To: ACAMC Membership
Subject: ACAMC Meeting Minutes
1. Date, Time, Location: December 12, 2009, 1:33 pm (1333 hours), Bill McCullough’s house, Fredericksburg, VA.
2. Purpose: General membership meeting. The ACAMC General Membership meeting was conducted and the holiday social occurred after the meeting.
3. Attendees: A quorum was present (16 of 18 voting members – 12 proxies).
PRESENT
Michael Gavin (President)
Jack Miller – (Vice President)
Wilbur McCullough – (Secretary/Treasurer)
Richard Pennington
Michael Robertson (Proxy)
John Cecere (Proxy)
John Matthews (Proxy)
Tom McConnell (Proxy)
George Heinlein (Proxy)
Eddie Fuquay (Proxy)
Patrick Bowen (Proxy)
Bernie White (Proxy)
Frank Waterman (Proxy)
Phil Kennedy (Proxy)
Ed Weisheit (Proxy)
Jerry Merichko (Proxy)
ASSOCIATES
None
4. The following Agenda Items were discussed:
a. The Secretary presented the minutes from the September 26, 2009 meeting.
i. Motion to accept – Rich Pennington
ii. Seconded – Mike Gavin
iii. Unanimously approved.
b. The Treasurer provided a detailed fiscal update (attached). Our current balance of $865.45 was supported by coin, hat, and pen sales. Since the September meeting, we disbursed awards to base-level Ammo troops ($50.00), paid for Kevin Lewis’ plaque ($67.20), and reimbursed Mike Gavin for food costs from the July meeting ($50.00).
i. Motion to accept fiscal report: – Mike Gavin
ii. Seconded – Rich Pennington
iii. Unanimously approved.
5. Old Business:
a. Awards Committee: SMSgt Brown’s award presentation occurred on 11 December at the 1 FW. We are awaiting the release of the 4th quarter winners and the annual winners, which should be announced in January. We had no “Sharp Troop” inputs from our Region to review. All major units as well as McGuire, Pope, Andrews, and other small units were contacted on this award program.
b. Membership: With the recent addition of Chief Patrick Bowen, our active Ammo Chief membership roll is up to 19. However, this roll includes all 2009 members and 2010 members who paid since August for 2010. The membership as of January 1, 2010 may drop. We discussed members joining after mid-year should have their dues carried into the following year. Our current By-Laws do not address this issue but we voted to approve and plan on inserting a statement to the effect “New members joining the ACAMC from July 1 and on will have their membership carried forward for the next calendar year” during our next By-Law review. This will prevent us from overwhelming new members with requests for dues within a few months of joining. This does not apply to members whose dues lapse while they are in the ACAMC region. However, if they transfer out and back into the region, they will be considered new members. We have contacted our recent Chief selects and Chiefs within our region and received some positive feedback regarding them joining our Chapter. (Names of inactive AMMO Chiefs in the Chapter region were removed).
i. Motion to accept membership proposal: Mike Gavin
ii. Seconded: Jack Miller
iii. Unanimously approved.
Fundraising: The coins sales continue to do well. Monies were turned in during the meeting and additional coins were sold. We have 61 gold coins left for sale. Since membership dues are uncertain and we want to support more programs, Mike recommended we do a yard sale to help raise funds. It was agreed to try this the morning of June 19th prior to our quarterly meeting. In addition to the donated items, water and food sales were proposed. Goods may be brought down as early as our planned March 13th meeting. The membership has not heard from Tom McConnell about trying to acquire some of the gilded glasses from Incirlik similar to the ones given away at the ACA reunion held at Hampton, VA. During the meeting we collected $72.00 for coin sales, $150.00 for ACAMC dues, and $50.00 for ACA dues. Chapter dues are due by January 15th, 2010. You may send them to the Ammo Chiefs Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter, P.O. Box 65944, Hampton, VA 23665-5944. If you owe annual ACA dues (ACA membership is required to be in the ACAMC), you may send them to the ACAMC address or to: Ammo Chiefs Association (Attn: Treasurer), 6046 SW 98 Loop, Ocala, FL 34476. All members should continue to look for ways to raise funds for our Chapter.
