May 10, 2023

Dear Chapter Presidents:

Greetings everyone. It’s May. The trees have found their leaves, spring sports are in full swing, and kids across America are counting down the days to the end of the school year. This month I want to start with an update on my recent activity where I had the opportunity to represent the association and all USAWOA members.

On 4 May 2023, I was privileged to represent the USAWOA at U.S. Army North’s (ARNORTH’s) 2023 Warrant Officer (WO) Symposium in San Antonio, TX. The professional development event, hosted by ARNORTH CCWO CW5 Sam “Kiwi” Ngaropo started with a post “fun run” to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islanders Heritage month, followed by a day of professional development discussions, and concluding with a WO dinner hosted and organized by the Lone Star Chapter

The event brought together more than 100 Joint Base San Antonio WOs and more than 50 senior Warrant Officer leaders from across the Army to provide updates, share knowledge, provide mentorship and build networks. Additionally, ARNORTH Commander LTG John Evans and US Army Futures Command’s GEN James Rainey addressed the audience with each acknowledging the impact WOs made on their early careers and challenging our cohort to continue developing deep technical excellence.

Specific to mentorship, I discussed how USAWOA, and our more than 70 chapters serve as another means for WOs to network and obtain mentorship from WOs outside of their specialty and workplace. I provided one-page handouts that explained the mission and purpose of USAWOA and encouraged attendees who were not already members to consider the association as an option for future networking.

As an Active Duty WO, I was also invited to participate in the Army Warrant Officer Council (ARWOC), co-chaired by CW5 Yolondria Dixon-Carter, Senior WO Advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Army (CSA) and CW5 Aaron Anderson, Combined Arms Center (CAC) CCWO. The ARWOC advises CSA GEN James C. McConville, and other Army senior leaders on current and future development of the WO Cohort. Members of the ARWOC represent the regular Army, the Army National Guard, Army Reserve, and the operating and generating force and consists of the senior WO from each proponent who meet periodically throughout the year to discuss WO policy and initiatives.

CW5 Dixon-Carter informed all that October 9 through 11 is the Association of the United States Army (AUSA) Annual Meeting and Exposition in Washington, DC. AUSA will host its traditional WO breakfast and a WO Professional Development seminar where both USAWOA National Executive Director Jack DuTeil and I will represent USAWOA. I also informed the ARWOC of my intent to obtain space on the exhibit floor for a USAWOA table and brochures to better advertise the association. For USAWOA members in the local VA/MD/DC area, I will also be reaching out to solicit volunteers to help man the table during the event. More to follow as planning continues.

I also provided an update on the planning efforts for the 51st Annual Meeting of the Members (AMM) to be held in Atlantic City, NJ, 16-20 October 2023. I emphasized that this year our event will occur on Tuesday through Thursday instead of the traditional Wednesday through Friday. The reason for this change was due to the availability of hotels on a Friday (weekend), which substantially raised the costs of hotel rooms. I invited all ARWOC members to attend and asked them to encourage junior WOs (WO1-CW2) to attend as we are dedicating a discussion panel specific to company grade WOs.

Speaking of the 51st AMM, we held our first In Progress Review (IPR) at the end of April and will continue to do so monthly until October. CW4 Dennis Brydges and his team continue to refine their planning while Mr. DuTeil and I finalize a draft meeting agenda to be published in the June Newsliner. Registration for the AMM will also open in June via usawoadoughboy.org/event-details-registration. Hotel reservations at the Caesar’s Palace Hotel can be made online Hotel Reservation USAWOA Doughboy with an established room rate of $72/night + taxes and fees. More details will be forthcoming in the June Newsliner in an article written by CW4 Brydges. I encourage everyone to check out Doughboy Chapter website usawaoadoughboy.org/51stamm and Facebook pages USAWOA Doughboy Chapter (0606) to see how they are sharing and collaborating within their local area

As a reminder, the closing date for submissions for USAWOA Scholarships is 15 May 2023. In discussion with CW5 (Ret) Jim White, the Scholarship Foundation has received very few applications which will result in a smaller number of scholarships being awarded. I ask that in the remaining few days before the suspense, each Chapter President push this information to their members and encourage those with eligible dependents, to visit https://scholar.usawoa.org and apply.

I’m excited to announce CW5 Arecili Rial as the new European Region Director. At the mid-year Board of Directors meeting in April, we accepted the resignation of CW4 Chris McKinney who could no longer fulfill the duties of Region Director due to an unplanned move back to the US from Italy. CW5 Rial, previously the European Region Deputy Director, then moved up to become the Region Director. As she assumes this new role, the USAWOA leadership team and office stand by to assist as she prepares to lead her four chapters and their members.

Finally, several of our chapters have undergone leadership changes and I want to publicly thank those members who volunteered their time to serve as chapter presidents, vice presidents, treasurers, and secretaries. Thank you to each USAWOA member from all of us at the HQ for all that you do to continue to support USAWOA. Your efforts do not go unnoticed. As always, please reach out to me or any of the USAWOA leadership team if you are having any issues or have questions.

Sincerely,

CW5 Michael D. Dye
National President
“The Quiet Professionals ®”