A meeting of the Executive Council of the DINFOS Alumni Association was held on May 10, 2008, at The Garrison Restaurant at Ft. Harrison.

Present were:

Jack Rubak, President

Tom Conrad

Bob Foster

Helen Stritt, Secretary

Absent were:

Mike Davis

Mike Scott

The President, Jack Rubak, opened the meeting. Although we have not heard from the Commandant about attending the dates we proposed to him for our next meeting, Rubak said he has been in steady contact with Keith Oliver in the DINFOS Public Affairs Leadership Department. Keith has provided excellent assistance in matters of the DINFOS Alumni Association. Also, Glenda Brown, the school’s PAO, has been in touch.

Mike Scott, the Membership, was unable to attend the meeting. However, he submitted a report that we recently received three new Life Memberships and three Regular Memberships increasing the number of paid members to 114. Responses from new graduates for their one-year, free memberships have been very good. Mike is using our regular membership cards to send to graduates and is using a G before their membership numbers to identify them as graduates with one-year free memberships..

The next agenda item was books the Alumni Association will purchase for the DINFOS Library. The DINFOS Librarian, Brenda McQuillan, sent a list of suggested books. Bob Foster offered to order the books from Amazon.com to save the Alumni Association some money. It was decided the amount spent be limited to $1,000 and suggested we purchase a stamp to put inside the book covers to show that these books were donated by the Alumni Association. (After the meeting, the Librarian at DINFOS was contacted, and she said she already has a stamp to this effect– see attached.)

Rubak then mentioned a messages he received from Keith Oliver about DINFOS placing an ad in the US Marine Corps’ Combat Correspondents Annual Journal. Keith gave us the point-of-contact, Jack Paxton, for placing such an ad. In turn, Rubak contacted Jack Paxton who sent us a paper listing the rates for ads. This paper was presented at the meeting, and those present agreed on a one-fourth page color ad. Tom Conrad said he will prepare the ad to include information from the DINFOS brochure, and he will coordinate this with Bob Foster who will provide the logo. Tom will then forward this information to Jack Paxton.

Another request from Keith Oliver was for the DINFOS Alumni Association to pay for the PAOC ice-breaker receptions. Although the idea is great, at the present time we would rather use the money in our treasury to place the ad about DINFOS in the MCCC annual journal.. When our paying membership increases, we will again consider this proposal.

A suggestion was then made that consideration be given to convening a meeting of the Alumni Association members at Ft. Meade to come up with ways to increase membership in that area. Rubak mentioned that he will contact Steve Karalekas, a DINFOS graduate and a former Chairman of the DINFOS Board of Visitors, to see if he would be willing to help in starting a chapter at Ft. Meade and the surrounding area. Steve lives in the DC area.

The Hall of Fame was the next agenda item. The President mentioned that so far we have received three nominees: Colonel Roy Whitton, ((USAF-Ret), LTC Charles Murphy, (USA-Ret), and Captain Steve Karalekas, (USN-Ret). The Hall of Fame Nominating Committee will convene in late August to review the applications received and to make selections. John Brady and Frank Tilton will be asked to serve as additional members of the Nominating Selection Committee. A discussion then followed as to where the Hall of Fame celebration should be held, and the consensus of those present was that it be held at DINFOS Ft. Meade. The key is to have someone at the school make the arrangements to have a dinner for the newest Hall of Fame of inductees and try to get 30 or 40 people from the school to attend.

At the last meeting several names were proposed to assume the duties of the Treasurer of the Alumni Association. So far, no one has accepted, but our efforts will continue to get a Treasurer. When we do, we will again pursue obtaining a not-for-profit status from the state of Indiana for the Alumni Association.

The next order of business was setting a date for our next membership meeting, and selecting a guest speaker. Consensus was to have the meeting on September 6. Mike Davis had said previously that when a date was set, he would be willing to contact Brig Gen Dean Despinoy, the 434^th’s Commander at Grissom Air Force Base to speak, or if he can’t make it, possibly someone from Grisson who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan could speak at the meeting.

Bob Foster then explained the features of going to Google for our website (see attached). The features will include:

The meeting adjourned at 1:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Jack Rubak, President

Helen Stritt, Secretary