2016-2020
The professional association for
military officers and their families,
at every stage of life and career.
MOAA Strategic Plan Index Page
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Strategic Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
MOAA’s Vision Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
MOAA’s Mission Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
MOAA’s Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Core Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)
STRATEGIC FIVE-YEAR PLAN
(2016 – 2020)
Introduction
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is a nonprofit organization with
national headquarters in Alexandria, Va. It is operated exclusively for purposes beneficial
to the interests of the nation and its uniformed services personnel and their family
members and survivors. While fully subscribing to the underlying values contained
therein, MOAA is formed to:
• inculcate and stimulate love of country and the flag;
• support the honor and integrity of our country and advocate for a strong national
defense;
• advocate for military forces adequate to the defense of our country;
• foster the integrity and prestige of uniformed service;
• foster fraternal relations between all branches of the various services from which
our members are drawn;
• further the education of children of service personnel;
• support personnel of the services from which our members are drawn and their
family members and survivors, in every proper and legitimate manner; and
• represent their rights and interests when service matters are under consideration.
Note: Throughout this document, all references to military members are made in the
broader sense to include all members of the seven uniformed services. This includes
Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Additionally, it is inclusive of active duty,
National Guard, Reserve, retired, and former servicemembers.
Executive Summary
The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) is recognized as America’s most
respected, influential, and responsive professional military association. Our vision
includes a strong national defense and leading the nation to honor its commitments to all
who serve. A strong, top-quality career force requires a compensation and benefits
package for military members, retirees, and veterans and their families and survivors that
is commensurate with the extraordinary demands and sacrifices imposed upon them.
Our mission as the professional association of choice for all military officers and their
families is to advocate for our military community and connect it to the nation we serve.
In our efforts to promote the values of military professionals, we will work to shape
relevant government policies, grow membership at both national and local affiliate levels,
and provide products and services to meet their professional, financial, and family needs.
In our efforts to carry out our vision and mission, we have developed four goals. Our
goals are to ensure the organization maintains its service as the most effective and
influential organization by: (1) Achieving advocacy objectives that support a strong
national defense), (2) Increasing and retaining membership by providing exceptional
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value and services, (3) Growing and strengthening a nationwide network of councils and
chapters, and (4) Providing needed programs and services that serve the entire military
community.
Background
MOAA’s leadership of The Military Coalition, comprising 31 military and veterans’
organizations, and our record of legislative successes on Capitol Hill are unmatched —
from securing lifetime health care with TRICARE For Life, winning the Post-9/11 GI
Bill, or leading the repeal of COLA minus one percent. No other association raises a
more passionate, credible, or effective voice in furthering the best interests of the nation’s
currently serving members, retirees, and veterans and their families and survivors than
MOAA.
Professionals in our Transition Center have garnered a well-earned reputation for their
assistance in preparing military personnel and their spouses for life after the military and
other career transitions. No other association can boast the expertise on pay and benefit
matters than our subject-matter experts. Our family of easy-to-understand publications on
financial matters and benefit programs is unequaled. Our online media, email newsletters,
social media communities, and Military Officer magazine inform and engage members
and prospective members by delivering meaningful, compelling, and responsive content.
Our size and our dynamic affiliate system with over 400 chapters and satellites give us
great clout and influence on Capitol Hill.
A strong network of more than 400 affiliates — councils and chapters — generates
grassroots support for our legislative agenda and provides MOAA “ambassadors” in
communities across the country. And, our knowledgeable, professional representatives in
the Member Service Center (MSC) deliver a unique member experience for our members,
who contact the MSC daily about a wide array of membership issues. Market research
reflects that, among both members and prospective members, MOAA is the best-known
association for representing the interests of military men and women.
