For the July 6th, 2024 meeting, our objectives are:

1. (1)  Observe a moment of silence for all military members who have made the ultimate sacrifice, especially our own Victor Jeffries. (Play video for Tigersharks who have passed away).

2. (2)  Current Website status report, especially including online commerce. Report on revisions completed. Reunion photos are to be added to the website as soon as these become available. Official photos have not yet been received. What else should we put on our website?

3. (3)  50 Williamsburg Reunion Tango Tigershark coins were purchased and have been received. One coin was mailed to each attendee, except for a few who did not provide their address. Several more have been sold. We currently have 20 remaining and are offering these for sale at $15 each with free shipping.

4. (4)  We recently received one order for a Customs Badge (Coin). This cannot be shipped until August due to the traveling activities of Tammy & Joe.

5. (5)  ThepresentationforKeshiaJeffrieswasnotaccomplishedvirtuallyatthereunion,since the plaque was not ready. This however was recently presented in Hawaii. See photos on the Tango Customs website.

6. (6)  15 tumblers total with a Tango Tigersharks emblem printed on the outside for the Nashville Reunion are also available for sale on our website.

7. (7)  An official next reunion location poll has yet to be submitted. The current is unofficial since we have no way to determine how many times, and who is doing the voting. I suggest we submit another poll for where our 2026 reunion will be held at the end of December (As we did last time).

8. (8)  As most of us know Eric Varela is mobilized. This makes it impossible for him to always be available for us with our Treasury needs. In the past, we have had an Assistant Treasurer. The addition of Tigershark Michael Martin (A retired banker), our Assistant Treasurer to our bank account is still in progress.

9. (9)  Contact with “Acapellest” and drill team members cannot occur until after school starts in September. We will send them an official letter of appreciation and coins in gratitude for their helping us with our Williamsburg Reunion. Vote on this.

Our budget: Our bank balance is $2184.64 as of July 2nd, 2024, up from $2139.73 on May 30th, 2024. This increase is due to coin sales and dues.

Regarding our membership numbers:

FYI: We had 26 paid members for 2023; this included the 16 Life members. 2024 membership numbers are now at 22 members, including 16 Life Members. (As clarified by Eric). This may need an update.

Review of past events, and plans:

Our 2nd Reunion took place in Nashville, TN. June 9th-12th, 2022 in Nashville-Opryland, as scheduled. This reunion was for Tango personnel only and their guests.

Our 3rd Reunion took place from May 3-5, 2024, in Williamsburg, Va. Our main venue was the Embassy Suites Hotel.

Our 4th Reunion is planned for 2026. The location is still TBD. A preliminary “feeler” (Non-scientific) poll was taken from attendees of the 2024 reunion only. This produced New Orleans as the preferred location, with a Carnival Cruise taking the #2 slot.

We still are considering future reunions where all customs personnel will be invited to attend. This could be at a yet undetermined future date (Could this be 2026).

Current Association objectives:

By Laws Review and Revision due .Review our By-Laws and publish a new revision before September.
Website status update, including online commerce. https://www.navycustomstango.org/?fbclid=IwAR0rEEA3QGVp0Qb7B3_hfEneu5 9cekoC4G3T7H8fPvFKLpH59f_mVhrPSyM

The presentation for Keshia and/or Elizabeth Jeffries was not accomplished at the reunion. This was however accomplished via Til Valhalla volunteer The plaque was delivered to Victor’s wife Elizabeth in Hawaii.
WE ALL NEED TO continue work to increase Association membership, by using the telephone, email, and other contact methods then, report and submit information about contacts. The new website has been useful and has resulted in increased membership dues payments and swag sales.

Sell Swag, especially the additional tumblers we have purchased, and the remaining Williamsburg reunion coins.
An E-mail list of our members for the mailing of meeting minutes communications now exists; we are continuously improving this list. Maurice Meadows has volunteered to call persons on the list. Simply a call with a greeting and some conversation can be very helpful, no need to be overly solicitous, or even ask for $$$
Can we publish our most recent minutes on our website?

FYI: Encourage past members, and all Tigersharks to join us by sending $15.00 for their annual 2024 dues, and any other payments, to our Asst. Treasurer’s home address with regular mail; his address is:

For PayPal membership payments ($16 – including $1 to cover fees) send payments as

Email account: rest173@aol.com - Note this is for dues and other payments via PayPal.

!!!!!!! Website payments are now possible! Simply visit the website and submit payments. These funds go directly to our bank account, no work is required by Eric or anyone else. Critique the website, let’s improve it as much as possible. https://www.navycustomstango.org/?fbclid=IwAR0rEEA3QGVp0Qb7B3_hfEneu5 9cekoC4G3T7H8fPvFKLpH59f_mVhrPSyM

Officers/Committee Members:

1. (1)  All main Officer positions are now filled for 2024. All Officers and committee members; please be sure you have paid your current dues. We will vote to add an Assistant Treasurer at this meeting!

