Rose Capital Chapter

May 10, 2008

Membership: Present 114 members – Number to join since last report ~ 7

Members lost since last report ~ 1 due to relocation of home.

Goals: Continue as stated in February to increase our membership in the Chapter. We are again participating in the “Give Me Ten” Recruitment Campaign for National – in doing so hope to increase our membership.

What we have done since our last report to fulfill the goals of and within our chapter.

• Involvement in community activities:

1. We attended a Senior Living Day that was held at our local convention center and made contacts for membership, publicity and potential programs for the membership.
2. Set-up a booth in Longview, TX at a “Veteran’s Information Day” and netted two Give Me Ten memberships and made some contacts with members of MOAA that do not belong to a chapter ~ eight or so that meet causally once a week for breakfast, we are pursing getting them to join our chapter. We plan on inviting all of them to our next meeting.
3. Welcome Home Soldiers Project ~ met with the leader several times and have printed up 250 colorful flyers for them and helped in their distribution. We will support them with the purchase of items that they need and other items as their leader requests. Several of our officers have been attending the arrivals of our soldiers and will continue to do so. The local TV has been giving

them good coverage of the project. We had one of their members attend our dinner meeting and told the officers there of the project and how they could help. She is also a member of the Patriot Guard and she enlightened us about their history. Our

U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert was our guest speaker that evening. One of the candidates that is running for Mayor of Tyler was also a guest that evening (she is a personal friend of one of our officers).All in all that evening was a very emotional moving time.

1. City of Tyler Chamber of Commerce ~ We have joined and several of our officers have attended their “After Hours Networking” that is held monthly and is a mixing and networking with local businesses and organizations. Thus far we have attended three of them. We have met many at these meetings that have never heard of MOAA.
2. City of Tyler Chamber of Commerce breakfast ~ May 8

Jim Snow and I attended and picked up another potential member who approached us about joining.

• Membership drive for chapter: We have formed a committee of three officers and two spouses to review and call all on the list that are MOAA members that do not belong to a chapter. This is one way that we are involving the membership.
• Legislative Issues We plan on getting a couple of others involved in the researching and following of issues that are being covered by MOAA and also local and
• state so that the membership will be informed on those issues. (we do have a candidate in mind).
• New Meeting : We are continuing with our “Breakfast Socials” That we started in January. We have not had a big turnout, but we have had different members come. This month we changed the day
• so that may make the difference.
• Saturday Morning Breakfast : A number of the membership have been meeting for this for quite some time. Now we have begun to promote it and last Saturday we had seventeen attend. Our 1^st. Vice President had an Aussie friend visiting him and he wanted us to meet him. He had been in the Australian Parliament for three terms .We normally have about twelve come to it.
• Buddy Ride: This past Ladies Luncheon we were able to get three ladies to the luncheon that had not been coming until we made arrangements for another lady to pick her up. I had been working on this for some time and finally got a spouse to call all of those who were not attending and by doing that we identified who needed to be picked up and assigned them a buddy .
• Communication: For all of those that have e-mail I regularly send out to them any items of interest that we hear about or think they would want to know about .The most recent one being the information about the Shingles Vaccine being given over at Barksdale with scheduling through the Retirees office there. Many did not know about the need for it or did not know it was being given at the RO.I have had many positive responses from those that I send to that they appreciate us keeping them up on things.

Goals for the Chapter:

1. Continue to work on membership, retention of our membership and improvement of communication between members and continue to strive to get more people involved.
2. Be committed to development of a positive attitude among the membership about the chapter, so that our membership will become more involved.
3. Set up delivery of Dinner Program Meetings reservations on electronic mail system. This will help defray some of the cost of mailing.
1. Development of format for standardized newsletter for the membership and also get some clients for advertising in the newsletter. We hope to accomplish
2. this through our networking with the Chamber.
4. Work on fund raising project ideas.
5. We will continue to work on the involvement in the community of the membership.

