European Conference Highlights Overseas Council Challenges
By PETER ATKINSON, Deputy Editor
The Navy League’s European councils held their “Second European Councils Conference” Sept. 29-Oct. 1 in Barcelona, Spain, to help energize the leadership of the councils as they search for ways of meeting the special challenges confronting them as they move their councils and membership forward.
Representatives of 11 councils from Nice and Marseille (France); Rome and Naples (Italy); Alicante, Barcelona, Madrid, Palma de Mallorca, Rota and Valencia (Spain); and London attended the conference — as did Navy League National President John A. Panneton — to discuss, review and plan the future objectives and missions of the overseas councils.
The Barcelona Council was the host council for the conference, which carried the theme “Moving Forward in a Changing Environment.” Among the highlights was a day’s worth of workshops focusing on key issues for the continued growth and sustainability of the Navy League’s international councils. They included:
Adapting the mission to serve their audiences in changing times;
Revitalizing the councils for the acquisition and retention of members;
Forming strategic alliances;
Expanding the range of activities supported by their charter; and
Embracing technology to communicate to internal and external audiences.
The Navy League has moved to bolster its international presence and support efforts in recent years. A Vice President for International Relations was created in 2005. That post is held by Jackson C. Stevens, a national director from the St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, Council, who has been entrusted with the task of developing a new International Mission Statement.
One of the Navy League’s newest councils also was charted in Thailand in 2005. The Thailand Eastern Seaboard Council has been especially active during the past year, hosting ship visits and providing community relations projects with a number of visiting U.S. sailors and Marines.
At the 2006 National Convention, held, fittingly in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, the decision was made to allow non-U.S. citizens to become presidents of Navy League councils overseas. At present, there are 30 Navy League council based outside the United States in Asia, Europe, the Pacific Rim, South America and the Caribbean.
During the Barcelona conference, Panneton met with the council presidents and shared his vision of how the Navy League needs to forge ahead in this new global environment. He said the Navy League must adapt internationally to the same changes that the navies of the world are facing.
Just as Adm. Mike Mullen, chief of naval operations, envisions a “1,000-ship navy” allowing coalition military training, humanitarian relief and diplomatic engagements, so must the Navy League councils spread throughout the world, and work together in a cohesive, integral way sharing information and resources, Panneton said.
A common challenge he said U.S. and European councils often face is a relative lack of information or publicity about the deeds and missions Navy Leaguers are involved in, such as fund-raising, commissioning of ships and scholarships.
Panneton spoke of the need for a strong public relations campaign by councils to not only garner recognition but attract potential new members. He said this could be achieved, for example, by promoting educational programs for the “youth, the future of America and Europe.”
Panneton mentioned the publicity the U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps program has been able to generate through media coverage of its local unit activities as a notable success in that regard.
The conference culminated with a gala dinner with special guests Gen. James L. Jones, supreme allied commander, Europe, and commander of the U.S. European Command; and Adm. Henry G. Ulrich, commander, U.S. Naval Forces Europe, and commander, Allied Joint Forces Command, Naples, Italy.
During his remarks to the 100 guests assembled in the Circulo del Liceu, Jones affirmed Panneton’s vision of a more international Navy League.
Jones stressed that “our presence [overseas] in this century is not about the United States, it’s about the threats in front of us and the need for our forces to work together” … and “to let the public know that the navies of the world are working together to safeguard the freedom of the seas, the freedom of navigation.”
During the conference, Elizabeth Reese, European Regional President, received the Department of the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award from Ulrich for her initiatives in providing books to ships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, shore activities and Department of Defense schools.
Prior to, and immediately following, the conference, Panneton and his wife, Alice, visited Navy League councils and U.S. and foreign navy and government officials in Italy and Spain. Among the stops were a dinner with the Rome Council; meetings with Adm. Sebastian Zaragoza, chief of the Spanish Naval Staff, and Adm. Francisco Torrente, former chief of the Spanish Naval Staff, in Madrid; and a dinner hosted by Adm. Ulrich in Naples.
Cynthia Dillon, Navy League Director of Public Relations, contributed to this report.
