Mel Hancock

• 
  www.register-herald.com/business/local_story_044201139. - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 2/14/2008    Last Visited: 2/14/2008  

  "We know there are so many people in West Virginia that say they are a friend of coal and want to be a friend of coal, but don't know what they need to do to help," said Mel Hancock, coalfield representative of Friends of Coal."We want them to become members of the Friends of Coal organization."
  
  Friends of Coal is a volunteer organization that consists of both West Virginians and residents from beyond its borders.Membership is free and the level of involvement by members is at their own discretion, according to Hancock.
  
  "You can become part of a collective voice," he said.
  ...
  Lilly and Hancock were at the Sophia location to speak about Friends of Coal and its grassroots movement involving thousands of West Virginians who consider coal to be the lifeblood of the state's economy.
  ...
  "Friends of Coal feels West Virginians understand and appreciate the importance of coal in our lives, and we are encouraging them to join thousands of other in our proactive cause," Hancock said.
  
  Hancock said becoming a member is easy.
  
  "You can go online, call us or write us," he said.
  ...
  Mel Hancock, field representative for Friends of Coal, speaks at the Cecil I. Walker Machinery Co. location in Sophia about the organization's current membership drive.Hancock said membership in the Friends of Coal is easy and free.Fred Pace/Register-Herald Reporter (Click for larger image)

• 
  www.register-herald.com/business/local_story_132210909. - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/14/2007    Last Visited: 5/14/2007  

  Mel Hancock joins Friends of Coal organizationThe Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia - Mel Hancock joins Friends of Coal organization
  ...
  Mel Hancock joins Friends of Coal organization
  ...
  Mel Hancock says coal runs through his veins.Hancock was born in his grandfather's coal company house in Cranberry.
  
  His father, who also mined coal, met his mother at the Skelton Company Store, where she worked, just after World War II.
  
  "I was a friend of coal before the Friends of Coal was ever formed," Hancock said.
  
  Though he didn't originally follow in his father and grandfather's footsteps, Hancock is now sharing his love for the coal industry with others as the newly named coalfield representative for Friends of Coal.
  
  "When it (FOC) first began, I was intrigued by it," Hancock said."In the back of my mind, I felt like there was a place for me, and as I began to see it grow and develop, I saw more and more things of interest to me that I thought I could do."
  
  Hancock said he took those ideas and shared them with FOC Chairman Warren Hylton, and after several months of talking, he assumed his new position just last Wednesday.
  
  "I'm very excited," Hancock said.
  ...
  As coalfield representative, Hancock says his primary responsibilities are marketing, economic development and education.
  
  Hancock will be tasked with increasing individual and corporate memberships and encouraging participation in the organization.
  
  In an effort to increase membership, Hancock says he would like to organize a year-long membership drive culminating in a drawing for prizes.
  
  Another possibility is FOC auxiliaries to involve spouses of mining and equipment dealers in community causes and industry education.
  
  "I think they (spouses) would be a wonderful contribution," he said.
  
  Also, Hancock says he will be working closely with FOC spokesmen Bob Pruett, Don Nehlen and Jeremy Starks, and actually spent his first day on the job with Starks, taking the FOC message to watershed associations in Kanawha County.
  
  "We'll be speaking one-on-one with people and groups about coal as an education method," Hancock said."We're going to go out into the community and answer questions, and if we don't have an answer, we won't make them up.We'll take it back to the people who can give it further study and come up with an answer."
  
  Hancock says he is also excited about the opportunity to help with the July 20-22 FOC Auto Fair at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Youth Soccer Complex.
  ...
  Working with children, which is at the top of the FOC priority list, is something Hancock, who for more than 20 years served as assistant director of the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA, also holds near to his heart.
  
  "Friends of Coal is about kids," he said, "and I especially like being out there working with kids."
  
  Hancock is optimistic as he begins his quest to share his love of and the importance of the coal mining industry and those miners who literally work to "keep the lights on."
  
  "Coal is going to be here," he said, "It's the livelihood for all of us.
  ...
  Mel Hancock shows off a Friends of Coal license plate recently.Hancock began his new position as the coalfield representative for Friends of Coal and will be tasked with increasing individual and corporate memberships and encouraging participation in the organization.C.L. Garvin/the register-herald None/ (Click for larger image)
  ...
  Mel Hancock joins Friends of Coal organization

• 
  www.dailymail.com/Business/200801310201 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 1/31/2008    Last Visited: 2/1/2008  

  Employees laid down their tools for about a half-hour Wednesday morning to listen to Walker and Mel Hancock, a field representative of the Friends of Coal.
  ...
  Hancock said, "We have strength in numbers.We can make a noise."He asked every employee to sign up for Friends of Coal, and for married workers to sign up their spouse.He asked that employees and spouses each sign up 10 additional members.
  
