I hope you had a nice, safe, long snow weekend, and hope the roads are safe this week.

You can’t win if you don’t submit an application!

Many of  you have heard me speak about the very small number of paid staff AFSA employs, and what they do. You have also heard me say that our lobbyists, president, and CEO educate our elected representatives about the needs and desires of the Air Force’ enlisted force. The first few paragraphs of the newsletter will demonstrate how respected our staff is among Air Force leaders.  Not only are they teaching those on Capitol Hill about our needs, they are educating Air Force leaders about hot-button topics on Capitol Hill. No other professional organization has the impact of AFSA in making sure our quality of life benefits are protected and enhanced. Membership fees are a very small price to pay for what they do and we need to increase our membership to ensure the continued operations of the association. Contact me if your membership is about to expire, you’re not sure when it is going to expire, or has already expired, and I will help you remain a member, or regain your membership. It is more important now than ever!

Enjoy MLK day and have a productive week.

Are you an Air Force Times subscriber? If so, renew your subscription and tell them you’re an AFSA member. You’ll get 27% off and AFSA will get $5 for each subscription!

Have a wonderful and safe week, and enjoy your Thanksgiving!

The first article involves our very own Chief Hartsook who is now a Command Chief at Andrews AFB.  There is some promising legislation mentioned as well as information on some very important topics. Guard and Reserve members should be particularly interested in S. 1780 and 1798.

Have a great week, and kick butt next week!

I’d like to start by saying thanks to those of you who have registered on the new AFSA Active Duty Forums website. I feel that this will be a valuable tool that provides information to both members and non-members alike (and will especially be a great recruiting tool for our future members). In order to make this work for us, I am hoping to let all active duty enlisted members know about the forums; here is where I need your assistance and expertise.

Division Presidents: Now is the time to start promoting this website; therefore, please have your chapter presidents (CPs) forward the site address (http://afsaadaffairs.org/index.php) to all of their members. Additionally, please encourage CPs with chapters on military installations to help us inform all their active duty folks (including non-AFSA members) about the site. The best way for them to do this is to disseminate the info through all enlisted leader/pro org channels on the installation (i.e. Shirt’s Council, Chief’s Group, TOP 3, 5/6, Airman’s Council, etc.). My goal is to have at least 1,000 active duty enlisted Airmen registered on the forums by the next PAC. Wouldn’t this be an awesome achievement for our Association?

Furthermore, please let everyone know that the forums are ready to be used and encourage them to start posting “threads” in the forums. For example, they might begin by introducing themselves in the Don Harlow Hospitality Suite (just like all of us will hopefully do). Also, stress to them that these forums are the place to share their “voice” on what they feel they need as Airmen; proposals that can be taken up to the Hill.Finally, thank you for helping me to get this new tool off of the ground!  Its success will depend on all of us working as a team; accordingly, I am counting on all of you to help me get the message out and encourage our Airmen to utilize this valuable instrument. After all… it was created to take care of them and give our AFSA members a place to share ideas.

Thank you for leading this great Association and please let me know if you have any questions.

“Living AFSA Strong”
–
MSgt Kent D. Kundert
Air Force Sergeants Association
Trustee, Active Duty Affairs