La Societe des Quarante Hommes et Huit Chevaux Grand Voiture du Texas OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE GRAND du TEXAS, THE FORTY et EIGHT Winner of the Arthur McDowell Award 1991 – 1992 – 1993 – 1994 – 1995 – 1996 for the Best Grand Voiture Publication in the Nation without Advertising
May 2014 From the Grand Chef… The Texas Merci Boxcar has a grand new home at Camp Mabry and we had a great program for the grand opening event. I cannot say Thank You enough those who helped make this happen and who supported our trek to achieve our goal. Our guest speakers and keynote speaker were all superb. We topped the event off with a $3,000 donation to the Texas Military Forces Museum and there have been many compliments to the Grande du Texas about the event. With the brochure available to visitors explaining about the Merci Boxcar and the Forty & Eight and the 30,000+ annual visitors to the museum – many more will have heard about this great organization. Our chance to grow is now. Remember to register for the Grand Promenade which is being hosted by Bell County Voiture Locale 1031 / Killeen June 13-14-15, 2014. Registration and hotel information is inside this edition of the TVN. Don’t forget to send in your ad to support the hosting locale.
David Knutson Grand Chef de Gare
Register and make your reservations NOW!
WHAT IS NEXT FOR THE GRANDE VOITURE DU TEXAS? The next most critical issue we face for the Grande du Texas is not necessarily membership as many would think, but programs. Proper attention to our programs will help solve the membership issues if they are worked correctly. Much of that is our own fault as many know little about our programs. I know there is much I can learn about our programs and the better we know each of them then the more successful the program. We hope to accomplish this through educating our members and we are planning to provide some simple guidelines to each locale and any other Voyageur who wants to know! Some locales have been successful with their programs and we will look to learn from them why they are successful. Although we had a good turnout for the Merci Boxcar Grand Opening, there should have been a lot more Voyageurs Militaire in attendance than there was on February 23rd. I know of many who wanted to attend, but due to medical restrictions or other pressing issues they could not. If you could have attended and did not – you missed a very special event. This may sound off track from the programs issue, but without the commitment of our Voyageurs Militaire within the Grand we will fail. I thank those who have kept their commitment as a Voyageur Militaire. I hope many more will re-commit to our future. With the Merci Boxcar having given us some deeply needed publicity our organization has an opportunity to grow. I envy the commitment of the US Marines (once a marine always a marine). They are veterans who have the commitment many of us did when we were first invited into La Societe.
VISIT THE GRANDE DU TEXAS WEBSITE AT WWW.TEXASBOXCAR.ORG
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