2008 Calendar dates for the year:

May 14, 2008 Board Meeting

May 29, Breakfast Social ~ Breakfast at Dwayne’s Country Cafe

June 13, Dinner Program Meeting ~ Dr. Karen Wies ~ MD will give us a presentation on availability of medical procedures, facilities and

what is here in East Texas. July 9, Board Meeting August 8, Dinner Program Meeting with Chapter Game Night. September 10 , Board Meeting

October 10 ~ Dinner Program Meeting. TBA November 12,Board Meeting December 14, Christmas Dinner Program. ~ TBA

Board of Officers 2008 : Jim Snow LTC USA Retired~ President Terry Howlett Lt.Col. USAF 1^st.Vice President John Davis Lt.Col. USMC 2^nd. Vice President Addie Gustfeson Mrs. Treasurer. Shirley Lindsay LT NC USN Former ~ Secretary Jack Nolan Lt.Col. USMC Retired ~ Personal Affairs Officer John Hall Capt. USN Retired ~ Past President Sam Patricaccia Maj.USA Retired ~ Web Master

Shirley Lindsay, Secretary Rose Capital Chapter TX-25

Rio Grande Chapter #27

There has been no additions and so far no losses. However, our members continue to age and we are not able up to this time we cannot seem to attract others who are willing to join our white haired group no matter whom I get as speaker. No matter what hour. Our outreach has not been successful. My fears are that we will wind up dissolving.

Edith Clark,CDR,ret; President

North DFW Military Officers Association, TX 31

Leadership:

The 2008 Board settled in with much enthusiasm, despite the loss of one of our newest members, Captain Bruce Balvin. Bruce was recalled to active duty and recently deployed to Iraq after assuming command of a Reserve Engineer Company. Bruce will serve a one year commitment and then will return, hopefully to resume a position on the board. Keith Lockhart assumed his duties as Personal Affairs officer and has been very busy settling into the job. Personal Affairs had been a part of the responsibilities assigned to the 2^nd VP and very capably handled by the current and past 2^nd VPs. We reported last quarter that we were losing our Scholarship Chairman, Tom Lytle. Fortunately, one of our most dependable members, Rich Crossley, immediately stepped up and volunteered to assume the duties. He is an excellent choice in that he is a Senior Instructor of JROTC and has many excellent ideas as to motivating students to apply for the scholarships.

Membership:

Always a challenge for our chapter in that we have no active duty base from which to recruit. Aggressive efforts by our 2^nd VP, Rose Marie Vickery, have kept us at par with some losses and some new recruits over the last year. She is currently planning a recruiting effort at the north Texas Robson Ranch complex in Denton. Our supposition is that there is a repository of retired officers who, when made knowledgeable of our chapter, will desire to join. We currently have three members who reside there.

Community Activities:

Our chapter continues to collect new children’s books for the troops to read at the DFW airport USO. This program is very successful and the members have been very forthcoming with their largess in contributing the books. We have received two letters from the USO management thanking us for our efforts.

We have several members heavily involved with church activities as well as support efforts at the various Senior Centers throughout our area. These activities include singing in the church choirs or being active as elders, etc. and participating in acting groups at the Senior Centers. Members also teach courses at community facilities.

Challenges: The challenges mentioned in our 1^st Quarter report continue. Affordable dinners at meeting places and motivating members to participate in chapter activities and/or being part of the Board of Directors are areas of primary concern.

Recruitment of new members is and will always present a challenge. Our efforts over the past several years have led us to believe that aggressive advertising for our General Membership meetings, leading thus to continued new interest in the chapter, and very aggressive follow-up are the keys to success. We have obtained more new members with these efforts than have other methods such as personal phone calls and letters to prospective members.

Goals:

1. By joining with the Dallas Chapter we hope to motivate more members to participate in greeting returning troops at the DFW airport. Our efforts to date have been characterized by individuals attending periodically. Our hope is that by having a more organized approach members will be more receptive, and perhaps will feel somewhat pressured to participate.
1. Organize and conduct an aggressive campaign at the Robson Ranch complex to attract new members will be a primary goal also.
2. 3, Obtain another 5-Star Award of Excellence for 2007.
2. Follow-up our current efforts at support of the Senior ROTC and JROTC cadet programs with more aggressive efforts in order to motivate both instructors and cadets to participate in the Scholarship Program. Toward this goal, the board has authorized an increase in the annual scholarship award to $1500.

