AIC Evan P. Black (Seymour Johnson AFB, NC) ACC Outstanding Munitions Technician, 1st Quarter 2010
TSgt James L. Reed (Langley AFB, VA) ACC Outstanding Munitions Supervisor, 1st Quarter 2010
The AMMO Chiefs Association Mid-Atlantic Chapter extended congratulations to these two outstanding ACC AMMO Troops for winning recognition as the Air Combat Command, Outstanding Munitions Technician and Outstanding Munitions Supervior for the 1st Quarter of 2010. The ACAMC presented both with ACAMC Certificates of Appreciation, gold ACA Mid-Atlantic Chapter Coins and checks for $50.00 as a small token of the chapter’s appreciation. It is through the selfless efforts of professionals such as these that makes our Air Force strong.
The AMMO Chief’s Association, Mid-Atlantic Chapter (ACAMC) submits the following 2009 Annual Report to the ACA for review and filing in historical records. We have also included a copy of our annual fiscal report for your review.
As expected, 2009 proved to be another successful year for our Chapter. The membership gathered four times to hold meetings, socialize, and plan for current and future events. With the aid of proxy votes, we were able to have a quorum and conduct official business at all the scheduled meetings. Our main efforts continue to be focused on working on implementing the personnel support initiatives such as, Airman Holiday Support program, recognition of Quarterly/Annual award winners. In addition, we continue to stay visible and solicit new members into the Chapter. To maximize participation we continue to float our meeting locations around to minimize travel on our regional members. This year we meet at the 1st FW Administrative facility (March), ACC Munitions Division Conference room (June), Mike Robertson’s home in Dumfries, VA (Sep) and finished out the year with our annual Holiday social/meeting at Bill McCullough’s home in Fredericksburg, VA (Dec).
Early in 2009 we appointed a By-Laws Committee which completed the Chapter Bi-Annual review and made required recommendations to the membership at the Mar meeting. A line by line review of the By-Laws was completed and all suggested changes were ratified and the membership voted to accept the recommendations. It should be noted the ACA Virginia Chapter name has changed to ACA Mid-Atlantic Chapter (ACAMC). Copies of the newly signed By-Laws were sent to the ACA for review, approval and file (action complete).
During the year, the Chapter membership grew with the addition of Yvonne Watts, Rick Bussell, Eddie Fuquay, Jerry Merichko, and most recently CMSgt Patrick Bowen. We also sent CMSgt Kevin Lewis off to retirement in Florida with our thanks as an active member. We are sure Kevin will stay in the AMMO business in some fashion and wish him the Best of Luck. The current Chapter membership roll is 18 members and 3 associate members yielding $525 in annual dues. Over the course of the year we disbursed $400 during the year for our Airman Support program, $250.00 to the CMSgt Richard Gauvin Memorial Fund at AFCOMAC and $200.00 to unit level award winners. We solicited, but did not receive any unit level Ammo first-termer award packages. The Chapter also recognized SSgt Chappell for his Outstanding Performance in the AMMO Career Field as the 2008 Annual AMRAMM award recipient. Our chapter collected $419.00 in fundraisers from Chapter coins, hats, pens, and other opportunities.
In the ACAMC region from NC to PA the known possible membership base during 2009 was approx 30 Chiefs, representing all Chiefs in the surrounding states. Of the 34, 18 are members in good standing and 12 are inactive. We continue to pass ACAMC information to inactive Chiefs in email messages and information concerning Chapter events and gatherings in the hopes they will join the membership and participate in our Chapter activities. Our three Associate Members continue to provide outstanding assistance.
A nomination committee was appointed in Sep to solicit names for the Chapter Vice President position. Jack Miller has done an extremely good job for our Chapter, but his two year tour of duty is ending. The election of a new VP was ratified at the 12 Dec meeting and Mike Robertson was elected to fill the VP position as of 1 Jan 2010.
Due to the ACAMC membership being spread out over five states (VA, MD, PA, NJ, and NC) and the District of Columbia, it is difficult to gather in force at meetings and events, but we plan for another active agenda in 2010. We have notionally set a Quarterly meeting schedule for 2010 beginning in Mar 09 at the 1st FW Administrative Building. We will continue to meet, socialize, and have fun while working towards enhancing the spirit and drive of the Munitions Community and to keep the AMMO Flame burning bright!!