  The company will check to see that each employee does his or her part, Hancock said.He said there also will be drawings for prizes.

• 
  www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_084223234.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/25/2008    Last Visited: 3/25/2008  

  The Friends of Coal is launching a two-week membership drive from March 31 to April 14 in Mabscott in an effort to get hundreds of the town's residents to sign up, said Mel Hancock, coalfield representative.
  ...
  Having a strong membership base helps to support the organization's cause, Hancock said.
  
  "The Friends of Coal is a grass-roots organization made up of people who believe in the importance of coal," Hancock said."By joining the organization, they become part of a collective voice to speak about issues that are of importance to the coal industry."
  
  Like most towns in southern West Virginia, Mabscott's history is tied to the coal industry.
  
  "Mabscott began as a coal town," Hancock said."And today there are eight or nine businesses within city limits that are directly involved in coal mining."
  
  Hancock plans to visit each of the businesses in Mabscott and ask them to participate in membership drives for their employees.In order to make the membership drive a success, Hancock is counting on strong volunteer participation.
  
  "I'm hoping that people will contact me and volunteer to help out," Hancock said."It will be hard to engage each citizen, but if enough people are willing to help out, we can almost go door to door."
  
  Residents interested in volunteering to assist in the membership drive can contact Mel Hancock at 237-5694, 253-2056 or mel foc@wrminc.com.Residents interested in becoming a member of the Friends of Coal can visit Mabscott Town Hall to pick up a membership card, or go online to www.friendsofcoal. org.When filling out the membership card, Mabscott residents should write "Town of Mabscott" in the entry for "Referring Member," Hancock said.
  
  It is likely that Oceana will be the next local town to participate in a citywide Friends of Coal membership drive, Hancock said, indicating that many of Oceana's residents are current or former coal miners and are likely to support the effort.
  
  "These two towns (Mabscott and Oceana) have set an example for other towns to do the same," Hancock said.
  ...
  Mel Hancock, coalfield representative for the Friends of Coal, in cooperation with the Mabscott City Council and Mayor Wayne Houck, has signed on the town of Mabscott as a Friend of Coal.

• 
  www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_187212224.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/7/2007    Last Visited: 7/7/2007  

  When Mel Hancock assumed the position of coalfield representative for Friends of Coal, he brainstormed for new ideas to increase interest in the organization.
  
  And at the suggestion of his wife, Tammy, he helped organize what he hopes will be the charter chapter of the FOC Women's Auxiliary.
  
  "I knew in my personal working experience women represent the greatest human resource we would ever have available, and to be able to organize them as a collective group could mean a great deal," he said.
  
  Hancock says he took his wife's idea to the public and began talking to spouses of miners and other women involved in the coal industry.Several women expressed interest, and Hancock said Regina Fairchild, who is married to Jaydee Fairchild with Superior Highwall Mining, volunteered her home for the group's first organizational meeting, which will take place at 11 a.m. Tuesday.
  ...
  It is up to the group to decide what direction to take the chapter, but Hancock, who is confident it will succeed, says he hopes to see similar auxiliaries throughout the state.
  
  "I think it will be a tremendous resource for the public that will do many, many positive things," he said.
  
  Hancock says the auxiliary is open to not only women directly associated with the coal industry, but to any woman who considers herself a "friend of coal."
  
  Anyone interested in attending the meeting, which will take place at 509 Old Farm Road at Glade Springs, is asked to contact Hancock at 255-1457, extension 20, or 237-5694.

• 
  www.register-herald.com/business/local_story_122210156. - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 5/14/2007    Last Visited: 5/14/2007  

  Mel Hancock joins Friends of Coal organization

• 
  www.register-herald.com/local/local_story_342222641.htm - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 12/9/2007    Last Visited: 12/9/2007  

  The first steps taken by the 14 founding fathers and mothers of the Beckley Y are what former assistant director Mel Hancock says made the facility what it is today.
  
