Oregon National Guard Association s1

Oregon National Guard Association Board of Directors Meeting Minutes July 18, 2011 (with corrections made at September 19, 2011 Board Meeting)

Present:

COL (Ret) Roberta Janssen Brig Gen Steven Gregg Robin Webb CW5 Terry Swartwout Capt Christopher Jenkins COL Leah Sundquist Maj Gen (Ret) Dan O’Hollaren Col Richard Wedan LTC (Ret) Marc Snook CPT Sharel Paradis Capt Dawn Choy CPT Jonathan Tipton MAJ Brian Dean Maj Thuy Tran Capt Andrea Sutton

1. Welcome by the President – Brig Gen Gregg welcomed all members to the meeting.

2. Minute Approval: Meeting was called to order and June meeting minutes were approved. A motion was given by CPT Tipton and a second was given by Capt Jenkins.

3. Financial Update: COL Janssen indicated she sent out a copy of the ORNGA Budget for those who are participating by phone. She further stated she sent $5,000 to NGAUS which brought us up to 71%. The rest of our expenses were pretty normal. We now have a net profit for this year of $30,000.

4. Corporate Partner Update: COL Janssen indicated there was a Corporate Partner meeting on the 7th of July. Parties involved were MAJ McReynolds, COL Janssen, Capt Choy, and Capt Sutton. They discussed some of the things happening with the NGAUS Conference. Andrea stated she had found some “stress reliever” trout and small packages of “gummy worms” to throw out at Roll Call.

COL Janssen indicated she is still trying to track down some wine bags for the mystery wine for next year. MAJ McReynolds is working on coordination with PNDC to get a solid date in place. Once we have that we can start putting out some information to our Corporate Partners. We are still looking at Ribbons for the Corporate Partners at NGAUS; a suggestion was given to wait until next year as time is running short.

5. NGAUS Conference Update: COL Janssen indicated that as of right now we have 22 delegates and currently have enough people to fill those slots. Task Force Assignments, COL Sundquist has those assignments done so COL Janssen will list those in the IPR stuff for GEN Rees for next week. COL Sundquist indicated that all of the Air has been filled with names except for Mission Support; she indicated she will get with Brig Gen Gregg to review and finish the Air Side. She indicated there are still a few slots for the Army side as there is not enough Army staff attending.

COL Janssen indicated we have 24 rooms, she has turned in three so there should be a deposit refund coming. It was also noted that on Resolutions as they relate to the Air side, there was not anything Oregon specific, however a vote was taken at our State Conference for some changes to the standing Resolutions on F-15’s. Brig Gen Gregg indicated he will track that down.

At the State Conference we voted on two other Resolutions to support, one was Live Fire Training and the other was the National Maintenance Program. The State Association supported those items. Texas sent the Live Fire Training forward and is looking for additional States to sign on to it and the second was submitted by Kansas. National Guard Bureau does not concur with the National Maintenance Program and not sure if they also concur with the Live Fire Training, so unless we switch gears, we voted to support those but if it’s not in the direction of what we support or GEN Rees supports, we should quietly not offer support for them. Brig Gen Gregg suggested we run down all the Resolutions that we voted for at the Conference. COL Sundquist indicated she does not have all the information on the National Maintenance Program so she will contact the G4 or COL Rathburn. Col Wedan indicated he will send out copies of Resolutions voted on at the Conference by tomorrow morning.

CPT Paradis has the OPD for the Company Grade and will email it to Brig Gen Gregg.

6. Membership: COL Janssen indicated membership is at 71% which is why we have 22 delegates as of the 30th of June. She indicated that Bonnie Carter said this was the worst year for total membership that she could remember.

7. Old Business:

a. Vest Patch: COL Janssen indicated that the patches will be available soon, if you want one let Robin know. They are $15 per patch. (The price is now $10)

b. Update on New computer: No new info given.

c. State Conference 2012: COL Janssen indicated the conference next year is in Eugene. We have the contract signed; they put aside larger rooms for us to take our own stuff in for Battalions, Brigades and Air Guard Hospitality suites. As it gets closer, more information will follow. Also have the contract for 2013 in Salem at the Salem Conference Center which is signed and a $500 deposit was sent in to reserve the dates for 2013.

d. Sentry Eagle Donation: Brig Gen Gregg indicated a request was received from the 173rd for funds for Sentry Eagle. This is an open house event in which Corporate Sponsors are invited. The 173rd asked for a donation of $790 which was paid out of the Presidents Fund. This request came up after last months meeting.

