A note to our membership

Manny Pacheco, president, USMCCCA

A heartfelt greeting and special thanks to all my fellow CCs for entrusting me with the stewardship of our organization. I am humbled by the outpouring of support.

Let me begin by thanking our outgoing President Bill Hauptfleisch for his hard work and dedication over the past two years. Let me also express my thanks to the many folks who work behind the scenes (board members, our executive director, our web master and others) to ensure we continue to march.  Our organization is at a crossroads and it will take some patience and perseverance to ensure that we take the right approach so that both our Association and our Foundation remain strong, ready and relevant, not only to us CCs of yesterday but also to the warrior story tellers of today and tomorrow.

Over the course of the next year I want to dedicate myself to finding creative and innovative ways of not just increasing our membership, but just as important (if not more so) to figure out ways to get the more than 400 members on our roles to play a more active role in their organization.  The first step of that endeavor is to ask each of you to pledge to do one thing this year, not for me, not for the CCs, but for your fellow Marines and for our Corps.

Please find some time to reach out to a fellow CC whom you have not seen or spoken to in a while and see if the two of you can reconnect. Perhaps in the spirit of our Corps and in recognition of its upcoming birthday that renewed camaraderie can be rekindled at a “Bar” … a coffee bar if you so choose. Perhaps the two of you can turn into four and four into eight and so on …. And before you know it we have the re-birth of a chapter.

Now I know what some of you are thinking — meetings, dues, officers etc. — and don’t get me wrong those are all good things, but I believe a much simpler and more meaningful event may just be rekindling of old friendships with the shared mutual interest of continuing the legacy of telling the stories of our Corps. Perhaps we can take the example from this year’s gathering at Camp Pendleton and adopt one of today’s CCs and offer them an opportunity to share their stories of today’s Corps. You may be surprised to know that they want as much to hear your stories as theirs.

I’m certain you have the idea and can make something meaningful out of this concept.
As I look at the year ahead I’m going to ask that our board and our association take a hard look at how we have been doing business and look for ways to improve. We will ask the hard questions of do we need to continue sending out a newsletter or should we save that money and focus more attention on our web-site. I also think we need to relook at our by-laws to ensure we are doing the things we should and if changes are needed to better reflect today’s environment we should consider those changes and present them to the membership.

Finally, I want to ensure that our Association remains committed to recognizing the outstanding work that is and will be performed by today’s “Denig’s Demons.” They are a special breed of young men and women, enlisted and officers, who continue to find unique ways of telling our Corps story — in words, pictures, illustrations and other creative ways, setting them apart from all others.

The new leadership at Headquarters Marine Corps has already pledged to work closely with us to ensure “our” awards program is executed to meet its intended purpose — recognizing the outstanding work of today’s CCs in honor and memory of many who have come before them.

Again, I am humbled by the honor of leading our organization. I would like to thank all who have worked hard to get me here and in a special way I want to thank Don Gee for making it interesting!  This is NOT about me or Don, but rather our CCs and our passion to energize it. Twenty-five years ago in New York City I observed Don’s passion and commitment to our organization — and I continue to see it today. I hope that others who continue to have that burning passion can find a way to employ it.

I look forward to a great year and our renewed commitment to our Association.
   Semper Fi,
                    Manny