Heart of America Chapter
Military Officers Association of America
Welcome to our Chapter!
This web site will give you an opportunity to learn about us and our activities. We would be happy to discuss our chapter with you if you send an e-mail to , Membership Chairman.
Message From the President
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE –
Many thanks to Gary Fox for his stellar performance as our President. He and
Terrie Jo do the Chapter a continuing great service. Gary again won the Chapter a FIVE
STAR ribbon for our flag - good going. You’re a hard act to follow!
But I am proud to again serve as your Chapter President, and look forward to
working with a great staff of elected and appointed committee members, and with the fine
ladies of the Auxiliary. I am wide open to suggestions on how to improve the Chapter,
so please be forthcoming with your ideas as we go forward.
One thing I’d like to do this coming year is transition as much as possible from
“snail mail” to electronic delivery for our newsletter. Don Robinson has over 350 valid
email addresses on file. Editor Les Hobbs does a newsletter eleven times a year for
over 500 people. Aside from Les’ hard work, it runs the Chapter around $3000 a year in
printing and USPS postage! And we always have problems with non-receipt. So you
could really help by taking the newsletter via email instead of USPS. To save a lot of
email traffic, we’re going to assume our members with email will be OK with that. But if
you are NOT, please let Webmaster Don Robinson know ASAP at
Robinson1@kc.rr.com and we’ll keep you on the mail list. We’ll send out both
ways to everyone for Feb and Mar, until we are sure everyone is happy with the online
version. And you can always opt to switch back whenever you like.
The committee voted to open the January meeting to visitors from the KC Military
Coalition, because of the popularity of our speaker, economist Chris Kuehl. Also, many
of the possible attendees are eligible for MOAA membership; so maybe we can
sign them up on the 23rd. If you see someone you don’t recognize, please make them
welcome and give ‘em a good sales pitch.
Also, think about bringing a non-member military officer friend you think might be
persuaded to join; lunch is on us, but just make sure Keith Pechak gets his or her name,
address, phone and email for follow-up. We’ll have membership applications available
at the head table. With a membership of around 510, I’d like to shoot for a net gain of
10% in 2010.
Other chapters say a great recruiting tool is to wear MOAA pocket badges, logo
shirts, caps, sweats, etc. around as much as possible. It prompts officers who you run
across at the mall, in church, or at the golf course to ask about what we do and how to
join. When they do, just get their email or phone # and pass it along ASAP to me, John
Hansford, Bill Tudor, Keith Pechak or Vic Christianson for followup. For MOAA logo
items, visit www.Moaaexchange.com or www.Targetlogosonline/MOAA.
Our ROTC P.O.C. Bill Wallis is not well, and needs to be replaced. Working with
the JROTC units and awarding merit medals is a big part of Chapter outreach. If you
are interested in running with this activity, please let me know. It shouldn’t take but a
couple of hours per month during the Spring, and is all done via email, phone, fax or
USPS with the officers running the various high school units. Then, we’ll ask Chapter
volunteers to go to the various units and make individual presentations in May and June.
Also, Don and Tina Dawson have been taking meeting reservations for several
years and would really appreciate being relieved. Contact Don at (816) 741-9462 or
dondawson@mindspring.com for details.
Keith Pechak will be printing a new Chapter roster soon, which will be available
for pickup at an upcoming meeting. Too expensive to mail out, but upon request,
Keith will send you a PDF version by email (bpechak@kc.rr.com).
Dues notices for 2010 are in the mail. Do you have late dues for 08 or 09? To
check your dues status, contact Vic Christianson at awacsmcc@aol.com or (816)
240-8315. We really value your continuiing membership and don’t want to nag -
but we do need the funds, with an ops budget running at around $9,000 per year!
HAPPY 2010! Be safe, and I hope to see you on January 23rd.
Jim Snyder
(913) 684-3592
(913) 685-3624 fax
|
|