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HOWGOZIT #1 December 2006
For all ANA Wing Commanders and ANA
Squadron Commanding Officers:
Responding to widespread demand from wings
and squadrons throughout ANA, a small cadre of WashDC area
individuals has been working with the Naval Aviation Foundation
to restore national headquarters ANA assets and
responsibilities. This is a howgozit report.
First, by way of review, the original ANA
headquarters was dissolved by a vote of the then-board of
directors in September 2005. All assets and responsibilities
were transferred to the NAF and on March 30, 2006, the
termination of the ANA (a 501c(4) organization), was approved by
the Virginia State Corporation Commission. Since then, with an
extremely small staff and limited resources, the NAF has
supported the ANA membership and Wings of Gold.
Unfortunately, largely because of limited manpower there has
been a lack of visibility into the general management of the NAF,
the stewardship of transferred assets, and, especially, the
management of dollars. This, in turn, has led to concerns among
wings and squadrons, concerns which figure heavily in the
sentiment to re-establish an ANA headquarters. By the way,
nothing in the above observations should be construed as
faulting the intent of the NAF. RADM Mark Hill, the NAF
president, undertook to mange the ANA assets when the ANA board
concluded they could no longer handle it. For that we owe RADM
Hill our thanks.
At any rate, the desire of a preponderance
of the ANA wings and squadrons to re-establish the ANA
headquarters in the WashDC area, the informal affirmation of the
Navy of a need for an ANA-like organization, and the desire of
RADM Hill to unburden the NAF from the responsibilities of
managing the residual of the old ANA as well as the NAF have all
combined to lead to taking the necessary steps to re-establish
the ANA headquarters.
At this point, a temporary board of
directors has been formed consisting of Captains Ernie Snowden
and Dutch Rauch and me. Articles of Incorporation for a new ANA
as a 501c(3) organization, have been filed and approved by the
Virginia State Corporation Commission. An “Assignment and
Assumption Agreement” which lays out the details of the transfer
of ANA assets from NAF has been drafted and is currently being
considered by the NAF board. We hope for resolution of its
details shortly.
Our goal for completion of all actions is
31December 2006. We will hit the ground running to bring ANA
back to life as a vibrant organization for Naval Aviation.
Among the first actions will be selection of officers and bylaws
by the membership-at-large and approval of a 2007 budget. We
earnestly solicit your support in passing on this good news to
membership and engaging them in the rebirth of our Association
of Naval Aviation.
Your inputs are encouraged. You may send
them either to me or to Captain Dutch Rauch at
svwindmills@erols.com.
Robert F. Dunn
VADM, USN (Ret) |
