|
Maryland Council (MD MOAA) |
Last Update: Sep 2017
BREAKING NEWS:
The
Maryland Council of Chapters, the Star Spangled Banner Chapter, the Montgomery
County Chapter, the Gen William Smallwood Chapter, the Susquehanna Chapter, the
Upper Potomac Chapter, and the Fort George G Meade Chapter ALL have won 5-Star
Level of Excellence Awards from MOAA. Congratulations to all who helped make
these awards possible. (28 Jul 2017)
The
Five-Star Awards were presented yesterday at the 7th Annual
Congressional Appreciation Luncheon. Photos will be posted when available. (14 Sep 2017)
We’ve
added a list of Points
of Contact for the Maryland Congressional delegation. (5 Mar 2017)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Web Pages of the Maryland Council of Chapters, an affiliate of the Military Officers Association of America. The Maryland Council was awarded a Five Star Level of Excellence for 2016 (as of August 2017).
The Maryland Council is composed of ten chapters, spread geographically across the state. Here is a list of the Chapters, with links to their individual Web Pages. All Chapters have an informational page here, and some have additional pages, as shown with additional links (Stars indicate the Level of Excellence rating earned by the Chapter for 2016 – as announced in July 2017.):
·
Annapolis – Chapter
Web Site
·
* * * * * Ft George G Meade
·
* * * * * Star Spangled Banner – Chapter Web Site (Winner of 5 Star Col Marvin J
Harris Communications Award for 2016, as of 7 Apr 2017)
·
* * * * * General
Smallwood
·
* * * * * Montgomery
County
– Chapter Site at MOAA
·
Southern Maryland – Chapter Web Site
·
* * * * * Susquehanna – Chapter Site at MOAA – Chapter Web Site (Winner
of 4 Star Col Marvin J Harris Communications Award for 2016, as of 7 Apr 2017)
·
* * * * * Upper
Potomac
– Chapter Site at MOAA
7th
Annual Congressional Luncheon
The 7th Annual Congressional Appreciation Luncheon was held on 13 Sep 2017 in the Rayburn House Office Building. Both Maryland Senators and seven of the eight Representatives attended and spoke to the crowd. Thanks to all who attended.
At the luncheon, MOAA President Lt Gen Dana Atkins, USAF (Ret) presented the Five Star Level of Excellence awards to The Maryland Council of Chapters and to the six winning Chapters. This MOAA.org photo shows Past Council President COL Andy Fallon, USA (Ret) receiving the award for the Council:
Other photos from the event
are available at this
Dropbox link. View the files as a Grid rather than a List to be able to see
the photos (click on the down arrow near the top right corner of the page to
switch between List and Grid). Chapters may use any of them in their
newsletters, attributing them to MOAA.org.
Additionally, MOAA HQ published
an article concerning this luncheon.
Who Can
Join:
MOAA
membership is open to all current, former, and retired officers of any of the
seven Uniformed Services. Visit the Why Join MOAA
page at the MOAA Web Site for details on the three classes of membership, and
to join.
Council
Calendar
The Council officers and Chapter Presidents meet quarterly, on call of the President. Meetings are currently held at O’Loughlin’s Restaurant, 1258 Bay Dale Drive, Arnold MD 21012, starting at 1130. Here are the recent and upcoming dates, with links to the minutes of each, as they are available (older minutes are available here)
Jan 21, 2017 - Minutes
Mar 4, 2017 - Minutes
June 10, 2017 - Minutes
Sep 9, 2017
Dec 9, 2017
Mar 10, 2018
Jun 9, 2018
Editorial
Policy
MOAA, the Maryland Council of Chapters and the individual chapters
in Maryland are non-partisan. Information on this web site relects the position
of the Maryland Council of Chapters only.
Spouse
and Surviving Spouses Newsletter
Attached are
recent newsletters from the Spouse and Surviving Spouse Liasion Officer, Mrs
Naomi Kaplan. (5
Jan 2017)
-
Feb
2017
-
Apr
2017
-
Jun
2017
-
Sep
2017
Maryland
National Guard Unit of the Year
The Council presented this
year’s Maryland Council of Chapters National Guard Unit of the Year award to
the Maryland Air National Guard's 175th Cyberspace Operations Group
at 1300 hours on Saturday, June 3, 2017. The ceremony took place in the
Auditorium of the Operations Building on Warfield Air National Guard Base
(adjacent to Martin State Airport). MG Singh, USA (TAG Maryland); BG Staudenraus, USAF (Cdr MDANG)
and over 150 members of the unit were in attendance. The unit was very
proud and appreciative for being selected (Maryland TAG does the selection) as
this year’s winner of the award – the award is definitely achieving its goals.
