President's report - From The President - Editorial

In the capacity of membership committee chairman last year, I learned how important membership is to our great organization. I learned that it is critical for you, as a member of ROA, to become actively involved in increasing our numbers so that we can maintain an even stronger voice for the Reserve Components. We must not only replace members lost to the natural aging process and for other reasons, we must increase our members to strengthen our influence on The Hill. We need to especially target drilling Reservists and other categories of members.

I applaud LTC Dennis Morgan, USAR, national membership committee chairman, and LtCol Michael Boone, ROA membership director, for leading an innovative plan to not only maintain but increase the size of the Association.

I'm devoting this article to membership because it is the single most important challenge facing the Reserve Officers Association today. Last year, we had a multilevel Grand Membership Strategy, a detailed plan on how ROA would obtain new members. This year, the membership team of Morgan and Boone revamped the strategy to retain the national, regional, department, and chapter responsibilities, and added an innovative element, the department membership chairman. It is this chairman's team that is the keystone to the success of the program.

The main responsibility of the department chairmen is to see that recruitment and retention are coordinated and accomplished within their departments. Other important responsibilities are to direct and assist in the recruiting of volunteers from department and chapter officers, set up a calling system for delinquent members, and assure that Reserve centers are visited at least annually to explain ROA and to recruit members.

In addition, chairmen should coordinate volunteers to cover military conferences in their state, keep up with basic statistics (as simple as gains/losses), report progress at department meetings and provide articles in newsletters listing new members and asking others to help recruit, etc. The chairman must have access to and know how to use the Reserve Officers Online Membership Report (ROMR) system to obtain current status reports that are essential in recruiting and retention efforts. The department membership chairman must be someone who has the time, the dedication and organizational ability to be successful in this very important position.

Each department chairman has the tools necessary to carry out these responsibilities: the Membership Tool Kit Compact Disk with recruiting and retention guidelines; access to and instruction on how to use ROMR; and an e-mall communications network with headquarters and regional membership directors. However, they can't do it alone.

What the chairmen need most is support and encouragement from the rest of you to effectively accomplish the mission. Each of us, on all levels, should be actively engaged in assisting department membership efforts directly by supporting the department chairmen in this effort.

Our regional directors, Col Stanley Remer, COL Bob Linthacum, and our newest director, IYC Richard Spencer, are each doing a yeoman's job. In addition to their own recruiting and retention, they will work with the department membership chairmen in assisting with Reserve Center visits and Reserve conferences. So far this fiscal year they have brought on 831 new members. They unselfishly spend many evenings and weekends and are commended for their success.

This was the purpose of setting up a Task Force to execute the Grand Membership Strategy. With the Task Force in place, the department membership chairman has "force multiplier" support from ROA headquarters' staff, the national ExCom, the national membership committee, regional membership directors, department service vice presidents and others within each of the departments and chapters. However, they need to hear from each of us so they know they have this vital support and realize they have reinforcements as required.

I am asking each of you to contact your department membership chair to offer assistance and support. Together we can make a significant contribution to reaching our membership goals. If you do not know who your chairman is, simply go to the membership section of our Web site and you will find contact information listed.

There is another tool that has not been successful, and I don't understand why. I have heard, over many years, that if every member tries to recruit a new member, we would double our size. I wasn't sure how to do that, however, but it has been made easier in the last few years by the development of an ROA Web site. Tell prospects they can join online by going to www.roa.org and following directions for joining. They can use a credit card to pay the dues and be a member immediately. No application to write, no envelope to address, no stamp needed, and no visit to a mailbox. Just think of the potential here. I URGE you to try it. You can make it successful.

Another critical membership tool is the new membership category called Spousal Membership. This category, authorized by Congress for inclusion of spouses, widows, and widowers of members, has the potential to increase ROA's membership by an additional 20,000 people. This has been recommended by the Executive Committee and has been vetted with the departments. More than one-third of our membership is older than age seventy and "divine attrition" will have its effect on our numbers. Other benefits that will accrue are:

* Overall enhancement of ROA's credibility on Capitol Hill, because we will be able to claim broader representation of family issues. Family issues greatly affect the recruiting and retention of the best citizen-warriors into America's Reserve Components. An example of these types of issues is the needed correction of the inequity of reducing benefits of a survivor when he or she reaches 62.

* Energized chapter participation resulting from the enthusiasm of the new members.

The new Spousal Membership Category will he voted on in June at the Salt Lake City Convention. It requires a three-quarters vote of the National Convention. General McIntosh and I, and many others, strongly believe this is, by far, to ROA's advantage to implement this initiative. For more information go to the Web site, click on "Members Area" click on "ROA Programs," select "ROA Annual Report" go to Page 18 and read "The Description of Additional Membership Category"--or, click on "Executive Director's SITREPS" and go to SITREP 22.

We have a very active membership organization, which we refer to as "The Task Force" Members are working hard, and we owe them a debt of gratitude. They have established the mechanism for recruiting and retention for ROA but they need you to make it successful. I am asking for your active support to make this happen.

RELATED ARTICLE: How ROA really works.

Membership has lung been an issue that is near and dear to my heart. Most people think of Membership as being the same as Recruitment, but that is not the whole picture. Once members have been enrolled in ROA, there is an ongoing responsibility for the education and development of those members--the "care and feeding," if you will. The ROA Academy fulfills this need, providing tools and skills to the newer members.

I am myself an Academy graduate. I cannot speak more emphatically about the value and importance of the ROA Academy in developing the future leadership of our Association. Although the Academy is pitched in the short term at the chapter and department levels, in the long term it is beneficial at the national level, as it is ROA members who benefit from what they learn during the Academy.

For three years, successive ROA presidents have endorsed the value of the ROA Academy. It will be offered again in Salt Lake City this summer--and always at no additional cost for registration.

I recommend without hesitation that anyone interested in how ROA really works--what we are about, and what we are in business to do--register for attendance at the ROA Academy. Although preference for enrollment is given to department leadership (two quotas for each department), the Academy has never had to turn anyone away.

As national president, it is my privilege to host a reception for Academy enrollees at the National Convention. I hope to greet you personally in Salt Lake City before Academy classes convene. The reception will be on Tuesday evening, June 8, in the president's suite. I'll look for you there.

RADM G. Robert Merrilees, USCGR (Ret.)

ROA National President

RADM G. Robert Merrilees, USCGR (Ret.) ROA National President, 2003-2004

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