MARIN PRESIDENT BRIEFS MANAGEMENT TEAM

You know that I represented our chapter at the meeting of CA chapter presidents in San Louis Obispo on Fri 30 Nov and Sat 1 Dec. Dulce and I had to leave at 1530 Sat due to a 2000 commitment in Oakland. On Fri evening the Area 2 presidents met for dinner and we appreciate that COL Lee Lange, Dir Chapter Affairs from headquarters, picked up the tab. Six of the seven Area 2 chapters were represented.

The main meeting started at 0800 Sat when Warren Enos was elected President for the state Council of Presidents (CAL-MOAA). The proposed 2008 budget was cut from $12,750 to $9000, mainly to reflect reduced dues revenue as the result of reduced membership. Lee Lange reported that of the 360,000 MOAA members, CA has about 40,000 but only 6800 are members of chapters.

That is one of our challenges, i.e., to persuade local MOAA members to join our chapter; we have been doing a pretty good job of it with 22 new chapter members. During the past year our Membership Committee posted many letters of invitation to this group. Another recruiting challenge nationally, is to contact Guard and Reserve officers to join and in our case we are also focusing on locally resident USCG. Our chapter is one of the few that actually increased membership in 2007.

National and state speakers said they expect membership to increase over the next few years following five years of decline. One presenter pointed out that other organizations have declined in membership including American Legion and VFW. VFW had a dramatic drop from 104,000 in June 07 to 89,000 in Oct 07. Our national membership of 367,000 includes 64,000 Auxiliary Members. Many chapters do not have a designated Auxiliary Liaison.

MOAA continues to be the leader of the 69 military agencies in the DC area. The annual national meeting in Tampa this year was sold out at 500 which shows strength in the organization. The 2009 meeting will be held in San Diego, again recognizing West Coast participation. The next Presidents Symposium — like the one I attended at Vandenberg AFB — will be held at South Lake Tahoe 16-18 Oct 08.

Other items discussed while I was there included Legislation; Scholarship Program; Communications; Public Relations / community visibility including our float in the Novato July 4 parade; the proposed Area 2 joint meeting aboard the USS HORNET, possibly in Aug; possible participation in the christening of three new USCG cutters at Government Island; Jr. ROTC; Memorial Day; Veterans Day; and POW / MIA Day.

Regarding Legislation, everyone was pleased that the bill to renew the CAL-VET home loan program passed almost unanimously in the House and will surely pass the Senate.

I was impressed with the presentation by Captain Shelley Marshall, USN (Ret.) Dir Scholarship Program from headquarters, Tel. 1-800-234-6622, ext. 169 or shelleym@moaa.org. That is a subject we should discuss at our next Board meeting. Our chapter has been giving scholarships to the local JrROTC cadets but the national organization Scholarship Fund gives grants and interest-free loans of millions of dollars to qualified students nationwide.

We look forward to seeing most of you at the Christmas dinner-dance. Aloha,

MARK L. SHAFER, CAPT, USNR (RET)
President
Marin County Chapter

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