Volume 34 Issue 09
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ALPHA PHI OMEGA GREATER LOS ANGELES
September 2014
COUNTLESS MOMENTS THERE HA VE BEEN . . . LIVE IT HAVE IT,, SHARE IT! by Brother Toti Ayo
Thank you GLA! Thank you ACNA for its 12th Biennial Convention held in New York City! But, as ever been said, we don’t count the years, but the moments lived in those years. . . Yes, countless moments have been offered. Countless moments have been lived! It was a good brief gathering at the most recently concluded ACNA Convention. There’s so much to share, indeed! There are lots to be shared this upcoming GMM. More so in other gatherings along the way. [With prior commitment, however (to celebrate my birthday with a brief travel plan over the weekend with my family), I am unable to join you all at the Operation Gratitude and our September General Membership Meeting on the 20th. But I plan to join the fundraising event scheduled the week after, Sept 27th.] We congratulate Brother Aleks Garcia from Dallas Fort Worth AA, as our next ACNA President for 2015-16. Our very own Sis Irma Almazan, as 1st VP, and Brother Thom Pascual, Hawaii AA, as 2nd VP. CONGRATULATIONS to all! Our leaders will have a lot to attend to for a better Alumni Council of North America. Just like you and me, they will need and appreciate your encouragement and support. Our counterpart, The District of Columbia AA has a campaign slogan ‘dollar-a-day’ for DC on September, 2016 ACNA Convention. We encourage you all to plan ahead and be counted. Let us hope for more
attendance and participation in DC in two years time. The time we share with others and the Alpha Phi Omega experience is well worth it. We’ve been through quite a number of these Conventions, not to mention hosting a few times, yet every Convention is different and certainly has its own story to tell. Our very own Brother Lt Col Joel Carbon, US Army, will be DC AA’s president for the next two years. We look forward to another wonderful Convention in DC on September, 2016. As far as we, GLA, are concerned, it is also important for me to mention that I consider it a privilege to be appointed as one of GLA’s voting delegates and whose three hundred dollars ($300) registration fee for each of us, your voting delegates to said ACNA Convention [and past ACNA Conventions] is [and were] paid for by our Association funds. This practice we have done for many years now. I mention this because, every now and then, we need to validate Convention expenses or any other Association expenses for that matter. Be cognizant and knowledgeable of where our funds go. And if I may add, reach out to our comrades in need. Listen to what they are not saying or may never be able to say. We are a group of men and women who share the same principles we all stand for - who, in good faith share the Association’s burdens, its disappointments, its triumphs and its glory. But as Brother Dony says, GLA is not for everyone. We are not into a numbers game. We are in a land called America, where freedom reigns - freedom to be comfortable with the association we choose. Continued on page 6