Illinois Council of Chapters
Military Officers Association of America

Advocacy in Action 2025  is over but I thought I should share some of the highlights with you.

• It is a new congress and a new administration.  That means legislation that wasn't finished last term now needs to be re-introduced.

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• Things in DC are moving at the "speed of Trump" - and the town is now used to that!

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• MOAA HQ emphasized that we should start every meeting with reminding the member or the staffer that MOAA focused on our core mission of "Service through Strength" and that MOAA was committed to Protecting, Preserving, Preventing, and Defending the value of earned benefits (see the attached).  MOAA bought a two page advertisement in The Hill on 9 April which stated "If you really want to thank them for their service, protect their earned benefits."

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• MOAA's five topics were divided into two tracks - DoD (Tyler), and VA (Norman)

  • DoD had the Military Spouse Hiring Act, Unaccompanied Housing, and Military Health System Access to Care.

  • VA had the Military Spouse Hiring act, Ending the Wait for Toxic Exposure, and Caregiver Support Improvements

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• MOAA outsourced the scheduling this year.  That meant that Col. Norman and I were only scheduled to visit 14 of Illinois' 19 Congressional members.

  • Both of us met with both senators' staffers

  • Each of us met with one Representative (Bost & Miller)

  • Col Norman had one staff member visit & I had two

  • Col Norman had three "drop offs" and I had two.

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• Past years we had meetings with all of the Illinois congressional members.

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• TriCare West migration was a topic at several meetings.

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• The Hill had lots of activity - it only took over 90 minutes to clear security to get into the senate office buildings! 

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• We noted several protesting groups around the Capital and the Supreme Court during the day. 

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• The Tuesday night awards went to: Rep. Don Bacon, Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, Elizabeth Bender, Nikitha Ral Shah, USAA, and The Bob Woodruff Foundation.  Look for the award specifics in the Military Magazine or on the MOAA website. 

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• The guest speaker for the Wednesday evening dinner was Congresswoman Jen Kiggans. 

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• Unfortunately, the House was holding a vote and she needed to remain on the Hill.

• On Thursday we heard from the vice-president's panel

  • Paid MOAA membership is down 34% in the last 10 years

  • Council & Chapter membership is declining (we knew that!)

  • Councils 7 Chapters gave out over $18 Million in scholarships

  • Only about 30,000 members are registered on the Advocacy Action Center.

  • The 40 to 60 year-old group is the best group for recruitment

  • There are 14.5 million military caregivers and 13% of them are surviving spouses

  • MOAA Foundation awarded 1885 scholarships in 2024 for $6.9M and awarded $11.8M in loans

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• The estimate is that we will have access to the emails in our respective catchment areas within two months.  Captain Frank Mitchael can send a blast email to all MOAA members in a chapter's catchment area.

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• When discussing current issues the VPs reinforced that MOAA responds to "real actions" so as to not be labeled as "chicken little" - that is to say MOAA wants to focus on the major issues associated with our core mission of preserving veteran's earned benefits.

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• There was some discussion on the 501 c (19) or 501 c (3) designations

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• MOAA has negotiated with Lockton Affinity Liability insurance for Chapter liability insurance costing approximately $550 a year.

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• 45 Chapters are signed up in Cheddar Up and reporting positive results.

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• They covered some staff changes at HQ.  Victoria will be on leave for the next 12 weeks

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• There were 169 LOE submissions (161 5-Star, 7 4-Star, and 1 3-Star)

• The Harris Communication award had 225 (190 5-Star, and 35 4-Star)

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• The data from the advocacy action center shows only one-third of the actions are from chapter members

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• Current chapter membership is around 35,355, by 2027 MOAA expects chapter membership to be down to around 27,000. (They used actuary tables to estimate this.)

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• The C&C survey had only 226 responses - if you haven't responded you still can.

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• MOAA Priorities:

  • Reintegration of the CM / NRT (two "managers" - president & membership chair)

  • The privacy issue of opt-in v. opt-out for email

  • Chapter health and effectiveness

  • Growing chapter membership

  • Looking at satellite chapters (rules now changed to 5 members)

  • Exploring (and testing) statewide virtual chapters

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It was a busy (and different) week.  Check the website for specifics they are trying to make access to this information easier to get to on the MOAA webpages. 

 

It is a new Congress and a new administration and by keeping focused on protecting the promises made to America's uniformed members we can avoid the partisan quicksand and devisiveness.  My observation in any of the offices that I was in (regardless of party affiliation), the folks reacted positively to protecting the "earned benefits" that America's service members deserve.

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As always, I appreciate that y'all have "Never Stopp[ed] Serving"

 

Semper Fi - Bob