19 Oct 2024 FTVA Annual General Membership Meeting Minutes

1. After determining there was a quorum present, President Bill Brockmiller called the meeting to order at 11:02 AM and provided opening remarks beginning with a recap and general discussion of the golf tournament, Hall of Honor, Remembrance Ceremony and picnic:
   1. Golf: This year from the roster there were 42 golfers, ~10 teams which was a significant reduction from past years. The cost was $1173.11. Bill posed the question to the membership whether or not we care about that cost, or if we should consider another cost increase next year. Additional discussion about a possible venue change ensued. Lee Anthony provided some historical context noting that there had never been an intent for the tournament to make money and that previous NAF leadership had pressed for holding the tournament at the Lackland AFB course. It was noted that the low turn out this year could be attributed to a lack of advertising by the NAF. Considerations for next year include more robust advertising with early notification and request for support to the HQ, a potential venue change, and a possible price increase. Additionally, Jerry Gething recommended including the Chapters in early event planning and noted the possibility of getting businesses and Vigilant Partners to sponsor holes. Greg Radabaugh noted that turnout might have also impacted by the shift of events from September to October. Next year’s events are already planned for October as this aligns well with Security Service and 16 AF anniversary dates.
   2. Hall of Honor: Bill lauded Lee and the Selection Committee for once again knocking it out of the park with great selections and write-ups. He expressed thanks to all who helped put the events together and especially to Mr. Tim Duncan in 16 AF Protocol and his staff. He additionally noted the late but robust support by the 16 AF Executive Director, Mr. Dom Pohl, had a huge impact on energizing the NAF level of support. Ron Haygood recommended that we need to work with the NAF leadership to get Wing-level interest and support and that they should perhaps appoint Wing HoH reps, as they generally have no clue about FTVA. Greg Radabaugh advised that if we formally included Wing reps on the Selection Committee that it would require a change to the HoH charter. AJ Harrison asked who the current NAF POC was, and the consensus was that it is Mr. Tim Hill, the Deputy Chief of Staff. Lastly, Andy Smith noted that he’d spoken with several family members of the honorees and there were several requests for copies of the full writeups. Lee confirmed that there would be no issue for the sponsor of the honoree to provide the full write-up to family.
   3. Remembrance Ceremony: Bill thanked Pepito for diligently maintaining the list of the fallen. He noted that Mr. Pohl’s direction to make the ceremony a NAF event with FTVA in a support role and to move the event outside to the EC-47, while coming at the last minute, made the ceremony a much more impactful event. While the late venue change did not afford the opportunity to coordinate a fly over or honor guard participation as in years past, the heavy lift by 16 AF/PA and FTVA members working the logistics that included securing medical support from the Fire Department and 59 Medical Group, working with 16 AF Facilities for chairs, and the Gillum Fitness Center to borrow bleachers, finding someone to sing the national anthem, and getting the bagpiper to play Amazing Grace, all contributed to a fitting ceremony. Thanks to Ted Colquhoun for reading the list this year, it’s not an easy task as each year the list contains more and more familiar names. As with the HoH, copies of Mr. Pohl’s speech were requested by several guests, and Brock will request a copy from him for distribution/publishing to the website. He will also scrub the old checklist and supporting documentation in preparation for planning for next year.
   4. Picnic: Bill recapped the great success of this year’s picnic. Many thanks to the 16 AF Booster Club for volunteering to provide all of the food preparation and serving manpower and logistics with the FTVA’s only part being to pay for the cost of the food and supplies. This arrangement worked incredibly well, and the Booster Club’s proactive announcement to the Security Hill First Sargent’s network of a “16 AF Burger Burn” resulted in the greatest participation of uniformed members in many years. Also, Bill noted that the Stillman Park venue offered many advantages, including the grilling and serving area and the size of the covered area that accommodated the attendees. He recommended that it be the primary location for next year’s planning. Lt Gen Hensley even highlighted the picnic’s great success in his opening comments at the banquet. Members discussed the opportunity to have an FTVA sign-up table at the picnic as was done in the past, and Bill advised of his intent to clean out the storage room to inventory the contents for signage, tables etc. that were used in the past for next year’s picnic.
   5. Future Plans: Bill asked all members who had a role in planning this year’s events submit to him names of those to whom thank you letters should be sent. He led a brainstorming session on better ways to advertise next year and will reach out to the Heritage Chapter as they have had great success in the San Angelo area. Bill asked the Board and membership to provide him with their thoughts on an annual Spring Social for 2025. Lee inquired as to the needed annual review of the State of Texas documents that require a Registered Agent provide a biannual report. He explained that this report states who the officer of the non-profit are and that this was historically accomplished when the taxes were filed. Andy Smith advised that he will confer with Ken Maynard, the previous Treasurer, to ascertain the status. Lee noted that he has access to the needed sites and details if needed.
2. Oldest Participant: After a poll of meeting participants, it was determined that John “Aloha Tilly” from the Aloha Chapter was indeed the most senior participant at the young age of 79.
3. Farthest Away: While in past years the farthest participant had been awarded to the member who had travelled the farthest to attend the in-person meeting, With the switch to a Zoom only meeting, the farthest this year was awarded to the participant who was zooming in from the most distant location, and the winner was Pepito Figueroa who was physically participating in the meeting from Panama.
