President's Page
For the January
newsletter, I wrote about my visiting the Huot Veterans Housing Facility in
Saco. I was impressed with the
accommodations and services provided to homeless veterans there and with the
expertise and commitment of the staff.
I’m glad that the Chapter Board voted to donate $2,500 to the Volunteers
of America to support the Saco facility.
That’s a very good use of our charitable giving resources.
I attended the
annual Military Health System Conference in Washington during late January as a
representative of Martin’s Point Health Care.
The impression I got was “steady as she goes.” That means that the good things going on in
military medicine continue to progress.
“Medical home” as a concept for delivering health care gains ground in
the military treatment facilities.
Combat medicine makes phenomenal advances that save lives. All the conference attendees expected some
announcements about TRICARE fees, but that didn’t happen at the conference,
coming later with the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2011 budget
submission. At our brunch in May, I’d
like to present a summary of what’s going on health care today – covering
health care reform, Medicare, and TRICARE.
I think those subjects should interest everyone.
At a memorial
service in Newburyport in March, I joined a church full of people remembering,
honoring, and celebrating the life of Admiral Rich Rybacki. Rich had a wonderful career in the Coast
Guard, contributed his many talents in retirement to his community (I met him
when he was in charge of OpsSail 2000 in Portland), and served as a national
board member for the MOAA. He was
certainly a great leader in our Chapter.
We are sorry for his passing and grateful for his many contributions and
friendship.
Please fill out the Reservations Form to make your reservations for the luncheon.
Bill Hall
Colonel,
USAF
President
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Our May Speaker, Bill Hall, Focuses Health Care today
Spring has again returned to Southern
Maine and that can only mean that it will soon be time for the members of the
Southern Maine Chapter, MOAA, to gather at the Woodlands Club for our next
Quarterly Meeting. Be sure to mark your
calendars for the second Saturday in May (May 14 th) when we will
resume our brunch formats. Gathering
time is 9:00 AM.
We will report in this issue on the latest
information we have on the Chapter ROTC Program and an update on our current
membership renewal drive. If you haven’t
returned your 2011 dues, please do so quickly in order that we can get to work
on the next Chapter Directory, due out in May.
Our Board of Directors has devoted a lot of effort into updating and
revising the Chapter By-Laws. We will
have changes available for your approval at the May Brunch.
ROTC/JROTC Update
Here’s a quick
update of the Junior and Senior ROTC programs that our Chapter supports
throughout Maine. There are a total of 8
Junior Programs and 3 Senior Programs.
The Awards Program for 2011 has been completed and all awards have been
presented to the units and individual students.
The Scholarship
Program is for the three Senior ROTC Detachments, Army at UMO and the Navy at
UMO and Maine Maritime Academy. This
year we provided checks for 1,000 dollars, which were presented to a deserving
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Welcome Aboard
The Chapter would like to Welcom Aboard the following new members:
Commander Richard Snow, USNR and
Lori from Yarmouth
Colonel John Thibault, USA and
Elaine from Old Orchard Beach
Major Peter Rogers, USA and
Kristine from Yarmouth
Captain John Bauman, USN and Judy
from Brunswick
We look forward to meeting you and introducing you at
one of our upcoming Quarterly Meetings.
And, we thank you for your interest in and support of the Chapter.
Chapter Membership Renewal Update
It is still not
too late to send in your annual dues.
These funds are essential to helping the Chapter keep doing the good
work it does. The dues are again only
$15.00 for the year and can be sent to the Chapter mailbox at: PO Box 2145, South Portland, ME 04116-2145.
Or you can send them directly to our Membership Chairman, Rob McAleer
at: PO Box 27, Harpswell, ME 04079.
As
of late-April, we have received 199 membership renewals (we haven’t
heard from 69). Here’s
where we are to date:
|
2010
|
2011
|
Dues Paid
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3,285
|
3,030
|
General Fund Donations
|
1505
|
1557
|
JROTC/ROTC Donations
|
1,550
|
1,630
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Totals to date
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6,340
|
6,217
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Even in these
hard times it is gratifying to see the continuing support and generosity of our
members. Thank you very much. (Col Rob
McAleer, Membership Chairman )
May Speaker (cont)
Our speaker this Quarter will be our own
President Bill Hall. Bill has been
President since 2010. He served on
active duty for 30 years, 18 of them abroad, in the U.S. Air Force, as an
intelligence officer. He is currently
the marketing manager for TRICARE at Martin’s Point Health Care in
Portland. Bill is also a member of the
planning board for the city of Portland and manages a volunteer recruiting and
training program, called Portland’s History Docents, for six Portland
museums. He is always looking for a few
good volunteers! Bill, and his wife
Nancy, live on Peaks Island.
Bill’s
presentation will focus on health care in the military, both active and
retired. In addition he will address
changes shaping up for Medicare and TRICARE for the military. With so much in flux today regarding health
care issues you really can’t afford to miss his talk.
ROTC/JROTC Update (cont)
Cadet/Midshipmen that the Cadre selected from each Detachment. This year the Navy awardees were: MIDS 2/C Timothy Robbins and OC Ryan Kelly. The Army awardee was Cadet Joseph
Leonard.
These scholarships
were made possible through the generous gifts of our Chapter membership. We thank all of you who contributed this
year. (COL Frank Toderico, ROTC
Chairman)
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Military Officers Association of America 
