2010 State of the Chapter Message
We've accomplished a lot in 2010. We're planning for even more in 2011.
Hello North Texas Naval Academy Alumni, As we approach the end of the 2010, the leadership team of your North Texas Chapter of the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association wants to provide you a State-of-the-Chapter message. Since the summer we have: - Launched a new website to communicate with our Alumni better. We're leading the way - expect to see a dozen other Chapters follow our lead in 2011.
- Communicated with you much more regularly and professionally. We're getting the news out regularly, and that has helped more Alumni stay plugged in to our events.
- Held our 1st Annual Founder’s Day Dinner in October celebrating USNA’s 165th birthday. If you weren't there, you missed a great evening! Don't miss this one next year.
- We’re bringing the Superintendent to Dallas for our annual Blue Chip Dinner on Dec 21st at Royal Oaks Country Club. For additional details, and to donate or purchase tickets, please see the website.
- Hosted some great speakers at our events, with former Dallas Cowboy and Air Force Academy graduate Chad Hennings at our December luncheon at the Park City Club. This particular event was co-hosted with the local Air Force Academy Alumni Chapter.
- We're planning for Commandant’s visit to Dallas in January 2011. Stay tuned.
- Re-written our chapter by-laws, a sorely-needed update to a 20 year old document.
- Behind the scenes, we’ve also completely redone the Chapter’s financial books and procedures, and assured our continued IRS tax-exempt status with our most recent filings.
In short, we’ve upped our game. We hope you’ve noticed, and we need your feedback to continue to improve.
Now we need YOUR help.
We’ve started our 2011 Membership Drive. But frankly, we need to add as many members to our roster by Dec 31st as possible. Why?
The North Texas Chapter wants to regain its seat on the USNA Alumni Association Board of Trustees. Every three years, Annapolis counts the membership of all chapters, and awards seats to the nine largest Chapters. We held a seat until 2009, but can regain one in this count.
The Chapter count closes December 31, 2010. Being a Trustee gives us stronger influence within the Alumni Association. It helps, for instance, in pulling the Superintendent and Commandant into the distinctly landlocked DFW area.
What you can do
If you’ve been meaning to join, or on the fence, please consider joining today. To make things easier, we not offer updated membership options. We offer annual and (discounted) two-year memberships, as well as several categories of no-cost memberships - Active Duty and "Emeritus" memberships for graduates of more than 50 years ago.
What are the benefits of membership? First, we hope you've noticed that we're subsidizing many events for our members. In 2011, we plan on adding Members-only admission events for special occasions. - Access to all local events throughout the year including monthly luncheons
- Navy is coming back to Dallas to play SMU in 2011. We’ll repeat our fantastic tailgater and victory. Catching up with old friends is always a highlight for our members.
- We are discussing how to serve the FORT WORTH side of town better. (Fort Worth alumni, help us out please! We're listening!)
- Annual Blue Chip Dinner
- Annual Founder’s Day Dinner
- Happy Hours in fun, casual settings
- More joint events with the local Army and Air Force Alumni groups. Turns out, we have a lot more in common with them than we thought.
- And more. Help us with an idea for an event!
As always, we welcome your participation with our local Chapter, and need your help to make 2011 a great new beginning for our group. Our Chapter has come a long way and we owe a very special thanks to Jim Bethmann '77 for his leadership as our President over the last 11 years. Thank you Jim for handing over a strong and robust chapter that will continue to grow and serve as a great focal point for all Naval Academy graduates in the DFW area.
Go Navy! Beat Army! Sincerely, Matthew Elias President North Texas Chapter USNA Alumni Association |
