Dear Shipmates of NNOA, 

Happy February! Your NNOA Board has been busy since we left the conference and making a positive impact on the Sea Services. Here is a quick update.

We continue to make progress in all four lines of effort and seek your input on how to accelerate our progress:

  • Chapter Empowerment – NNOA working as one entity with strong and vibrant chapters meeting the needs of our members where they live and work.
  • Membership Growth – Each member of NNOA reaching out to their friends, colleagues, and shipmates to enhance their careers in the Sea Services, PHS, MARAD and NOAA.
  • Symposium 2019 – Leveraging a great symposium in 2018 and responding to our members’ demands to make it even better as we return to San Diego, August 7th & 8th, 2019.
  • Implementation of the Strategic Review Plan – Prioritize, develop a roadmap, and adopt key recommendations from the Strategic Review.

CNO John Richardson, USN and I signed an updated Memorandum of Understand (MOU) last week and we are well on our way to requesting funding to support our 2019 Symposium. We anticipate having a NAVADMIN released early to give you enough time to make plans to attend August 7-8, Admiral Kidd Conference Center, Naval Amphibious Base, San Diego. This year our STEM program will be held August 6th, one day before the official opening of the Symposium. Please check our website for continuous Symposium updates. Sign up for alerts now to receive updates as they are posted.

The new Navy MOU, and the MOU signed by Commandant Karl Schultz, USCG are both available on our website for reading and downloading. We have high hopes to get a fresh MOU signed with the Commandant of the Marine Corps as well.

I held a “Town Hall” meeting for all NNOA members and appreciate your participation. Many asked that we continue to do this, especially for our At Large Members. The next one is planned for Saturday, 11 May.

Our Symposium Planning Committee lead by Western Region Vice President, Captain(S) Rod Rojas, USCG is hard at work. Thank you to all the members who participated in the Theme contest.  The final Theme was developed by our Theme Selection Committee (CDRs David Cooper, Shirl Johnson and Col Dorian Lewis). The NNOA 2019 Symposium theme is “Charting a Course for Tomorrow’s Leaders.”

Finally, we will launch a new Career Development Program in April. Please plan to join us for webinars where we will have guest speakers on career development topics using our newly procured webinar software. We want to offer sessions on a variety of career development topics but need your advice. Please click here and complete a short survey. The survey will close at midnight 28 February.

Very respectfully,

Sinclair M Harris
Rear Admiral United States Navy (Retired)
President, National Naval Officers Association (NNOA)