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HAPPY HOLIDAYS Here it is, Christmas Eve, and I'm finally getting out the e-WORD for the month of December. It has been a busy month for me taking care of other matters, so working on MCRA business sometimes has taken a back seat. One thing I did get around to doing was to start making the Web site more attractive, but I have much more to do. Remember my original goal was to put a quick and dirty site out there to replace the site published by the previous administration. Many members were upset with the previous Web site because it did not reflect the professional purpose of the Association. This month's e-WORD is short for the above reasons, but I hope you find it informative. On behalf of the Board of Directors and the Officers of the Association I also wish to extend my best wishes for a Happy Holiday Season and in particular for a Happy New Year. LPM AN OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK FOR THE NEW YEAR As we approach the end of the year and look forward to the next, it is appropriate to review the year. At this time last year your Association was up to the eyeballs in debt. There were some board members ready to throw in the towel and put the Association into a body bag. Others were determined to do whatever necessary to revive the Association. Obviously the most critical problem was dealing with the financial crisis if we were to survive. With no paid staff, we have managed to operate a virtual office from points around the country using the Internet and conference calls. We have turned the financial situation around. We were able to hold our Annual Golf Outing with our old corporate sponsors in attendance. There were remarks from attendees of, "Glad to see you back." Lockheed Martin has already rejoined us as a corporate sponsor for 2009, and others have expressed interest in rejoining as well. We now are planning the Congressional Reception scheduled for 19 March 2009. We also plan to hold the CMC's Legislative Assistant's Brief and Luncheon in the coming year which is another opportunity for our corporate sponsors see the work we do on behalf the the Marine Corps and the Marine Corps Reserve. The really good news is that we are starting the new year with over $30,000 in the bank. Considering where we were a year ago, we have made considerable progress toward making the Association financially healthy. Of course this is no where near the funds we need to maintain our financial health. Remember we have many life members who are no longer paying annual dues. We must still rebuild our funds to provide income to offset the loss of annual dues from life members. When I get a little more free time, I will begin to put together a "MCRA Life Member Trust" to ensure that life membership dues will be used to earn income for the Association and prevent any future administration from raiding these funds. To explain how things changed so much in one year I ask a retorical question, "How did we manage it?" The answer lies in a few dedicated volunteers. Col Donaghue as President and CWO-4 Leubecker as Executive Director have been the guiding force for the rest of us. Col Donaghue spent a multitude of hours tracking down the financial transactions of 2007. Without all the financial records of the previous administration, the Colonel had to resort to obtaining bank records to uncover where the money was spent. He was able to discover unauthorized expenditures and the Association will be seeking recovery of such funds. Vern is our man working inside the Washington Beltway keeping the appropriate contacts there and setting up our planned activities there. Tom Green has been our keeper of the membership database as well as other miscellaneous organizational work. Joe Vowell has been our point of contact with corporate sponsors, but he has said he wishes to wind down on that job. Yours truly has been working on the Web site, doing the MCRA e-Newsletter, the e-Word, and I have picked up an additional task of processing credit card transactions. I've also been picking up the job of finding corporate sponsors, since Joe wants to wind down on that job. Earlier this month I was able to have a good talk with one of our old sponsors and in spite of the bad economic situation, we might be able to have another sponsor rejoin the ranks. I wish I could disclose the name of the sponsor, but I need to wait until they can make a firm commitment. Does a virtual office work? my answer is, "Look at the numbers." On the other hand, when we can afford to do so, we really need to hire someone to sit in our office to take phone calls and handle clerical tasks. I personally would also be interested in some help from persons in the corporate sponsorship area as well as help in getting some advertising income from our Web site. Considering where we were a year ago, and where we are now, we have good reason to feel optomistic about the coming new year. LPM SIDE NOTE I've had a number of people ask about my "LPM" moniker, so here's the story. Many years ago when I was but a Lieutenant, my fellow Lieutenants bestowed that nickname upon me. It was months before our Captain heard one of them call out, "Hey, LPM!" Of course I answered up and the Captain asked me why I was known as LPM. Before I could answer my fellow lieutenant hollered out, "Because he's the Landing Party Manual!" He went on to explain that I was their source for answers to their questions. For whatever reason I was blessed with an amazing memory and I always tried to put it to good use. If you think about the Landing Party Manual as the Marine Corps Bible, I was able to quote it chapter and verse. Quite honestly I have always felt honored that my fellow Lieutenants thought of me that way. By the way, those of you who are not familiar with the Gospel according to the Marine Corps, it starts out thusly; "In the beginning there was the Word, and the Word was changed . . . LPM |