March 10, 2023

Dear Chapter Presidents:

Greetings everyone and welcome to March. In continuing the theme from my previous packages, I want to update everyone on where we are with our ongoing technology transformations.

I’m happy to announce that our USAWOA bookkeeper, Mary Etzwiler, began the transition from the desktop to online version of QuickBooks, as planned. We recently completed a “blackout” where no new financial transactions were processed in the old system while the new version came online. We are still working through a couple of minor issues, so Mary will work in both systems though the end of March to ensure everything is accurate and working properly.

On 1 March 2023, I signed a contract with Member365, officially making them our new Association Management System (AMS). We also provided our formal termination notice to NetForum, who has served as our AMS for nearly 15 years. Our membership manager, Laurie Swift, and CW4 (Ret) Carl Burnett, are now in the beginning stages of onboarding with Member365. This will be a learning process for the HQ staff, as we envision it taking time to get the system fully functional and capable of doing what we need it to do.

That said, I ask that all members exercise some patience with our HQ teammates, during this process. Unfortunately, it is not a matter of simply copying our data from one system to another. In order to be fully compliant with today’s technology, the extensive database must be thoroughly cleaned and purged of all information no longer allowed (i.e., PII) and this is not a fast process. Due to the sheer volume of records in our data combined with developing and learning an entirely new management system, I am cautious about providing a date when we will have the new AMS fully up and running. The goal for Initial Operating Capability (IOC) remains within the next 30-45 days and Full Operating Capability (FOC) and implementation of the Membership Enhancement Project (MEP) in early 2024.

I simply want to prepare everyone in case you experience potential delays in routine membership actions. Please communicate to all your Chapter members that no one’s membership will end if for some reason they are unable to renew online. I encourage everyone to communicate via email with the HQ (hq@usawoa.org and bookkeeper@usawoa.org) if there are issues regarding purchases or membership issues.

I'm 100% confident that ultimately the benefits we gain from changing to this new AMS will greatly outweigh any issues or challenges we are going to encounter along the way. I and the HQ staff are excited by what the new AMS will do for our members and how it will dynamically change and improve the member experience. I look forward to providing a substantive update at the 51st Annual Meeting of the Members (AMM) in October.

Speaking of the 51st AMM, I want to take a few minutes to highlight the efforts of the Doughboy Chapter as they continue to plan for this year's event in Atlantic City, NJ. Doughboy Chapter President CW4 Dennis Brydges and his entire team are routinely raising money and awareness for the 51st AMM, and many of their ideas and efforts could be implemented by other chapters. I encourage everyone to check out their website https://www.usawoadoughboy.org/51st-amm and Facebook (3) USAWOA Doughboy Chapter (0606) | Facebook pages to see how they are sharing and collaborating within their local area.

Next month, his planning team will begin monthly touchpoints with the USAWOA EXCOM as we begin to firm up the AMM agenda. Over the past few months, I’ve received input and interest from members asking to program time for each of the Chapters to meet and interact with their respective Region Director as part of the overall AMM agenda. We did this as an impromptu event at the 50th AMM, and it was highly productive. As we start to plan this year's AMM agenda, we will incorporate a designated time for Chapter/Region collaborative discussions.

I also intend to bring back some “business” parts of the AMM wherein issues and ideas are briefed to the attendees and then the members exercise their voting rights to approve/disapprove an item. For example, over the past few years, we’ve generally pushed approving of the USAWOA resolutions to the BOD in order to gain back time for other briefings and discussions. This year we will publish the USAWOA resolutions prior to the AMM and then the members will vote to approve. Finally, in addition to our normal panel presentations, we will also look to incorporate breakout sessions to allow for refined discussions on certain topics and I intend to dedicate a panel discussion for our Company Grade WOs. More to follow as we continue the planning process.

Thank you again from all of us at the HQ for all that you do to continue to support USAWOA. Your efforts do not go unnoticed.

Sincerely,

CW5 Michael D. Dye
National President
“The Quiet Professionals ®”