Greetings! Taking over as president from Cynthia Trif is indeed an honor and a challenge. Cynthia took time out of her life to keep our Council active and then had a major surprise when the unit she belongs to, the Navy Harbor Protection Unit, was activated for nine months and went to United Arab Emirates for six months. Thanks again, Cynthia.

New officers were sworn in at our January dinner meeting.

Our guest speaker, Capt. Dan Prince, USN, Chief of Staff, Subgroup 9, Bangor, WA, explained the status of Pacific Fleet submarines and their operations to a large and attentive audience. If you were there, I think you will agree it was a very informative and interesting presentation.

My goals for this year are to increase our active membership and to increase organized activities that will be enjoyable for all of us. Most of us are in some way connected to the maritime services and enjoy participating in nautical-related activities. With greater member involvement, we can become closer to, and better support, our our adopted units. This will lead to more opportunities for interesting tours and excursions. We now have 210 paid members in the Portland Council. We had about 40 people at our last dinner meeting. I believe that with good communication and another interesting program, we can have even more at our next dinner meeting inn April.

But we also need more volunteers to staff our committees. During the next few months, your Board will be crafting an all-encompassing plan to accomplish these goals. If you would like to become more active, we can use your ideas. We can use help with planning activities, soliciting new members, developing outreach programs with community groups, and serving on our Board.

If you would like more information, contact me by phone at 503-522-7450, or by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ; or Gary Piercy, our Public Relations Officer, by phone at 503-803-2771 or by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Sincerely,

Mike Hewlett

President