by Colonel (Ret) Michael H. Caldwell

It has been several years since Commander Bob Mann (then Society President) and I discussed ways to encourage our emeritus members to remain involved in SAFMLS.

I organized a committee and mailed 1,000 letters to former members.  Most respondents were very supportive but few volunteered their services.  SAFMLS would have not been created or continued to survive for thirties years if the movers and shakers (the 1%ers) had not donated much of their energies to the Society.  Nevertheless; many good suggestions were offered to include:

• a retiree dinner/luncheon
• workshops by emeritus members
• historical articles authored by emeritus members
• a recognition program for emeritus members
• a recurring message in the "Society Scope"
• an emeritus member on the Board of Directors

How are we doing?  Well!  For our first retiree dinner Colonel Rei Warnken and I along with a couple of active duty members were the only ones to show up! Not a great start!  The last couple of years we have had successful workshops on preparing for retirement, a couple of historical articles, and recurring messages in the "Society Scope."  Sound boring and unsuccessful?  Not at all; it has been slow but not an unsuccessful effort.  Those of us that are familiar with SAFMLS's history know that the Society took a few years to catch on.  The 2001 Society meeting was a breakthrough meeting with numerous retirees rejoining and attending the annual meeting in Houston.  Many are now participating in the retiree preparation workshop ("What are you Going to do when You Grow up?") and several have plans to conduct separate workshops in the future.

The momentum has shifted and I feel that the original vision of encouraging emeritus members to stay around and contribute their leadership and experience to the active generation is working.  So, if you are an emeritus member I encourage you to support SAFMLS.  If your are still an active member and know some "lost retiree" out there encourage him/her to rejoin and get involved.

POSTSCRIPT: The SAFMLS board is in the process of recommending some form of recognition to those Emeritus members that have contributed to SAFMLS.  If you have a suggestion on what form of recognition should be presented to the membership next year please contact me at email CALDWELLSPG@aol.com or contact a SAFMLS Board Member.