From The General’s Desk
AS YOU SCAN THE PAGES OF THIS CROSSROADS ISSUE, you’ll see that we have maintained a responsible level of activity to ensure we fulfill our mission to “com- memorate the service and sacrifices of Veterans, and educate the public about those sacrifices.” We are blessed that former Secretary of State George P. Shultz has lent his name to the lecture series here at the Club. In February, we held two lectures, with the Commandant of the Marine Corps speaking on the 8 February and the Chief of Naval Operations speaking on 16 February. The events were huge successes and the audiences in our Theatre learned a great deal from listening to these two members of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. Our intent is to continue to bring senior US Military leaders to speak at these series as our way of striving to keep our membership and local citizens informed.
Your Marines’ Memorial Association has accepted a request from the City and County of San Franciscos to, once again, organize San Francisco Fleet Week for this year. For Fleet Week, we will continue with the theme of capitalizing on the US Military’s role in Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Response (HA/DR). The earthquake in Japan and the US military response certainly support this decision. In our lead up to Fleet Week, we are planning some events, including a panel discussion on the role of Social Networks in Disaster Response. In preparation for this panel, our Fleet Week committee made a call on Marine Don Faul, the executive responsible for Online Operations for Facebook, to discuss the panel. Social media such as Facebook and Twitter have had dramatic impacts of late, including the response to disasters such as the Gulf Oil Spill and on the ongo- ing unrest in the Mid-East. It seems to us that such a panel would benefit the leadership of the various cities and counties in the Bay Area by increasing their understanding of how these social networks can assist in their operations.
We also made a call on Marine Mike Quinn of Cisco Systems and met with his team of Cisco Engi- neers dedicated to providing critical systems support in disasters. The team has had experiences in Katrina, Haiti and Pakistan. It was an education just to learn
what they are doing and we will ask them to help in our Fleet Week HA/DR deliberations. In that regard, the idea for the social network panel came from reading the Harvard Business Review’s
interview of Admiral Thad Allen, the
recently retired Commandant of the Coast Guard and the person responsible for the US Government’s response to both Katrina and the 2010 Gulf Oil Spill. He made the point that managers of all disaster responses of the future will have to know how to deal with the social media. In that interview, ADM Allen said that one of his favorite books on leader- ship is The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership by Dr. Steven B. Sample, Past President of the University of California. We bought the book and read it…and agree. It is a book worth reading and sharing with others. After all, we all can continue to learn ways to be better, more effective leaders.
Next time you come visit your Club, you should notice a few changes. We’ve put new carpet in all the hotel room floors, replaced the towels with new, thicker towels, and replaced all the beds with new, pillow top mattresses. We are able to keep up the hotel rooms, the library, the ballrooms, the restau- rant and the fitness center because you Members have continued to support us with your donations. We couldn’t do the things we do without your help. Every cent of every dollar donated to the Marines’ Memorial Association goes directly to support our mission to provide services for the Currently Serv- ing; to commemorate the service and sacrifices of our Veterans; and to educate the public about those sacrifices. There is no administrative overhead asso- ciated with our development program. We thank you for your support.
Sincerely, and Semper Fidelis, J. Michael Myatt
Major General USMC (Ret.) President and Chief Executive Officer
4 Crossroads Spring 2011
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