Oregon National Guard Association
Board Meeting Minutes
Thursday, March 7, 2013
Present:
COL (Ret) Roberta Janssen BG Todd Plimpton
Capt Christopher Jenkins LTC (Ret) Marc Snook
LTC Fritz McReynolds Capt Andrea Smothers
COL Kelly Smothers CPT Mark Timmons
Robin Webb LTC Tom Wirth
Brig Gen Michael Stencel CW5 Terry Swartwout
Capt Dawn Choy Capt Lena Morrill
LtCol Joe Harris MajGen Dan O’Hollaren
1. Welcome by the President: BG Plimpton welcomed members to the meeting and thanked everyone for their hard work on the Conference and Military Ball.
2. Minute Approval: Meeting was called to order and the 27 February, 2013 minutes were reviewed and approved. A motion to accept the minutes was made and a second was given. Motion passed.
3. Financial Update: COL (Ret) Janssen stated she sent out the budget sheet. With dues coming in we are now at 53% and need to get as many as possible before the end of the month so we can get our Early Bird Rebate, which is 5%. CPT Timmons indicated he shows $35,100 in actual contributions and $4,000 in in-kind contributions (product donations, etc.) This is $4,500 more than last year, hoping to apply to Company Grades to go to Hawaii this year. COL Janssen indicated next month she will have the numbers put together for both the Conference and Ball as to how we did compared to last year’s numbers. A motion to approve the report for the budget was made and a second was given. Motion passed.
4. Membership: COL (Ret) Janssen stated we are at 53% as of today. Aviation, 2-641, 3-116, and all HQ of the major commands are low on membership. Air Guard is starting to come in. BG Plimpton indicated he has spoken to the Warrant Officers who indicated they do not feel part of the Officer Corps. Chief Swartwout stated the aviation folks have a joint membership between the US Army Warrant Officer Association and Quad A. They opt to go that route because Quad A is an aviation only organization and is cheaper to belong to than NGAUS. Chief Swartwout indicated he has a call out to his three senior Warrants to try to do a better job to champion, not only the other organization but NGAUS as well. Maj Gen O’Hollaren requested the membership report be broken down by pieces and start assigning people to work it. BG Plimpton requested the report be updated maybe every 4 or 5 days, he will work JFHQ, asked Maj Gen O’Hollaren to work the ANG, he will talk with CPT VO on the Army side on where we are at with the Battalions and also with Brig Gen Stencel to see what the influences are there. Chief Swartwout suggested encouraging the Company Grade Officers to enlist the Warrant Officers in their Units to be that person to go around and work on people paying dues. Target percent is 76% we are shooting for; we were 71% last year.
5. State Conference AAR: COL Janssen stated CPT Vo asked about having a Spouse get together or a luncheon which we did not do this year. Other comments where on how people got their confirmations. She is working with Chris so we can be a little clearer on the invoices. She recommends drop downs in which people will have to choose in order to go to next step. In some cases we didn’t get units, some we didn’t get ranks, etc. BG Plimpton asked if everyone had a chance to review the written AAR by COL Janssen. He stated MG Rees was very complimentary on it. He suggested making it a working document so any comments received from the board, could be added to it for next year. Capt Choy indicated the Corporate Sponsors where really happy with this year. The set up and time given between events was great. There were 37 tables filled, 32 were Corporate Sponsors and 5 of them were internal support for attendees.
6. NGAUS 2013:
a. Awards: COL Janssen stated she sent out information for awards and the suspense is the end of April. Last year the Air Guard did a really good job of getting people in the different categories. Chief Swartwout even got in a Warrant Officer. She will talk with BG Caldwell who usually has people in the political area that should probably be recognized. She will also get something out to Commanders so if they see there is something that has been done in the unit or a particular individual they might want to use one of these awards to recognize them.
b. Task Force people: COL Janssen indicated there are a couple of people on task forces now - LTC Bob Fraser for Field Artillery TF; Shaun Martin for Engineer TF and he is a PE. COL Smothers will do the C4I. She will be looking at the Task Forces this month to see who is going to the conference that we can marry up to a particular subject to get them involved.
c. Expenses: COL Janssen stated at this point the rooms are about $220 per night. Registration is staying at $165. Travel is about $500, so we are looking at giving a stipend of $300 for travel this year. LTC McReynolds stated there is an airline in Eugene, Allegiant Air, they are only doing bookings out to July but are offering one way tickets for $109. BG Plimpton asked LTC McReynolds if he could check to see if they can do a pre-booking. If it’s less than $400 we could just pay for the tickets and pay for everyone in one shot. COL Janssen indicated she needs an email from anyone who is planning on attending the conference. Right now there are 17 people on the board.