There was also a donation of $911 for the 9/11 Dinner fund raiser part of which goes to the Oregon Military Museum. This was paid out of the President's Fund.

8. New Business

a. Dedication of new AFRC at Withycombe: COL Janssen indicated the Chief of Staff asked for 500 Jungleer Prints for the dedication. She has found 280 with some being numbered for Veterans, Commanders, Sergeant Majors, etc. In doing some research, the rest of the prints from 300ish to 1,000 are back in West Virginia where they have been stored for the last 12 years. They offered to ship them to us but we have to pay shipping. We are looking at shipping costs of $700 to $1,000. MAJ Dean and COL Janssen will work on getting a cheaper cost for shipping. A motion was made to authorize COL Janssen up to $1,000 for shipping so she can get the prints to Oregon. A first was made by COL Sundquist and a second by CPT Tipton. b. State Conference 2013: Discussed earlier in the minutes. c. 9/11 Dinner: COL Janssen indicated the check is done and General O’Hollaren is still consulting with Diane to see if they are going to represent the Association at the dinner. She stated there are two “host” seats at each table so any organization that sponsored a table gets two seats. Brig Gen O’Hollaren will let COL Janssen know who those representatives will be at a future date. (COL Janssen represented the ORNGA at the 9/11 Dinner as MajGen (Ret) O'Hollaren was in Kingsley Field for Col Miller's retirement) d. Request from RTI: COL Janssen indicates RTI is having their Commissioning Ceremony on the 5th of August. They are requesting $100 for refreshments and advertising. She would recommend that if this request is approved we take it out of the “line item” called “Donations” in our Budget. Brig Gen Gregg indicated he would like to see the Association have an opportunity to talk about the Association and how important it is. CPT Paradis stated that if we have the opportunity, we have the power point brief on “What has NGAUS Done for us Lately, What is NGAUS”. A motion was made to recommend a $100 donation using the caveat that a Representative from the Association is authorized to present what the Association is about during curriculum times. Chief Swartwout gave a first and a 2nd was given by COL Sundquist. COL Sundquist will get with the Commander and COL Janssen will get the check out. e. Write to Congress: COL Janssen indicated she sent out the edition of “Write to Congress” to all the members letting them know that the Governor’s and State Legislators are now on that website. She indicted that there were 739 so far as of the 14th of July out of the State of Oregon that have done the “Write to Congress”. f. Sharing Corporate Sponsor Information: COL Janssen stated she has had several requests to share Corporate Sponsor information. She suggested if someone wants that information she can get their information and pass it along to the Corporate Sponsors. That way we are not sharing our contact information. g. NGAUS July Meeting Update: Maj Gen O’Hollaren talked about the July meeting he attended in which the two big topics were the “Empowerment Act” which they are trying to get through the Senate and the “Budget Cuts” that are coming through. General Wyatt stated if we don’t energize our Congressmen and get one voice out there, they are looking at taking the Air National Guard from 106,700 down to 92K personnel. Army will be next, there is Iron (Planes), Force Structure (People) and Info Structure (Bases – eliminating 14 of them). The good news is that Oregon received two of the NGAUS scholarships out of six total and a new Secretary for the Board, Murray Hansen from Georgia. Empowerment Act of 2011, the house passed, the Senate now needs 51 votes to get on board. General Hargett testified before the Senate and one of the Senators from Mississippi asked if we still had Guard troops overseas. There are 38 Senators on board now and thinks it will be September before its all pulled together. We still need 51; both Senators from Oregon are on board.

Gen O’Hollaren passed around the “Membership Report” which lists the numbers by state. There was one state and one territory that have not paid any dues yet, Missouri and the Virgin Islands. CPT Paradis indicated that the Army side has not had a Warrant Officer promoted since 1 January due to the Warrant Officers wanting their WO1’s to be Federally Recognized and commissioned. Right now there is no Warrant Officer that has been Federally Recognized, only promoted. That has now changed, there is such a backlog on getting a WO1 commissioned and recognized that they have not promoted a single Warrant Officer across the entire Army National Guard since 1 January. 66% of our Warrant Officer force right now is eligible to retire.

Gen O’Hollaren indicated next year's conference is in Reno, 2013 is Hawaii; 2014 is Chicago; 2015 is Nashville; and 2016 is back in Baltimore.

9. Next Meeting: Next meeting is scheduled for September 19th at the ARC in Salem at 5:30 PM. A motion was given to end the meeting by Maj Gen O’Hollaren and a second by Capt Choy. Meeting adjourned at 6:45 PM