Board of Directors Meeting
National Guard Association of Arkansas, Inc.

5 January 2010

Joint NGAA/EAANG Conference
Selected members of the EAANG were present prior to the call to order of the NGAA board of directors meeting for a discussion about the April National Guard leadership event and joint NGAA/EAANG conference.   Items discussed included the fact that the contract for the site of the National Guard portion of the April meetings is not yet firm and could be Fort Smith or Rogers.   The NGAA golf tournament will be held Wednesday, 7 April, or Friday, 9 April; and exhibitors will set up on either Thursday or Friday, 8 or 9 April.  A presidents’ reception will be held on Friday evening, 9 April, for corporate members, exhibitors and committee chairpersons.  Committee chairs will be assigned vendors to host and will be asked to escort them to the hospitality suites, etc., following the reception. There will be one registration fee for the joint conference, and conferees will be required to have their name badges for admission to all conference areas and activities.  An approximately two-hour joint business session will start the day on Saturday morning, 10 April, after which the two associations will break to separate sessions.  A luncheon for all conference attendees will be served at noon on Saturday, and then the EAANG business session will have a working lunch or reconvene after lunch for a short time.  The military banquet is scheduled on Saturday evening. 

A committee chair/co-chair list was reviewed and some changes were made to that.  Chairpersons will be asked to provide a status report concerning their areas of responsibility at a committee chairperson meeting scheduled at 5:00 p.m., 2 February, in the NGAA conference room.  Hopefully, the contract for the military portion of the April events will be firm by that time.

(Following the above discussion, the EAANG personnel adjourned to a separate meeting and the NGAA board of directors meeting was called to order.)

Call to Order

President Hutchins-Frye called the meeting to order, and a quorum was verified.  Guests were recognized and welcomed.  

Minutes of the 6 October 2009 board meeting were reviewed.  A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the minutes as written.

New Business

Legislative Update, LTC Jim Treece
The FY10 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was signed into law on 29 October 2009.  Highlights of the act include the following issues supported and worked by NGAUS: 
            - TRICARE eligibility for "Gray Area" retirees
            - Modification of matching fund requirements for the National Guard Youth Challenge Program from 60/40 to 75/25
               Federal/State funding match
            - Stop loss special pay for reserve component members held in a stop-loss situation between 1 October 2009 and
               30 June 2011
            - 3.4% increase in basic pay for military members

The resolutions adopted by NGAUS at the September 2009 conference have been consolidated into the FY11 NGAUS Legislative Objectives Action Plan.  A copy of the document is available for download from the NGAUS website (www.ngaus.org) under the heading NGAUS in Washington with a link titled Legislative Objectives FY11. 

The adjutant general’s Legislative Actions Committee met today (5 January) to finalize plans for next month's congressional breakfast hosted at NGAUS headquarters in Washington, DC.  This annual breakfast among the adjutant general, several commanders and staff members, and the Arkansas Congressional delegation and their staffers is the preferred method of exchanging information on the specific needs of the Arkansas Guard.  NGAA helps support this process through financial assistance.  TAG's approved legislative objectives for this meeting include:

            - Increase in full-time manning
            - C-130 FTU mission for the 189th AW
            - Employer tax credit
            - T32 eligibility for post 9/11 GI Bill
            - Increase to medical force structure in the Guard
            - Technician eligibility for TRICARE Reserve Select
            - OIF/OEF early retirement provision from the 2008 NDAA
                        - Modify to make it retroactive to 9-11-2001
                        - Modify language to remove the fiscal year restriction contained in the current statute
            - Youth Challenge funding formula (2010 NDAA changes Federal match to 75%.  Verifying that the
                accompanying appropriations bill fully funds the new requirement.)

1. Earlier retirement for all Guard members using a formula of one year of earlier retirement eligibility for every two years served over 20 (NGAUS favored position)

The next meeting of the adjutant general’s Legislative Actions Committee is scheduled on 24 March 2010, and the agenda will be to nominate and prioritize issues for TAG to present to the 2011 General Session of the Arkansas State Legislature.  If anyone personally knows any of the state legislators who might help with our issues, please let LTC Treece know.

