Update on USCA Organization

There have been requests to disclose to the general membership of USCA what steps have been taken to keep the organization functioning as seamlessly as possible following our president, Joyce Canfield's, death on Feb. 11.

The board has initiated the process of voting for a person to fill Joyce's unexpired term in accordance with the by-laws of USCA. The by-laws call for the nomination of a person or persons to fill vacancies by board appointment until the term of that office expires. At that time there will be an election by the general membership. this procedure is different than that found in many organizations in which the vice-president automatically moves up to the president's position. I wasn't a member of USCA when the by-laws were adopted, so I can't explain why that method was adopted.

Membership applications and renewals are being processed by Steve Woodward, our membership registrar. Mail delivered to Joyce at the USCA Post Office box in St. Joseph, MO has been forwarded to Steve. He will process the membership stuff and forward the rest to where it should go.

Richard McClure continues to take and ship orders from the store. He is also the contact person for 2014 national rally registrations, and has informed me he has received some registrations by mail from the St. Joseph USCA mail box.

Chuck Tretyak has forwarded advertising money to me which has been deposited to our bank account.

I'm in the process of obtaining new authorized signatures for our bank accounts. We have three bank accounts informally labeled as Main, Membership, and Rally. Joyce's name was on all of those. In addition to Joyce, mine was on the Membership and Main accounts, and Robert "Lee" Coltharp's name was on the Rally account. I called the US Bank in Humboldt, IA yesterday to begin the process of adding new names to the signature cards. I ended up calling the bank at St. Joseph, MO where Joyce had opened the accounts and they are determining what must be done to replace Joyce's signature on those accounts. A part of it involves a check of the Illinois Secretary of State's on-line information on registered organizations and who the listed officers are. We renewed our registration late in 2013, so we are current there.

I still need to find my way through the transfer of control for our PayPal account so I can direct money received to the proper bank accounts. Steve Woodward can view the PayPal account and issue refunds, but cannot make transfers from it. Joyce handled all the transfers from PayPal and called me the week before her death to guide me through the transfer process, but I was in San Antonio, TX for a meeting and didn't have my computer to access the account from there. When I called her after my return she had already declined to where she was unable to speak. Al Olme has obtained some information for me to use in making the change in account access.

I'm delighted and encouraged by the spirit of cooperation among board members, officers, and members of USCA on whom we have called to assist because of their proximity to St. Joseph, and also because of their institutional knowledge of our organization. Joyce's daughter, Cheri, has also been very cooperative and helpful in recovering records, supplies, and other "stuff" belonging to the USCA. If I try to name all those who have assisted I'll inadvertently miss someone.

I hope we will soon have the president's position filled. It is clear to me Joyce knew she needed to hand off some of the duties and responsibilities she had performed for USCA but that the melanoma advanced too rapidly to accomplish all of that. I'm sure the board will take a good look at what needs to be done to make future emergency transitions smoother.

Sincerely,