  The Beckley Y got its start in November 1963, opening in the Raleigh County Armory, known today as the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
  
  Because that facility belonged to the National Guard, Hancock says Y officials could not always have access when needed, so, in November 1964, the organization moved to downtown Beckley to the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Building.
  
  Hancock, who, as a teen, was a member in those early years, says the auditorium of the building, which was shared with the Raleigh County Public Library, was used as the gym floor.
  
  "It was a small gym with two rounded corners so you couldn't step out of bounds," Hancock recalled."But thousands of kids and adults can look back at that with wonderful memories.
  
  "It was what it was and it was all we had and we made the best of it."
  
  In the early 1970s, after about six years in the memorial building, Hancock, who, under then-director Bob Bolen Sr., was a full-time Y employee, says Y officials began looking into constructing a new facility.
  ...
  "It fell flat on its face," Hancock said.
  
  "We determined two reasons for that (the failure)," he continued."One being, we didn't have a large membership (because of a low number of programs) and we didn't have much credibility at that point for people to put up major money."
  
  Despite the failure, Hancock said officials remained determined to construct a new facility.
  ...
  In addition to a popular karate program, whose members, Hancock says, traveled by Greyhound Bus, Bolen also started a small basketball tournament, known today as the Biddy Buddy Tournament, one of the largest in this part of the country.
  ...
  "We did anything we could do to appeal to a large number of people," Hancock said.
  
  That hard work paid off and by the mid-'70s, more than $3 million had been raised to construct the Main Street facility.
  
  Once constructed, however, the Y was left responsible for a mortgage of a couple hundred thousand dollars, Hancock said.Thanks to donations and matching funds from Estelle Thornhill, mother of Warren Thornhill III (whom Hancock referred to as Mr. YMCA), that mortgage was paid off.
  ...
  It is because of the hard work of supporters and the determination of Bolen, Hancock says, that the Beckley-Raleigh County YMCA is where it is today.

• 
  www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 3/8/2008    Last Visited: 3/8/2008  

  Mel Hancock, member of Congress, 1989-1996

• 
  www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070418 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/18/2007    Last Visited: 4/19/2007  

  Mel Hancock, Springfield Member of Congress 1989-1996
  ...
  Hancock was in the pocket of Missouri big business his entire time in politics- from Jefferson City to Washington.His work to cut taxes in Missouri, which were already among the lowest in the nation, benifited large business that owned large amounts of high value property more than anyone else.Because of that, our state has funding shortfalls and can't generate more revenue thanks to his Hancock Amendment.You're saying he did that "for the lilttle guy?"
  ...
  Unfortuntely, someone like Mel Hancock could not survive in the Washington atmosphere of today.We don't have representatives in Washington anymore.Although we get fooled into voting for them to get them into office, they immediately abandon us for the corporate lobbyists who have much more money to give them than the "little people" in their districts.It is like Mel wrote in his letter to the News-Leader, The following interview of Rep.
  ...
  Kudos to Mel Hancock for telling it like it is.What is needed is for agencies such as IAPAC, which is among the worst abusers of buying votes, to be banned from any contact with the congress or the president.But that will not happen because the crooks get too much money from them.
  
  Posted by: oldtymer on Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:19 am
  
  Mel was one of the best to look out for us as our representative.

• 
  www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070720 - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/20/2007    Last Visited: 7/24/2007  

  Mel Hancock, Member of Congress 1989-1996
  ...
  Now that his Republicans used term limits to get in power, Hancock and his cronies want limits done away with.WHAT A HYPOCRITE!!
  ...
  The one point of Mr. Hancock's that I very much agree with is limitations on public officials becoming lobbyists after they leave office.Don't enact a five year ban, make it ten years after leaving office.Clearly, too many people see elected office as little more than a bullet point on their resume and a stepping stone to wealth as a lobbyist.
  
  Posted by: russell on Fri Jul 20, 2007 11:29 am
  
  While I have an immence amount of respect for Mr. Hancock and the great years of public service he gave to SW Missouri, I can't understand how such an intelligent man couldn't have forseen the negative aspects of term limits.
  
  All of the negative aspects of term limits that he wrote about were spoken about ad nauseum prior to the vote in 1992.I guess all of the empirical data compiled about the effects of term limits from other states and on other offices did little to persuade him at the time.I suppose he had to see the effects first hand before he believed the oppositions retort to the ballot measure.
  
  Nonetheless, I'm glad Mr. Hancock has changed his mind.

Page:  1 2