This past year was filled with both ups and downs, not only for our chapter but for me personally. The year began with our First Term Airman of the Year (FTAY) selection. My goal was to make it better than years past and to set the bar for future events. We collected the packages and put together a face-to-face board chaired by Buckley AFB’s 460th Space Wing Command Chief. After a tough competition, they selected Sra Lemery of the 566th IOS.
Our FTAY banquet was a major success, mainly with the help of CMSgt Sherman of the 140th National Guard Wing. She let us use their dinning facility and all their plates, silverware, glasses and decorations. Everyone commented on how great everything turned out.
Last year also marked my first full year as Chapter President, and just recently I was re-elected along with a new Executive Council. For the coming year, with the help of the new trustees, I hope to improve our standing among the other chapters of Division 11. Our top priority will be retention of older members and the recruitment of new ones. While recruitment of new members is important, if we don’t retain the ones we have, our numbers will not increase, but only same about the same.
We will also work to improve our visibility on base and in the community. When you search through the history of our chapter on our website, www.afsa1179.org, you see that Chapter 1179 was involved in everything the base had to offer. I want us to be that AFSA Chapter again.
On what could be a positive or a negative, I retired from the Air Force after 22 ½ years of service. It could be a negative because I enjoyed my time in the Air Force and now I’m looking for a new career. On the positive, it helps you appreciate all AFSA has done for our Air Force enlisted and what it does for our retirees, of which I am now one. I now see more clearly what our organization has been fighting for all these years.
As we go into 2007 I look forward to the challenges of building up our chapter. I welcome any inputs you as members may have to help improve our organization and even pictures of our past glory days to put on the website. God bless the United States of America, and may God truly bless AFSA.
DAVID A. BAMBURG, MSgt (Ret), USAF
President, AFSA Chapter 1179
