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Western Command (mainland) meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month, 8:00 pm, at the Royal Canadian Legion Br. #263 at 1025 Ridgeway in Coquitlam. For the Coquitlam-challenged that would be one block North of Austin and one block East of Blue Mountain.

Western Command (Vancouver Island) meetings are held the second Wednesday of the month, 7:00 pm, at the Britannia Legion, 780 Summit Ave., Victoria.
Updated May 5th, 2014- Elections - AGM - May 14th Meeting
Dues is Due! You can pay at the meeting or mail your renewal in. See 'contact us' page for address information.

 

Western Command's AGM is this upcoming meeting, Wednesday, May 14th (you'll note the second Wednesday of the month is NOT the 7th, as a lot of people seem to think.)

Up for election are all positions of the Western Command executive, Secretary, Treasurer etc., so come and throw your name in the ring or just come out to exercise your democratic voice as Western Command is *your* organization, and your vote is your voice.

Just a reminder that only paid up members can vote or stand for election, so if you're one of *those* people (*cough*) please settle up with Dean prior to the election itself. It's also usually one of the best 50-50 draws of the year, but make sure you pay Dean before emptying your wallet into the draw (or the lounge.)

The AGM was postponed from its previously scheduled date of the April meeting as sufficient notice had not been given the membership through the newsletter, website and Facebook avenues. Herewith corrected.

 

ELECTIONS/ ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

May 14th 2014

.I will soon add a permanent link button to the menu on the left of this page, but for now you can click the heading above to go straight to the photo section on the photo-sharing site Flickr, or click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/westerncommand and add it to your bookmarks. If you know how to use Flickr and want to be able to upload your own event pictures into an event-specific folder, just email me at the address on the 'Contact Us' page and I'll hook you up with the access information. Ideally we'd appoint someone to take care of the photo section as I don't have the time to process all the pictures people send me, but failing that I'll do what I can when I can. At the moment all the recent Freedom Route pictures are up, along with a short iPhone video I shot during the parade in Penticton. See 'Recent Events' below for a link to pictures of the Engineers 100th Anniversary which recently took place.
   

 

Miss a newsletter? Visit the Newsletters page and download all the ones from 2013, and all the digital ones available from previous years. If you have an idea for the Newsletter or would like to see something, or pass on your comments or perhaps a classified ad...give our newsletter editor an email. You'll find his contact information on the Newsletters page.
Ottawa Puts the Brakes on Historical Troops

 

 

Western Command on Facebook!
Ottawa's new DND-wide motto now appears to be "In All Things, Liability", as an edict has come down with respect to vehicles - tracked and wheeled - and trailers (really, anything that you'd put a licence plate on) held by military museums in restored/ operable condition - that are "still on charge" or "on the unit D.A. account" (i.e., still belonging to the Queen.) This edict states that they're not to be licenced or driven. At all. Full stop. So no more parades, no more demonstrations of the M113C Lynx tracked vehicle at airshows...no more heritage vehicles out in support of commemorations and veteran's events.

This doesn't apply to vehicles owned outright by the various militia unit Museum Associations as they were either purchased by or granted to those Associations and are no longer on the Queen's books, so these could still go out to support events with volunteer crews. I hope to see that happen more often.

The other edict concerns Monument Vehicles. What was happening in the past is that demilled vehicles etc. still on a DA account (still belonging to the Queen) but transferred to Legions and Museums and so on for display were being worked on by volunteers so they could be driven in parades etc. rather than just rotting on a concrete plinth. Unfortunately, Ottawa has freaked out about the possible liability issues with respect to operation of this equipment still nominally belonging to the Queen, and has warned various organizations that the Monument Vehicles can and will be taken back if they're doing anything other than sitting on a piece of concrete. Apparently that happened recently with one piece of wheeled equipment at a local museum.

While I can understand where they're coming from, there should be some mechanism whereby museums can acquire operational examples for use in Remembrance Day parades/ events and other like functions, even if this involves some sort of formal crew training or extra levels of liability insurance. That's done in the 'states and in UK, and I doubt our veterans are any less worthy than theirs, plus, with budget cutbacks all over, there are only so many events DND itself can support. It really is win-win.

 

 

Hey, isn't everybody? Search for Western Command and join us on Facebook for event information, pics, general chat and just plain fun! Social media works for you even if you're driving something with a machine gun mounted on it...perhaps even better that way!

 

 

 

 

 

Western Command Newsletter Returns! - current issue Click Here