Thames River Detachment #1334

P. O. Box 254

Quaker Hill, Ct. 06375

News Letter: Volume 1, Issue 1,

February 2010,

Our Breakfast To Benefit Homeless Shelter

We are currently in the planning process for a breakfast to benefit the new vet homeless house they are building. At the officers meeting we discussed this and thought that it would be a great idea. I know I sent out an email already about this but I thought that we should also include it in here. I am still looking to get some thoughts and ideas about this project ASAP. A couple of members have already responded and thank you.

Marine Sayings For The Month

Marines I see as two breeds, Rottweiler’s or Dobermans, because Marines come in two varieties, big and mean, or skinny and mean. They're aggressive on the attack and tenacious on defense. They've got really short hair and they always go for the throat.

(RAdm. "Jay" R. Stark USN.  10 Nov. 1995)

Basketball Games News

Former UConn teammates Ashja Jones (left) and Sue Bird having a few laughs playing against each other in the WNBA. Connecticut Sun games are a ton of fun.

On July 20, 2010 we will be holding a different type of fundraiser. This event has the potential to become an annual event. There have been some new developments since we last talked about it. Tickets can now be bought online thru Ticketmaster which makes it a lot easier on all of us. All they have to do is go to our web page and click on the events link and then scroll down and click the “x”. Please make sure to tell anyone that you are sending to order tickets this way that there is a promo code. It is listed in the directions and so everyone knows it is “Thames River”.

A Note Fom Our Commandant

First and foremost I would like to thank everyone that showed up to help with our pasta dinner. After getting off to a little bit of a rough start I think this event ended up going fantastic. A lot of hard work and dedication went into making this event a success and for that I salute you. We entertained a lot of people from all over including some of our MCL brothers and sisters from other detachments. I would like to get some feedback from the people that were there. Things you thought were good and things you think we should work on. Please email or bring me your thoughts to the next meeting. I also need a list of donors, names address and so on this way we can make sure that they are thanked properly. The raffle we had a big hit (except for the Cajun toast), we have some great pictures and they are being put on our web page and our new face book page.

The Thames River BBQ

As most of you are aware we are planning a group BBQ in July. We are currently looking at a couple of different locations for this event and we are hoping to have a finalized location soon. This is going to be an event that the detachment is going to pay for so there is no cost to the members. We have discussed the possibility of doing a sort of pot luck, the detachment is going to buy the majority of the items but if you would like to bring a dish then by all means you are welcome too. This should be a great day out so I would like to see a huge turnout. More information to come.

Commandant's Intentions

As many of you have already heard I am going to be running for New London County Commandant at this year’s Department Convention. The MCL has become something that I am passionate about and would like to move up to the state level with. For those of you on face book the detachment now has its very own page. Some of our page members include Jim Laskey and Bill Taylor. Most of you will remember Bill Taylor he served as the Sgt of Arms at our Charter Dinner. He was honored to join our page and even stated that he feels that it won’t be to long before we are the talk of the state. . For those of you involved with our color guard we are going to be looking to start practicing for the upcoming parades. As far as the parades go there a lot of options for us as far as which towns we should attend. I am going to be addressing this at the next meeting so if you are a part of our color guard please attend so that your input can be heard.

A Steak Night Out

From Our British Friends

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Our Newsletters

There has been talk in the past about sending out newsletters to the membership to let them know what is going on with the detachment. I think now is the time to start acting on this and if you would like to submit anything to the newsletter please email me and I will include it in here. I am going to making these a monthly thing so you can expect to have it around the middle of the month, depending on what we have going on. These newsletters are for you. If you have anything that you want to add and don’t want your name used I respect that and will honor it.

Commandant's Corner

This is going to be my area that I am going to talk about everything that I see happening with this detachment and our events. Not everything that I talk about may pertain to everyone so please do not think it’s personal. First and foremost I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and dedication to making this one of the most envied detachments in Connecticut. Over the past 6 months we have done an outstanding job showing New London County that not only do we exist but that we are here to stay. No other detachments web page can even compare to ours and we all have Marine Watterson to thank. He is updating our web page daily. We have a dedicated funeral squad Marines Porter, Reid, Watterson and Kargul have it down to a tee. Thank you gentlemen for all your hard work! I have attended a couple of funerals and the families are always grateful that we are there. As far as my other officers you guys are doing great! Marine Macek is ensuring that all the honor guard uniforms are getting ordered, as well as attending the state meetings and work a full time job that has demanding hours, and running our color guard. Marine Reid is doing a great job on our rosters, I don’t know how many times I have asked Jim to put something together for me and I have it that night. Marine Thomas you not only work a full time job but you wear more hats then should be allowed and you are doing a great job! As far as the membership goes without you guys we wouldn’t be here so for that keep up the good work and don’t let up. You are the ones that our pushing us to keep things fun! Just so everyone knows we are keeping track of recruitment and I would like to present some ribbons to members this year so if you have recruited members make sure that you are signing the sponsor slot this way you can get credit for it. Also if you have recruited members and you didn’t sign the slot please email myself or Marine Reid so that we can make sure you get credit for it. As far as the meetings go I like that we have a good attendance, however I would like to see some more people attending if their schedules permit. Lastly there are going to be a few small changes coming to the detachment as far as how meeting are being conducted. I ask that everyone familiar yourselves with Roberts Rules of Order as that is the direction our meetings should be taking. I know the biggest rule is no drinking during meetings. This has NOT become an issue yet but I also don’t want it to become one. If you walk into the meeting with a drink its fine with me but please ensure that you are not getting up in the middle of the meeting to walk out and order another one as this is not allowed. Also we need to make sure that we are staying on topic there is nothing worse than having a meeting that drags on for hours because we have to keep going back to things that we already discussed. If you have questions then please do not be afraid to ask!