Team:

Thank you again to those that joined us for the video webcast a little over a week ago. We will continue down this road in the foreseeable future for question and answer sessions with the crew. Please visit Sue’s office when you have an opportunity to read our master planning document and campaign package.

We continue to focus on revenue generation with a few adjustments in both operational systems and marketing programs. We are actively monitoring marketing activities and adjusting as needed to work towards generating revenue. It is interesting to watch the data changes depending on where focus may be.

Focus is the keyword for the coming year… with our primary focuses being day-to-day stabilization and National Museum of the Surface Navy. The entire team will be focused on these activities to ensure our long-term success and sustainability. Within these activities are our three core pillars of education, veterans, and community.

On the education front, we are eagerly awaiting word from Marathon Petroleum on a pending grant that will continue our Day of Discovery program for another year. As some of you may know, we have put this daytime education program on hiatus until the necessary funding comes in to support it.it We still have available the STEAM at Sea program, which has a paid option and grant funding for other school districts. Unfortunately, Day of Discovery is the largest education program within our daytime opportunities and we hope to have it back up and running again soon.

Early this week, Joleen and the Development Team will be releasing our “Sponsor a Student / Child” program. This is an exciting idea that was hatched from one of our President’s Advisory Board members. This will also be our initial foray into a stronger Peer to Peer network concept, which will be one of our major focuses in 2020 with the National Museum of the Surface Navy.

On the veterans front, a big hearty thank you to all of our sponsors for last nights Steel Beach Picnic. Thank you to the Development Team for their work on this and all of the crew that participated and supported the event. We are reviewing our fundraising programs for 2020 and we may look for ways to consolidate and focus on the overall objectives of our events. More to come soon.

We are now less than a month a way from Veterans Day. Aboard ship we will be hosting the Veterans Film Festival and we are going to try something new, by expanding our reach (through partnerships) to downtown LA with Veterans Day LA. My hopes are that we can assemble a crew recruiting and development team to attend the Veterans Day LA event at the coliseum to grow these initiatives.

This week I will be focused on the following:
-preparing a corporate briefer for the National Museum of the Surface Navy.
-calls and meetings with board members, donors, and supporters.
-work with leadership team to finalize 2020 budget and plan.
-discuss with team on revenue tours and potential guest services realignment.
-monitor marketing and development activities for ROI.
-work on personal development. This may sound odd, but I recognize that I have areas that need improvement on to continue growing with the organization.

Thank you for your support, dedication, and commitment. I wish you an amazing and enjoyable week!