VFW Post 9063 disbanding

In front of the community room at Mercy Hospital, VFW Post 9063 took another step toward disbanding. Last month four members of the post attended a meeting with district and state offices and were told they had a month to find officers for the club.

The post is required to have eleven officers, including trustees. While the VFW Post has always had a good-sized membership roster, no one will volunteer to act as an officer. At Thursday’s meeting, district commander Frank Lee said the post has only one officer. Two potential members attended the meeting but, even if both took on an officer position, the post would still be short and would have to close.

One of the potential members, Paul Poulides is an active volunteer with the recycling center which was a project of AARP. The local AARP chapter closed last year for the same reason, he said. It just could not get people to fill the officer positions.

The VFW post can be reopened, state judge-advocate Don Barnes explained. The funds in the bank account and the post charter will be held for one year. If a group of officers can get together in that time, Post 9063 can be reopened. After one year, a new post would have to start from scratch, he said.

District adjutant Darrell Darner, who is a member of the Siloam Springs post, suggested the two new members come to meetings at a different post in the area and see what is expected of officers. If they want the job, they can work with other Bella Vistans to recruit a few more volunteers and try to reopen the post.

Post 9063 used to have a building. It was located next to the Wall of Honor, across the parking lot from Lake Bella Vista. The land was leased from Cooper Communities and Cooper helped them clean out the building after three floods, Lee said. But after one last flood in 2015, the building was filled with black mold and could not be saved. It was torn down and the land reverted to Cooper. Since then, the post has not had a regular meeting place.

No one had reserved the community room, but without a quorum present, the gathering wasn’t even an official meeting. The group talked for a few minutes and then a few of them moved on to the nearest Arvest branch to close the post bank account and turn the money over to the state organization.