Chair Update - June 2024

Greetings colleagues and friends!

I hope you all enjoyed the spring and are prepared to spend the summer season with family, friends, and shipmates, perhaps taking some time to vacation and explore our beautiful planet a bit. I also hope you’re all prepared to weather the extreme temperatures forecast across many areas over the next week. Summer is announcing its presence with a roar! As such, please make sure you’re hydrating and taking time to care for yourselves and others. There’s nothing more important to us than our people.

As you’ll notice from this newsletter, the Naval Intelligence Professionals have been continuing our journey on course and on pace. We continue to make progress in all our focus areas. Here are a few updates on some key initiatives I want to ensure you’re tracking:  

• Increasing and Improving Communications: If you haven’t been to our NIP website lately, I encourage you to do so. Take some time to login as a member and surf the site. I think you’ll notice some marked improvements in the content and context being offered to our members thanks to our editor, Sue Himes, and the efforts from many members to share with others. Please consider contributing yourself, taking a photo or two during events and writing a couple of paragraphs. We welcome all submissions. 
  
  
• We’re also very close to finishing up some redesign and a relaunch of our social media presence on LinkedIn and Facebook. 
  
  
  • Our LinkedIn site was originally established as a “Group” but will be relaunched as an “Organizational Page.” This will allow us to be more open in our communications and also allow us to use the platform to highlight activity of interest to current and prospective members. The Naval Intelligence Activity (NIA) just recently redesigned and relaunched their LinkedIn presence as well. If you’re not “following” them, you may want to consider doing so: https://www.linkedin.com/company/naval-intelligence-activity/.  It’s a great source of information for activities across the Naval Intelligence Enterprise. 
    
    
  • We’re going to take the opposite tact on Facebook and switch from an open group to a private group so that we can have more control over access and sharing of information on that platform. Members will need to apply for access and adhere to site rules of behavior. More information to follow on these changes. As always, we welcome member feedback and participation. My thanks to Ally Wagner, our relatively new Outreach and Communications Committee Chair, for spearheading these efforts.
    
    
• Our Virtual Speaker Series events continue with some great speakers and great discussion. As noted in the newsletter, we recently had the pleasure of hearing from Rear Admiral Josh Himes, the Joint Staff VJ2, and we have the Commanding Officers of Farragut and ONI teed up for June and July. We started the Virtual Speaker Series during COVID as a virtual replacement for in-person gatherings we were holding in the Old Town Alexandria. We’ve continued the events to allow participation from members from all locations. If you haven’t been dialing in, or watching the recordings, please consider doing so. We also welcome suggestions on speakers and topics. At the recommendation of some members, we’re pursuing some guests with recent experience in naval combat operations ongoing in the Red Sea. Bottom line: Get involved. My thanks to Bob Allen for all his efforts in organizing and running these valuable professional discussions.
  
  
• Growing NIP Membership: The biggest news this quarter was announced via an ALLNIP and highlighted in this newsletter—the addition of Aaron Tooke and Scott Stalker to the NIP Board! This is an important step in making the Naval Intelligence Professionals truly “Naval,” integrating our Navy and Marine Corps efforts in meaningful ways. These two individuals bring tremendous experience, expertise, and energy to the team, and their positive presence is already being felt as we chart our future course. Our membership remains 800+ and steadily growing, and I have no doubt it will continue to do so as we improve our community communications and our integration with the Marine Corps. For your awareness—I have deputized each and every one of you as a NIP recruiter. Help spread the word!
  
  
• Expanding and Reinvigorating NIP Chapters: One of the improvements to the NIP website has been a redesign of the NIP chapter pages. Please take the time to look at them (login as a member for full access). With the warmer weather I’ve certainly noted an uptick in the chapter social activities and encourage you all to carve out some time to spend with each other. If you’re traveling, contact chapter reps in that area to see if there’s an opportunity for you to interact with some of your teammates you haven’t seen in a while. As part of our efforts to grow Marine Corps participation, we’ll be reviewing the chapters to see if there might be some Fleet Marine concentration areas in need of a new chapter. One of the strengths of our professional community is that we have a global presence and are extremely connected, communicative, and collaborative. The NIP chapters form the backbone of our network. Let’s empower and leverage them to our advantage.
  
  
• Increasing Awareness of the Value Derived from Naval Intelligence Professionals: I remain extremely excited about our efforts as a 501(c)(3) organization to communicate outside our membership, and to educate the public about the value our nation derives from its Naval Intelligence Professionals. Both Project 2032 and our partnership with the USS Midway Museum will provide us with the opportunity to tell our story, and both of these projects continue to progress. The exceptional article in this newsletter by Steve Shepard on Lou Conter, a national hero, is a great example of the stories we need to know and make known. Lynn Wright continues to lead the Project 2032 efforts to document our history and is welcoming participation. This newsletter also provides an update on our partnership with the USS Midway Museum, which continues apace. I am openly giddy when thinking and talking about this opportunity. The museum has over 1,000,000 visitors annually! The refurbishment and design of the spaces is being aided by experts who worked on the International Spy Museum. These spaces will provide experiential insights and share the personal stories of the people in our profession. Our goal is to have young girls and boys leaving the museum wanting to be Naval Intelligence Professionals in the future. Just yesterday I spoke with the Assistant Director of National Intelligence for Human Capital about the tremendous recruiting opportunity associated with this effort. She’s excited and supportive as well. We’ll continue to keep our membership informed and involved in these efforts. Please continue to check our website for updates: 
  
  
  • NIP Project 2032 
  • USS Midway CVIC Restoration Project and Updates 

As always, in closing, we want to take time to thank all our Naval Intelligence Professionals who continue to serve our nation and are “standing the watch” around the clock and around the globe. We remain truly grateful for all the sacrifices you and your families make on a recurring basis. Many in our nation have no idea who you are or what you do, but we do. It’s special and necessary, and on behalf of everyone, we thank you.

Be well, and God’s Speed!

Best, Bob

NIP Chair