| STORMING CAPITOL HILL - RICHMOND - 2010 |
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| Governor McDonnell with Virginia MOAA leaders. Photo by Michaele White, Governor's Office. |
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| VCOC MOAA DAY AT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| VCOC President, at center, between his Legislative Chair at right & Legislative Vice Chair for state legislation at left. From Left: LTC John Clickener, USMC, Ret, COL Sam Wilder, USA, Ret, Col Don Kaiserman, USA, Ret. Photo by VCOC PAO |
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| Governor McDonnell talks with Portsmouth Chapter members , COL Shirley S. Barker, USA, Ret (wearing red scarf) and Alice Taves, in stars and stripes. Shirley is a past president of her chapter. Alice, is a member of the board. Photo by VCOC PAO |
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QUOTE FROM VCOC PRESIDENT: Colonel Sam Wilder, USA, Ret:
Our Storming of the Hill on 25 January 2010 was the best ever! The Virginia Council of Chapters had 66 members from all over the state. This was the largest turnout we’ve ever had. The room was overflowing and several favorable comments were received from our legislators who spoke to us. “Numbers count” and it showed. Our MOAA “uniforms” looked great.We accomplished the mission of getting co-patrons signed up. I understand the American Legion and VFW got almost no co-patrons and the JLC got about 30. The VCOC got 72 as of 3 PM. Definitely a good day’s work! Mission accomplished! We had a great line up of speakers from the Governor, Lt. Governor, Speaker of the House, senators, delegates, and a cabinet member. All are “heavy hitters” and all were extremely complimentary of the military and veterans. We were also thanked for our advocacy efforts. We have earned a great degree of respect from our legislators and state government officials. Also, for the first time ever, we received press coverage at the annual event.
We not only “stormed” the hill; we captured it.
26 Jan 2010
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WHO: 66 Members & Leaders of Virginia MOAA chapters, led by:
VCOC President, COL Sam Wilder, USA, Ret
VCOC 1st VP/Legislative Chairman, Col Don Kaiserman, USA, Ret
VCOC Legislative 2nd Vice Chair for State Legislation, John Clickener, USMC, Ret
VCOC JLC Rep, BG Wes Edwards, USMC, Ret
WHAT: Met individually with state delegates and senators in support of priority legislative objectives of the JLC. As a group, heard remarks from Speaker Howell, Senator Stosch, Delegates Janis and O'Bannon, and Governor's Advisor Terrie Suit. Also met as a group with Attorney General Cuccinelli, Lt Governor Bolling and Governor McDonnel.
WHERE: General Assembly Building - 5 East Conference Room (Richmond).
WHEN: See agenda at right
EARLY START AT 0745: Admin brief, Review forms & procedures.
OFFICIAL OPENING FOLLOWED BY INVITED SPEAKERS AT 0850
INTRO/RECOGNITION FROM HOUSE & SENATE NOONish
CLOSING AT 1500
WHY: To obtain co-patrons for bills in support of JLC objectives. Also thank legislators for past support. MOAA Stormers signed up at least 72 co-sponsors in one day.
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CLICK HERE FOR AGENDA ( as of 22 JAN 2010). |
REPORTERS - A VCOC Public Affairs Objective - approved at 8 Jan 2010 VCOC meeting - was for at least one reporter to attend select portions of the day's activities.
WE MET OUR GOAL!
A string of reporters followed Governor McDonnell into and out of our meeting room. An article with photo appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch the next morning. More newspaper articles should follow - when chapters submit their news releases and photos to local papers.
PHOTOS POSTED the night of 25 Jan 2010, for use by chapters, reporters or others (Scroll Down) and more were (and will be) added as received. Governor's Office photos were added 25 Jan 2010 - 8 PM. Chapters may send photos to VCOC PAO / web manager to be posted here (send any time). Please indicate name of photographer in photos you send.
If you use a photo, please credit the photographer.
Governor's office photos are courtesy of Governor's photographer Michaele White. Click here to access a gallery of more photos by her.
http://www.governor.virginia.gov/MediaLibrary/PhotoGalleries/100125_MOAA/
VCOC PAO photos are by Major Melva Mallison, USAF, Ret, VCOC MOAA 2nd VP. You may simply indicate "courtesy of VCOC PAO"
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| Reporters in background as Governor in General Assembly Hallway, approaching meeting with Virginia MOAA members. Photo by Michaele White of the Governor's office |
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| VCOC President, COL Sam Wilder, leads Governor McDonnell into conference room to meet with Virginia MOAA leaders. Photo by Governor's Photographer. |
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AFTER EVENT, SEND A CHAPTER NEWS RELEASE & PHOTOS TO YOUR LOCAL MEDIA (civilian & military newspapers). A template is provided on this page (at right), for chapter leaders to fill-in the blanks and send out quickly after the event. Paper copies were provided at the storming event. Remove Senator Colgan from list of people who spoke to us (he is removed on the document at right)
Send your chapter news release to community news editors for each nearby locality, with a photo of a chapter member and legislator pertinent to that community. Also send to military news reporters and to military papers in your locality. For instance, Virginia Peninsula chapter sends to papers of Fort Eustis, Fort Monroe, Langley AFB, Yorktown CGTS & NWS, Williamsburg Gazette, Daily Press (and separate photos for Daily Press Town Square sections of Williamsburg, Newport News, Yorktown, Gloucester, Hampton).
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NEWS RELEASE TEMPLATE for chapter use. AFTER STORMING. |
PEN PALS
This year, we gave out ink pens to our invited speakers. The pens have the MOAA logo on one side and Virginia Council of Chapters indicated on the other side. VCOC MOAA president, Col Sam Wilder, USAF, Ret, presented the pens, asking that they be used to signup as patron or copatron of bills benefiting military, Virginia National Guard and reservists, veterans and their families - and not for lining out budget items.
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| Virginia MOAA leaders assembled in 5-East Conference Room, General Assembly Building. Photo by VCOC PAO, Melva Mallison, Maj, USAF, Ret |
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THANK YOU LETTER
At right is the leave-behind document to give legislators or to leave with their staff if they are not able to meet with you. There is space at the bottom to fill in with the chapter member's contact info (a chapter member who is a constituent of the particular legislator if possible). Some chapters created their own chapter-unique cover letter instead.
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