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JRD Sqd. BOD meeting, 12/6/22, Minutes Roll Call: Buck Buchanan, Jim Brubaker, Flash Whitten, Jamie Stanley, Len Ingram, Kenny Watts Minutes: Buck will write and distribute to the BOD attendees above. Old Business: Deferred to JRD Sqd update to be published before the end of the year and distributed to the membership. Buck for action. New Business: • Extend the terms for current BOD members to 4y. Approved with inclusion of an effort to solicit interest from current memberships to serve in a BOD capacity. Interested parties to be identified next BOD Meeting, February 7th 2023 1500h. I’ll include a request of the membership to serve in a DOD capacity in the Sqd. Update that I’ll write. • Motion to place JRD Sqd in an inactive status failed. Motion to continue active status of JRD Squadron approved. General consensus was to see how things go through the April ‘23-time frame (6 months) and reassess overall interest in maintaining active status of the JRD Sqd. • Reviewed state of current reunions (inform gatherings). • Ted Vanasupa (VMAQ Det Z early 90s) organized an informal no-host gathering in Pensacola FL that ran concurrently with the VMAQ Monument Foundation dedication of the monument’s statuary 11/11/22 – 11/13/22. After action reports suggested the gathering was a success with 25 attendees. • Davis (Doc) Schwartz (VMCJ Adjutant early 70s) is organizing an informal VMCJ gathering for April 2023. Two sites (Herndon, VA, Quantico, VA) and lengths (3-4d respectively) of gathering are being offered with interested parties requested to provide a commitment and preference by end of December 22. Costs TBD and based on option choice and number of attendees (see .xls spread sheets from cpidave90@g mail.com). • Interest among the general membership in these informal, no-host, low-cost gatherings is high. “Mini-Reunions” seems to be the trend with the larger, more complex reunions at 3-5y intervals if at all. • Larger scale JRD reunion needs to deconflict or become a part of other platform reunions (Intruders, Prowlers, Tail Hook, MCAA). Consider late summer early fall, ‘23 JRD Sqd. Reunion or mini-reunion, CPNC. • Resurrection of the COVID Cancelled Midway Reunion (May 2020) in San Diego, CA deferred until we re-evaluate JRD Sqd. Status in 6 months. • Motion to approve expenditure of Sqd. Funds to finance the development of a phone application to announce/solicit interest in upcoming gatherings (formal and informal) failed. Questions included why spend money on such an app when we’re not certain the Sqd. will continue in an active status? Can’t we use existing means to reach out to the membership? There are two cohorts in the USMC airborne EW and Recce community: over and under 65, defined by before the VMAQ 2 (large, includes VMCJ EA6A and RF4C) and after the split (VMAQ1,2,3,4, EA6B). Both have different approaches to maintaining contact, both need to be recognized – social media and phone apps for under 65s and email for the overs. • MCARA Web site: Len and Flash expressed frustration over the lack of progress in fully integrating the MCARA web site into the JRD Sqd. sub-space at the MCAA website. There is currently only a link to MCARA.USA.org. at the MCAA, JRD Sqd. sub-space. History informs that MCAA was at the time it was investigated (2019) unwilling to invest the time and costs of integrating the code that the MCARA site is written in with the code that the MCAA website (and sub space) is written in. • ACTION: Buck will contact MCAA and attempt to revive this effort with the suggestion that the sites remain separately coded with access reopened to a JRD Sqd. web master. If I remember correctly, an effort to do that by connecting the previous MCARA webmaster (gone fishing) and the MCAA web master was never completed. • Resurrect a Sqd. Newsletter. Flash Whitten suggested these as a means of keeping in touch with the JRD Sqd. membership. Means of distribution were discussed. • Action: Buck will write a unit update and submit it to MCAA for distribution by their standard NOTAM process. Buck will also submit it to our membership officer, Jimmy Carter, to distribute via his MCARA membership list. • Action: “Historian” Flash Whitten, take on the task of writing a JRD. Sqd. Newsletter for release in mid-January with a plan to continue every quarter, newsletter author TBD after that.