Richard H. Johnston President North DFW Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)

Austin MOAA Status Report

Challenges: Membership continues to be our greatest challenge. We continue to function with approximately 300 members. We have developed a welcoming letter for MOAA members in our chapter area for distribution in May and plan on follow-up phone and e-mail messages. We are considering inviting a certain percentage of MOAA members to our dinner meetings each month for on the spot recruitment.

Initiative and Successes: JROTC: We have established twox$500 scholarships for our JROTC programs in the AMOAA central Texas area for awarding this year. We plan on inviting the cadets and JROTC PMS' to our dinner meeting for presentation.

Personal Affairs: Our Personal Affairs Committee is ready to brief our members and provide packets on our local program. This is scheduled at our next dinner meeting in May. While our program is local, it is fashioned after MOAA's plan.

Web Site: Among other important items, our newsletter is published monthly to keep our members posted on key items for our dinner meetings ( such as our guest speaker). The web site also covers: MOAA/AMOAA history, the AMOAA chapter, membership application, and chapter officers, past presidents, the wives club, humor, The Preamble, By-Laws and much more.

Patriot Fund Project: Our contribution continues to grow each month thanks to member generosity. The TCC Chapters will get a briefing on this very important humanitarian effort on May 17th. AMOAA is very proud to sponsor this volunteer organization that raises funds that assist in the rehabilitation to an independent lifestyle for the severely wounded warriors returning from the War of Terror.

Colonel William P. Del Vecchio, USA, Ret. President, AMOAA

Central Texas Chapter P.O. Box 2986 Harker Heights, Texas 76548

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES November 2007 through April 2008 The Central Texas Chapter continues to offer outstanding, professional and interesting programming. Good programming is essential for a small chapter to

gain and maintain membership. Continued emphasis is placed on gaining new members and re-registering former delinquent members. Programs presented during the reporting period were:

November – Election of Officers; December – the chapter does not meet during December;

January – Membership Drive meeting, Installation of Officers and presentation by the Chief, III Corps Casualty Assistance Center;

February - Deputy Garrison Commander, Fort Hood, presented an interesting and informative “Strategic Overview of the War on Terrorism in Iraq”;

March - Briefing by Assistant Manager, of the recently established branch of The Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Fort Hood and presentation by the III Corps G9 (Civil Affairs), subject: “The III Corps Experience in Iraq”;

April – Meeting of the Chapter and tour of the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport given by the Airport Manager.

Future Schedule of Chapter programs: May – host the Texas Council of Chapters Quarterly meeting; June – LTC Steve Howard, Assistant Inspector General, III Corps, subject: III Corps Experience in Iraq; date to be announced a presentation by the, Commander of the C.R.Darnall Army Medical Center, Fort Hood and date to be announced a presentation by a Medical Doctor on Self-Care.

The Chapter’s primary project is to provide an annual $1000 scholarship to a graduating JROTC cadet who is committed to attend a school of higher education and participate in the ROTC program. Additionally, the Chapter presents the MOAA JROTC Medal to six winning students from the six area High Schools. The 2008 budget sets aside $1000 for the 2009 JROTC award.

The Chapter, studied at length, the feasibility of donating an MOAA memorial to the Central Texas Veterans Cemetery. Extensive research was conducted to determine feasibility and at what level the donation might be. After numerous board discussion and meetings with the membership, the project has been tabled due to the lack of available funds to fund the construction of a suitable memorial.

Achievement in 2008:

Chapter Board member and Legislative Chairperson Spencer Smith was elected 1^st Vice President of the Texas Council of Chapters.

At the January Board meeting, President Frank Somera distributed “Focus Statement” blank forms and requested each board member to outline the Mission and Goals expected to be achieved during the upcoming year in their respective areas of responsibility. Completed surveys were returned at the February meeting.

