Members,
In October 2024, I told the membership that my leadership philosophy was that “if we build it, they will come,” meaning if we have creative ideas, activities, and speakers, our membership will grow. At that first meeting, there were only 13 attendees. To date, we have eight new members in the last seven months and our general membership meetings have grown to over 40 members attending. The Palm Springs Chapter of MOAA has great momentum and is moving forward to a bright future.
The Board of Directors have taken quick action and embraced all the goals set for 2024-25. Your Board of Directors include:
LTC (Ret) Jim LaBaugh, USA, 1st VP and Treasurer. Jim has assisted in creating an exciting speakers bureau and in his very cheerful way, he generously took on the heavy task of treasurer.
LTC (Ret) Alan Tibbetts, USA, 2nd VP. Alan handles the luncheons with location, menu and collecting the monies. He also volunteered to be the JROTC coordinator and has done a wonderful job getting the cadets involved with our Chapter.
CDR (Ret) Matt Stone, USN, 3rd VP. Matt is fairly new to the board, but quickly volunteered to manage our membership recruitment program. We will be setting some major goals for him and his committee in the future.
W02 Tony Ferrara, USA, Secretary. Tony has been a great resource for association management and Roberts Rule of Order. He has kept up-to-date on all the needed non-profit administration. He has done an outstanding job document our meetings. He also was key to the successful bylaw revisions.
COL (Ret) Mike Dulac, USA, Director at Large. Mike has been involved with the Palm Springs Chapter for over 25 years and was president in 2012. He has been a great resource and mentor for the entire Board, especially the President.
COL (Ret) Duke Frey, USA, Director at Large. Duke has been a great asset to the Board. With his past experiences both with MOAA and the Army, he has been able to give our Board a sense of history of our chapter and a wonderful mentor.
The Board set some huge goals for the Chapter for the 2024-25 year. These include upgrade in speakers, increase in Chapter events, develop fundraising events for more scholarship funds and increase our membership.
First, we have had some great speakers. We started with an Israeli Brigadier General, next was a Swedish Major General, We had two representatives come out from National MOAA and in April, a Major General from the Oregon National Guard spoke about his experience documenting the Mt. St. Helens explosion in 1980 in an Oregon National Guard OV-1 Mohawk.
In December, we had our second silent auction and a wonderful holiday dinner at Heritage Palms Country Club. We raised $3,100 for our scholarship fund.
Speaking of money raised, we received two outside donations this year for a total of $8,750. This will allow us to give out five scholarships this year, with the added support from, CPT John and Celeste Schleimer with their financial contribution. We also made it easier for the members to pay at functions. We opened a credit card system called the Square, so we now can take cash, checks,or credit cards for all our events.
We organized the Stars and Stripes Golf Scramble. Sadly, it was cancelled, but we don’t see it as a negative because it was a huge learning curve. We currently have rescheduled the event around Veterans Day with a lower cost, a different golf course and a committee that understands what it will take to be successful with a golf tournament. Details will be forthcoming.
March brought us the 29 Palms Marine Base tour and help us bring in three new members. Cardiff Limousine and Bus reduced the rate of a luxury bus to take members up to the Base. Will Bartels, Assistant G-3 from the base, did an outstanding job organizing the day-long event. We had 54 passengers on a 56 passenger bus. There were 15 members, 27 Palm Springs Air Museum docents and 12 JROTC cadets. The Board and those attending deemed it a total success.
One of the Board goals was to have the JROTC cadets more involved in our Chapter. This creates a strong tie between the high schoolers and our members, but also opens the doors for the cadets to understand the military in many different ways. Palm Springs MOAA has had the cadets present the colors at each of our membership meetings, we allowed a cadet to speak on their experiences with JROTC at each meeting, and cadets joined us for lunch. We also hosted 12 cadets on the 29 Palms Marine Base tour. On May 15, 2025, we will present the JROTC leadership and scholarship awards. This year we have five scholarships: CWO4 Robert Ramirez Scholarship, Ann Dawson Scholarship, Hunter Lopez Scholarship, CPT John and Celeste Schleimer Scholarship and Colonel Jack and Doris Samson Scholarship.
The Board has developed an actual working budget which enhances and supports the overall goals and objectives of our Chapter. We are a financially sound organization with over $10,000 in our checking account and over $22,000 in our mutual fund account.
COL (Ret) Mike Dulac search through eleven boxes of historical records and was able to reduce it down to four. But more importantly, he found working documents for us to enable our Chapter to be on point with membership recruiting and JROTC Scholarship/Leadership selections.
With that knowledge, we reviewed and updated the JROTC Scholarship and Leadership Selection process. Also, we are currently developing a membership recruiting strategy for the next 13 months, which you will be hearing more about later.
Legislatively, we have sent support for Assembly Bill 53 which allows for military tax exemptions and we will be keeping abreast of its passage in the months to come.
The 2025-26 PSC-MOAA Roster will be finished by the May membership meeting and will be distributed to attendees. If you want a Roster mailed to you, please email me with that request. The Roster will include Board of Directors names and phone numbers, PSC-MOAA past presidents list, PSC-MOAA 2025-26 Schedule of meetings and events, meeting locations, JROTC leadership info, a roster of current members of PSC-MOAA and finally the current bylaws.
And finally, we have reviewed the Chapter bylaws. The last review and update was 10 years ago in 2015. The General membership approved the changes on April 17, 2025. Mostly, the changes were administrative; however, a major change was who can be members of PSC-MOAA and who could serve on the Board of Directors. Membership now can include officer spouses, Both officer spouses and honorary members can serve on the Board of Directors as director at large. This change will make our Chapter to be more inclusive to those that want to take an active part in our Chapter goals and objectives. If you are interested in serving on the Board, please see me at the next general membership meeting.
Our next meeting is our Leadership/Scholarship Awards presentations. It is Thursday, May 15, 2025, at Heritage Palms Country Club at 11:30 am. The cost is $35 a person and the menu is either a chef salad or braised beef short ribs. If you would like to attend, email LTC (ret) Alan Tibbetts at
All this information and more can be found on our Palm Springs Chapter-MOAA website at PSC-MOAA.com. Check it out.