Recent experience is characterized by:
•
a continuing decline in the number of members of Congress who have served in
the military;
•
budget uncertainty that has led the Department of Defense to advocate trading
people programs — end strength, pay, health care, and more — to fund training,
readiness, and weapons modernization;
•
sequestration pressures for further major cuts in the defense budget and
nondefense spending as well;
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•
congressional action to curb personnel costs via dramatic end-strength cuts, payraise caps, TRICARE fee increases, and retirement benefit cuts for 2018 and later
service entrants; and
•
Armed Services Committee leaders’ expressed intent to reform military health
care and impose additional beneficiary fee hikes in 2016. A demographic wave of
baby boomers beyond age 65 creates ever-greater pressures to curtail spending on
Social Security, Medicare, and all other federal “entitlement programs” (including
retired pay COLAs, TRICARE For Life, and other military programs).
The budget-cutting environment we face over the coming years will require a strenuous
fight to defend every benefit needed to sustain the all-volunteer force. We will need to
devote an increasing share of our legislative advocacy to address these major issues.
Strategic Plan
MOAA’s advocacy and engagement must clearly articulate in unambiguous terms how
pending policy and legislation impact the lives, future, and career decisions of Americas’
most vital pillar of defense — servicemembers and their families.
The direct linkage between these impacts and long-term retention and readiness must be a
matter of continuous emphasis.
MOAA’s Strategic Plan plays to our strengths as an influencer of relevant military issues,
a responsive and credible information source that promotes enduring values of military
professionals and a provider of quality products and services. Our Strategic Plan maps a
strategy to ensure we remain America’s most influential military association, dedicated to
maintaining a strong national defense; a strong, top-quality career force; and a military
and veterans’ compensation package commensurate with the sacrifices imposed on that
force and their families.
MOAA’s Vision Statement
Promote and protect a strong national defense and lead our nation to honor its
commitments to all who serve.
MOAA’s Mission Statement
To advocate for our military community and connect it to the nation we serve.
MOAA’s Goals
Our goals articulate the details needed to realize our vision and accomplish our mission.
To achieve these goals, we must ensure we have sufficient resources — people and
money — to execute the plan. Our professional, dedicated staff is the key to success for
accomplishing our goals and objectives. We will provide training and tools necessary for
their success and will hire new staff members based on their professional and technical
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expertise. MOAA will continue to rely on multiple funding sources to seek adequate
financial reserves to accomplish our mission. These funding sources will include member
dues, investment income, and royalties received through products and services offered to
our members. During this strategic-planning period, we are developing new sources of
revenue. We have established a new MOAA foundation, the MOAA Military Family
Initiative, a 501(c)(3) subsidiary organization, which will enable MOAA to seek
corporate and individual philanthropic donations to sustain the vital work we do that
benefits the entire military community. We have transformed our corporate sponsorship
program, as originally envisioned, into a strategic corporate partnership program that will
produce long-term and stable relationships with a select number of corporations. These
two new financial initiatives will ensure MOAA maintains a balanced revenue stream
that allows us to accomplish our goals.
1. Sustain a strong national defense by maintaining the strong compensation
and benefit package required to induce the necessary kinds and numbers of
top-quality people to endure the extraordinary demands and sacrifices
inherent in a multi-decade career of uniformed service.
MOAA has a well-established track record of influencing government policy
through legislative initiatives to support our currently serving military (including
the Guard and Reserve), retired members, and veterans and their families and
survivors. Our goal is to continue our record of achievements through a policy of
providing potential solutions where feasible to issues raised and to seek collective
advocacy through participation with and leadership in The Military Coalition.
We actively defend recent military-benefit upgrades (TRICARE For Life,
concurrent receipt, Survivor Benefit Plan fixes, and others) and resist arbitrary,
budget-driven cutbacks in these and other military and veterans’ benefits. We
lobby to sustain a military and veterans’ compensation package commensurate
with the sacrifices demanded of them. We seek new initiatives and support
initiatives of others to advocate for our military and veterans’ community within
the executive and legislative branches and expand our capacity to mobilize
grassroots support within the military and veterans’ community in order to
support that effort.
