Flight Plan from the President

In September I sent an email to all ANA squadron COs and asked several questions about their thoughts on the future of ANA. This was in preparation for a strategic planning session by your Executive Vice Presidents/Board of Directors and the officers of the Naval Aviation Foundation. We needed a HOWGOZIT on where the organization is going and whether we are still an effective organization. The COs came back with some interesting insights which were extremely helpful to the Board.

One of the strongest universal replies by the COs was that ANA must continue to operate and expand, but make any changes necessary to make it more effective. Some said we need to change the Mission Statement to make it state clearly what we do. At the time we had just suffered a huge financial loss on the 2004 Convention because we did not have sufficient attendance. This not only caused a fiscal problem, it also damaged our reputation with our industrial and active duty supporters. They questioned our effectiveness; because we gave them a poor example of our national strength and our membership's dedication to advocating for our three services to ensure they maintain their strength by continuing to get the equipment needed for their modernization. Let me state up front, the Board and I do not doubt your total support to these causes, but all of you know how important it is to demonstrate this support, and when we fail to do so, it sends the wrong signals.

The Board met on 23 September and held its most important meeting in my experience. The Board members examined our origins, what we were formed to do, and how well we are performing those goals today. The actions that came out of the meeting are still being formalized and cannot be publicized until they are final. But I can summarize the major actions for you. First the Mission Statement of the organization will be changed. It will not change our mission, but will state unequivocally that the main purpose of ANA is to be a primary advocate for carrying out the goals of the uniformed Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard leadership in order to maintain their services' aviation readiness to protect our country.

ANA is a 501 (c) (4) organization - this means we are a tax exempt organization that is allowed to lobby Congress. We have not been a lobbying organization for many years in the sense that many people understand lobbying. We do not have trained lobbyists that spend the majority of their time on the Hill working for the programs we support. Instead, we chose in the past to educate our national leadership and advocate the positions of our three services. The main way we have done this is to distribute Wings of Gold to all members of Congress, important military oversight committees, and officials in the Department of Defense. We also expect you, our membership, to be educating our national leadership from your areas of the country. Many of you include them in your meetings and this is very important by telling them accurately what our services are doing and what they require to do the job better. The Board feels strongly that we continue this way of doing business, but we must improve our methods of advocacy.

In future issues I will be outlining the new steps passed by the Board to make ANA more effective. For now I will summarize three of them. First, your national headquarters will be reorganized to give it enough "punch" to do its job. The Board has appointed our present secretary/Treasurer, Mr. Eric Wheeler, to be the Executive Director of the Association. This will allow him to run the everyday business of the organization and free the President to spend more time on the road in support of the squadrons and taking other measures to increase the outreach of the Association. Eric will also assist the President in outreach. We will hire a part-time Treasurer to maintain our financial records and assist in our membership . m renewals. For our final addition, we will hire a new Administrative Assistant to give Eric help in the mountains of paperwork that constantly faces the association. This person will also help in the production of Wings of Gold, giving Zip Rausa, the Editor, more time on the road to develop timely stories on what is happening in and planned for our services. The Editor will continue to work directly for the President, and the two of them will form the magazine's editorial policy. Finally, we will give our part time Receptionist/Membership Coordinator, Jackie Hayes, the wage increase she so greatly deserves. Jackie is indispensable and her duties have been expanded over the last year without adequate compensation.

secondly, once the staff organization is stronger, headquarters will develop new, more effective methods of getting our advocacy issues out - to both our national leadership and to our squadrons so they can be better equipped to assist in the mission. Many of you have requested, and rightly so, that headquarters provide information, briefings, and background material on what is happening in our three services. We have not had the people to accomplish this, but I pledge to you - this is coming!

Lastly, the Board had to examine the policies surrounding our annual Conventions. Frankly, after our poor showing in 2004 and the financial loss, there was some strong feeling that we should take some time off to reconsider how we plan and execute our conventions. But after discussion, we decided to hold the 2005 Convention in San Diego, as planned. The San Diego Squadron is already deep into its planning and 1 assure you we will have a good one. The preliminary listing of the scheduled events is on page 53 of this issue. The final schedule and registration information will be in the winter edition of the magazine, as well as mailing the information to all members. After final coordination, I believe the schedule will excite you.

How does this affect you? Well ladies and gentlemen; if our major event of the year is to come together and demonstrate our unconditional support of our mission, you must support the convention. In a democracy, we show our support by our vote, and a vote for ANA is attendance at the convention. People count heads. We cannot continue to get the magnificent support of industry and active duty if we are not present to appreciate and support them. Industry spends a great deal of money to come and exhibit to us and support our other activities. Our active duty people are fighting a war, and doing more work than was required of us in our time. Both these groups are demanded for all sorts of good events. But they can't support them all - they have to trim their support to the most important. We believe we are on the most important list - but we must prove it to them. They have been extremely understanding in the past, but I am not sure how long that understanding can last. So, enough of the lecture; you know what I am talking about. Please support the convention.

Once again, if we are to survive financially, WE MUST INCREASE OUR MEMBERSHIP. The Board has been determined not to increase the financial contributions of our present membership! We increased the annual dues by $5.00 two years ago. We don't want to be forced into another raise. If EVERY one of you will get only one new member, the Association will be able to operate successfully, and we will have twice as many people to tell our services' story. Please, don't just agree that we all should bring in new members, then put it on your good intentions list and promptly forget it. Go out and get a new member.

The Board and Staff wish each of you a wonderful Holiday Season. We have much to be thankful for, most importantly for our magnificent military personnel spread around the world to protect our country and our freedom. Many of them won't have much of a holiday, but they are over there doing their job voluntarily and are willing to make these sacrifices if we continue to support them. We will! God Bless them all.

Copyright Association of Naval Aviation Fall 2004
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved