2/4/2025
Thanks to everyone who attended the Executive Board’s Annual Report to Members at the January luncheon. I hope you feel confident in the Board’s oversight of the chapter’s various activities, including charity giving, scholarships, surviving spouse support, veteran community outreach and engagement, legislative advocacy as well as overall budgetary management.
Hopefully you find membership in our chapter rewarding and enjoyable and want to continue with us! We have begun our annual Membership Campaign, and I ask you to send in your dues as soon as you can! We were able to keep the dues at $25 this year, despite increasing costs for everything from stamps to certificates and medals for ROTC and JROTC Leadership Award winners. With careful management of our luncheon estimates and costs, we have also been able to keep the lunch costs stable at $25 without having to regularly subsidize luncheons with money from our operating budget. Please bring you dues to our February luncheon, mail them to “MTC MOAA, P.O Box 50252, Nashville, TN 37205” or use the new Dues Portal on MOAA’s site at https://www.moaa.org/content/chapters-and-councils/online-chapter-dues-payment--administration/ and be sure to scroll down to “Tennessee” for “Middle Tennessee Chapter”!
While MOAA National is busy getting ready for its annual “Advocacy in Action” event in Washington in April, several of our members participated in the Tennessee Veterans (TNVET) “Veterans Day on the Hill” event locally on January 29th. Ted Edwards, Thad Vann, Doug Minton, and I visited our local State Representatives and Senators supporting four initiatives that TNVET has determined to be the focus for this year’s session. Additionally, we visited multiple legislators who did not have veteran constituents in attendance. It was an interesting day, and I think we made some headway in awareness with the legislators. Of course, we will let you know if any items are successful!
At the January luncheon, Dale Kiser demonstrated accessing MOAA’s Legislative Action Center (LAC) at https://moaa.quorum.us. It remains the easiest way for you to support veteran-related legislative action at the national level. This year MOAA’s advocacy priorities have been listed in January’s “Military Officer” magazine, but if you did not see it, you can read about them at the following link: https://www.moaa.org/content/publications-and-media/news-articles/2025-news-articles/advocacy/moaas-legislative-priorities-for-the-119th-congress/.
Finally, I am excited about our speaker at our next luncheon: Lt Gen Jason Evans, USA Retired who is the new CEO of Operation Stand Down Tennessee. He will speak on “Reflections on Leadership.” Our luncheon will be at 11:30 am on Tuesday, February 25th at Old Natchez Country Club. See you then!
Larry Cotton
CAPT, US Navy (ret.)
President
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