Board Representative Actions
Board members were asked to approve the following board representative changes:

MAJ Matthew Anderson to fill the unexpired term of MAJ Jason Duvall representing 1-114th S&S (through April 2010)
MAJ Shawn Keeter to fill the unexpired term of LTC Timothy Taylor representing 77th Avn Bn (through April 2010)
1LT John Chase to fill the unexpired term of CPT Dwayne Page representing 2-142 FA (through April 2011)
CPT Anthony Goins to fill the unexpired term of MAJ David Moore representing 87th Trp Cmd (through April 2011)

A motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the appointments.

100 Percent Unit Membership Recognition
The following units were recognized as having 100 percent membership for 2010:  1-206 Field Artillery, 1-142 Field Artillery, and 2-142 Field Artillery.

Finance and Insurance, Maj (Ret) James Lamb
Finance and insurance reports as of 30 November 2009 were presented.  There were no questions and a motion was made, seconded and carried to approve the reports.

Major Lamb introduced Kimberly Winston as the newest NGAA staff member.  Mrs. Winston fills the insurance and programs coordinator position.  Major Lamb now holds the position of budget and accounting manager for the association.  He noted that the NGAA insurance staff has received permission from the Medical Command to attend the Physical Health Assessments (PHA) to review/update NGAA insurance coverage with the soldiers attending those events.  Questioned as to how soldiers know to see NGAA at PHA’s, Major Lamb said NGAA is on the checklist at Camp Robinson PHA’s and will ask Fort Chaffee for their support.  He will also ask for the support of commanders to have their troops see the NGAA insurance staff at PHA’s.  Finally, he is trying to get more visibility in the Air Guard.

Membership
President Hutchins-Frye asked the representatives of the 100 percent membership units how they accomplished that.  Responses included the importance of command emphasis and explaining what NGAA does for its members and the Arkansas National Guard.  It was suggested that once that culture is established in a unit, it is not difficult to collect dues.  JFHQ representative Major Regina Allen said that JFHQ officers do not respond to her requests to pay their dues.  They want to pay on line and some want a bill sent to them in the mail.  Command emphasis has not worked.  She asked that NGAA relook the establishment of an electronic payment method or at mailing bills.  LTC Moix said he has investigated the “Pay Pal” method for dues payment but because of the extensive additional information needed on each officer (address updates, rank changes, etc.), it is cost prohibitive.  He added that the association had also mailed bills in past years but the outdated database (addresses/ranks, etc.) proved an unsatisfactory and costly method, and the board of directors voted several years ago to change to the current method of unit representatives collecting dues.  It was suggested that unit representatives update their unit roster of officers with NGAA on a regular and ongoing basis.  Following more discussion that included providing a credit card machine for use during unit drills and more talk about electronic payments, LTC Moix said he is quite willing to hear from anybody that has a solution.  President Hutchins-Frye asked if anyone would like to form a committee to look at electronic payment method.  Major Allen and two or three others volunteered to do that. 

2010 Conference Update, Lt Col Hutchins-Frye
The joint conference will be conducted basically on the same schedule of events as last year’s NGAA conference.  Name badges will be required for admittance to all conference activities.  Exhibitors will be registered and provided with name badges.  Estimated attendance at the joint business session is 600.  The banquet will include the parade of commanders/command sergeant majors/command chiefs and presentation of enlisted awards.  The banquet entertainment committee is looking at two entertainers:  Mike Rayburn, who performed last year and Buzz Sutherland.  Everybody was invited to “Google” those two entertainers and provide feedback as to which one they would like to have.  The cost for either one is about the same as was paid last year.   She hopes to have some committee reports from last year’s conference available at the February committee chairpersons meeting to help in planning this year’s events.  Questioned about whether a conference theme has been established, the response was that there is no overall conference theme; however, most of the unit hospitality suites will have a theme.

Next Meeting

Committee chairpersons will meet at 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, 2 February 2010, in the NGAA conference room.  Committee meetings are also scheduled on 2 March and 30 March (same time and place).  Reminders will be sent approximately one week prior to the meeting dates.

The next scheduled board of directors meeting is Tuesday, 1 June 2010, in the NGAA conference room.  Dinner will be served at 5:00 p.m., and the meeting will start at 5:45 p.m.  A reminder will be sent prior to the meeting date.

Adjournment

There was no further business, and the meeting adjourned.

Minutes recorded by Judy Shere

DISTRIBUTION: NGAA Board Mbrs, BG Swan, Col Stanton, LTC (Ret) Kenny Moix, NGAA Auditor