ROCKY HILL, CONN. (Jan. 30, 2025)–The VFW Department of Connecticut Bylaw Review Committee is nearing completion of a complete revision of the governing document of the largest and oldest war veterans organization in the state.
The 2025 VFW Connecticut Bylaw Revision (Version 9) is in the “final committee draft” after reaching a consensus among the three members: Committee Chairman John LeBlanc (Post 201), Past State Commander Robert Bailey, and current Senior Vice Commander Charles M. Pickett.
Of the bylaw revision, Chairman LeBlanc wrote, “it greatly lends to us producing and recommending and forwarding a good product that will give the department a working framework in the years ahead.”
The committee will release the final committee draft for comment and consideration to the VFW Connecticut Council of Administration prior to their Feb. 10, 2025 meeting, as it wends it way to the June 2025 VFW Connecticut Convention for possible adoption.
The 2025 VFW Connecticut Bylaw Revision offers a comprehensive review and reduction of the rules document for state-level VFW operation, slimming the document from 21 pages to eight. This version is a subsequent edit from the previously submitted “2024 VFW Connecticut Bylaw Revision,” which was resubmitted at the June 2024 Council of Administration meeting to the Bylaw Review Committee.
Most of the reduction, representing 120 hours of editing and 22 hours of committee work, comes from the removal of many redundant, word-for-word copies of whole sections from the VFW National Bylaws. The biggest changes are:
- 21 pages to 8 pages
- removal of the many redundant sections
- removal of the section violating national bylaws (Article XVI)
- removal of long-ignored mandates
- creation of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) document
- updating portions to match national bylaws
- changes to standing committees from 22 to five
- addition of “Robert’s Rules of Order” under procedural matter