FRA Branch 159 met at Kelly's Country Cookin in Meadows Place at 1600 on March 10th.  Branch President Bruce Talbot, Branch Secretary Nicole Talbot, Michael Chance, Karl Gerhards, Terry Merten and Linda Merten were in attendance.  FRA National and Regional issues were discussed.  The Board of Directors met in the months of January and February and decided that, going forward, monthly meetings would be held on a rotating basis.  Geo-mapping indicates that the majority of local FRA members are located in Northwest, Southwest, and Southeast areas of Houston.  We will try and locate standard meeting places rotating through each every quarter.  Kelly's Country Cookin in Meadows Place was selected as a standard meeting place for the Southwest Houston area.  For the April meeting, a location near the Clear Lake / League City area will be explored.   We will look in the Northwest area near Spring / Tomball area for the May meeting.  Once we have decided upon standard locations, they will be posted on the Branch website.  Special occasions may be held in other locations.

Shipmate Michael Chance will update the FRABranch159.com website accordingly.  Notices will be sent out monthly through the Branch 159 Yahoo Gourp.  Shipmate Michael Chance will also draft and mail an informational letter to all Branch members informing them of the changes, inviting them to join the Branch Yahoo Group, and also visit the Branch website frequently.

Shipmates,

Through the final quarter of 2018 the Branch Board of Directors have been negotiating the sale of the Branch Home.  It was sold to Modern Plumbing, next door.  One of our founding members, who presented the building to the FRA was one of the founding partners of Modern Plumbing, so they were given the first opportunity to purchase the property.

Members of the Board of Directors have spent the last 3 months going through the items and memorabilia located at the Branch Home and trying to find the correct disposition for it.  Archives of Branch activities, minutes, and membership logs were properly destroyed by shredding.  The trailer and Destroyer were transferred to another FRA Branch.  Some items were donated to other local veterans related groups.  Some items such as the flags and other meeting related property will be placed in a storage locker for future use.  The ship and organization plaques will be offered through veteran's group pages on the internet for a donation plus shipping costs.

The Board of Directors will be meeting in January 2019 to determine the future location, dates, and times for meetings going forward.  We will send out notifications to all of our current members once decisions have been made.