2006 ROA Mid-Winter Conference & Exhibition

6th Annual Minnesota Congressional Visit Is A Success!

 

The ROA held it annual Mid-Winter Conference & Exhibition  5-8 February 2006, in the Washington Hilton, Washington, DC. The Mid-Winter Conference followed its schedule of providing attendees with updates on issues of the day. The Minnesota delegation participated individually and as a group at many of the events.

 

This year was the first year that a scholarship was awarded from Minnesota's Major Dan Anderson Freedom Fund. That scholarship award went to 2nd Lt Vickie Erdmann, USAFR, who is currently assigned on extended active duty with the 934th Airlift Wing, Minneapolis. 2nd Lt Erdmann attended the Reserve Component Joint Officer Leadership Development Seminar (JOLDS) during the period of the conference. The RC JOLDS attendees maintained their own agenda but interacted with the main conference at major points.

 

A key part of that event is the opportunity on Wednesday of conference week to visit with Minnesota's Congressional delegation on Capital Hill.

8 February 2006

The sixth Annual Minnesota Congressional Visit sponsored by the Department of Minnesota was conducted on Wednesday, 8 February, in the offices of the Minnesota Representatives and Senators, Capital Hill, Washington, DC.

In previous years, a breakfast was held. This year that was not feasible and it was necessary to make separate meeting reservations with each Senator and Congressional member. This required a day of appointments, coordination of briefing point papers, and coordinating the volunteer department members to discuss the ROA legislative agenda and state issues.

Briefing packets with slides, introductory talking points, points of contact information and a copy of the presentation were made available to each representative.

Following the suggested agenda of the National ROA legislative 2006 goals, the Department's presentation stressed three points: 1) Tax relief for reservists and their employers; 2) Improvement to Reserve forces equipment; and 3) Reserve personnel issues. 

Special appreciation goes to Department President, Col Marilyn Chambers, USAFR, for heading the meetings and for the hours of preparation, data collection and modifications of last year’s slide presentation to reflect current Minnesota issues. Major Dave Hanten, USAFR, assisted with preparation of the PowerPoint slides in the months leading up to the event but could not attend the event. LtCol Gary Chambers, USAFR, ably assisted on Capital Hill with the presentations. Major John Rosnow, USAR, and CW5 Bruce Hedblom, AUS (Ret.), attended the Mid-Winter Conference but were both occupied elsewhere with their official duties.

In future years, there will be a fine tuning of our message “To The Hill”. We will continue to encourage each Congressional office’s participation by both the elected member and staff liaisons. We hope to continue with this effort as an effective communication tool of the Department of Minnesota’s positions on Reservist legislation and issues.

The Minnesota delegation to the 2006 Mid-Winter Conference enjoyed the banquet on Wednesday evening to put an exclamation point to the week's activities.

///