Chris Rose (pictured at left) was the guest speaker at the chapter’s January member’s meeting. After introducing himself, he gave a brief history of his involvement with IWLA. He has held numerous positions within the organization and is currently the Second Vice President of the Virginia Division of IWLA. He is also our National Director representative.
Chris had a specific reason for attending our meeting. He brought two National awards with him for presenting to the chapter. The first award was for the 2021 Best Chapter Newsletter. The chapter’s newsletter editor, Ray Powell (pictured at right), accepted the award and plaque. 
The second award was presented in recognition of 110% membership growth in 2021. Chapter president Chris Ferguson (pictured below) accepted the award certificate.
There were several announcements made by chapter committee chairs. A BBQ fundraiser will be held on March 31st from 4pm to 7pm. The event will be a drive through event catered by Captain Bob’s. The event will be held at the Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church located at 3488 Godwin Blvd. in Suffolk. Tickets are $12.00 and are available for sale. To purchase tickets, contact either Richard Wentz at rewentz@gmail.com or leave a voice message at 757-635-1215 or Darden Langston at dlangston@birdsongpeanuts.com or 757-514-0134 or 757-377-8755.
The chapter’s annual chili cook off will be held during our February 15th member’s meeting. Members interested in entering the competition can contact Joyce Dugan at joycedugan53@gmail.com.
The Scholarship committee chair announced that that one $1,000.00 scholarship will be awarded this year. Applications are now being accepted until April 1st. Applications and instructions for submitting the applications are located on the chapter’s website. Select the activities button at the top of the homepage and then select scholarships in the dropdown box.
The awards committee is also accepting nominations for the 2022 Tobin Award. Nominations are open and will be accepted through February 24th. Members should also go to the National website (link located at the bottom of our homepage), type in awards in the search box and review the other awards that are available. If there is an individual or group that you think meets the award criteria, submit that information to the Awards Committee Chair, Tim Doxey at trdoxey@charter.net. Nominations for these awards must be submitted to the awards committee by May 14th.