2017 TACP Association

Dear Members,

I’d like to start this letter off saying how humbled I am to be responsible for an association that cares for and provides to such a group of pipe hitters as the 275/1C4/13L/ALO community! For those of you that know me, hello! For those of you that don’t I’m an active duty 1C4 stationed at Hurlburt Field. I’ve been in for about 15 years and started my career at the 13 ASOS at Ft. Carson. From there, I went to Shaw AFB with the 682 ASOS for a handful of years and then landed the job down here at Hurby.

Next I’d like to thank Charlie for all the work that he has put into the Association since 2010. When he took over, there was $500 in the account and no way, no how were they prepared to provide the support to the community like we have over the last 7 years. Since 2010, the association, with your support, has raised over $1,000,000; all of which has been given back to the those in need. Last year alone, we raised over $200K that has gone back out to the community in supporting widow’s, gold star children and many other families/brothers in need. Charlie, you left some big shoes to fill and I’m excited about the task of moving the Association forward! Thanks again!

One of the hottest topics with regards to the TACP Association is memberships. I am putting this out there to hopefully settle any confusion. If you joined the TACP-A prior to 2010 for $10 or $20 your membership is not valid. Starting in 2010, the membership went to $100. I am sorry if this upsets some of you. The bottom line is this organization is providing unprecedented support to the community and $100 isn’t much to ask to be a part of it.

The other hot topic out there is the use of association money. One of my top goals is to provide access to all of our members to see where the money you raised/donated is going. I’ve been in the seat for a little over two weeks now and I can assure you, transparency is one of the top priorities. We have a couple ideas on how to make this work so please be patient as we work through the steps to get you greater access.

Another key task that we look to tackle is getting more feedback from the community on how the association is run. We have already restructured if you haven’t heard and now have AD/ANG reps for each of the MAJCOM’s. (I’ll throw them on here later). Each MAJCOM rep is reaching out to the squadrons to find reps that want to help out! We need highly motivated folks that are looking to knock plates down for us! If you are interested, reach out to your squadron leadership! In addition to having more reps at lower levels, we are looking to start conducting TACP-A wide member votes. Let me be clear about a few things, we won’t ask for votes for every single topic that comes up. Emergencies need to be handled and we can’t wait for everyone to cast their vote, however, we will have planned meetings to discuss key topics and those items requiring the community to vote will be broadcast out. Again, this is in the idea phase so be patient!

Enough of what we need to improve on, lets jump into our key events for 2017. The first major event for us is the 24 Hour Challenge. Most of you are familiar with it, but if not, you and your team are out to run the most miles and raise the most money. If you would like to get a team in, contact Eric “Ivan” Rankin at [email protected] or Nate English at [email protected]. They’ll get the required info and we’ll get you up and running! Additionally, War Cry has put together a shirt for the run that proceeds will go to the TACP-A.

Next up will be the reunion. Right now we are planning the reunion for San Antonio to rededicate the memorial at the school house. Dates are TBD but we are looking at the 23 of June to coincide with a graduation. More to follow!

Following the reunion, we will be hosting our inaugural Wounded Warrior Camp. Because this is new to us, it will be small and will be held in Boise, Idaho. This is something that we’d like to get hammered out so we can do it more often and on a larger scale. If you’d like to help out, let us know. In addition to the WWC, we will be sponsoring runners again for the AF Marathon. If you are interested, contact Eric “Ivan” Rankin!

If you haven’t heard, the TACP-A absorbed the store from the TACP Schoolhouse. We are currently working through all the details to have all of the items for sale up on the internet! We are working with War Cry, Cleared Hot Creations, and several other vendors to figure out the best way to have merchandise available to everyone all the time!

I alluded to it earlier so here it is, your 2017 TACPA Officers:

Troy Lundquist – Vice President

Ivan Rankin – ACC

John O’Regan – USAFE

Mike Belleau – ANG

Nate English – AETC

TJ Gunnell – AFSOC

Shawn Leonard – PACAF

Jason Wallace – Retirees

Additionally, we have several committee leads:

Anjie Reed- Care Coordinator / Memberships POC

Dan Waugh- Gold Star Families

Hallie Davis- Social Media

Amy Zagorsky- Accountant

Renee House- Admin / Transportation

Jason Zoglman- Historian

Finally, if you have time or skills that you’d like to volunteer to the Association please don’t hesitate to contact us. For now, you can reach us at [email protected] or via Facebook. We are finishing up the email addresses for all the reps and will have them out shortly! Expect a quarterly newsletter from us, the first being published in March! I’m beyond excited about the team we have in place to tackle any and all of the issues that come our way and we look forward to helping out in any way possible!

Sincerely,

Marcus Mader

President, TACP Association

Remember the Fallen, Honor the Living and Support a Brother in Need