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Chair Update - December 2024

Holiday Greetings NIP colleagues and friends!

Once again, it’s been quite a busy year for NIP and for Naval Intelligence professionals across the globe. It’s been about two years since I joined the NIP leadership team, and I’m really pleased at the progress the collective is making to continually improve our professional organization and experience. I’m also excited to see what we will accomplish in 2025!

Here’s a quick overview of some of the progress in our key initiative areas and where we are heading in the New Year:

Growing NIP Membership: Last year I was pleased to share that we had broken the “800” total membership barrier and were forecasting to grow further in the future. This year I’m pleased to share that we did indeed grow. Not only did we recently pass the 900- membership mark, but we are still anticipating additional growth! We will continue to emphasize expanding our total force representation—expanding the number of our uniformed sailors and Marines (officer/enlisted/active/reserve/veteran) and our tremendous government civilian warriors (past and present). We took some initial steps to make ourselves truly “Naval” by adding two rockstar Marines to our board. We will focus some effort in 2025 on expanding our Marine Corps intelligence membership numbers and expanding or establishing programs as needed. 

Expanding and Reinvigorating NIP Chapters: Last year I mentioned that we had shipmates who were taking steps to create a chapter in Japan. That chapter is up and running and firing on all cylinders! Established in January 2024, NIP Pacific (NIP PAC) has been growing in size and activity. In November they hosted a social event to welcome Rear Admiral Mike Brookes, COMONI, and in September they hosted an inaugural Information Warfare (IW) Pacific Dining-Out with Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence, Steve Parode, as the keynote speaker. We now have a teammate who is exploring establishing a chapter in the Bahrain-Middle East region and are hopeful that our expansion of Marine Corps involvement in NIP will spark some interest in additional chapters as well. The NIP Chapters section of our portal was redesigned this past year and has been populated with highlights of local activities. If you haven’t logged onto our site as a member and checked out the “members only” content concerning our chapters, I encourage you to do so. If there’s something happening in one of the other chapters you wish was happening in your area, raise your voice and hand, and get involved!

Increasing Communications with the Membership: The NIP’s flagship publication, the READBOOK, continues to receive accolades from across our membership and will continue to be a priority production effort for us. As we continue our efforts to expand and integrate Marine participation in NIP, we’ll be taking steps to see that growth is reflected in our professional correspondence and dialogue as well. We’ve also received positive feedback on our quarterly seasonal newsletters and intend to continue producing these as well. As promised, we redesigned and relaunched our NIP LinkedIn and Facebook sites. Please ensure you’re “following” and participating. Encourage individuals who aren’t current NIP members to follow us on LinkedIn and consider joining the team. I’m really pleased with the progress we made in 2024 in improving our communications and am looking forward to cranking it up to “11” in 2025!

Raising Awareness of the Value Derived from Naval Intelligence Professionals: In last year’s Winter update I mentioned that, although not directly related to the three initiative areas above, you’ll see us also investing in our ability to communicate outside our membership, and that as a 501(c)(3) we’d like to educate the public about the value our nation derives from Naval Intelligence professionals. I now consider this a main effort, equally important to everything we’re doing internal to our community. We have new memoranda of agreement in place to support Project 2032, and you’ll see increased related activities in 2025 and in the next few years. The partnership we have with the USS Midway Museum is turning into something very special and way beyond my own wildest imagination. We’re anticipating the opportunity to further tell our story as planning for the new Navy Museum evolves. I encourage you to remain aware of these efforts and seek ways to get involved.

As highlighted in the newsletter, our annual fundraising campaign kicked off on “Giving Tuesday” and is doing well. NIP remains in a healthy financial status, but we don’t cover all our operational costs from membership dues. I want to thank everyone who has made a donation and remind everyone we’re still open for business and accepting contributions. Every gift helps make a difference, no matter the size, and is greatly appreciated as we try to shape the future. You can transfer funds in two ways:

In closing, I want to once again provide a special thanks to all those who are deployed and/or standing the watch over these holidays. We thank you and your families for your service and sacrifices. What you do is special and critical to our nation and this planet. Most of our fellow citizens don’t have a full understanding of what you all are doing, but if they did, they’d thank you as well. We salute you!

Happy Holidays to all of you and your families. Wishing everyone a 2025 filled with health, happiness, success, and adventure!

Best, Bob
NIP Chair