Region 2 Spring report
Good morning Chapter Presidents,
Sorry that it's been a little gap since my Winter report to you
all, but I have been advised that I will be transiting this fall from active
duty to the retired side of the Coast Guard. And as you can imagine that has
caused it own amount of activity in my world. But now that things are settling
down and track lines are being drawn its back to business. In the interest of
continuing service to all of you and your Chapter members, my hotmail account
email is the best one for you to use to contact me via email. And my cell phone
number (631-681-2870) will remain the same also. So on to what is happening in
our Association.
1. You may or may not have seen that we are experiencing problems with the
National web site. Sometimes its up and sometimes its down. Sometimes its up in
Oregon, but down in Virginia at the same moment. Joe our webmaster has been
working hard with the service provider to identify and fix the problems, but its
still an issue. So if there is something that anyone needs from online please
let me, Tom or any of the other Board members know and we'll get it to you.
2. The Board met the last weekend in March at the National Office to
conduct Association business. First and foremost on our agenda was to act on the
By-law committee report from the last Convention. A copy of that report is
attached. The entire Convention delegation in attendance had input to this
report as it was worked on the convention floor. The intent was to steam line
the By-laws into a more manageable document that should not in the future need
to be tweaked year after year. The proposed product is being submitted back to
the membership as National Board of Directors Resolution #1 for action that this
year's Convention. It will be published in the next issue of The Chief as well
as put on the web site for all to see. And once it is published I'll share it
electronically with you all too. And as a reminder April 19th is the deadline
for any resolutions that Chapters or members want to submit for this years
Convention.
3. Any items that were removed from the By-laws were put into the Ops
Manual. And we also discovered that there were a couple different versions of
that document out there too. So we consolidated everything into one copy. That
will also be on line and shared with you, but it might be a bit long for the
magazine. The proposed new Ops Manual will also be ratified and adopted at
Convention. Items 2 and 3 were the bulk of our weekend meeting because we wanted
to make sure that got this right in accordance with what you all, the membership
told us you wanted in reno.
4. Speaking of Convention, we will be in downtown New Orleans LA from
August 16th to the 21st. Our Convention hotel is mere blocks from the French
Quarter. Some feedback from last year's convention was that including a public
service work project (i.e. Habitat for Humanity, Soup Kitchen) was a desired
thing to do. So working with the New Orleans Chapter we are identifying just
what we want to do, so more to follow. Also if you have never been to the WWII
museum it is only a few blocks from the hotel and well worth your time to visit.
5. All Chapters are highly encouraged to have a proactive Membership
Chairperson. And with CCTI season on going there are potential members out there
that we need to reach out to. Also it has come to our attention that several
different membership applications are being used and submitted to National. To
ease the workload on the National office staff, please only use the official
application that is both online and in The Chief.
6. During the meeting we also met with representatives from USAA, set up
by our good friend MCPO-CG #7 Rick Trent. They have an Affinity program that has
potential for our Association to share information with USAA and CPOA, that
could realize some income stream for our Association. That venture is still in
the research phase and we have committed to nothing as of yet. But in my opinion
it looks promising. We also met with MCPO-CG #10 Skip Bowen and his relief
MCPO-CG #11 (select) Mike Leavitt for some discussion on our last day of
meetings.
7. With Convention on the horizon it is also time to start putting
together your packages for the President's Outstanding Chapter award. You are
all doing great things out there so why not submit and see what happens.
8. Please ensure that you are sharing the National Office mailings and
these email with your membership. In an attempt to get as much information out
to all the members, including often missed Members at large, we have asked that
our email reports to you all be included on the web site, so you can also pass
that to your members.
9. We are also looking for Chapter submissions for The Chief from each edition.
So if you all are out there doing great things, then snap some pictures, write
it up and submit it to Tom. Also any members can submit Letters to the Editor if
they have something to say or just want their voices heard.
10. And we still continue to have an issue with Chapters submitting their
required Gross Receipts to National as required. This is an IRS requirement and
we have no room to not do it. Failure to comply could cost our Association money
or problems with our non-profit status. Also it could affect your Chapter
Charter.
And as always your Board members are standing by to serve the
membership. So if there is anything that you all need, please let us know.
Yours in service,
Bruce Bradley
Region 2 Adviser