Oregon National Guard Association

October Board Meeting Minutes

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Present:

LTC (Ret) Fritz McReynolds COL (Ret) Roberta Janssen

BG Steven Beach LTC (Ret) Marc Snook

CPT Thanh VO MAJ Charles Patzner

1LT Keenan McIntire CW3 Doug Herinckx

MAJ Adam Lulay CPT Candace Ginestar

Maj Gen (Ret) Dan O’Hollaren SMSgt Kelsey Ludford

1. Welcome by the President – BG Beach welcomed members to the meeting.

2. Minute Approval: Meeting was called to order and the August minutes were reviewed. A motion to accept the minutes as written was made and a second was given. Motion passed.

3. Financial Update:

a.  ORNGA Checking Account: COL (Ret) Janssen reviewed the budget for the month of August. We received our 25% rebate for membership for 2016 which came to $7,239. Our Bank balance for August was $138,429.84. September will show most of the funds that were used to repay NGAUS Conference attendees.

b.  ORNGCEF: COL (Ret) Janssen stated that there has been a request for a transfer of $32,000 from investments to the ORNGCEF bank account in order to cover the next two years of scholarships. Hopefully, we will be able to make enough from the Mystery Bag Event & Auction at the Military Ball to cover some scholarships. This will enable us to extend the number of years before we need to go back into our investments. Our goal is to have a self sustaining fund so we can continue to give scholarships way into the future.

4. Committee Reports:

a.  Resolutions: MAJ Patzner received the Resolutions from BG Beach and he will forward them out. MAJ Patzner will stay on as the Army Resolutions rep and mentor MAJ Brooks through 2017 until after the Kentucky NGAUS in September 2017.

b.  Corporate Partners: LTC (Ret) Snook indicated he will be sending out the 2017 Corporate Partner information within the next month. USAMM has already sponsored us at the Silver level for 2017. Marc Snook will continue to get information out to the Corporate Partners through e-mail and update the master list (this will be Mark Timmons list). Others who work the Corporate Partners will be calling their designated companies following up on their sponsorship. We are asking CPT Timmons to help split up those companies among the CP team. 1LT McIntire will speak with CPT Timmons about being on the team. Also mentioned were LT Hesler and Capt Naramore (CPT Ginestar will talk with her).

c.  Membership: CPT Vo announced that 1-186 IN is the first 100% Battalion. They will get $150, and other 100% battalions will get $100. CPT Vo will coordinate with the battalions to see how they want to receive their money (either in cash for the Officers’ Fund or some item that can designate their accomplishment that they can flash at the State Conference).

Added this year for 100% battalions or squadrons is that the Membership Coordinator will have their $30 State Conference fee waived and receive two Military Ball tickets paid by ORNGA. CPT Vo will let us know who the Membership Coordinators are).

Another idea was to have a Stanley Cup type award that passes from one Battalion to another depending on who is the first to reach 100%.

Need to get cards for NGAUS accomplishments. LTC (Ret) McReynolds has a very successful CGO ODP at Kingsley. He had 24 CGOs and the 173d Commander was there and encouraged membership in the associations.

d.  Awards Committee: Special recognition to Col Prigmore for her efforts in getting the Air Guard to submit awards. We will need to work to get the Army Guard to submit awards for the NGAUS award program. The suspense date for submission to NGAUS is May 15, 2017. Those submitted for awards need to be members of the associations.

5. Update on State Conference 2017: LTC (Ret) McReynolds will begin coordination with the Salem Conference Center for the March conference. The Board discussed graduated rates. We will discuss at the next Board meeting.

Needs: Guest Speaker for the conference needs to be designated so they can be contacted. We will need wine for the Mystery Bag Event – challenge – have 50 bottles by the end of December (Adam Lulay will donate a (case for the event). Put together a Spouse Luncheon – COL (Ret) Janssen will coordinate with Sue Stencel on this. Look at having five minute shorts on National Guard benefits, ie, Tricare, Family Program, ESGR, Suicide Prevention, State Sponsored Life Insurance, USAA, etc.

6. Update on National Conference in Louisville: COL (Ret) Janssen and LTC (Ret) McReynolds will be attending the National Guard Executive Directors Association meeting in Louisville in January. There we will pick a hotel, get training, and get briefings from NGAUS, Corporate Advisory Committee and the SSLI carriers.

a.  Delegates: The number of delegates will be designated in July in accordance with the Association membership of each state. In addition, we get one for the TAG, three because we have 162 Retired Life Members, two because of our Company Grades, one for Warrant Officers, and one because we have someone on the National Committee

b.  Pins: Blinkie pins were a hit at the 2016 NGAUS conference. We need to decide if we want blinkie pins for the 2017 conference. This needs to be done by the June Board meeting so we have enough time to get them made and shipped to Oregon.

c.  Throw items: We throw Maryland taffy this year at the conference. We need to look at what might be appropriate for Kentucky.

d.  Registration: LTC (Ret) McReynolds used the new registration system this year, so it should run more smoothly for 2017.

7. New Business:

a.  PNDC Winter Party: LTC (Ret) McReynolds stated Col Fitzgerald told him that PNDC wants to do an afternoon luncheon function instead. They want to change the name to Industry Date which shouldn’t be a problem. The date is currently tentatively scheduled for December 15th. He will have more information at the November Board meeting.

b.  Slack: CPT Vo indicated that Slack is an on-line platform in which you have multiple channels in which you can create groups such as a Membership channel, a Futures Committee, Resolutions, State Conference, etc. Not everyone would have access to all channels only those who are part of those committees. It also has a continuous thread of everyone’s input into it as where right now if you are not on an email, you may not see what others have been talking about. It’s a historical record. You can also post files/lists, By-Laws, etc. You have to be invited to join the list. It is completely free, there is a website and an app for your phone. CPT Vo continues to invite people to join Slack.

8. Next Meeting: The next meeting date is Thursday, November 2, 2016 at the ARC in Salem at 5:30 PM. Pizza will be served. Meeting was adjourned at 6:45 PM.