President's Letter

           
        Happy New Year and Happy Valentine’s Day! Our 68 year-old Chapter will limp along for another year because a handful of us stood up and volunteered to take key positions. Many thanks to LTC(R) Dave Powell who agreed to serve as both Secretary and Treasurer. My condition for agreeing to serve as President once again was that there be both secretary and a treasurer and Dave agreed to fulfill both roles. Also, thanks to COL(R) Bill Oseles for continuing to be the Border Bulletin Editor. I think he is doing a fine job with it. CW2(R) Dave Garcia agreed to stay on as Legislative Director and keep us informed of bills that can affect our earned benefits. Ms. Connie Sullivan will also stay on as our Chaplain and Surviving Spouse Director. Likewise, CPT(R) Dave Thackston will continue as Marketing Director. And, of course, LTC(R) Bill Moore continues to run our website, send out email blasts, give sage advice, and do a myriad of things in the background to support our Chapter. I am very grateful to COL (R) Bob Wagner who volunteered to be our Membership Committee Chair, a position that has gone unfilled for quite some time. We all owe Col(R) Bob Pitt a huge thank you for coordinating our luncheons for the past 20 years. Bob is stepping down from that role and we will try our best to fill the big shoes he has left.   
     
     Please note that I said OUR Chapter. The same handful of people have been trying to continue the great legacy of this Chapter with very little support from most of you. Being an El Paso MOAA member is more than just showing up for luncheons. Is there not one of you that could do SOMETHING to support the Chapter, be it writing an article for the Border Bulletin, helping Connie make phone calls to ailing or grieving chapter members, assisting Dave with the raffle, setting up/packing up the gift table, or recruiting new members? None of these things magically occur. It is through the hard work of very few people that all those things happen. If other chapter members do not step forward, in a few months we will find ourselves in the very same position of closing the chapter. Please talk to your membership eligible friends, acquaintances, and family members about becoming Chapter members. Many people belong to MOAA National, but do not realize they need to join the Chapter separately. As you know, our annual dues are minimal and if they have never joined MOAA, there are free membership options. 

    As discussed at the December luncheon, future luncheons will now be held quarterly instead of every other month and the Board of Director (BOD) meetings will also move to quarterly and will be held the month before the luncheon. The next luncheon will be on 11 March. 
     
     The Chapter’s future is in YOUR hands. The BOD can only do so much to ensure our Chapter has a future. I hope you will join us in paying tribute to the great legacy of the MOAA El Paso Chapter. This is a last-ditch effort to keep us solvent and to recapture some of the glory of our past. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to once again be a striving, rather than surviving Chapter?

What are you doing?  So what else can you do as a member of the El Paso active duty and retiree military community?    
 
A.  Get Informed.  Understand MOAA’s Top Ten Goals for the year, and track MOAA’s progress in fighting for your compensation and benefits.
   
B.  Get involved.     “Professional Leaders belong to Professional Organizations.” Become part of the solution.  Join MOAA.  
 
“Never Stop Serving"