COL Fallon, USA (Ret), LTC Hartzog, USA (Ret), MAJ Dittbrenner, USA (former)
and BG Walsh, USAF (Ret) represented the Council.
Kudos and thanks to LTC Bryon
Hartzog, 1st VP, for working and organizing all the details of the award process
for this year. Photos are available at the 75th Wing Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/pg/
Highlights
of recent and upcoming Chapter activities
·
Nothing
at this time (30
Aug 2017)
Legislative
Priorities
Make MOAA's One Powerful Voice® heard in
Maryland. It will take each MOAA member living in Maryland to make this happen.
Act now to do your part!
There is a list of Points
of Contact for the Maryland Congressional delegation (both Senators and all
eight Representatives)
Here is the latest information from our
Legislative Liaison as of 17 Jul 2017
In
preparation for the 2018 session, I thought it would be useful to review the
testimony given by the First Responders for SB 322 and HB 388, Income Tax
Subtraction Modification - Law Enforcement, Fire, Rescue, and Emergency
Services Personnel (Hometown Heroes Act) in the 2017 session. These bills were
introduced into their respective houses by the leadership at the request of
Governor Hogan. I also reviewed testimony given on SB 597 and HB 100, Income
Tax Subtraction Modification - Retirement Income of Law Enforcement, Fire,
Rescue, and Emergency Services Personnel. The video of testimony given at the
Senate Committee on Budget and Taxation showed SB 597 was heard first, with SB
322 immediately following. You can watch the testimony by clicking on this link.
Similarly, you can view the testimony given at the House Ways & Means
Committee on HB 100 can be watched by clicking on this link. The fiscal note
showed a cost to the state of $8M in 2019, rising to $12.3M in 2022.
What
I learned:
- Seven
people testified at the Senate Committee on Budget & Taxation; there
were only a few First Responders in the audience (It was the same day as
our marathon session, where we waited over three hours to testify. They
followed us.) Following Delegate Hixson’s introduction of the bill, nine
people testified at the House Ways & Means Committee. The audience was
full of First Responders
- At the Ways
& Means Committee, the First Responders focused on the gain that their
local communities and the states would see with an exemption in place – there
was none prior to this legislation being enacted. They used a 2016
National Institute on Retirement Security report, Pensionomics 2016:
Measuring the Economic Impact of DB Pension Expenditures. For every dollar
of pension received, $2.21 goes into the economy.
- At the
Budget & Taxation Committee, the First Responders focused on comments
such as this one, “we respect what they do, the sacrifice they make, what
they go through every day, their commitment . . .”, and “this would be a
nice benefit for our members to be able to live in the communities where
they’ve served for 30-40 years.”
- First
Responders don’t pay Social Security Tax, so they do not receive Social
Security income.
- The
Maryland Association of Counties sent a representative to each committee
to testify against the legislation.
In
case you’ve missed it, Governor Hogan said recently, "I ran for Governor
promising we were going to do everything in our power to turn our economy
around – and we have. We have experienced one of the greatest economic
turnarounds of any state in that nation. In just two years, Maryland's overall
economic performance has grown to the top-10 states in the United States of
America." This dents our claim that Maryland needs the skills of uniformed
service retirees in its economy.
Last
point of information for this email: In 2016, Maryland was rated as the 29th
best state for military retirees; in 2017, Maryland is ranked #38. You can view the article here.
We
will continue this effort. Each of you CAN make a difference.
Enthusiastically!
Annie
Annie S. Brock
Legislative Liaison
Maryland Council of Chapters, MOAA
·
From
time to time, we will suggest messages we would like Maryland members to send
to Annapolis on upcoming bills of interest to all of us. There are two
web-based methods you can use to contact your State Legislators:
·
The
Maryland Legislature maintains a Web Site that you can use to contact your
Senator or Delegate. To use it, visit http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmmain.aspx?pid=legisrpage&tab=subject6,
and select the legislator’s name. If the legislator accepts e-mail (I hope most
of them do today), you will see a link to Contact Online. Click on that link.
Enter your identifying information, and type or paste the text into the Message
box.
·
The
other method is to visit http://mdelect.net/.