2. (2)  Our History Committee still needs additional members! Thank you to Denise Thomason for revising the video for our Williamsburg reunion, by adding the name of GM1 David Swab.

3. (3)  The Reunion Committee currently has adequate personnel; however, it would be helpful if our existing members increased their participation.

4. (4)  Elections are in October of this year; newly elected or reelected officers will take office for the next 2-year period in January 2025. Their term will end Dec 31st, 2026. Start thinking about nominations for all officer positions.

By-Laws Revision is Due:

We will be reviewing our by-laws for the next 2 months and will publish a revision in September. Please take some time to review these and share your thoughts and suggestions. Also we have has some suggestions already, for example allowing the Reunion Committee to vote of certain issues, especially on matters regarding reunion planning.

Our current (2023-2024) roster of Officers and Assistant Officers will remain as follows until December 31st, (For election information) 2024:

• President – Michael L. Taylor

• Vice President – David Casteel

• Secretary – Leah Delamarter

• Treasurer – Eric Varela

• Assistant Treasurer - Michael Martin

• Note: Committee positions are not elected

follows:

Please note that all Assistant positions, except Assistant Treasurer, are vacant, this is a matter for discussion, and it is a problem that we may need to resolve. Not having backups puts us in a precarious position.

Swag Committee Updates (No changes):
(1) Shot glasses and Navy Custom Badge coins are still available for sale. Contact Joe Fountain (at Joe’s email listed below) for more information.
(2) Cruise-book CDs are also still available for purchase (Or free?). submit orders via PayPal using Friends & Family with the email address jbcuzz@yahoo.com.

1. (3)  All 2022 Nashville Reunion coins have been sold.

2. (4)  17 more 2022 Nashville reunion Tumblers are available for sale at $30/each.

(This was approved by Officers during the July 23, 2023 meeting)
(5) 20 coins remain commemorating our 2024 reunion in Williamsburg. These are $15 (Free shipping) on our website. See website for photos and other details!

History Committee Updates:
Google Drive updates and re-organization are continuously taking place. Leah Dove manages this.

New Business: Please present new business or provide a reminder about topics not covered here.

Monthly Communications: These include our meeting minutes; they are provided by email to members etc. Minutes are also available to all persons who have access to the Tango Tigershark Messenger, and Facebook Tango Tigersharks groups. These include our meeting minutes and are published after each meeting (Not monthly). If you are a paid member and are not receiving minutes via email and would like to get these, please notify any of our Officers. Other communications from the Tango Tigershark Association are also periodically posted at these locations.

Previous meeting minutes: From June 1st meeting, 2024

Tango Tigersharks & Customs Personnel,

FYI: The following is a summary of events that occurred during our Tango Tigershark Officers and Committee member meeting, that occurred on June 1, 2024. (Note: Reports are issued here and at other locations, after each meeting).
Attendees (Members who provided at least one comment during this online 24-hour messenger group meeting):

Michael Taylor – President

David Casteel – Vice President
Leah Dove - Secretary
Eric Varela – Treasurer
Michael Martin – Assistant Treasurer
Ellie May (Anne Andrews) – Reunion Committee Joe Beck – Reunion Committee

Objectives for this meeting:

• Moment of silence for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice • Provide reunion review and analysis
• Current website status report especially online commerce
• Treasury Status/ Funding Issues

• Williamsburg Reunion Tango Tigershark coins were purchased and have been received • Donation for LTC Vargas’ guest’s fees
• Poll for the next reunion
• Discussion about making Michael Martin the assistant treasurer as Eric is mobilized

• Discuss the possibility of sending an official letter of appreciation to the Acapellest and drill team.
• Presentation for Keshia Jeffries to be accomplished virtually
• Swag, what we have left and the cost for each item

Treasurer's (Including membership status) Report:

(1) The current total in our account is: $2139.73, this amount is down due to the reunion expenditures.
(2) We paid $3913.89 for reunion expenses. This is missing the expenses made in advance of the reunion.
(3) 2024 membership dues are down, and we hope to get membership numbers up.

Reunion Review:

1. The tours were good, but it was mentioned that maybe on the second day, only one tour would have been enough. The second tour seemed to be rushed.
2. It would have been nice to have a little bit of free time on the second day.
3. Overall, the duration of the reunion was well accepted. Longer could become too expensive and shorter would not be enough time.

4. Tours were not purchased beforehand; this is something that needs to be addressed for future reunions.
5. We should be aware that a lot of walking required for events is not acceptable for some participants.