//Signed, mrg, 24 Dec 2009//
MICHAEL R. GAVIN, President
AMMO Chief’s Association, Mid-Atlantic Chapter (ACAMC)
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
L to R: Rich Pennington, Mike Gavin, Jack Miller, Bill McCullough
a.Awards Committee:The Chapter presented quarterly and annual awards to personnel at Seymour-Johnson AFB, NC.Frank Waterman is to present the First-term Airman Award to AIC Jones at McGuire AFB on 6 Apr 09.
b.Membership:Scott Heistercamp and Eddie Fuquay have not committed to joining the Chapter.We will still pursue them.Rick Bussell joined the Chapter at the meeting and was welcomed aboard.He was given coin #28.However, Rick will only be at Langley for about 2 years.Yvonne Watts also joined but was not able to make the meeting.She was assigned coin #27.
c.Fundraising:The coins sales are going well.The planned Bar B Q at Langley was put on hold due to inclement weather.Mike Gavin was going to have a chili cook-off but the Loaders had one on his planned date.
d.Sunset Committee:Don Hamilton recently passed away.The group was brought up to date on John Matthews’ health issues.
e.Constitution and Bylaws:The group reviewed the DRAFT Chapter Constitution and Bylaws developed by the committee.Mike Robertson did the presentation.The group decided South Carolina was too far south and could be better served under the Emerald Coast chapter.A question arose as to the Mary Ester address used in the ACA chartering document.John Cecere took this as an action item.
(Post-meeting Note:The address is based on the current registered agent for the association and therefore changes as the person holding that position does.)A question arose regarding whether civil servant or contractors performing Ammo jobs could be associate members.John Cecere took this as an action item.
(Post-meeting Note:John Cecere learned they are not eligible for membership but may join as members as an Auxiliary member as specified in the governing chapter documents.) Mike Robertson wanted to validate the most current ACA Constitution.The one on the ACA web site was dated 2 Aug 07 but it did not match the one Fred sent to the committee to do their review.John Cecere took this as an action item.
(Post-meeting Note:The 2 Aug 07 edition is the most current one.Mike Robertson will compare the areas related to the Chapter effort to ensure there were no other changes needed to our constitution and bylaws.)The group agreed with the new definition for a quorum.Verbiage was added about appointing a temporary Vice President until the next special or general membership meeting is held.Based on the changes, we will start to place our new Ammo Chiefs Association Mid-Atlantic chapter (ACAMC) logo on documents and paraphernalia.
i.Motion to accept – John Cecere.
ii.Seconded – Ed Weisheit.
iii.Unanimously approved.
6.New Business:
a. Rick Bussell was welcomed again as our newest member.
b.Mike Gavin developed a welcome letter for new members.Our first recipient was Yvonne. Rick Bussell is to receive one also.
c.John Cecere brought up the Don Hamilton Memorial fund.The group was not totally sure of what the fund was to be used for and how it would be managed.Also, with the passing of other Ammo Chiefs, it seemed like Don was being singled out.John took this on as an action item to present to the ACA.
d.The question was asked if AFCOMAC made any progress in getting the Richard Gauvin Memorial Fund listed in the CFC.It is listed locally in California but not yet nationally.
e.John Cecere asked about the status of the SSgt from Seymour-Johnson who had the severe head injury.It appears our input and pressure helped the troop get the right level of treatment.Mike Gavin will try to check on this.
f.The CAF SMMC will now be held 15-19 Jun at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Hampton, VA.
g.The 2009 Worldwide Ammo Bowl will be held at Wichita Falls, TX over Labor Day weekend.
h.Phil Kennedy sent in an item about trying to get an Air Force license plate for Virginia.The group thought this was a good idea and it should be doable with a large quantity of Air Force personnel being stationed in Virginia.We need to get the details on how this process works.The group recommended Phil dig into this.
i.Phil also asked the group to approach the ACA regarding getting a marble bench dedicated to Ammo at the Air Force Aerospace Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB.John Cecere took this on as an action item.
(Post-meeting Note:John passed the request to Fred and it will be discussed/considered as a revision to the ACA strategic plan.)
j.Mike Gavin showed the group the proposed hat design with the pisspot in the Chiefs’ stripe.
7. The meeting was adjourned at 3:42 pm (1542 hours).
i.Motion to adjourn – Bill McCullough.
ii.Seconded – John Cecere.
iii.Unanimously passed and meeting adjourned.
8.The group socialized and ate some of the food donated by Mike Gavin (sandwiches, chips, and sodas).Thank you Mike!
9.The next meeting is planned for July 18, 2009 at Langley AFB (on-base site TBD).
