New Year’s fireworks are already distant memories and here we are in March, preparing for our most active year in recent Chapter memory. I know spring is fast approaching, as my utility bills are half of what they were for the previous month and my order of asparagus crowns have been shipped! With that said, I encourage you to log on to our website (https://trianglemoaa.org/index.php), click on "Calendar" (just to the left of this article) and copy events of interest to your personal calendar.

We have again supported the Cary High School JROTC in hosting their annual drill meet this month. If you can get to the event, you will be incredibly impressed with the quality of our cadets and their dedication to excellence! In April, we are hopeful that one of the revolutionary or civil war battlefields will host a “park day”, so that we can assist staff in getting the parks buffed up and ready for the summer tourist season.

In May, we are hosting our annual scholarship awards dinner. Our Scholarship Foundation Board will shortly be meeting to evaluate the applications from cadets competing for the $1,500 scholarships we will be awarding. We have invited a senior member of the new State administration to be our guest speaker. This is a “must attend” event!

For summer, we are planning an informal outing on June 10th at the ZinkHouse, a new winery/brewery on the Durham Highway (SR 98) and an August reprise of our Durham Bulls buffet and ballgame. More details on both these events will be forthcoming shortly.

Our State Council of Chapters is sponsoring a five-day cruise to Bermuda in October, leaving from Norfolk. This is a great opportunity to get away and renew friendships with members of other chapters from across the State. On November 7th, we are hosting a dinner for the annual meeting of the North Carolina Council of Chapters. We expect representatives from all 16 chapters to join us for dinner that Friday evening and for a meeting the following morning. We have invited the Governor to join us for this important event and are hopeful that he will say “yes”!

Finally, on December 13th, we will build on last years’ experience and have greater participation in “Wreaths Across America”. I hope you agree that this is an ambitious undertaking altogether and one that will energize you to participate fully!

A second Chapter priority is enhancing the power of our legislative activities, no mean feat in these turbulent times. You may notice that our officer slate now includes a new Legislative Chair, COL Faith Junghahn. Under her leadership, we intend to play an active role in reaching our elected representatives at both the Federal and State levels with quality of life issues of importance to us and to military and veterans families generally.

Third, I am particularly keen on filling one other officer vacancy, that of Membership Chair. We have been promised that the long-awaited redesign of the MOAA data system relating to the identification and recruitment of national MOAA members in our catchment area will finally go live. With that we need a Chapter member to reach out and contact prospective members. That is not to say that membership is not everyone’s responsibility, only to say that all too many eligible officers are not aware of our Chapter’s existence! Will YOU step forward?

Finally, a shout out to my Chapter officers who have shouldered the responsibilities of their offices and more! Chris has been a steady hand with our financial affairs, our events planning and communication and much more. Bob has continued to be the steady hand on our JROTC and ROTC activities and has been the principal architect of our annual Levels of Excellence submission. Henry has guided the redevelopment of our digital presence into an award-worthy website. Matt, Robin and now Faith have also stepped up in Chapter governance. And a final thank you to the many Chapter members who have supported our Scholarship Foundation, in some cases handsomely so. I expect our accomplishments to be recognized this year with a five-star Level of Excellence and a Harris communications award.

And of course, no President’s message would be complete without a plea for additional members to step into Board positions! I am personally in the fifth year of my two-year term and am hopeful of one day being a “past President”. I’ll wager that my fellow Board members have similar aspirations! Make a commitment to serve! Let me know what interests and motivates you and we will find you a place!

Herb

I trust you have had your fill of Thanksgiving fare and those who traveled to be with family and friends are home safely. For those of you who risked life and limb shopping on black Friday, small business Saturday, and cyber Monday, etc., I express my admiration!

A number of Chapter members have expressed an interest in participating in “Wreaths Across America”, which will be held on Saturday, December 14th. The locations and other details will be posted on our website, and there is an attachment below to a spreadsheet showing details and start times for all of the ceremonies in the Triangle region. More information about specific locations can be found by searching at this link: Wreaths Across America locations (I recommend using the map at the link to "drill down" to your location). I do have two asks: please record your participation for our records and send me a picture for posting on our website (just reply to this email)…and if there are a sufficient number of participants at any one site, use the time to get better acquainted and perhaps have lunch together.

The election has come and gone and now the heavy lifting for us begins. We have a new Federal Executive and Cabinet nominees advocating significant changes, not the least of which are in the area of national defense policy. We have one new House member and an almost entirely new State administration. Our plan going forward is to have one Chapter member serve as the liaison to each of the four Congress members in our catchment area, encourage all Chapter members to communicate with our two Senators and empower our State Council of Chapters to take the lead on North Carolina issues. That said, advocacy is every member's responsibility, and I encourage you to sign up on the MOAA website to receive materials from the Legislative Action Center. If you have contact with an elected official or staff on a particular issue, please share that information with Chapter leadership. For example, I was fortunate to be part of a group who met with Senator Carper from Delaware (pictured) and I took the opportunity to alert him to our concerns about the future of Seymour Johnson Airbase and other pressing issues affecting North Carolina.

