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What's New?
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 In my June message I talked about entering the hot Washington
summer, and several initiatives we were undertaking. Well,
we had one heck of a hot Washington summer – many times
hitting about 100 degrees F. But summers in Washington are
always hot, so we just kept on going on our initiatives.
First, we gained approval by the Board of Directors of a
new contractual agreement with Howard Associates for
managerial support for the period 1 August 2012 to 31 July
2014. That agreement included a moderate increase in the fee
that the Association pays Howard Associates. And I can tell
you that we are extremely pleased with the support provided
by Howard. Second, Our analysis of the April 2012
Training Symposium Survey showed that the format for the
Symposium appears to be correct – a one day event with a
balanced number of plenary and breakout training sessions.
Plus we had 98.7% of the attendees tell us that the
proceedings/training was “useful” to some degree. The
results are being used to help us plan an appropriate theme
for the April 2013 Symposium. At this time we are
considering the following theme: “Managing Defense
Acquisition Programs in Austere Times” and working to flesh
out speakers and training breakouts. Third, we held
board elections and the results are shown on this website.
Yours truly consented to serve for at least another year,
but we are bringing some new and younger members onto the
Board. That should give us energy and enthusiasm for the
future. Fourth, we completed staffing and voting by
the membership on changes to the DAUAA constitution. The
main change to the revised constitution approved by the
membership is the creation up to 5 non-voting “associate
board positions.” While they are not voting positions,
associate board members
are middle management acquisition leaders who are readily
available for advice and counsel and are desirable
candidates to eventually become voting board members. They
are invited to attend all board meetings and Alumni
Association functions. Fifth, I am pleased to
announce DAUAA college scholarships for graduating high
school senior students of DAUAA current members; the members
must be a parent, grandparent, or legal guardian of the
senior student(s). We recently awarded one scholarship for
$1000 and two for $500 each.
In addition to the initiatives described above, we are
planning a Hot Topic Forum for Wednesday, October 3, 2012
from 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM in the Hirsch Center on the DAU
Fort Belvoir Campus. The topic will be: “Lobbyists,
Congressional Staffers and the Defense Acquisition Process.”
It will be a firsthand look at the impact lobbyists and
congressional staffers can have on the defense acquisition
process. I am very pleased to announce that the guest
speaker is Mr. M.L. “Buzz” Hefti of Van Scoyoc Associates;
he has served as a staff assistant to Senator John Warner,
and is currently a practicing defense lobbyist with vast
experience in the congressional arena. Wayne Glass, VP
Operations, played a key role in having Mr. Hefti take part
in this upcoming DAU hot topic forum.
That’s all for now. Time to close out this message before it
gets too long to read.
Regards, Bill Bahnmaier, President
About Bill Bahnmaier, DAUAA President: Bill Bahnmaier is a
retired Marine and a former (retired) instructor at the
Defense Acquisition University (DAU). In his last tour of
duty as a Marine (1985-1989) he was a major system PM for
the Marine Corps Assault Amphibian Program. Since
retirement, Bahnmaier works as an official volunteer at DAU
and also is a part time consultant and instructor on defense
acquisition matters. He and his wife Peggy reside in
Alexandria, VA. They have 9 nephews and nieces and 18 great
nephews and nieces.
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