d. Sunset Committee: An old wise man told me – it seems as we get older our medical issues tend to evolve rather than resolve. John Cecere is doing OK and is able to travel. Bill mentioned Bernie White had a hernia operation and is recovering well. The Chapter members present signed a card to send to him. We also sent a card to Gen Leo Marquez who is fighting an uphill battle with cancer.
e. Participation in ACAMC meetings: We are trying to do a better job on the calendar to mitigate conflicts with other activities.
f. Update on Langley AFB December 11th dinner honoring the 50th Anniversary of the rank of CMSgt. Mike Gavin will get feedback for the next meeting.
g. Virginia license plate with active duty Air Force recognition. Phil Kennedy was not present to discuss status. Rich stated he saw an article about the pre-paying of fees ($15.00 he believes) for the plates and a few other rules. He will try to find the article and send it to Phil. Deferred until next meeting.
h. Marble bench recognizing Ammo community by Wright-Patterson AFB museum. Issue sent to ACA. The ACA is looking at possibly doing a plaque instead. There are a lot of restrictions involved in the process and construction of the plaque. Proposed verbiage is being reviewed and a new Ammo badge is being looked at. This is now an ACA initiative and they will keep the Chapters abreast of how it is going. More to follow.
i. ACA reunion update. There is no firm date set yet pending negotiations with the proposed hotel (Sunrise Holiday Inn) in the Eglin, FL area. Rich will track this for the Chapter.
6. New Business:
a. The Chapter held elections for the office of Vice President. Votes from e-mails, proxies, and in-person were tallied. Mike Robertson won the election in a very close race against Jack Miller. Mike Gavin thanked Jack for his service and support of the Chapter. The Vice President will take office on January 1, 2010.
b. The 2010 budget was reviewed (attached). Fundraising is the key to our success and enables us to help our Airman. We have numerous ACAVC shirts donated by John Matthews left to sell and we are letting them go at a reduced cost ($10) Coin sales are steady with 61 left to sell before a new order is required. Mike Gavin suggested a yard sale be held before our proposed June 19th meeting. He believes this can be a real boost to the coffers as a big annual event if we get enough donated goods. We could possibly sell food and beverages during the yard sale. Based on the current fund levels, the Chapter decided on two $200.00 holiday shopping trips to support needy Airman). Sunset donations were dropped to $100. The annual awards program was increased $50.00 to $250.00 based on many regional winners in 2009. Some discussion was held regarding the future of the Rich Gauvin Scholarship Fund donation based in its potential inclusion in the CFC catalog.
i. Motion to accept budget proposal: – Mike Gavin
ii. Seconded – Jack Miller
iii. Unanimously approved
c. The 2010 calendar of events was reviewed (attached).
d. The group reviewed the inputs received from the 1st FW MSA for the holiday support program(Ammo troops in need). Only two candidate packages were submitted. Both packages were approved. If late submissions are received, they will not be considered for action due to our funding limitations.
e. The floor was opened for new business.
a). There was some discussion about us running out of numbered coins (from original ACAVC order). We will plan on getting 20 more numbered coins starting with number 26 when we place the next gold coin order. Since we have new coin design it was asked if there was a way to etch our current membership number on the new coins. There is not a block on the basic coin for a number. It was noted that the 1st FW Armament shop has an etcher and we might be able to get some coins numbered with the new design if our membership would like their original coin number. Mike will look into this. We may possibly be able to etch a 2-digit number on the sides on the face of the coin (i.e., “02” with the “0” on the left hand side and the “2” on the right hand side) to keep the appearance symmetrical.
b). Bill mentioned various versions of pending health care legislation carry increased TriCare fees. All members were asked to keep an eye on this and notify their respective representatives in government if they are displeased with the contents of the bills.
7. The meeting was adjourned at 3:19 pm (1519 hours).
i. Motion to adjourn – Rich Pennington.
ii. Seconded – Mike Gavin.
iii. Adjourned by unanimous decision.
8. The next meeting is planned for March 13, 2010 at the Langley AFB munitions area administrative facility (tentative) at 1300 hours. Members are encouraged to bring their yard sale items supporting the June event . Remember, this is potentially a large money maker, but without membership support it will not be successful.
9. The group socialized for awhile and feasted on a variety of foods prepared by Marilyn.
//signed//
Wilbur C. McCullough III
Secretary, ACAMC
