Finally we were able to hold our 2021 Reunion at the Hampton Inn and Suites in Altamonte Springs, FL from 10 to 12 December 2021. The 2020 reunion was canceled due to COVID-19 and the 2021 reunion was delayed from September until December due to the soaring number of Delta variant cases. It was great to see folks again and chat in person. We just squeaked the reunion in between the Delta decline and Omicron which seems to be barreling its way into Florida and the rest of the country. Talk about pandemic fatigue!
Some of the members enjoyed a tasty dinner on Friday evening, 10 December at Antica Pizzeria just a block from the hotel. The food was fantastic and the evening was a great success with excellent comradery. The next day, the annual membership meeting was held at 1:00 pm in Joe Martfeld’s hotel suite with 10 members present. Not a large gathering by any means but better than the previous couple of meetings. The main topic of the meeting was how to pare down our association’s bureaucracy to fit the dwindling membership. It was decided to reduce the board members from five to three and they would serve until they step down or voted out of office at the annual meeting. The membership is now streamlined to one category, Active. We are open to eligible non-members attending our functions and plan to have more than one function per year.
The reunion concluded Saturday evening with our “banquet” where we honored the 2021 NR NIOC GA-Orlando Sailor of the Year, CTN3 Jeffery Johnson with a plaque presented by our guest speaker, FLNCVA member and former NR NOIC GA-Orlando Command Master Chief, CTICM (ret) Mary Ann Floyd. Petty Officer Johnson’s command was well represented at the event with six members present. We all had a great evening and look forward to next year. Hopefully COVID-19 and it’s many variants will no longer be a threat in the new year.