7. Old Business:
a. Benefits Inc.: COL Janssen indicated the annual meeting was the end of February. The three officers on that board are herself, LTC (Ret) Marilyn Woodward and CW4 Rob Karnes. The three enlisted members are Chief Russell, CSM Lake and Bill Devereau. The conference for that Board will be in Seattle this year. The distribution for the Experience Rebate will be after the May meeting. ORNGA will be getting probably between $30,000 and $40, 000 from the Experience Rebate.
b. Scholarship Fund: COL Janssen stated the Mystery Bag event went really well again this year and we made our $2,000. We also made over $500 with adding the donation option on the website.
c. Maintenance of Website: COL Janssen indicated she has a meeting with the SAGE Representative and Chris Martin at the end of the month. She will have her list of questions with her. If you want to add anything, please let her know. BG Plimpton requested a drop down on pictures from the Conference and also a drop down for something to do on the Corporate Sponsors. Next year at the President’s Reception we need to have a photographer there.
8. New Business:
a. April – Capital Campaign for the Museum: COL Janssen stated she called the museum people and we can get a table for $1,500 to sponsor a table for the April 20th event. BG Plimpton indicated the Board received a personal request to do that. He suggests the table holds 10; he would invite the people who are working for the Association. That would be $1,500 for one table. Maj Gen O’Hollaren said the flyer quoted $3,500 per table. COL Janssen indicated the dollar amount was reduced. BG Plimpton recommended a motion that the 10 seats be used for the people who are doing all the hard work to invite them to dinner at the event. A motion to sponsor the table at an amount not to exceed $1,500 to sponsor a table at the campaign for the Museum and the seats at that table are to be used by the Executive Director for the benefit of those that are working for the Association. A motion was made, a second was followed. Motion passed.
b. July – TAG Retirement Dinner: COL Janssen indicated that the Marriott in Portland was very expensive. This is one of the locations they are looking at for the TAG retirement dinner on July 13th. Tracy is now looking at Salem Conference Center where it’s almost 2/3rds of what the cost was in Portland. The Conference center can fit 400 to 600 easily in the upstairs Willamette Room. The cost of the event in Salem is under $10,000. He asked the board to approve a motion that allows for the sponsorship of the event done at the Salem Conference Center. That would mean if they move the venue of the event to another location, we will reconsider the motion. He believes the biggest exposure will be about $5,000. Motion was made, a second was given, motion passed.
c. Newsletter: COL Janssen stated doing a newsletter for a push in membership. BG Plimpton indicated a hard copy newsletter mailing to private addresses to all officers in the Oregon National Guard. It would have pictures of the Association meeting, the vendor’s area, and the President’s Reception. This would be a 4 or 5 page newsletter. Chief Swartwout recommends using “What has NGAUS done for you Lately” article. The Association will design it; Public Affairs will lend some assistance. Capt Smothers suggested the newsletter be formatted to look like the dues bill. BG Plimpton recommended on the back page do a tear off so they can tear it off and send it in with their dues payment. COL Smothers suggested using Magnet Mail/Constant Contact for mass emails. Seems to have worked great. BG Plimpton stated we are going to do an “old school” this one last time. Capt Jenkins indicated we may not have really pushed the email end of this, we budget right now $2,200 a year for printing and postage, for a quarter of that we could do monthly mailings for membership, whatever you want to put out at significant savings. COL Janssen indicated she has been working with Chris Martin on this. Brig Gen Stencel reminded everyone to be cautious on pushing membership. A Motion was made to do a mailing of the newsletter. A second was given, motion passed.
d. Canby Vet Memorial: The Association received a thank you note for the $200 donation for the flag pole at Canby Veteran’s Memorial.
e. Corporate Partner Feedback: Received email from one of the Corporate Partners saying “great conference, definitely growing in size of participants and exhibitors. Thanks for introducing me to key leadership. I had some discussion with them on DRS products.”
f. AUSA Membership: Need vote for AUSA Corporate membership. Their membership is $150. Over the last several years we have supported their membership and they support ours by giving us $500. A motion was made to amend the agenda to cover the AUSA membership $150 fee. A motion was made and a second was given. Motion passed.
9. Next Meeting: The next meeting is scheduled for the 4th of April at the ARC at 5:30 PM. Pizza will be served. Meeting was adjourned at 6:45 PM.