Next year is promising to be equally challenging for us. First, we are determined to enlarge our pool of scholarship applicants and have agreed to increase the amount of each award to $1,500, even if that means awarding fewer scholarships. I hope that will not be necessary; the availability of funds and the quality of the applicants will dictate our decision. That said, we can plan on a spring awards dinner with a speaker in the education area. There is another spring activity that has been suggested…” Park Day”, which will be held in 2025 on April 7th. This is an opportunity to help with cleanup and maintenance of the (mostly) Civil War battlefields and monuments in the State. Summer will likely find us back at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, although other suggestions are welcome! And…a late breaker…our fall meeting will be moved to November so that we can host a joint meeting with the leaders of other chapters in the North Carolina Council of Chapters.

Another initiative I want you to be aware of is the exploration of the feasibility of having a satellite chapter in the Fuquay Varina/Lillington area. Our own Jeri Graham is spearheading this effort. If you have interest or know of individuals for whom our current meeting venue is a stretch, I will put you in touch with her.

All of this takes people power! If you would like to participate as a Chapter officer, legislative liaison, or just work on a specific project or program, please raise your hand high enough so that I can see it from north Raleigh! Email me at herbsegal1941@gmail.com.

I must close on a sad note. We have been informed that LTC Ken Tigges, a former Chapter President and long-time newsletter editor, passed away in the Seattle area. Our condolences go out to his family.

Have a happy and safe holiday season!

Herb

Your Chapter and Foundation Boards met last week (July 17th) to review our activities for the first half of 2024 and to plan for the remainder of the year. The minutes of that meeting have been posted separately and I solicit your comments on the actions we took.

I am pleased to report that we enjoyed two successful events thus far. We awarded three $1,000 scholarships to outstanding graduating Junior ROTC cadets continuing their education and military training at the university level. We were especially honored to have as our guest speaker Dr. Clinton Robinson, the Wake County Public School System’s Chief of Staff. We also had a great afternoon outing at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park (although the outcome of the game was not what we had hoped for). Thank you to the Board members who organized these events, Bob Penny for the scholarship dinner and Chris Froeschner for the ballgame. You can see more of the details of these events in “Events”, elsewhere on the website.

Going forward, please put our October 8th dinner on your calendar. Grier Martin, a Life Member of our Chapter and recently appointed as Director of the NC Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, will be our guest speaker. Referring to our Board action, we want to offer other veterans organizations an opportunity to join us for the evening as co-sponsors. If any Chapter member is also active in the VFW or American Legion, for example, please take the initiative and have your Post leadership contact me directly. On December 14th, the annual Wreaths Across America celebration will be held; please hold this date, as we are hoping to organize a meaningful Chapter participation.

Sharp-eyed members may have recognized me pictured in the recent MOAA Magazine meeting with Congressman’s Davis’s staff as part of the annual Advocacy in Action (AIA). I cannot emphasize strongly enough my commitment and the need for every member to be involved in addressing our legislative agenda, designed to strengthen recruitment and retention efforts and safeguard benefits. As I write, the two houses of our Congress are at an impasse over military spending programs. I urge every member to log on to the MOAA website and register with the Legislative Action Center to receive up to date information and address your concerns personally with your elected representatives.

Last, I ask that you be on the lookout for upcoming changes to our website. We will highlight MOAA-affiliated businesses that provide discounted services to members. I also call your attention to an initiative to include corporate sponsors for our Scholarship Foundation. If you know of a local business that might be interested in supporting our Scholarship Foundation, please contact Henry Scheller (use the "Contact Us" page on this website).

I hasten to add that in November, we are obligated under our Bylaws to present the slate of officers for 2025. Frankly, your current officers have held on now for years beyond their original commitments and would surely enjoy some relief. Please contact me directly. Enjoy the remainder of the summer. We’ll swap vacation stories at our October 8th meeting. Plan on being there!

Herb

Dear Triangle Chapter Member,

Once again, I write to wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy new year and to share both my thanks for those who participated in Chapter activities over the past year and my aspirations for a successful 2024. Our achievements were several: we had a successful scholarship awards dinner in the spring and presented two highly-qualified JROTC cadets with $1,000 awards. We were also privileged to have a guest speaker, CDR Erikson, who brought us up to date on the condition of the JROTC program nationwide. We left with concern that this program, one of the most important efforts in recruitment, is falling short. On a positive note, your financial support for the Scholarship Foundation, continues to be both strong and generous.

We continue to search for a suitable summer event. This year, we met at a newly established winery, with only modest attendance. We will likely consider an organized sports or cultural event this year. Our 60th anniversary dinner this past fall was a huge success! MOAA provided us with a member of their Board as our guest speaker. And while few of us knew COL Robotham ahead, her perspective as an active-duty Air Force officer, with her young family, gave us insight into issues that I dare say few of us grappled with. We were also fortunate to have the Cary High School JROTC color guard participate.