Spencer Smith and Personal Affairs Chairperson Jim Endicott attended the Chapter President Symposium in Grapevine, Texas in October, 2007.

Other activities of the Chapter were: Purchase of a commemorative brick paver for the new Killeen Lion’s Club Community Center; memorial donation for a long time deceased member of the chapter; purchase of flowers recently deceased members; sending Christmas cards to Walter Reed Army Medical Center; joining the local Area Veterans Advisory Council and support of the III Corps monthly retirement and awards ceremony.

Chapter Officers and appointed Chairperson for 2008 are:

President – Frank Somera, Colonel, Retired, USA

1^st Vice President – Pat Christ, Lieutenant Colonel, Retired, USA

2d Vice President – Gene Wentworth, Colonel, Retired, USA

Secretary – Jos Portmann, Colonel, Retired, USA

Treasurer – Tony Kosta, Lieutenant Colonel, Retired, USA

Chaplain – Charles Mangone, Chief Warrant 3, Retired, USA

Directors – Keith Crisis, LTC, Ret, USA; Len Gulig, LTCOL, Ret, USAF (Past President and Memorial Committee); Don Melton, COL, (Ret), USA; Norm Sliva, LTC, Retired, USA; Spencer Smith, LTCOL, Ret, USMC (Legislative Chairperson) and Borah Van Dormolen, LTC, Retired, USA.

Appointed positions: Scholarship and Awards – Bill Nance, LTC, Retired, USA; Personal Affairs, Jim Endicott, LTC, Ret, USA; Area Veterans Advisory Committee – Dale Just, CW4, Ret, USA; Nominating Committee (seasonal) – Jim Livingston, LTC, Ret, USA; Hosting of TCC Quarterly Meeting Planning Committee (special) – Jim Endicott, Pat Christ and Gene Wentworth. Respectfully submitted, Jos Portmann Secretary

MOAA/GREATER DALLAS CHAPTER REPORT TCC Meeting, Killeen, Texas May 16-17 2008

The Chapter membership is still holding at a total of 385 members. Our Chapter Vice-President-Membership, Maj. (Ret) Ira Richardson has done an outstanding job to come up with innovative ways to attract new members. One example – he has asked certain current members to contact 10 – 100 MOAA National members who reside in the MOAA/GDC zip code and ask them to join our Chapter – a commendable effort.

Our president, Lt. Col. (Ret) Nic Santangelo and others have been very actively meeting with our Congressional Representatives. He recently attended a breakfast meeting sponsored by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, Texas 32^nd District. There were also about 30 other military veteran’s constituents present. The MOAA position to fight reductions in Medicare and Tricare doctor reimbursement fees were emphasized to Congressmen. Other issues were also stressed.

This has been a very active month for our Chapter in awarding the MOAA medal and certificate to selected cadets of various JROTC high school units in the Dallas area. Currently we have 42 high school JROTC units in our Chapter program. Also our Chapter awarded three $1,000.00 scholarships to selected cadets in our area.

At our last Executive Committee meeting the TCC proposal to suspend charging Chapter members annual dues and instead MOAA National would rebate local Chapters a specified amount was discussed. (No dues would be charged to persons who sign up and join their local Chapter.) The proposal did not receive very much support and was put on a wait-and-see status.

And finally, we are still coping with the problem of finding individuals to accept a nomination for various Chapter officers.

This concludes our TCC Quarterly Report.

Respectfully submitted, Charles Gibbs Col USAF (Ret) Chapter Representative to TCC

North East Texas Chapter

From: Maj. Mike Spaight, USAF (Ret), President Subject: Quarterly Report to Texas Council of Chapters 11 May 2008 To: Maj. James Cunningham, USAR (ret) Our most recent formal meeting was held on March 1^st at Webb Hill Country Club

at Wolfe City. Our guest speaker was to have been Dr. Keith McFarland President of Texas A&M University Commerce. However, due to a family emergency he was forced to cancel at the last minute.