4. Reading of Last Year’s Minutes: Lee made a motion to approve last year’s minutes as submitted. The motion was seconded and carried.
5. Treasurer’s Report: Andy provided a finance recap noting that we are running a year-over-year deficit of ~$6000K. He noted that he’d be establishing a budget for the current year that he’ll present to the Board at the next Board Meeting. Currently there is $137,868K in FTVA accounts with some outstanding debts to settle related to this year’s anniversary events. He additionally asked that Chapters provide him good addresses for him to send annual rebate checks.
6. History: Dan Martin advised that the annual history report should be out for review by the end of the week following the meeting.
7. Website and Membership: Roy advised that since moving the RIT from behind the website firewall into the public area that web traffic was significantly up and that he is working with Pepito on updating the membership list. There was a subsequent discussion about the ability/need to receive donations and membership sign-up and dues via the website. Roy advised the Constitution and By-laws are available at the website. There was a general discussion about membership engagement and how to gauge sentiment among website viewers. RIT viewership is one way and the Chapters were encouraged to provide ideas. Pepito noted that he has no issues in finding the deceased members to track for the Memorial Ceremony, but help is needed in finding live people for membership and participation. Pep offered his e-mail address (joseph.figueroa361@gmail.com) to send ideas and potential contacts. Dan Martin offered the idea of printing up business cards to pass out.
8. Hall of Honor: Lee noted that this year there were sixteen submissions, and that by comparison the most ever received was twenty-one or twenty-two. He commented that Zoom is viable for the Selection Committee allowing opening up the membership outside of the local area. He advised that the Selection Committee charter will need to be updated to reflect any organizational change that the Air Force’s Great Power Competition changes might bring to 16 AF. Lastly he commented that he had received request for feedback on certain packages and that the Selection Committee was open to providing feedback to submitters.
9. Social Activities: Ted reported that at the banquet there were sixteen tables, 128 plates, with 119 attendees. Feedback from the banquet has been excellent and Lt Gen Hensley’s update was well received. Ted will reserve the club for next year for Saturday, 18 Oct 2025.
10. It was noted that Dennis Buxton was very active with his camera during the allowable events and that he is requesting everyone send him pictures for the next RIT edition. The suspense for the next RIT inputs id 1 Dec.
11. Chapter Reports:
    1. Alamo Chapter: Ken Williams reported that they had met on 10 August and had 25 people attend. They had an interesting guest speaker, doctor (colonel) who showed up in a full Soviet uniform acquired during his interesting career. Ken advised that the Chapter voted to return their $500 rebate check as attempts to spend it locally were for naught. Lastly he noted that the Chapter had purchased several wreaths to place on graves at Ft Sam Houston National Cemetery,
    2. Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter: Jerry Gething expressed his sincere gratitude for this week’s events. He informed the membership that the Mid-Atlantic Chapter was the true “phoenix” chapter having risen from the ashes on numerous occasions, and that they are trying again with many propos to Bob Bastian. He advised that they had held a Spring Social at which Tom Renderly from Langley participated and commented on the number of former command members in the Langley area. There might be an opportunity to form a chapter there. Jerry also reported that they’d held a 50/50 raffle that Al Dowling attended and that they’re planning a fall social to be held in northern Virginia. He suggested the Board consider changing the day and time of the monthly Board Meeting to better accommodate working members at various geographic locations. Lastly, he advised that they’re struggling with membership and that there seems to be a need to define and better publicize the purpose of FTVA. A related discussion ensued with a suggestion to perhaps we should open membership to family members, a recommendation to create and post a video about the organization to the website, and the need to get more Wing involvement with a needed push from NAF leadership.
    3. Aloha Chapter: Tilly thanked the Board for Hoppy’s selection to the HoH and all of the related support. He expressed gratitude to Tom Nury and JJ Graham for helping Dickie Hite’s family secure an EC-47 paver. He noted that their membership is down mainly due to advancing age and health and the setback of losing their regular meeting place. They will keep it afloat as long as they can and reiterated the need for advertising, connections to other organizations.
    4. Heritage Chapter: JJ provided an update and began by thanking the Board for this year’s events. He advised that the Heritage Chapter had supported a Vietnam Veterans Ceremony; the EC47 paver project has been a great success with over 600 in place and another 200 or so left. He thanked the 6994 and advised that they had coordinated the Leftwich Scholarship with San Angelo State. They have a request in fir the Wall that Heals to return to San Angelo. They’ve had interest from other organization with regards to the 37th annual Tet reunion. He expressed gratitude for the help with Ed Bendinelli’s HoH write up to Sue Douglas and Dennis Rasmussen. He advised that the Heritage Chapter is now an official private organization on base at GAFB and that it should provide them with more support opportunities. JJ sits on the Tom Greene County Veterans’ Council and participates with the Veteran Homelessness Committee in San Angelo. He noted that membership is a challenge, particularly among permanent party as students are all transient. The Chapter briefs students on the history of the EC-47. JJ proposed that, while Zoom is great, that there should still be an in-person venue in San Antonio for the annual membership meeting to allow for a face-to-face meeting opportunity for those who travel in for the events.