank O’Leary and Jim Perley. These coins when created will also be shared at the Arlington County Fair.
Budget- reception costs (beer and wine, rental, printing (consider seeking some help with Arlington County on this) etc. Expect that the event cost is about $1000.00. Frank will provide information on the budget to the commission.
Next Steps will be determined at the next banquet.
PTSD Panel—Brendon/Joe (10 minutes)
Update- event will be on the Thursday before Memorial Day (May 24) at John Lyon Post. Time TBA.
Speakers- Dr. Harold Kudler will be keynote. Undersecretary for VA., also will have a panel of veterans who will share their PTSD stories and journeys. Also a speaker from Boller-Crest, an alternate treatment program.
Format- Event will be used to kick off their Memorial Day events.
The Post will be promoting on social media. Posters that have been created for other events by Peter will be on display at the event.
Next Steps: WWI Commission needs to provide a formal invitation to the speakers. WWI Commission will also promote on our media channels. Allison has another speaker who might be available.
5 K Valor Run – collaboration update and plans (10 minutes)- guests from Team Red White and Blue will partner with Arlington to run a virtual valor run to raise awareness for women’s memorial. Planned for May 20th and looking for a location in Arlington. Email with details will be coming out soon.
Mobile Tour Bus Update for County Fair – Zenia sent an email. They are working on drivers and will provide update when they have more details.
Table location/strategy- sell coins there
Volunteer availability- we will have to staff this throughout the fair
Activities (quiz?)- at this point, we are thinking of not offering the quiz
Arlington Independent Media WWI themed show – Craig (15 minutes)
Update- Craig met with American Battle Monument Commission. The commission will loan videos to show. They also can film at their site with backdrops. The first show will need a speech for what the WWI script about our commission. When show are produced, the show will run for one month at different times of the day.
Collaboration with ABMC (see above)
Timeline- a crew is available to direct. Timelines will be developed about delivery of the speech.
Next Steps: Script will be developed. ABMC resources will be incorporated. Perhaps, the ABMC will focus on what they are and what they do. Other possible shows can be developed. Consider seeing if the PTSD event could be filmed and put on the network show. Sarah will create a draft of the script. Vihstadt will be considered to also appear.
Professor Sammons lecture (5 minutes)- Sammons is a professor and author. He is willing to come and to a talk on African Americans in WWI.
Collaboration with Alexandria and Black Heritage Museum of Arlington
Event Plans- potentially a joint event with Alexandria Historical Society, Black Heritage Museum, and WWI Commission to be held at the Lyceum. Date at this time is Sept. 26th.
Veterans’ Day Plans (15 minutes)- This will be our signature event
Update- Veteran associations are working on Memorial Day. After those events, we will be working to see how we can partner with the Veteran associations on this event.
Uniforms (additional request)- we have four and will try to get two more
Concert/performance plans (budgeting)- 2 ideas- $500.00 recruit free students and pay for a pianist, $1,500.00 with a strong pianist and professional singers.
Publicizing Veterans’ Day activities- The county will close the streets of Clarendon if we can get a large group of people there
Upcoming Events:
April 28, 3:00pm, Arlington Central Library: The Arlington Sister City Association presents Mark D. Van Ells, “Doughboy Battlefields: A Visit to the Places Americans Fought during the First World War”
May 20 (Tentative): Valor Run with Team RWB
May 28, time TBD: American Legion Memorial Day Ceremony at the Clarendon War Memorial
June 14, time TBD: Arlington Historical Society lecture by Zack Wilske on WWI immigration, location TBD.
June 27, 7:00pm, Arlington Central Library: Paul Newman, “Mud and Hooves: The British Regular Cavalry of the First World War”
June 28, 5:30pm: WWI Task Force Major Fundraising Event. Details/location TBD.
Other Items Shared:
A book (Fight Like a Girl) about women in the Marine Corp was shared as a possible future event. It was suggested to partner with the library.
We are prepping for our final events. We do not anticipate adding additional events but want to focus on the events we have coming up. Allison and Sarah will be sharing our work with the County Board.
Concern is expressed about the movement of the Cherrydale Monument to the John Lyon Post so that it will be better cared for. This issue will be discussed with James Schwartz as that is outside of the WWI Commission responsibilities.
Kyle wrote some excellent blogs on WWI.
We are looking for a space for concert on the week of November 9th as a pre-WWI event. Cathy will reach out toe Kenmore regarding this event.