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| On a similar note regarding membership that keeps coming to my attention. The association should strive to make active duty troopers members a veteran chapter either near home of record or there at Fayetteville (choice of the trooper). Since the active duty chapters are chapters in name only where the association has little or no record of anything but life members why focus on keeping them assigned there. Besides the reporting number once a year of how well the command staff did at getting members, it offers NO benefit to the new members. My thought is that the list of chapters is available when a joe signs up as active duty, they choose right there which chapter they wish to be assigned to and this does the following: - Joe is assigned to veteran chapter and begins to get local chapter newsletters and directly mailed paraglide.
- Local chapters benefit of course in rebates AND can easily identify and adopt these troopers for care packages and other support
- Local chapters can make an impression before ETS on these joes so that when they are out of the service they can offer education fund and even job assistance
- CSM can still report the members recruited strength at national
- With chapters directly benefiting from active duty recruiting, they should be more willing to expend time, energy and funds to support the CSMs and even ramp up attendance at AA week to meet and greet
I dont see ANY good reason why active duty chapters are necessary (as a chapter entity). |
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Stare Master
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Do active duty Chapters receive rebates for members? If not then National would not want to do that because it would cost them a significant amount each year. If they do then I would think that the money goes into the unit fund for organization day and other activities. This means that the commanders and sergeant majors would not want to do away with the active Chapters. Not having been in Division I don't have a clear view off active duty Chapters so I can't offer much on the subject.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American GI. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
"History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over." COLONEL BULL SIMONS
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| Barry, I WAS in Division and I dont have a clear picture. Basically what happens on the surface is that the command staff rolls out once a year to recruit members for the assciation. Those who sign up are assigned to the unit "chapter". The do not conduct meetings or do anything that the veteran chapters do. As far as I can tell the only reason the unit "chapter" exists is to have a place to park the members that sign up while active. I do not believe that they get a rebate check but Im working to confirm/deny that but even if they didnt are we actually saying that this association would oppose such a plan because if sucessful it would cost the national organization? Wouldnt that kind of fly in the face of this organization being here to foster the brotherhood/comraderie of paratroopers and glidermen? The bottom line for me is that the active duty units do not manage or foster the association bond or what the association has to offer except in a once a year sound bite about joining. Since they do not have that, it would make much more sense to find ways to communicate and forge a bond EARLIER with the active duty troopers. Assigning them immediately to a veteran chapter would link them and with any luck might even get more to want to come (and stay) at events like National Convention where they have the opportunity to MEET with some of the people they would be hearing about through chapter newsletters/emails etc. I was under the impression that this organization exists solely to serve its membership and keep us linked together... am I mistaken?
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Stare Master
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| Mark, I'm not defending the system or opposing your ideas. I'm just anticipating the most likely arguments you are going to encounter. Regardless of the money the idea of fostering closer ties between active duty troopers and the veteran's chapters near their home of record is an excellent one and should be seriously dealt with by National. This would benefit the Association in the long run by giving active duty soldiers who only sign up as annual members a reason to retain their membership after they ETS(or even PCS). I believe it would also make younger troopers less self conscious in attending veteran chapter functions. It has the prospect of making both the National Association and the veteran Chapters stronger in the long run.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American GI. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
"History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over." COLONEL BULL SIMONS
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| Hey gang... chucked this one out at my meeting yesterday for a little feedback. I figure discussing it with members that range from before the active duty were on board to current day might help me figure out the attitude. Turns out that I learned a few things including the fact that the founders of the association bought the active division on board to basically raise funds to make some money and pay for the national conventions when the attendance of the veteran members was running down. The chapters were paying for everything themselves with no national funding so some did ok and others lost money on the event. Also, they crew asked me a number of questions about the processes currently in place much like we were talking about here. I have put in a request for clarification/information with the Exec Director. Bottom line is that while there are some questions about what is currently done, they all thought that the idea was sound and said that the decision should always boil down to "what will benefit the members the most" Should be interesting and I'll report back with more details as they become available.
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Based on the questions here and those asked at my recent meeting, I have recieved clarification (and a smack in the head for not knowing) from the Executive Director:
Q: Life membership for active duty (in the 82nd) is $82.00, is annual membership still $15.00?
A: Annual membership for 'Annual' active duty troopers (in active duty 82nd chapters) are $10.00 (discounted due to the fact they do not recieve an individual paraglide) Q: Do the active duty chapters retain the same portion of the dues collected as veteran chapters?
A: Active duty chapters retain $3.50 for each $10 annual membership and $5.00 for each $82 life membership Q: Do the active duty chapters get a rebate each year as the veteran chapters?
A: No, active duty chapters recieve funds only on new memberships each year at the time they sign them up. ($3.50 or $5.00) Q: What registration information from annual and life members are passed (and saved) to National from active duty sign ups?
A: No personal information is received or retained by national for annual active duty 82nd members. The active duty chapters report thier headcount to national HQ. Full and regular information IS collected for active duty life members. Q: What process is in place (if any) that handles a life (MPDLI) active duty member in the event of a PCS from the 82nd?
A: When a 'change of address' notification is recieved on a military AAM (telephone, email or returned paraglide) then national determines the chapter nearest that new location and the information is sent to the local chapter for further action. Upon reciept of a transfer form, the member is moved to the appropriate veteran chapter.
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Stare Master
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Q: What process is in place (if any) that handles a life (MPDLI) active duty member in the event of a PCS from the 82nd?
A: When a 'change of address' notification is recieved on a military AAM (telephone, email or returned paraglide) then national determines the chapter nearest that new location and the information is sent to the local chapter for further action. Upon reciept of a transfer form, the member is moved to the appropriate veteran chapter. IMO, an active duty member who PCS' should automatically be transferred to the veteran chapter unless he expresses a preference otherwise.
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you, Jesus Christ and the American GI. One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
"History teaches that when you become indifferent and lose the will to fight someone who has the will to fight will take over." COLONEL BULL SIMONS
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