Hope everyone made it through the hottest summer in Oklahoma history. Thought I’d update you on the Coordinating Council’s activities. Our annual meeting on 14 April at the Petroleum Club North in Edmond brought out 50 members and guests. During the meeting the Council officers updated the membership on the Council’s efforts over the past nine years since our inception to provide support to Marine units and organizations. Our efforts are presently focused on programs such as the Reserve Unit Community Service Awards, Family Day Support, Fort Sill Devil Dog Run trophies & medallions, season tickets to Thunder games, Marine Corps League Marine of the Year Ruger Pistol award, and a variety of miscellaneous requests for support.

One of the objectives of our annual meetings is to announce changes to our Board and officers. This year the Board re-nominated Gary Lumpkin and Lloyd Hardin to new three year terms. We also welcomed Tom Goldsworthy as a new member of the Board to replace John Priddy. The Board also appointed Lloyd Hardin to the new position of Executive Vice President and John Priddy as the Vice President. All of the Board members are honored to serve you and look forward to the continued success and growth of the Council. I would encourage you to try to attend both the annual meetings and our luncheons to stay informed on the operations of the Council.

We can’t say often enough how thankful we are for your membership donations that continue to finance our support programs. We are also grateful to those members who provide support to our units in the form of a "gratis" basis - support of any kind is always welcome.

Two of our Council members recently passed away and our condolences go out to their families. Jack Skaggs one of the Council’s Charter members and the originator of the Council’s Coin program passed away on 3 August. Karl Mueller a former Commanding Officer of the Marine Detachment at Fort Sill and a regular member of the Council passed away on 3 September. We will miss these Marines.