October 11, 2025, CHAPTER REPORT

            Our chapter continues to meet in-person monthly, with guest speakers. Since the last Council meeting, we had a July dinner and luncheons in August, September.  Our October luncheon meeting will be on the 15^th.  All our events are held at Manor Country Club in Rockville.

            As before, our chapter head count continues to regularly fluctuate as our dues renewals/drop effort proceeds.  The head count was 94 paid up members as of 30 September, with 8 more in arrears. We have added 2 new members since the last Council meeting. We continue to have regular renewals as due dates arrive.  We continue to work through our list of members in arrears and have dropped 2 nonresponsive members for nonpayment of dues.  Our dues renewal effort has generally been positive, typically for 2-year renewals. Our roster purge of expired memberships is executed at the one-year mark, following three outreach efforts.

            Montgomery County Chapter will participate in Chapter Recruiting 2025.  We are now using the updated monthly national Committee Module recruiting lists and can use our still useful MD05 2019 “big list” of potentials, as well.  Our efforts primarily use email outreach to prospective new members.   Our chapter Membership Chair has Secretarial backup, if needed.

             Other than the membership chair, our chapter leadership team remains the same for 2025, but we are now expecting to face officer vacancies in 2026.

            We have carried out one community service effort since the last meeting, providing toiletry and move in item donations to the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless in support of their efforts to help homeless vets.  We expect to discuss greater chapter involvement with this county organization, looking ahead to 2026 opportunities.  We will be supporting the USMC Toys for Tots campaign this year in conjunction with our meeting venue folks.  As November arrives, we will be participating in the Veterans Day observances in both Rockville and Gaithersburg.

            Our monthly speakers have been:

July – Penny Collins, speaking about the Maryland Women Veterans Memorial.

August – Captain Craig McLean, on “Oceans and Ocean Science and why they are both important.

September – Colonel Paul Hughes, on “The Erosion of US Soft Power.”

Our remaining 2025 meetings are all luncheons.  Our October speaker will discuss bioweapons.  In November, we will have a presentation on the county’s efforts to address veterans homelessness.  In December we will have our customary Holiday celebration.

            Leadership continues to encourage chapter members to participate in MOAA’s ongoing legislative advocacy efforts by using the Legislative Action Center for communicating with Federal legislators.  Chapter members continue to serve in the leadership of the Maryland Military Coalition as either officers or as directors representing member organizations.  The chapter distribution list for the legislative action alert outreach is being updated for changes and additions and will be ready for action when requested by the Coalition in 2026.

            The chapter has a social media presence via Facebook.  We have chosen not to open an “X” account.  Work continues to eventually update our chapter website on the Council website.