Oregon National Guard Association s6

Oregon National Guard Association Board Meeting Minutes Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Present:

Brig Gen Michael Stencel COL (Ret) Roberta Janssen Maj Andrea Smothers CW3 Doug Herinckx LTC Fritz McReynolds Maj Gen (Ret) Dan O'Hollaren Robin Webb MAJ Charles Patzner COL Kelly Smothers LtCol James Mitchell CPT Maribel Ortega Maj Dawn Choy CPT Mark Timmons Capt Scott Gelhardt

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

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

3. Financial Update:

a. ORNGA Checking Account: $22,154.00 is the balance.

b. ORNGA Scholarship Fund: $10,156.31 is the balance.

c. Budget Report for February: COL (Ret) Janssen stated we have received $7,500 in Corporate Sponsorship for the month of February. We also received a Dividend check for the SSLI program for $4,988. State Conference and Military Ball registration is at 61 and 113. She reminded everyone that if you pay at door it will cost $45 for the conference. She went over the remainder of income and expenses for the month of February. She estimated the amount that will be spent on the NGAUS Conference, with the Pins for $1,145, wooden coins that were discussed prior and the extra $500 for Hospitality night, the budget came out to $40,063. We are still under the $41,000 budget for the Conference. This means we will need to vote on the additional charges, i.e. Hospitality at $3,500, the wooden coins for throw items and Corporate Partner presentations. A motion to accept the budget report as written was made and a second was given. Motion passed.

4. Committee Reports:

a. Membership: COL (Ret) Janssen indicated at present, the Air Guard is at 48 members out of 220 for 21% membership and the Army is at 295 out of 653 for 45% membership. Total membership for 2015 is 39%. She indicated March is the early bird so we need people to pay by the end of March, so please push this info out. LTC Wirth indicated if he had a list of JFHQ Army personnel who haven’t paid, he would be willing to twist some arms. COL (Ret) Janssen stated she will send it out to him.

b. Resolutions: MAJ Patzner indicated on the Army side there was a new request on a Stealth Heating System that they would like us to be a co-sponsor with Arizona and Michigan. He doesn’t believe he has enough information to bring it to the committee for a vote, nor may we have the climate here to field a unit requirement. Right now there are no new Army Resolutions but he did receive further information related to the ones agreed to last month. LtCol Mitchell indicated the resolution idea was great but is outside of our scope. The presenter was looking at changing the pay system in the National Guard. Told him he needs to speak with JFHQ, he agreed to reach out at NGAUS which he did and they agreed it would be a tough Resolution on the hill. Col Fitzgerald did provide an update on a current Resolution which is the modernization of the F-15 flight. They are only reordering some of the priorities on that. COL (Ret) Janssen indicated just an FYI – both Resolution people will have a spot in the Script for the State Conference so you will have an opportunity to go over the Resolutions you specifically worked on for Oregon. Those Resolutions will still need to go out for a vote, once the vote takes place with our membership, they will then go to NGAUS. That needs to be done by July 15th.

MAJ Patzner indicated there are still four Resolutions that are active Resolutions at the National Level, do we still need to brief them? COL (Ret) Janssen indicated they should be good to go as they will be part of the current packet. You can mention there is a packet of Resolutions you can look at on line that are already in the works.

CPT Timmons indicates he has a Resolution proposal from Defense Shield, one of our Corporate Sponsors, he will forward to MAJ Patzner for evaluation.

c. Corporate Partners: CPT Timmons indicated the spreadsheet shows 23 corporate partners so far this year for a total of $22,000, budget plan is $37,000. LTC McReynolds indicated he has several connections to some of the vendors on the list so he will make some phone calls.

5. State Conference 2015:

a. Slate of Officers: COL (Ret) Janssen stated we have one Warrant Officer so far, CW3 Herinckx, still need a Air Company Grade Officer Rep. LtCol Mitchell stated Capt Charles Jefferies is interested. COL (Ret) Janssen indicated she spoke with Capt Gelhardt and he is also interested. Maj Smothers indicated the By- Laws state that the Air Guard Company Grade Officers will vote on the candidate which usually submits a Bio or something on why they are interested. Brig Gen Stencel indicated he will speak to LtCol Mitchell off line regarding this issue.

b. Attendees: COL (Ret) Janssen indicated there are 69 signed up so far. Cut-off date for reservations for the rooms is March 18th. She also indicated she spoke with General Fogelman’s assistant and he is on our schedule for 16th through the 19th. His assistant did not believe he was bringing his wife but will check again. COL (Ret) Janssen also will picked up some items for a basket for his room when he arrives. She also indicated whomever ends up in charge of taking care of the General, she would like to meet with them ahead of time. As for the Luncheon for Spouses, Brig Gen Stencel indicated there are no plans now if General Fogelman is not bringing his wife. Maj Gen (Ret) O’Hollaren suggested whomever will be the escort for General Fogelman, they may want to brush up on protocol for a retired 4 star.

c. Rooms: COL (Ret) Janssen stated the cut off for rooms is March 18, 2015.

