Submitted by: Al Singleman, Jr. NJVC & Natl Membership Chair on 4/9/2014

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Dear Shipmate:

 

Over the past several years our membership has been flat staying between 13,000 and maxing out close to 14,000 only to revert back by 1,000 members at the end of renewal period in February when the dinks agreed.

 

Most of Bases are doing a good job on trying to retain their members by using the requested methods, but we need to do a better job in order to grow USSVI. Right now we are losing about 6.7% to 7.6% of our members to non-renewal at the end of the year.

 

Therefore I am asking the membership for ideas on ways to get new members to join USSVI and your Base. Along with this I am looking for suggestions on retaining the members we currently have.

 

Here is a typical question a potential member might ask, “Why should I join USSVI?”

 

I would really appreciate it if you could answer that question in your own words.  Your answers to this question could be used in new advertising for USSVI to help to get and retain new members.

 

As the National Membership Chairman I am asking you the members of USSVI to send me your suggestions to these issues so we can work on this as a team to improve membership and retention. I will then make a report to the E-Board, the Bases and I’ll send out a SubVet News (POC) to inform you of the results.

 

Your help with this will be greatly appreciated. Please send your suggestions to al@ssbn657.com or call me at 518-355-2119.

 

Pride Runs Deep,
Al Singleman, Jr.
NJVC & National Membership Chairman

 

 

NEWS-02: Washington DC Memorial Day Parade Information Submitted by: Al Singleman, Jr NJVC on 4/9/2014

 

1.  We can have only 4 floats in the parade and the following bases are cleared to bring their floats. Nathanael Green Base/North Carolina, Columbus Base, Marblehead Base, and Rhode Island Base.

 

The parade staging area in on 7th Street between Independence Ave and Constitution Ave and the floats have to be there between 10 and 11 AM on Monday May 26, 2014. The parade starts at 2PM and ends around 4PM at 17th Street and Constitution Ave.

 

Floats will have passes to get through the police barricades. You can park your floats at the Hyatt Hotel at no charge. Any member of USSVI can march in the parade including wives who are Associate Members or Subvettes. The uniform of the day is black shoes and socks, black pants, white short sleeve shirt, black tie, vest if you have one and a ball cap or garrison hat.

 

We have about 22 seats on the floats and I am trying to use them for members who cannot walk the one mile length of the parade and wives who do not want to march.

 

2.  I will not get the total Parade Package from the production company until about 3 weeks before the Parade. In the mean time I will be making maps, getting you information on the Metro stops and their locations, and other information to make it as easy as possible for you to get to the parade and back to the hotel and home safely. I will be sending each base that marches in the parade a standard photo model waiver sheet that has to be signed by everyone and sent back to me so they can use our pictures in the parade video and next year’s brochure and photos of this year’s parade.

 

3.  The Hotel:

 

We have 30 single suites and 10 double room suites reserved at the HYATT House in Gaithersburg, MD. The single suite is $99.00 plus tax and the double is $119.00 plus tax. For online booking use the group code G-USSV. The website is hyatthousegaithersburg.com  and the address  is:

HYATT House

200 Skidmore Blvd.
Gaithersburg, MD 20877
Phone 301-527-6000

 

To phone in for reservations use phone # 1-866-974-9288 and code is G-USSV For the online reservations go to hyatthousegaithersburg.com and enter your arrive date and depart date. Then under the dates click on special rate (AAA, Govt) and you get another box. In this new box under corporate rate enter the code G-USSV and click on check availability to continue with your reservation.

 

For those of us not going in with the float, we will be taking the DC Metro train into Union Station and taking a short ride on another line that is very close to the parade form up area. I’ll be sending you more info on this.

 

 

NEWS-03: 50th Anniversary of USSVI Plaque Dedication Submitted by: Al Singleman, Jr NJVC on 4/9/2014

 

The USSVI Plaque Dedication Ceremony will be on Saturday May 24, 2014 starting at 1 PM in the theatre at the Navy Memorial Foundation Building to the right of the Navy Memorial at 1 PM.

 

United States Navy Memorial & Heritage Center
701 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004

 

Metro Stop: Archives/Navy Memorial

 

We have about 30 members attending so far and more are welcome to attend.

 

Info on this will be included in a parade package that I will be sending to the bases taking part in these events.

 

We have 8 bases and about 50 members taking part in the parade so far. The bases are: Nat Green, Columbus, Nova, Central Florida, Marblehead, Capital, Rhode Island and Smokey Mountain base.

 

If other Bases or members want to take part in these events please e-mail at al@ssbn657.com or call at the number below.