Page 5 - February 2021 SARIZONA

President’s Message
William Baran, PhD
Arizona SAR President 2021
Compatriot Bill Baran was installed as the 96th President of the Arizona Society on February 13th at the annual meeting. The following is Bill’s focus as we go forward in the Covid environment.
Our 2021 Arizona Society plan and emphasis may be very different than in previous years. I do not believe we can safely hold our lunches and meetings in person. This changes our meeting structure omitting the color guard presentations, greeting from our Society Leaders, acknowledgement of achievements in our many sponsorship programs without presentations from the winners. Medals and awards presented to our Compatriots are being mailed instead of being personally presented.
In June we will celebrate our 125th Anniversary and we’re planning for an event on Sunday June 13th 2021. This will be a meeting to celebrate the event. I have asked Jacqueline Miller Arizona Society Auxiliary Chair and First
Lady Lesley Baran to incorporate DAR celebration ideas from the chapters to incorporate into the event.
We need to continue our activities in the Patriot Research System. We presently are a Society of Distinction Society and we need to continue to work on Patriot biographies.
We need to focus on adding and retaining new members to our State Society? Chapters need to focus on their process of moving new applicants forward and engaging members in a time of no physical meetings.
During this past year many of our programs in support of Veterans and interactions have been affected by the Covid shut downs. We need to refocus our efforts to recognize all Veterans and branches of Military Service. A Veteran is someone who has been on active duty and has an honorable discharge from one of the seven uniformed services. When we show the logos it should include the US PHS and NOAA. Why support this in Arizona. The Indian Health Service a part of the US PHS and has over 1,000 officers assigned to providing the Native American Indians with health care. They operate a 1800 bed hospital in Phoenix and support clinics on all reservations. They deserved to be recognized also.
We need to find ways to carry on projects and invent new ones that do not necessarily require in person meeting. Possibly a new committee that has the ability to make videos for our virtual meetings. Right now at both the State and Chapter level we’re unable to recognize our members with certificates, medals and awards, do induction of new members, new
5