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Message from the AOSHS President

In September of 2005, out-going president, Ann Bamberger, passed the presidency to me. The Board of Directors and I developed goals to provide focus for our work to carry out the mission of AOSHS and to best serve its membership. The goals are listed below as well as the accomplishments. When the results of the private initiative, the Bradford Report were studied, it was clear that a change of direction for AOSHS needed to be examined. The report has given the Board a new direction. That was published in the spring Quarterly and was articulated to the membership at the DoDDS Reunion in Pittsburgh, PA this past July.

When you are a student at Verona Elementary School (Verona, Italy) there is no shortage of romantic spots to read.

GOALS

• To support and help with fundraising initiatives; both private and federal, without including DoDEA in any fundraising functions. The Bradford Report gave us a new direction on which to focus . As of this writing, we are looking at increasing our endowment so that some day we are able to give the function of the archive over to a university with an endowment to fund the operations of the archive. Currently there is $153,500.00 in the Endowment Fund. We have hired Jackie Gray to establish an advisory council and to promote increased membership at reunion and conference functions. She is also tasked with soliciting corporate donations for our endowment and operation funds.
  

• To pursue all avenues of design and installation of the present bricks, blocks, and pavers so that AOSHS will have a footprint beyond our office/archive in Wichita, KS. The Bradford report has suggested to us that such a memorial should be constructed at a location where people go to visit other sights, such as the east coast and more specifically, the DC area. A venue is actively being sought in hopes of locating a site in the near future. The Memorial program has funds of $131, 424.36.
  

• To have a catalog numbering system for all forms, communications, and policies, that are used by AOSHS. The system will be reviewed yearly to delete, add, and update forms and procedures. A notebook now exists with a numbering system for all forms used. We have updated forms and eliminated those no longer used. We are continuing to create a memorandum of function for every AOSHS operation. This includes developing job descriptions and defining how membership is accomplished among the many other operations of our organization.
  

• To catalog all donated materials and have a summary and narrative entry for research retrieval purposes. We have visited the Museum of World Treasures to see how they catalog their artifacts. We recently purchased a software program that will serve AOSHS well. Our end goal is to be able to electronically retrieve items in the archive.
  

• To increase our membership with a focus on our students and alumni. We list reunions and have a feature with a focus on our alumni and students in the Quarterlies. Jackie Gray is our advisory chairperson and an alumnus. Our next secretary will come from the alumni/student ranks, giving the Board four educators, four alumni/student and one who is both alumni/student and educator. Currently a Board member contacts all members who are delinquent in paying their membership dues. We have had a very successful rate of return of people renewing their memberships.
  

• To review our readership for our website and to increase this by new virtual offerings. Our webmaster produced a program entitled "Where Were You When the Berlin Wall Came Down?" This is an interactive site and has even been used for research purposes. We will be changing this theme periodically. We are in the process of making corrections and updating the website by assigning Board members and a special projects person to monitor it for outdated and incorrect information.
  

• To co-produce the 60th Anniversary Video with DoDEA. DoDEA sent two employees to the archive to gather materials for the Anniversary video. It is planned to be ready by the end of calendar year 2006. Our communications director is working with DoDEA on this project.
  

• To increase and make available to the public our oral history tapes. At present we have cataloged all the video tape interviews that follow a consistent format. At every DoDDS reunion there are dedicated volunteers who produce more interviews. All these are available in our archive. We had a presentation at our Annual General Membership meeting this year on a memory stories from our website.
  

• To increase the documentation of our written stories in the Memories website. Entering the stories and memories is an on going process.
  

• To have available traveling artifacts that may be used at reunions, celebrations, colleges, museums, and schools. We have the AOSHS Road Show boxes available with our notebooks of history, chronicles, charter members, and life membership. We have tee shirts and sweatshirts from many schools that we are able to include in the Road Show boxes. We are willing and do send out yearbooks and provide information to people who are giving presentations in their local communities. We have purchased a laptop computer and presentation equipment to show presentations and DVD's at reunions and conferences.
  

• To recognize and celebrate our volunteers who work behind the scenes for the purpose of making AOSHS a quality non-profit organization. We need to continue to work on this goal and to recognize our volunteers by publishing their names in a Quarterly. The fall Quarterly will have names of volunteers.

"There are so many things that you really should know. And that's why I'm bothering telling you so."      - Dr. Seuss

Cheers,
Scarlett

Our archive and museum is located at 704 West Douglas Street, Wichita, KS 67203

Our mailing address is PO Box 1500, Wichita, KS 67201