Greetings to all from the Association of the United States Army – our Army’s and our soldiers’ professional organization.Special thanks go out to Maj. Gen. Patrick Murphy, Command Sgt. Maj. Frank Wicks and the New York National Guard for giving me the opportunity to participate in their 2013 Senior NCO Leadership Seminar in historic Saratoga, N.Y.My visit was supported by AUSA’s Capitol District of New York Chapter, along with Command Sgt. Maj. Robert Van Pelt, USA, Ret., and other chapter leaders.The two days I spent with all the senior leadership representing all the major commands across the state, to include Command Sgt. Maj. Brunk W. Conley, the 10th command sergeant major of the Army National Guard, were nothing short of inspirational.As leaders all across the Army wrestle with operational readiness challenges for soldiers, family members, equipment and facilities in an environment of declining budgets and fiscal limitations, the New York National Guard is focusing on the essential fundamentals.Reflecting back on the great work and contributions of many of this state’s units over the past year in response to Hurricane Sandy and the disaster relief actions that followed, senior leaders asked the basic question to the leadership in attendance: "Are you ready?"With a room full of senior noncommissioned officers representing every unit across the state, readiness discussions focused on the basic fundamentals needed to set the foundation for success for the next immediate response.The question was asked: "How much time did you have to prepare for your last deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq?"Some responded: "Twelve and eighteen months."The follow-on question was then asked: "How much time did you have to prepare for Hurricane Sandy?"The responses changed to minutes and hours.I found the discussions on individual soldier clothing and equipment inventories – Duty Military Occupational Specialty Qualification (DMOSQ), current Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT) and current weapons qualification – refreshing and on-target.Other discussions included establishing and building the Family Readiness Group as part of family readiness, and accountability of basic issue items and maintenance as part of equipment and facility readiness.The conference discussions later turned towards individual soldier skill proficiency and battle-focused Mission Essential Task List (METL) training.It was obvious that these unit leaders had been working hard to develop their list of collective METL tasks and subsequently cross-walking the corresponding individual and small unit tasks needing trained for successful execution.There were several great discussions on planning training under the future fiscal cloud which allowed the most senior leaders to set expectations and provide guidance to this group of focused leaders.The culmination of all this discussion eventually centered on the Commander’s Unit Status Report and the Digital Training Management System with a focus on reporting readiness and answering the question: "Are you ready?"The Capitol District of New York Chapter also held their annual awards banquet while I was there. At this great event, AUSA members recognized a very special group of soldiers and family members.As I departed New York, I thanked Maj. Gen. Murphy, Command Sgt. Maj. Wicks and Command Sgt. Maj. Van Pelt for giving me the opportunity to participate and contribute to the fight. AUSA Annual Meeting and ExpositionThis year’s AUSA Annual Meeting and Exposition was a great success. Despite the fiscal challenges we can all say the planning, execution, content, attendance and professional development events were all "Mission accomplished."While the Best Warrior Competition was postponed until Nov. 19 – 22, the Annual Meeting provided the Army chief of Staff, the vice chief and the sergeant major of the Army the opportunity to recognize our drill sergeants and recruiters of the year.Sgt. 1st Class David E. Stover II, Army drill sergeant of the year; Sgt. 1st Class Ryan McCaffey, Army Reserve drill sergeant of the year; Sgt. 1st Class Krystal Jarrett, Army recruiter of the year; Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Mannel, Army National Guard recruiting and retention NCO of the year; and Sgt. 1st Class Mariela Richardson, Army Reserve recruiter of the year, were recognized at the Sergeant Major of the Army Awards Luncheon and again at the Eisenhower Luncheon.Command Sgt. Maj. Ronald E. Johnson, U.S. Army Garrison, Joint Base Lewis-McCord, Wash., and Sgt. 1st Class Rodney J. Harris, 3rd Battalion, 310th Infantry Regiment, Fort McCoy, Wis., both received the 2013 Sergeant Major Larry L. Strickland Educational Leadership Award.Master Sgt. Adam V. Shaw, Defense Media Activity, Fort Meade, Md., received the Sergeant Major Dawn Kilpatrick Memorial AUSA Scholarship Award.From all of us at AUSA, congratulations to these great noncommissioned officers and thank you for serving as role models for those aspiring young leaders who want to emulate and follow in your footsteps.Now more than ever America’s Army needs AUSA.And, AUSA needs your membership support.Still Serving, Still Saluting!