6. NGAUS Conference - Nashville:

a. Attendees for 2015: COL (Ret) Janssen stated for OPD, we have not gotten a letter from NGB, we were told we could send three people but apparently USPFO put a dollar cap on it. She will follow up on this issue while she is back at NGAUS for the Board of Directors meeting. We should end up with three slots that are federally funded, one Air, a Warrant Officer and a Company Grade for the Army side.

b. Awards: COL (Ret) Janssen indicated she sent this out to all the Commanders and May 15th is the deadline. Please get the info in by the end of April to her.

c. Pins: COL (Ret) Janssen stated the pins have been ordered.

d. Throw items: LTC McReynolds stated last month we were looking at 500 small wooden coins and 25 of the large coasters for the Corporate Partners. That would be $425.00. A motion was made to order 500 of the wooden coins and 25 of the Coaster size ones to give to the Corporate Partners for a total of $425.00, motion passed. e. Hospitality – Western States: COL (Ret) Janssen indicated Montana is taking care of the Hospitality room and is asking for $3500 from each state that is participating. She indicated she added it to the budget and did not take us over the $41,000 budgeted for the conference. LTC McReynolds will contact Melissa and work out the details so Oregon is represented and will report back to the group next month.

7. Old Business:

a. Use of Rebate funds in 2016: Maj Smothers indicated several different ideas have been tossed around. The simplest idea to propose would be the best method in giving a 25% discount for memberships paid before 31 March for 2016. Col (Ret) Janssen indicated she proposes the same thing but on the website we put amount up until drop dead date. Her suggested language was something like “For this year 2016, if you pay before this date, this is what you pay.” That way there is no question on what they are paying. COL (Ret) Janssen indicated that on an annual basis for State dues, amount paid is somewhere between $13,000 and $15,000. We are well within the limits of our rebate. A motion was made to approve the 25% discount for State membership dues paid before March 31, 2016, motion passed.

b. ORNGA coin: LTC McReynolds will check with SGT Benedict to see what vendor he is using to get an idea of prices. The biggest expense is making the dye. Once that’s done the cost is considerably cheaper. He will report on this next month.

8. New Business:

a. Request for Funds: COL (Ret) Janssen indicated there are two requests for funds. The first is North Salem High School. The JROTC Drill Team and Color Guard is doing their competition in May and is asking for a donation. Last year we donated $500, Brig Gen Stencel suggested we support them again this year with the same amount, $500. A motion was made to support the North Salem High School JROTC Drill Team and Color Guard again this year with $500, motion passed.

COL (Ret) Janssen indicated the other request was from the Command Chief Master Sargent for the Air National Guard for the 21st Annual Awards Banquet. Last year they had to reach a certain percentage of people the year before for a donation. The total amount given by the Association was $260.00. The Enlisted Association also gave them money. The event is scheduled next week so it’s a short suspense. A motion was made to give the Air National Guard Awards Banquet Committee $250 per their request, motion passed.

b. Golf Tournament: LTC McReynolds indicted the Army Aviation Association is sponsoring a golf tournament on the Friday before the state conference. They have asked if they can send out a flyer to our rank and file. EANGOR stated they are not doing a Golf Tournament and we determined we aren’t doing one either. This event is a fundraiser for the Army Aviation Association. Brig Gen Stencel indicated he has no problem with the event.

c. ROGUE: LTC McReynolds passed out several pictures of the Deployment bottles that ROGUE has done in the past. These are referred to as a 3L Gerbil. The cost is $35.30 per bottle, and can have them made in time for the State Conference. If we order a few of them and put them in the Silent Auction with a starting bid of $50, some of them will go quite high. Is this something the Board would entertain and if so what ones do we order? He also mentioned that he has spoken with ROGUE about doing deployment bottles for the Air Guard, he just needs someone to approach him with the idea and artwork. There was group discussion about buying one of each bottle (there are 17 total) at $35 each to see what bottles move. That amount would total $595.00. Brig Gen Stencel indicated he would entertain the idea. LTC McReynolds stated that MG Rees, the 82 ROC and 1-186 are bottles that we could probably leave off. A motion was made to purchase the Commemorative Gerbil, not to exceed $600 for the Education Scholarship Fund, motion passed. d. Snack Packs: COL (Ret) Janssen stated at the NGEDA Conference a Snack Pack was given out to all he attendees. It included a bottle of water, nuts, cookies and a nut bar. She was wondering if there is any interest in us doing this for our State Conference as a lot of the Officers that come out of the conference go into break outs with their units. We would be looking at around 250 of them, the cost would be about $404.00. Tabled until next meeting.

9. Next Meeting: Next meeting will be Wednesday, April 8, 2015 at the ARC in Salem at 5:30 PM. Pizza will be served. Meeting was adjourned at 6:35 PM.