AVMS Meeting Minutes October 13, 2025

Call to Order: Rich Greenberg, President, called the meeting to order at 6:30. Deb DiStefano, Director-at-Large was absent due to illness. Gail Boyle, Secretary led the Pledge of Allegiance. Invocation: led by Bob Turner.

Guest Speaker: Kelly Kowell from My Warrior’s Place was the guest speaker. Kelly spoke on how the organization was formed and how it has grown over the last years to help even more veterans with water-based activities, dog therapy and camaraderie.

Officer Reports

Treasurer’s Report – Steve Milbrod:

For the month of September, we had a beginning balance of $21,782.23 and we ended the month with $23,828.14.
Deposits of $4,186.00 were made consisting of $1,231 from ticket sales for Del Webb Feud, $2,612.00 from ticket sales for Lottapalooza , $100 for Operation Thanksgiving, $25 from shirt sales, $43 from 50/50 raffle sales, $155 from Membership dues.
On the expense side there was $818.00 spent for the annual liability insurance premium.

Secretary’s Report – Gail Boyle:

July’s meeting minutes were approved by the Board electronically and are available on the AVMS website.

The By-Laws were also approved electronically and also will be posted to the AVMS website.

Attendance – 26 members 1 guest

Other Business

Rich Greenberg –

The Tribute to Heroes will be held November 9th. Rich, Bob and John Bastiani are the steering committee and will coordinate AVMS’ participation at the event which includes the color guard and banner holders all meeting at the Grove at 3:40, with kick off at 4:00 ending near Pinchers. A lunch for Veterans will be sponsored by Lakewood Ranch at the Town Hall between 2:30-3:30.
In lieu of the November meeting, we will host our Veteran’s Day event on November 10th and present donations to our charity partners.
Elections for 2026 board will be via electronic ballots with those who do not vote electronically to vote in person at the December 2nd meeting. If you are interested in serving, send your bio and what position you are interested in to Rich.

Bob Turner –

Volunteers are needed for a scholarship committee to determine the criteria for the award to include such items as academics, athletics, community involvement, and military involvement.
Volunteerism is much needed to keep AVMS as a successful interest group. Bob spoke of talking to your neighbors and friends to get them interested in joining and participating.
Our webmaster, Chris DiBiase had double bypass heart surgery and is recovering nicely. Volunteers are needed to help update our website.
Bob thanked this month’s hosts who were Wilma Koss who brought baked goods from Lucille Messina’s Making a Difference group.

Upcoming Events –

The Night at the Races will be held on January 31, 2026 and is expected to be bigger and better than last year.
Operation Thanksgiving – Operation Thanksgiving kick-off headed up by Paul Roy and will run through the end of the month. Donations currently are at 50% of last year’s numbers. It was discussed that
AVMS will exchange the donations for gift cards from Publix. The First Sergeant’s Council will then distribute the cards on the basis of need. Publix has donated three additional $50 gift cards.

50/50 – Pina

The 50/50 was drawn at the end of the meeting.

Our next meeting will be December 2nd.

Respectfully submitted, Gail Boyle – Secretary