RAFINO Members – What a wonderful reunion in Las Vegas !!!  I hope everyone had an incredible time, and a safe journey home.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve as the RAFINO Prez for the next two years, joining with the other elected officers:  Wayne Ingle – Vice Prez, Imre Volgyi – Secretary/Treasurer, and our Webmaster – Robby Robson.  I’d like to send out a short note quarterly to let everyone know what we’re doing, to hopefully get you to sign onto our RAFINO website to get more information, and to encourage all of us to act as part of the membership committee to continue to grow our numbers.

 

I had the opportunity to speak with many of our members in Las Vegas, and I thank you all for your advice and suggestions.  It’s a challenge to meet the desires of everyone, especially considering we’ve got hundreds of members, and a very diverse group ranging from members in their 40’s to members in their 90’s.  Some of our members desire to hold onto traditions like formal banquets, and others prefer a more casual social organization.  As officers, we’ll do our best to meet as many desires as possible, while being an organization that is both relevant and something you want to continue to be actively a part of.  Most importantly to me, is that we’re finally ONE organization.  We all proudly served our Army and the Finance Corps, and while we were formerly Officers and NCO’s, we are now all members of a single Retired Army Finance Organization (RAFINO).  Thank you to everyone that worked so hard on the merger from the inception of the idea to the culmination of the vote.

 

THANK YOU’s:  As I departed Las Vegas, there were so many “Thank You’s” in my head.  First, to Jeff Penick who planned and executed a wonderful reunion.  It’s often hard to get volunteers willing to take on the responsibility and enormity of planning a reunion.  With so many members, the desires of the group can be varied.  Jeff, you did a masterful job of orchestrating events.  From the opening reception through the banquet, all I saw were smiles, laughter, and everyone enjoying the time to socialize together.  Roman Benavente added a special treat with his guitar playing, and Larry Elsom treated the Airborne community with the opportunity to relive their glory days.  To Jeff and everyone that helped in any way with the planning and execution of this reunion – a HUGE Thank You !!!!

 

Officers:  To the previous officers of both RAFINO and RAFINCO whose leadership worked tirelessly towards a successful merger – thank you for your years of service; and Thank You for uniting us into one organization.

 

Membership:  We would not have an organization without each of you, including our spouses.  Thank you for attending the reunions; and I encourage all of us to be individual membership committee members to seek out our friends and colleagues that we’d like to see joining us in 2018.  I was asked by more than one spouse to encourage members to share all the info we distribute with our spouses so everyone knows what’s going on.

 

Finance Commandant and CSM:  We are very fortunate to have the support of COL Zellars and CSM Walker.  I pledged my support to them for their organizational events; and I appreciate they are supporting us by actively marketing and advertising the RAFINO organization to the Soldiers that come through the schoolhouse.

 

The Way Ahead:  The last thing I’d like to comment on is my initial priorities for the next two years that I’ll refine with our officers.  Together we’ll do everything we can to insure this is one organization that represents everyone.  You matter and your voice matters, so please let us know what you like, what you dislike, and any suggestions you have.  We’ll be calling on your help to volunteer and assist us as we move forward.  Just a few of the priorities I see us working on include:

 

 

That’s enough for now.  Please know it’s an honor to serve you, and to work with the slate of officers you elected.  I look forward to an exciting two years ahead.  I encourage everyone to stay informed with all that’s going on in our organization:  www.rafino.org ; and to start reaching out to your friends that need to join RAFINO and to join us at our 2018 Reunion.

 

Proud to be Your Prez,

Kevin G. Troller

Email:  kevin.troller@baytown.org