Fortunately a new member by the name of Col. Skip Lane was in attendance for the first time and he was on a mission. So he stepped up to the dais and told our group about his idea of Horse Therapy. There is a horse farm just a few miles East of the Bonham Veterans hospital that is currently working with disabled children. Col. Lane was attempting to convince the VA that they should utilize this facility for injured service men returning from Iraq. Unfortunately, the hospital personnel turned a deaf ear to Col. Lane.

A couple weeks later we attended the council meeting in Tyler. I mentioned this project to Admiral Ryan. A week later Col. Lane got a call from the Bonham hospital saying they would like to talk to him about the horse program. It’s funny how someone with a little “horse power” (pun intended) can get things done.

The correct title is “Horses for Heroes”. I just had a short talk with Col. Lane and he is planning to accompany John to the upcoming meeting and hoping to give you a short update on the program.

Also in this area we have recently organized an “Honor Guard” to provide military service for Veteran’s funerals. A few of us in the MOAA are participating in this group. We have new uniforms with fancy stripes and braid and already have performed at several funerals. Also have a professional trumpet player to play taps.

We are still working with the military personnel at L-3 hoping to enlist some of them in our chapter but are showing limited interest.

Our next formal meeting will be June 14^th at Webb Hill Country Club. Are speaker will be Dr. Keith McFarland. (Assuming he doesn’t have another family emergency.)

East Texas Chapter

1. Successes:

- Conducted golf tournament to support local veterans' museum. Donation $5,000.

- Participated in local university ROTC awards program. Presented ROTC

cadet scholarship of $500 savings bond.

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Increased contact with local Army Reserve unit and local National Guard unit.

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Increased telephone calls to perspective members using MOAA zip code printout.

- Four social events this year.

2. Challenges:

-Membership as always.

- Gaining membership from ROTC, Army Reserve and National Guard.

- Allocating the necessary time to work the problem. Our leadership is also very involved in other organizations that serve our community.

3. Future Initiatives:

- Increased visits to ROTC, Army Reserve, and National Guard.

- Increased visits to local veterans museum to recruit their volunteers to join us.

- Get more volunteers to work our zip code call list.

John McManners

Lone Star

The following is the 2nd quarter report of the Lone Star Officers Club of Fort Worth, Texas. This report covers the period from December 15, 2007 until April 16, 2008.

At our December meeting we held a Christmas banquet for 48 members of our organization. The entertainment featured a 7-member band ensemble. At this meeting we installed the officers for the 2008 calendar year. Those installed were, LTC Bill Catterton (President), LTC Grady Fairbairn (1^st VP), LCDR Wes Charles (2^nd VP), Mrs. Mo Simmons (Asst 2^nd VP), LTC Jim Boyd (Treasurer and Secretary). Also at the dinner, LCDR Wes Charles hung our 5-Star Chapter pennant upon the chapter flagstaff. The award was for chapter efforts during 2006, the year LCDR Charles was chapter president.

At our 1^st board meeting in January we established the chapter goals for 2008. Those goals are to (a) provide $2,000 scholarships to 3 JROTC and ROTC members, (b) institute a Support the Troops program and (c) continue our new member procurement drive.

Our president created a search committee to find a new meeting location. After 3 months of searching, we contracted with the Ridglea County Club in west Fort Worth. This locale offered an outstanding venue while locating closer to the majority of members. As a result, meeting attendance increased by approximately 80%. During this reporting period, the chapter held five full membership meetings.

So far this year we have acquired five new members.

Our Legislative Liaison, Colonel Jim Costin, received national recognition by winning the best Legislative Publication Award for chapter with 100 – 299 members.

At our April meeting, our Scholarship Chairman, Mrs. Vickie Keehr, held a pass-the-hat fund drive. This effort raised $1593 for our scholarship fund. Scholarship applications were sent to 20 local high schools and 2 local colleges.

Mrs. Keehr also began the annual presentation of MOAA medals. This year we are presenting 20 medals to 11^th grade JROTC members and 3 medals to local college freshman or sophomore ROTC cadets.

