Ft Worth, Texas

Representatives from the leadership of the Texas Capital Area Chapter attended the AUSA IV Region 2023 Training Conference 27-30 April 2023. The meeting was held in the historical Fort Worth Stockyard area at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel. Attending from the Texas Capital Area Chapter were the following: Chapter President - COL (R) Garry Patterson, VP for University Affairs - Dave Berlad, and VP for Social Media - Nancy Berlad. Representatives from the various chapters in the IV Region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, and Louisiana) attended the training session. Representatives from AUSA National Headquarters, were BG (Ret) Jack Haley, Christine Lathrop, and CSM (R) Troy Welch. 

The event was hosted by the North Texas Audie Murphy Chapter. The training event was very informative and allowed representatives from each chapter to discuss their successes, challenges, and best practices in regards to chapter membership, engagement with ROTC and Cadet Command, support to military units in their area of responsibility and engaging young professionals. Each chapter was challenged to develop future plans to enhance their chapters and better service their membership and soldiers in their area. 

Our host, (North Texas Chapter), provided a key presentation by Jason and Mary Forrest from the Forrest Performance Group. The Forrest group training focuses on Warrior Selling using the NLP method (neurolinguistic programming). The presentation provided the attendees with some very useful information.  LTC Richard Crossley Jr, JROTC Program Cadet Commander gave an update on the DFW area JROTC activities.

The NTAMC also arranged for visits to local restaurants in the area, a field trip to the stockyards to experience a live cattle drive, and a visit to an Airbus facility to learn more about helicopters and their engines. Saturday evening, everyone attend the Dallas Our Community Salutes ceremony. At the OCS ceremony, approximately 120 high school seniors who had enlisted in the US Armed Forces were honored. It was an awesome event and well attended by family and friends. 

The Region IV conference was a huge success and everyone attending came back with lots of idea's for the future as well as a renewed excitement in promoting their respective chapters.