For many months I’ve written about the problems facing our Army and our members caused by the budget crisis – especially the dangers of sequestration to the Army and our soldiers and families.The ability of this Association to influence these events and eliminate sequestration while providing strong, meaningful support for our Army and our national security depends on our strength measured in membership.I am convinced our member strength is as good an indicator of chapter program health as any other indictor we have.I believe strongly we have important messages to convey inside AUSA as well as to the wider audience.Doing so demands action at the grassroots which will, I believe, result in positive energy which will attract new members.At the Annual Meeting’s Chapter Presidents Workshop I mentioned a need to challenge ourselves to stop the loss and regain our membership strength.I challenge each chapter to respond to this need by meeting a "Flash Goal" – a small burst of new individual members after covering any losses.Our Flash Goal campaign will end May 31.This must be successful. We simply must build sustained and consistent strength to be effective in a very cloudy future. Our ability to project a strong "Voice for the Army" depends on your success.Your chapter’s Flash Goal has been sent to your chapter president.Together we can rally our efforts to fight back against those misguided ideas to save money which, in fact, will only damage our country’s national security in the future.The objective is to make and keep ourselves and our Association substantially better than we are.