John Lindell posted on September 01, 2010 00:14
September 2010 Navy
by CAPT John Eric Lindell, USN (Ret)
I want to thank the staff of the Association of the United States Navy for the kindness and understanding that I have received during my tenure as your President. I accepted the position of President in April 2010 because I believed that, as a Past President, I could do the job. It has been a challenge getting everything completed, but it has been done.
It was necessary to make appointments to several offices, including National Treasurer, Captain William Loockerman; National Chair/President of the Anchors, Mrs. Kathy Quaglino; National Annual Meeting Coordinator, CDR Joe Quaglino; members of the Nominations Committee; and several others.
The annual meeting held in Las Vegas was exciting and challenging. Our next conference will be in New Orleans, a wonderful conference city. We have a year to plan this one. We have taken a survey of recent attendees as to what they would like to have happen in the Crescent City, so I am already looking forward to it. In June, I participated in the Naval Officers Association of Canada at their meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They had more than 280 present and we should be able to do the same. We will look at how our meetings differ and see if we can incorporate some of that Canadian excitement.
As our new Board of Directors gets its sea legs, it will be recruiting potential additional members on which you will be asked to vote. Look for a ballot in the October magazine. I’m sure that the Board will have some challenges for our elected officers as we move forward.
This past year, we had a situation where a member was told that he was a member of a committee. The member changed his calendar to attend a committee meeting. He made airplane reservations, room reservations in Alexandria, and changed his appointment calendar with his clients in order to be there. WELL, he called to confirm dates and was told then that he was not a member of the committee. Needless to say, he was UPSET. I would be, too. As our new officers take their positions, I challenge you to be thorough in your planning and detailed in your communications. Committee Chairs, please have consideration for your members. Make certain that if you are using e-mails to communicate, you have all the important information in the e-mail: Date, time, place, period of the meeting, and whether there is a reimbursement of costs expected. This also means that your meeting is included in the Budget and has been provided for. Treat your Committee assignments as you would if it were a work assignment. If we act like we are at work and have consideration for all our members, we will have people wanting to be members and participate in AUSN activities.
It has been an interesting tour of duty as the National President again. Thank you for your consideration and help. Thanks to everyone in the National Headquarters staff. I appreciated your professionalism and expertise. God Bless all of you and AUSN.