Our chapter continued its postcard writing campaign to members of US Senate and House of Representatives. This program consists of pre-written postcards being handed out at the sign-up table at our monthly meetings. Members write their return addresses and sign the cards. The chapter then makes certain the label for the correct representative for each member is attached to front of the House of Representatives card, postage is paid and card is sent to the congressional member. So far this year we have sent 430 postcards.

The board filled two staff positions. Mrs. Joan Coggins volunteered to serve as chapter Secretary. Mr. Garrit Spieker volunteered as Publicity/Membership chairman.

Respectfully submitted by LCDR Wes Charles, LSOC, 1^st Vice President.

Chapter Report May 17, 2008 Highland Lakes Chapter – MOAA

1. Membership getting older. “repeat”
2. No Active Duty source in the area.
3. Scholarships: Identified three wives of Fort Hood soldiers either deployed or about to be who are enrolled in a highly accelerated nursing class at Texas Tech. Providing $500 dollars to each one to offset their huge enrollment fees.
4. Attendance at last meeting was up (April). Think it was a result of the subject: Survivor benefits and the MOAA Checklist
5. Still trying!!!

Alamo Chapter (TX-16- San Antonio)

Report for the Second Quarter 2008 TCC Meeting (Killeen, TX)

The Alamo Chapter continues its active, aggressive and spirited approach in accomplishing the vision and mission of our Chapter. As mentioned in the first quarter TCC report, our Chapter uses the TEAM approach, (Together Everyone Achieves More). This approach works given the fact that each person in a leadership capacity is a proven leader and a patriotic American. They will work hard to achieve what is right for the Chapter, what is right for the Texas Council and what is right for our National organization. In short, empower the team and great outcomes will happen.

Pleased to announce that our bylaws have been re-written and approved by the Board and the Membership. At this moment our vision, mission statement, strategic plan, the operational plan and our functional and organizational arrangements are all in sync with one another. The organization governance is nicely in place for the first time. Obviously, the leadership works from “one sheet of music”. Critical to the success of the chapter.

Pleased to be advised that the chapter won first place in the print newsletter category for Chapters of our size in the most recent Communications Award Competition. Those responsible for “Team Lariat” did a wonderful job. However, we continue to look for ways to improve the product.

Would also add that we have worked hard to enhance the chapter webpage. It is a better product. Recommend each reader review it and see those things that make this chapter a progressive and vital chapter. The website address is www.alamomoaa.org.

The Chapter will submit the paperwork for the Chapter of Excellence award prior to the submission deadline of June 1, 2008

Membership growth continues to be a challenge. We are taking a corporate approach to membership and are asking every member to become a member recruiter. We are hopeful that some good results will come from it. Given the membership challenge and knowing other revenue services were necessary the Chapter worked diligently to put in place a non-dues income approach to the problem so that we could continue to have the financial underpinning to allow the Chapter to continue moving into the 21^st Century. This was a very important objective and we are pleased to report that our non-dues income initiative is paying big dividends. Recommend that approach to the Chapters wherever possible because membership will continue to be a problem in the future. Without a good membership base you just do not have the financial base to be able to move the Chapter forward.

We stay concerned about attendance at our social programs.

We had a record year on ROTC/JROTC awards program (56 schools). Our scholarship program is alive and well with another two scholarship programs in planning stages.

Lastly, we are proud to be a part of the Texas Council of Chapters. We will continue to stay very involved with Texas Council activities with our participation and continued interest in leadership in the organization.

Respectfully,

Ed Marvin

Greater Lubbock Chapter

We are glad to have received our check from MOAA for our "Give Me 10 program". We put that into our scholarship fund, which as you know, is not growing very much on interest. This month, we have attended two high school JROTC military balls, to which we presented MOAA certificates and medals. We also presented MOAA certificates and medals at the Texas Tech Army and Air Force ROTC awards ceremony. These Texas Tech cadets came to our May chapter meeting where we presented both of them with $1000.00 scholarship checks.