Those of you who missed this event can view it via our website’s YouTube link. COL Robotham also presented us with our 5-star Chapter of Excellence award for 2022.

We had success in continuing to bring our new website into a fully functional state. In lieu of a newsletter, which is currently beyond our capability; the website (and periodic emails on urgent topics) continues to be our principal mode of communication. We abandoned our effort to create a satellite chapter in the Wake Forest area. Despite a MOAA database that showed a population more than ample to support a satellite, response to our mailings was miniscule!

Going forward, it is my expectation that we will have four events this year: a spring scholarship awards dinner, a summer informal get-together, a fall dinner meeting with a national/international affairs focus and a winter volunteer event, perhaps around Wreaths Across America or perhaps at a Veteran’s house building event. Details, of course, will follow.

Our Chapter remains in excellent financial condition, thanks to our dues paying members. But I must add that we are currently carrying 40 members whose are in arears. Please consider bringing your dues current or becoming a Chapter Life Member (details in the website). And contributions to the Scholarship Foundation are always welcome, at PO Box 19861, Raleigh NC 29619.

Last, this year we all have an opportunity to demonstrate our citizenship. Those who want to join in our legislative liaison efforts need to step forward. Our advocacy for important military issues does bear results! And in general terms, let’s all be mindful of our friends and neighbors, as respiratory diseases, COVID, Flu and RSV continue to exact a toll, especially on seniors; consider being fully vaccinated! And yes, this is an election year…tempers may fray…voices may become louder. Let’s each do our part as concerned citizens; study the issues, make an informed decision and VOTE!

Herb

NEW YEARS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE FOR 2023

Dear Triangle Chapter Member,

I am writing to wish you and your family members a happy and healthy 2023 and to share information on recent Chapter activities and plans for the year. Let me begin by noting that this year we celebrate the 60th anniversary of our Chapter’s founding (more on this later). Our current Chapter officers have agreed to serve an additional year. That said, notable vacancies remain, particularly for secretary and for legislative liaison. These leadership challenges are not unique to our Chapter; this morning we learned that MOAA has had to close 29 chapters across the country, largely because of the lack of members willing to step up into leadership roles. Please consider joining our leadership team; we especially need members with good communications skills! Let me know…

Since my last message, we held a hugely successful dinner meeting, highlighting the work that Donna and John Culp (LTC, USA, ret) are doing in Ukraine, the latter instructing Ukrainian ordnance disposal personnel in the safe deactivation of the mines and shells the Russian Army has left behind. Your Chapter made a donation in his honor to Bomb Techs Without Borders, the organization sponsoring John’s efforts. Also, I attended the MOAA national convention in Kansas City and received a five-star designation for the Chapter. Bob Penny spearheaded the successful award submission.

We have two significant issues that the Board is moving forward on. You have no doubt noticed that our website has been dormant for some time. We have finally been able to acquire ownership of the domain and are in discussion with a web designer to reactivate the website and bring its content current. This will require a substantial financial commitment on our part but not having a viable web presence is not an option. Henry Scheller has been the Chapter’s point man for this effort and is particularly keen on including a capability to record our meeting presentations and to make them available to members unable to attend in person.

We are also organizing an effort to create a Wake Forest area satellite for our Chapter. This recognizes the large number of MOAA members (over 1,000) who live on the east edge of Raleigh and points east, along the NC 98 corridor, and north, along the US 1 corridor, and have difficulty attending meetings at the NC State Club. We will hold a reception at the American Legion Post #187 in Wake Forest on the afternoon of April 15th. Please mark your calendars and join us in meeting prospective members of the Chapter. Details to follow as we finalize our plans. Matt Segal has taken responsibility for this initiative.

Your Chapter’s general fund is in good financial condition, but we are still carrying a number of members whose dues for 2022 remain unpaid. If you are one of those individuals, please bring your membership up to date with your $25 check. Chapter bylaws require us to consider whether we can continue to carry those in arears. Also, your Scholarship Foundation is currently several hundred dollars short of the $3,000 we need to fund the three scholarships we traditionally have provided to outstanding graduating high schoolers headed to university ROTC programs. Please consider donating to the Foundation. Our address remains PO Box 19861, Raleigh NC 27619.

We do not have firm dates for Chapter events past the April 15th reception in Wake Forest. We expect to have our annual JROTC scholarship award dinner at the NC State University Club in late May and a summer social. We have asked MOAA if the newly installed President , retired Air Force General P.K. Kelly, is available to join us for our 60th anniversary celebration in the September to November time frame and will accommodate his schedule if we get an affirmative answer. Stay tuned!

You have my best wishes for the new year, with the hope that you will take a more active role in Chapter activities.

Herb