This site, run by the Maryland State Archives, allows you to enter your address
(Zip+4 will do, unless district lines go through your Zip+4 area – then enter
your full address), and it will tell you who your Federal and State legislators
are. There are links to their web sites. Some have e-mail tools built in;
others will link into Outlook, as above. (21
Jan 2013)
·
The
Maryland Department of Veteran’s Affairs publishes regular updates during the
legislative session showing the status of bills that may impact service
members, veterans, and their families. Visit that page at http://veterans.maryland.gov/state-legislation/. (5 Mar 2016)
You can find information on
MOAA’s national legislative priorities at the MOAA Take Action web page.
Council
Officers
Here are the Council officers for 2016 – 2017 (as of 6 Mar 2017):
|
President |
Harvey |
Kaplan |
COL |
USA |
||
|
1st Vice Pres |
Bryon |
Hartzog |
LTC |
USA |
||
|
2nd Vice Pres |
Norton |
Bob |
COL |
USA |
||
|
Treasurer |
Greg |
Dalke |
CDR |
USN |
||
|
Webmaster |
James |
Shiffrin |
Maj |
USAF |
jim.shiffrin@gmail.com |
|
|
Secretary |
Dave |
Peterson |
CAPT |
NOAA |
||
|
Immed. Past Pres |
Andrew |
Fallon |
Col |
USA |
||
|
Transition Officer |
Jim |
Dittbrenner |
Maj |
USA |
||
|
Legis Liaison |
Annie |
Brock |
CPT |
USA |
||
|
Auxiliary Liaison |
Naomi |
Kaplan |
||||
|
Chaplain |
Jim |
Campbell |
Capt |
USAF |
||
|
Annapolis |
Andrew |
Fallon |
Col |
USA |
||
|
Montgomery Co |
Dave |
Peterson |
CAPT |
NOAA |
||
|
Ft Meade |
Bryon |
Hartzog |
LTC |
USA |
||
|
Southern MD |
Philip |
Campbell |
CDR |
USN |
pncbiz@me.com |
|
|
Gen Smallwood |
Daniel |
Donohue |
COL |
USMC |
||
|
Prince Georges |
Vacant |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Susquehanna |
Annie |
Brock |
CPT |
USA |
||
|
Upper Eastern Shore |
Jim |
Adkins |
MG |
USN |
jamesa.adkins@comcast.net |
|
|
Upper Potomac |
Hugh |
McIlroy |
LTC |
USMC |
germac03@gmail.com |
|
|
Star Spangled |
Tom |
Seybold |
COL |
USA |
||
Here are the Maryland Council Bylaws, last revised in 2008.
The Council published a set of Goals in 2011 that are still relevant today.
Maryland
Veterans Commission
Click
here for the latest report from the
Maryland Veterans Commission.
Job Search
Looking for a new job, or know someone who is? Visit the MOAA Transition and Career Center
for Career Information.
Veterans’
Benefits
MAJ Jeffery Burbank, an Army Chaplain at Fort Leavenworth and the son of Fort Meade Chapter member CW5 Larry Burbank, has prepared a list of web-sites that provide information on Veterans benefits and how to file/ask for them. There are many sites that explain how to obtain books, military/medical records, information and how to appeal a denied claim with the VA. Please pass this information on to every Veteran you know. Nearly 100% of this information is free and available for all veterans, the only catch is: you have to ask for it, because they won't tell you about a specific benefit unless you ask for it. You need to know what questions to ask so the right doors open for you and then be ready to have an advocate who is willing to work with and for you, stay in the process, and press for your rights and your best interests. (Note – the Maryland Council of Chapters has nothing to do with any of the listed sites, and is not responsible if any of them are no longer active.)
The consumer website MoneyGeek.com
has recently published a sutdent financial aid guide for military veterans,
including a list of scholarships offered to vetereans and their family members
and an interactive map tool to help veterans find schools that participate in
the Yellow Ribbon benefit program. The guide is available at http://www.moneygeek.com/
Here is another site with military discounts and deals: https://dealhack.com/blog/military-discounts-guide
(Again, the inclusionn of this link does not impmy and endorsement by MOAA or
the Maryland Council of Chapters.) (5 Jun 2107)
The Council’s Spouse/Surviving Spouse Liaison Officer, Naiomi Kaplan, has prepared a list of Pertinent Issues for Spouses and Surviving Spouses. (29 Feb 2016)
Click
here for more information on Council activities.
Please send any comments and suggestions to the Webmaster using the email address shown in the listing of Council Officers above.