2. Increase and retain membership by providing exceptional value and services.
The key to our continued success is our active membership. Gaining and retaining
membership provides MOAA with the ability to meet and exceed its goals. Total
membership gives MOAA its “One Powerful Voice.” We introduced (on Jan. 1,
2013) a new model of membership providing prospective members three distinct
membership opportunities: a Basic (no fee) Membership, that provides a digital
membership, with limited number of features; a Premium (paid) Membership,
providing increased benefits targeting (but not limited to) career officers and
especially attractive to those officers transitioning out of the service or recently
retired; and a Life Membership, which is the top tier of membership, providing
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members with access to all MOAA products and services and additional Life-only
perks.
These three tiers of membership allow MOAA to expand its reach to the currently
serving force by providing a connection with a digital (Basic) membership,
requiring only an email address and age. The strategy to attract these
predominately younger (under 35 years of age) officers is to connect with them in
a compelling and relevant way, using communication channels and methods
tailored to their demographic, with needed information on legislative issues and
pertinent benefits tailored to their age segment. As we build trust with these
members, we create a large pool of Basic members, and we will attract these
Basic members into paid Premium memberships with a relentless focus on
developing services and products worth the price of Premium membership. And
from the ranks of Premium members, we will continue to attract our very loyal
Life members (who now comprise half of our total membership).
To serve our current membership and to attract new members, MOAA provides a
broad range of information, products, and services. Retired officers are our core
members, who have used our career-transition services and relied on our benefits
expertise and are the heart of our affiliate system (councils and chapters). Retired
members are among the strongest supporters of our legislative advocacy,
comprise over 60 percent of MOAA membership, and represent almost half of all
military officer retirees. Our goal includes providing the best products and
services possible to these valued Premium members. At the same time, our goal is
to succeed in making currently serving members see MOAA as their professional
association of choice. We can move in this direction by making our informational
products more relevant to them, conveying the value of our impressive number of
scholarship loans and grants, and making our suite of products and services
valuable to them. Most important, we must identify new products, services, and
information that meet their unique needs and find new ways to communicate with
them.
3. Grow and strengthen a vigorous, nationwide network of councils and
chapters.
Our chapter system is the largest single group of MOAA members that we can
mobilize on important issues. MOAA chapters are the core of MOAA, and we
will work hard to keep them vital. We know it is not easy to run a successful
chapter, and our goal is to continue to provide relevant information and support
and seek new ways of enhancing chapter operations. To highlight the importance
of the chapter system to our membership, MOAA will continue to raise the
visibility and level of support of our council and chapter system. We recognize
the vital role of councils and chapters and will encourage MOAA member
participation in councils and chapters; encourage councils and chapters to be
actively involved in support of MOAA’s legislative objectives and in the local
community; and endeavor to increase the number of chapters/satellites in strategic
locations.
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4. Provide needed programs and services that serve the entire military
community.
We are committed to delivering high-impact programs on behalf of those and
their families who are currently serving or have served this nation. One of the
many ways we do that is through the MOAA Scholarship Fund. Since it began in
1948, we have provided more than 13,500 students with nearly $130 million in
interest-free loans and grants.
Our new MOAA Military Family Initiative, a 501(c)(3) subsidiary foundation of
MOAA, funds an additional 14 programs, touching more than 75,000 uniformed
members of all ranks and their families and survivors annually.
Core Values: These are the core values that form the foundation on which we
perform our work and conduct ourselves.
1. Service — Create a nationwide community of support for all who serve. Through
such efforts, we will “Never Stop Serving.”
2. Leadership — Provide the leadership example for a nation to honor its
commitments to those who have served. Advocate wisely and collaborate with
diverse military associations to protect the welfare and future of our men and
women in uniform. Remain solution-oriented to preserve a strong national
defense.
3. Professionalism — Maintain the ideals of officership in the execution of our
mission to advocate for our military community and connect it to the nation we
serve.
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