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AUVIS DC Capitol Chapter E-Brief
The Washington Capitol Chapter of AUVSI is off to an exciting start in 2010!
Contents:
(1) Introduction of Chapter officers;
(2) A message from the Chapter President;
(1) The following individuals have been elected to serve on the Chapter's Executive Committee until 2010:
President: Jay Willmott
Vice President: Tom Sanders
Secretary: Abhishek Handa**
Treasurer: Dennis Sorenson
Program Chair: David Maroney
Education Outreach Chair: Joel Coulter
International Outreach Chair: Bob Ashton**
Membership Chair: Mike Harper**
Public Relations Chair: Jay McConville
**Returning Officers
Continuing Members at Large:
Previous President Rich Holloman
AUVSI Board Advisor Dick Rumpf
Member at Large Ed Yarbrough
(2) Chapter President Jay Willmott offered the following remarks at the January 24th 2008 chapter meeting:
"I’d first like to say thanks--to the outgoing members of the Capitol Chapter Executive Committee, for their efforts to resuscitate the chapter. You’ve set a very high standard for operating the Chapter, and left some big shoes to fill. All of us entering the executive committee are counting on your support during the next few transitional weeks, and will welcome your continued input, participation and leadership as we go forward.
I also want to thank the people who nominated me, who suggested that I run for this position…I guess I didn’t run fast enough! But seriously, I appreciate everyone who voted for me to be chapter President. I am sincerely honored, and humbled to be elected to serve the Chapter membership in a leadership capacity. I will repay your trust by working tirelessly to promote our Chapter and its ideals during the coming two years. Let me also thank all of the other incoming members of the executive committee, for volunteering their time and talents to further the goals of the chapter membership. Each of you have other responsibilities (lives!) and I think it says a lot that you care enough about this association and our industry to give of your time and energies to help move the organization forward. This is what we all make of it, and so I’m looking forward to working with each of you individually, and all of you collectively, as we continue to grow the chapter, and work to represent the very large number of members here in our region.
I believe each of us owe the members who have installed us in these executive committee positions a voice in how our chapter--their chapter, and indeed--our national association, serves their needs, and the needs of their member companies. Some people say “Great Minds Think Alike”, but I don’t subscribe to that…I believe that “Great Minds Think”, and that it is the challenge of leadership, our chapter’s leadership, to seek out and bring to light those “Good Ideas” that reside in our chapter members, and to act on them. To that end, we need to find ways to increase attendance at our chapter meetings, and ways to increase the level of communication with both our members, and other nearby chapters. We are fortunate to have one of the largest chapters in AUVSI…some 950 members here in the Washington region. Our members include some of the most prominent members of the unmanned technology community, as well as some of the largest businesses in the world. Our large membership is a tremendous resource; we can leverage their numbers, their intellect, and their influence to further the position of AUVSI, and to enhance the perception and visibility of unmanned technologies here in the DC capitol region.
We, the members of AUVSI, are at a critical juncture in several key areas: first, our National Association’s Executive Director, Daryl Davidson, has announced that he will be stepping down from the position that he has filled for nearly 20 years, and while he will remain with the association in another capacity, he leaves behind a huge void in our association’s leadership. We members must ensure that the AUVSI Board of Directors who are charged with searching for and hiring a new executive director install someone who will represent our members’ interests. We have an opportunity to shape how AUVSI will be managed going forward, and so it is vital that we actively engage our membership and our Board to ensure that our voices are heard, and that our needs will be met. This type of opportunity doesn’t come around often, but it’s happened on our watch—so let’s make the most of it.
I have promised to work -very- hard to not allow my unmanned aircraft background influence the inclusion of other types of unmanned technologies in our chapter activities! But--I think you will agree with me, that one key issue facing our growing unmanned technology community is the slow pace at which our industry is gaining access to the National Air Space. We need to redouble our efforts to work with the FAA, as well as other leading airspace user associations, such as AOPA, to find ways to grow our association’s members’ ability to do business in the NAS. Let’s encourage our association leadership to become more active here in our Washington region, by raising the level of awareness of our technologies with our neighbors who work on Capitol Hill! Let’s support them by being available for demos, open houses, and congressional testimony to garner public support, funding, and action on unmanned technology initiatives, including getting the FAA the support it seems to be lacking to move the NAS issue forward at a pace that supports growth of our industry.
While we’re talking about being good neighbors—let’s find ways to work with students here in our own back yard…we’ve kicked around the idea of a student competition during the past year, but let’s face it--there are already some -very fine- competitions already running, that could probably use our help. Our neighbors in the Seafarer chapter to the south put on a great collegiate competition, that’s growing each year. Let’s reach out to them, and offer our support of their very fine, and growing effort. Here, closer to home, I’m going to propose that our chapter begin working with our region’s high schools, to find a way, through a competition, a guest speaker’s program--some way--to begin educating our local kids as to the benefits and merits of unmanned technologies, and begin reaching them at a younger age, and who knows, since our elected representatives live here, maybe we can reach them by working with their children.
All of these initiatives, and the others that are sure to be proposed by our members, will require support and leadership, and we will need to cultivate greater participation of members to make them happen. But I’m confident that our Chapter’s new Executive Committee is up for these tasks, and that we will be able to continue the legacy of fine programs and quality chapter management begun by the men and women we replace today. Let me close by saying I appreciate everyone’s hard work in getting the Chapter to this point, and I look forward to working with all of you here in AUVSI during the next couple of years."
The schedule for the next Washington Capitol Chapter meeting will be announced in a future email. See you at the show!
Jay Willmott
President
Washington Capitol Chapter of AUVSI
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Please Give Us Some News for the DC Chapter!
The AUVSI DC Capitol Chapter is well on its way to establishing itself in the Washington, DC-Maryland-Virginia area. The Chapter is dedicated to providing an educational and informational environment where academia, industry, small business and international representatives can professionally interact to address unmanned systems strategies, roadmaps, concepts, requirements and policies. As a result, chapter breakfast meetings have been well-attended, with each meeting drawing a good crowd of individuals from the Capitol region.
Monthly chapter meetings are organized to feature one or more guest speakers who discuss unmanned systems topics of interest. Themes to date have included Interoperability, Lighter-Than-Air Vehicles, Establishing a Robotics-Based Business, and Developmental and Operational Aspects of the Predator Program. Planning and coordination is ongoing for the rest of the 2010 calendar year. Contact Dave Maroney to schedule a presentation. While the start time of the main program varies in order to accommodate the featured guest speaker/panel, main presentations normally last about an hour. The meeting location is normally opened about 45 minutes ahead of the presentation in order to facilitate networking. The chapter also invites member companies to showcase their products and services in optional sessions that follow formal chapter meetings. Chapter meetings are currently held in McLean,VA, with plans to vary the monthly meeting place to be more accessible to members in other parts of the large Washington-Metro region.
The chapter’s future plans include educational outreach programs as well as co-sponsoring major unmanned systems events that focus on unmanned systems. Potential areas of interest include sensing and collision avoidance and robotics-based symposiums or competitions.
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