6. Overall, the reunion went well, and we had a great time.
7. The Yorktown lunch and silent auction were all good benefits for the reunion.
8. The officers voted on and passed to provide coins to the singer of the National Anthem and the drill team if we can get their contact information.
9. Officers voted on and passed making Michael Martin our Assistant Treasurer. He has accepted the position.

Open Issues and information:

(1) Send out an "official, and scientific" poll to determine the next reunion location to all Tigersharks for the next reunion.

(2)

Website Update:

1. Having the website has made coin orders and dues payments much easier.
2. Social media posts have been instrumental in positive spikes of awareness of our Tango Tigersharks Association.
3. Photos of the reunion need to be added to the website when possible.

Future discussions:

1. The Jeffries plaque is still in process. It could take up to 3 more weeks.
2. An exploratory poll was done of May 2024 reunion attendees only, about where the next reunion should be. The #1 preference was New Orleans and #2 was a carnival cruise. We will discuss this further and send out another poll to email addresses.

Swag Sales:

1. All Nashville coins have been sold.
2. We still have 17 tumblers from Nashville to sell. We may need to reduce the price to sell these.
3. The silent auction during our recent reunion featured several donated items. This resulted in $461 of proceeds for the Association.
4. Our 50-50 Raffle at the reunion gave us $105.

Next Scheduled Meeting Date: Saturday, July 6, 2024, beginning at 10 AM (1000) CST. Thank you,
HT2 (EXW) Delamarter, Leah Dove
Tango Tigershark Association Secretary

Edited by ITC Michael L Taylor, USN, Ret.

Attendees (Members who provided at least one comment during this online 24-hour messenger group meeting):

Michael Taylor – President

David Casteel – Vice President

Leah Dove - Secretary

Tammy Brinkman – Reunion Committee

Joe Beck – Reunion Committee

Objectives for this meeting:

• Moment of silence for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice

• Get out the contact list to the 7 volunteers so they can contact the Tigersharks before the next meeting.

• Current website status report especially online commerce

• Treasury Status/ Funding Issues

• Review of By-laws

• Poll for the next reunion

• We will begin accepting nominations for 2025 & 2026 officers after this meeting.

• Discuss the possibility of sending an official letter of appreciation to Acapellest and the drill team.

• LTC Rich Vargas gave an update on his book about the Tigersharks.

• Swag, what we have left, and the cost for each item

Treasurer's (Including membership status) Report:

(1) The current total in our account is: $2184.66, this amount is up due to interest.

(2) We had 22 paid members for 2024 and 16 Life members.

 Reunion Review:

1. We voted and passed to provide coins to the singer of the National Anthem and the drill team if we can get their contact information. This will be discussed further at the next meeting.

Open Issues and information:

(1) Send out a poll for ideas for the next reunion.

(2) David Casteel volunteered to create a poll to help us determine the location of our next reunion via our website.

(3) We discussed our By-laws and needed revisions. A suggestion was made that we make a statement indicating that specific committee members have voting rights to approve motions regarding their areas of responsibility. We voted on this, and it was approved.

(4) A suggestion also was made to add a statement about additional fees and processing fees regarding dues. This was also passed by the end of the non-live portion of the meeting

(5) In summary, we voted on and approved the following three revisions to our By-laws:

a. Add a statement allowing committee members voting rights.

b. Add a statement allowing additional amounts to cover shipping and processing of membership dues payments.

c. Add a statement that permits various payment methods for payment of dues and other fees.

(6) We voted on and approved a motion that stated if there are fewer than 5 By-Law revisions approved, we will not have a meeting solely for By-law revisions, if there are more than 5 then we will vote again about an extra meeting.

Website Update:

1. There has been very little traffic on the website since the last meeting.

2. David added a video of photos and a copy of the July minutes to the website. Great additions.

3. We will submit a notice about this to the FB page and other communication mediums to get the word out.

4. When Tammy and Joe return from their travels they will submit a video of those who have passed to be put on the website. They also will ship an order for a Customs badge to the buyer. The buyer has been notified of this delay.

Future discussions:

1. David said we could add comments about our upcoming officers’ elections to the website as an event. He has volunteered to handle this. Michael will provide a write-up for this.

2. The contact list will be sent out after this meeting and each volunteer should reach out to their contacts before the next scheduled meeting.

Swag Sales:

1. All Nashville coins have been sold.

2. We still have 17 tumblers from Nashville to sell. We may need to reduce the price to sell these.

3. It was voted on and approved that we reduce the cost of the tumblers by $5 each to encourage sales, this brings them down to $15 each. There is a $6 shipping fee per order and a $2 fee per additional item.

Next Scheduled Meeting Date: Saturday, September 3, 2024, beginning at 6 PM (2000) EST.

Thank you,

HT2 (EXW) Delamarter, Leah Dove

Tango Tigershark Association Secretary