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AFA Region Presidents/VPs for Aerospace Education:
REQUEST YOU FORWARD THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR STATE/CHAPTER
PRESIDENTS/VPs AEROSPACE EDUCATION and take appropriate action on
those Aerospace Education activities noted below. You are key to
making our Association’s Aerospace/STEM education successful in the
field.
As a review, AFA's education objectives, approved by the BoD, are:
·
AFA educates key decision makers and the public about the unique
capabilities of Air Force aerospace power in the defense of our
nation.
·
AFA supports science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
programs that lead to strengthening the nation's ability to meet its
defense needs with technological superiority.
·
AFA provides educational opportunities to Air Force personnel to
advance their professional development and to their families to enrich
their lives and future potential.
Aerospace
Education information for the FIELD:
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Attached is the Strategic Planning Committee’s report on Strategic
Measures to the AFA Board of Directors in February. These measures
help us look at what and how well we are doing in addressing our
Mission of Educate, Advocate, and Support. Though not complete,
they much better than what we had in the past. Note the Aerospace
Education measures—AE Funding,
CyberPatriot teams, TOY awards, and Visions of
Exploration, in addition to other critical AFA measures.
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Note that
AE expenditures by Field Units, taken directly
from Chapter/State Financial reports, exceeds Headquarters AE
funding. We can be proud of the AFA Grassroots support of AE.
Region
AEVP/Presidents: Please encourage Chapters and States to
support/increase as well as account for their AE funding
expenditures. |
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The
CyberPatriot HS Competition is growing and needs
to spread even further into the open division schools next
year—these that do not have JROTC programs. This is where we
especially need Chapter and State support. We also want to
increase all services JROTC participation. AFA’s grassroots, its
Chapters/States, provide our best opportunity/avenue to acquaint
and encourage the vast majority of public and private schools to
participate.
Region/State/Chapter AE VPs/Presidents request your active support
in increasing CP participation next year. You
will be hearing more about this from our CyberPatriot
Commissioner, Bernie Skoch, the AFA President, Mike Dunn and
others. Many of your questions can be answered at the website,
http://www.uscyberpatriot.org/about/Pages/HowAFAChapterscanhelp.aspx.
Most schools set their activity schedules and funding during the
Spring for the 2011/2012 school year, so between now and June is
the time, and June may be too late, to get busy marketing
CyberPatriot to schools. Additionally, you should note the
successful teams that will be competing at the end of this month
at the CyberFutures Conference in Washington DC for the 2011
Commanders-in-Chief and Open Division trophies,
http://www.uscyberpatriot.org/Pages/default.aspx.
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The
2011 AFA Educator Grant Program announced 108
winners for the $250 grants for classroom STEM teaching materials.
Florida, Ohio and New Mexico had the most winners. See:
http://www.afa.org/aef/aid/edwnrs.asp
for the list of winners. Congratulations to all winners.
Chapters/States should consider sending congratulatory letters to
the winning teachers—they may be interested in becoming AFA members.
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The
AFA
2011 Teacher of the Year program is upon us.
Chapters and States should be selecting their TOY in the April-early
May timeframe. See
http://www.afa.org/aef/aid/awards.asp
for details. The State TOY is selected from among Chapter Teachers
of the Year. States then submit their State TOY (candidates are
State TOY from this year or last) NLT 31 May to Hq AFA. AFA
provides monetary and other awards to Chapter, State, and National
TOYs—see website for details. We were disappointed by the lower
number of TOY in 2010, a 15% decrease.
Region/State AE VPs and Presidents, request your support and
emphasis in returning an upward trajectory to this important program
recognizing our outstanding teachers. |
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One
of the best analysis of our Membership challenges was presented in
the Membership Brief to the BoD (Attached). It is a worthwhile read
for all AFA leaders. |
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Also attached for your information is the AEC Report to the AFA BoD.
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You
may have seen this before, but then again, maybe your chapters have
not. The AFA web pages have a number of different places where you
find
Aerospace Education information. Maybe someday we
will have it all in one place, but for now you will find some on the
www.afa.org home page under "Latest
from AFA" (press releases), some under Field Resources,
others under a button called Aerospace Education, and others
still under Educational Opportunities and Awards,
Scholarships, and Grants. Search and you will find.
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Finally I am including as an attachment, the names and emails for
those Regions who have named an Aerospace Education VP. AEVPs
please cross communicate and provide positive and lessons learned to
AEVP/Presidents from other Regions. We can learn from the success
and failures of others. Thank you all for volunteering to make AFA
better and more effective advocate for Airpower and National
Defense. |
Jim Hannam
Vice Chairman, Aerospace Education Council (AEC)
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