We meet the first Tuesday night of the month at Lakeridge Country Club for dinner and a program. Please visit us anytime.

We do not have an active duty base within 100 miles of Lubbock, but all of our area Army National Guard, Army Reserve, and Marine Reserve units meet in the same large Armed Forces Guard/Reserve Center, so we do have some interface with the reserve units. At our may meeting, we were briefed by the Army National Guard unit. They came back from a year in Iraq in December of 2005, and are currently getting ready to go back this fall. My thanks to you that are working in "The Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve" program. Our personal affairs chairlady is trying to establish a relationship with their "Family Support Group" lady leader.

We are actively working on our recruiting and retention, but our attendance is still low.

One of our members, LTC(R)USAR David Cummins is an attorney in Lubbock. He has been communicating with the IRS and the state for several months trying to clear up our tax exempt status. He has been making some progress, and I think that he will be with us at the meeting in Lubbock on August 23rd.

We have a Veterans Administration problem in Lubbock that is probably the same in other parts of Texas. We have good small VA clinic in Lubbock. If a veteran has a problem in Lubbock, he has to go to the VA in Amarillo(120 miles) to get diagnosed, then to the VA in Albuquerque,New Mexico(280miles from Amarillo)for treatment. So don't have a heart attack in Lubbock, even though we have the Texas Tech University Medical Center and Medical School. Why can't the VA pay a contract fee like Medicare? Any solutions that we do not know about???

Thank you, Wm. Edgar Murphy President Greater Lubbock Chapter

May 2008 Update

Heart of Texas Chapter MOAA TX07

1. The chapter currently has 81 members as of 1 May and is continuing to look at recruiting former and local area members. We have same issue as others in that WWII members are being lost due to age. We are also having an ongoing issue in members accepting officer positions though we get good support at dinner events and our annual golf scramble fund raiser; somehow being committed to officer position and inherent responsibilities is a problem, partly because a lot of members are previous officers and some have other social and volunteer activities. Main solution seems to still be recruiting new members to take their eventual turn at position duties.
1. Dinner meetings are held every 3^rd Thursday at the Ridgewood Country Club with either entertainment or a guest speaker. We usually have about 40-50 members, spouses and guests except for April, when the chapter has its annual charity scholarship golf scramble fund raiser. This is the primary fund raiser for the program, besides dues and Give Me 10! Initiative. The 5 April 2008 golf scramble was successful with net results of almost $13,000 and 77 golfers in the scramble. This was a four month effort of soliciting cash and prize donations and recruiting golfers with lots of support from chapter members. Some general comments for our 18 April 2009 golf scramble: never too early to schedule next fundraiser so you can let current golfers know to plan for future; develop form letter early so members can be soliciting donations for raffle prizes, silent auction prizes, golf prizes and grab bag giveaway; some corporations have quarterly charity levels or annual levels so we will be soliciting in Nov/Dec
2. for Apr to allow the businesses to have in budget or to be first in line for donations; multiple businesses as the three Super Wal-Mart’s in Waco we found each have stand alone decision on making donations from their allocation, and need to have core group of interested volunteers to be persistent on organizing fund raiser details and for being tenacious in getting all types of donations.
2. Our scholarship and award program for spring involved presentations for MOAA medal, ribbon, and certificate to the outstanding junior and outstanding sophomore cadet at Baylor AFROTC; $500 award to the outstanding Baylor ROTC sophomore; $150 savings bonds to top cadet performer at each of five local high school JROTC units as well as presentation of MOAA medal, ribbon, and certificate to outstanding JROTC leaders at each of the five units. We have also selected four college level persons for educational scholarship award ($1,500 and 3$1,000) to dependent child in undergraduate school of military parent, with priority if parent was lost while on active duty. The chapter also donated $100 to help with expenses for the area Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony plus members will participate in the ceremony.
3. Challenges continue to be recruiting new members, to keeping current members involved, and to keeping chapter activities interesting while raising funds for scholarship and chapter programs.