Call to Order; Update on membership and Outreach, Memorial brick sales, Treasury and Supply room; Active-Duty Squadron Updates; Vote for secretary; Vote for XVP; Vote on next reunion; and New business.
Membership and Outreach. In essence we are maintaining membership, losing and gaining at a similar pace. While our member database exceeds 400, our ‘active membership, loosely defined as ‘those who open Association email’ is closer to 150. It does not appear that our move to ‘free’ membership has helped us much in terms of getting new members. We expect this to be an even larger problem as the Active-Duty squadron(s) deactivate.
The Memorial Brick Program is a great success, with over a dozen new bricks purchased since Ray Egan re-vitalized the program in December. We have approximately 59 4X8 inch bricks remaining and hope to sell those by the end of the year, specifically targeting outreach at Active-Duty deactivation events.
Our treasury continues to do well, with approximately $40K on hand and an annual operating budget of around $1300. Our members continue to donate for worthy causes, and our next push will be to help raise funds for 1-14 CAV deactivation events (specifically to offset Soldier costs for the Dining Out in December).
Both the First and Second Squadron commanders presented updates at the meeting. LTC McCombs, second squadron, called-in from Hawaii and gave his presentation over the phone. They are training hard and are currently in a ‘pilot program’ to be an Infantry Task Force. No decisions have been made as of yet, but most of us expect 2-14 CAV to formally transition to a different designation in the near future. Unlike the brigade combat teams at JBLM, the brigade in Hawaii does not have three infantry battalions, so 2-14
will likely be ‘transitioned’ as opposed to being deactivated. 1-14 CAV, on the other hand, will be deactivated in December of this year. The SQDN Executive Officer (MAJ Alexander Santiago) and the SCO (LTC Sean Henley) gave a great update of squadron activities and upcoming events, to include those related to deactivation: a 14-mile ‘Last Ride’ foot march highlighting the history of the Regiment on 10 December, a formal Dining-Out the evening of 11 December, and the deactivation ceremony on the parade field at JBLM on 12 December. More details will be forthcoming, and all members and guests are invited to participate in all events.
Using absentee ballots and the members present, both Brian Shover and Jim Dunivan were re-elected to serve as Executive Vice President and Secretary, respectively.
It was agreed to support the 1-14 CAV deactivation events in December 2024 as a ‘mini- reunion’ opportunity and hold the next Regimental Reunion at Fort Reno, OK in 2026. The date of the 2026 reunion is ‘to be determined’ but will likely be in September and will include a variety of events at Fort Reno, Oklahoma City and the surrounding area. We did have some quality alternative reunion locations identified which will be considered for locations in the future.
No further business was introduced, and the meeting was adjourned.