Jeffrey Ledoux, Air Force Sergeants Association 26th International President


AFSA… LEADING THE WAY


AFSA’s primary mission is to educate, advocate and persuade Congress to take on causes for the benefit of our members: retired, veterans or those still serving. Our commitment to our military family and community is cru- cial to keeping all four pillars of AFSA strong.


LEADERSHIP


We are all leaders in this association. At the Chapter level, your role is to recruit and educate current and former Air Force members on the importance AFSA is to our future. At the Division level, we expect those leaders to educate and train chapter leaders and offer assistance where needed to ensure success at the chapter level. In addi- tion, we challenge each division to work with chapters to reach recruiting and retention goals. At the International level, leaders are charged with moving AFSA forward. We provide the guidance and direction to the HQs staff so they can ensure mission accomplishment. At the HQ level, our full- and part-time employees work tirelessly to meet our membership’s expectations while working on Capitol Hill and with our Air Force to gain support for our association’s legislative goals. AFSA achieves suc- cess when each level works together in harmony to move AFSA in the positive direction. To that end, AFSA had its annual mid-year meeting to discuss AFSA’s future.


AFSA ANNUAL MID-YEAR MEETING


Your AFSA executive council took on a huge undertaking this year that will significantly change how we do business in the future. As many of you know, sequestration had


AFSA • WINTER 2017 1 RECENT SUCCESSES


Despite the challenges we have ahead, we saw positive results from a dedicated leadership team. Your AFSA leadership has worked hard to keep our current bene- fits. That has been a remarkable undertaking given the budgetary issues our country faces. However, the latest NDAA has given us some successes we’ve been work- ing on for years. One such issue is the Former Spouse Protection Act, which has finally seen movement in the positive direction as the 2017 NDAA changes the calcula- tion on how retired pay is divided. We saw an increase in BAH rates and the protection of dual-military BAH. The NDAA also provides for a 2.1% pay raise for the military along with other positive enhancements. As we start work with a new Congress, your AFSA remains committed to preserving the benefits we achieved and working on other areas of our legislative platform. Please thank Morgan Brown and our legislative team at your next opportunity. What role will you play in leading AFSA’s future?


a tremendous impact on AFSA’s finances. From January 2013 until December 2016, your AFSA has had to endure a deficit budget just to make ends meet. This caused a reduction of $3.3 million from our long-term investments, putting the future of this association at risk. Upon my direction, the Budget and Finance committee took drastic steps to reduce the overall budget and save what limited finances we currently have. As we endure some long- term contracts (we basically don’t have the funds to buy them out), sacrifices will have to be made by our mem- bers, chapters, divisions and the HQ staff. For members, this means some of the awards/rewards you were accus- tomed to will be suspended. Divisions will suffer from an even lower admin support payment, and international and HQs travel will be drastically reduced. This may also mean slower customer service in the near future that will likely last past 2019. I have tasked HQ to research the possibil- ity of only producing an electronic version of the AFSA Magazine—no more printed/mail in-home version. Our goal is to eliminate the discretionary spending and work to increase our investments in the near future so they get back up to comfortable levels. Some tough decisions will have to be made, and we ask for your understanding and help as we transition through this process. Stay tuned to the next Commentary for more details. In addition, your council revised the preamble and


approved three By-law changes that will be presented to our delegates at our International Convention in Reno, Nevada, in July 2017.


PRESIDENT’S COMMENTARY


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