Navy Alliance Prepares for Region’s New Challenges
Spring is here! And along with the warmer temperatures and the fresh colors and scents of the budding flowers and trees, the change in season brings a sense of renewal and fresh perspective as well. That’s important in times like these … times when our nation is still at war, when our economy is still not firing on all cylinders, and when our homeland safety and security continue to be in question as we were so violently reminded by the recent terrorist events surrounding the Boston Marathon.
I thought I’d focus this update on your Navy Alliance and how we have adjusted and adapted our organization to the new and growing challenges that come with declining federal and defense spending, which have been and continue to be, vital to our local economy. So maybe a couple of questions to start the discussion … who is the Navy Alliance?
First and foremost, we are all volunteers … except for one part time Staff Assistant who we don’t fairly compensate based upon the tremendous work and support she consistently provides. She continues to stay with the Alliance only out of the goodness of her heart and because she truly believes in our mission and wants to serve our community and help us move forward in a good way. Besides our Staff Assistant though, the rest of us are volunteers and have full time “day” jobs and make the time for the Alliance for the same reasons … we believe in service and want to do what we can to help improve our community and quality of life for all of our neighbors, family, friends and fellow Southern Maryland citizens.
Many people have the mistaken notion that we are all Defense Contractors … that’s not accurate. We are Defense Contractors, but we are also business owners in other fields, developers, bankers, state and county officials … we represent a full spectrum of our community. We also work closely with many other community and professional organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, the Small Business Roundtable, The Patuxent Partnership, the Lexington Park Redevelopment group, the Community Development Corporation, our local colleges and schools, the Strategic Roundtable, and many others.
We have worked hard to foster a very professional and productive relationship with our Navy and Navy leaders based upon trust, credibility, mutual and supportive goals and priorities. We have worked just as hard to form the same kind of effective partnerships with our local and state and national government and elected leaders. These cooperative partnerships are key to achieving the strategic goals that will help keep our community strong economically and allow us to enjoy a quality of life commensurate with the great beauty, bounty and renowned history of our region.
Another question … what are those strategic priorities? They may be more easily recalled if we use the IDEA acronym. We all know that when it comes to our local economy, we are presently overly reliant upon federal dollars and specifically defense and the Navy. So the “idea” is to support Innovation and promote new start up technologies and businesses that have commercial application across industries beyond defense, which will help us to promote Diversification of our economy so that we have a more balanced regional economic base and portfolio and are less vulnerable when a certain aspect of our nation’s economy is adversely affected. To help do this we will need to promote the presence of Education and academic institutions like the University System of Maryland that are huge enterprises and engines for innovation and growth. And because we value our preeminent role in our nation’s security, we continue to promote our Anchors of our strong economic base through our support of organizations like the Naval Air Systems Command, Naval Air Warfare Center, and the many other key defense units at NAS Patuxent River, as well as the other important military commands located throughout our region to include the Naval Surface Warfare Center at Indian Head. Ensuring we are well prepared for the BRAC process is a critical part of protecting our Anchors. We also need to support the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant and the Liquid Natural Gas facility and industries vital to our economic well-being.
These strategic priorities are evolving into strategic initiatives through the hard work of a number of dedicated regional and local leaders and community organizations. One principal catalyst is the effort to designate our region and the state of Maryland as a designated Unmanned System Test Site for the FAA. This concerted effort led by the University System and University of Maryland as our lead public entity has brought together many of the key players in a united effort that goes way beyond the test site designation. Whether the test site designation comes to fruition is not really the key … rather, the more important question is, can we sustain and grow and evolve this unique and critically important cooperative effort that began with the test site designation and further leverage our already extensive unmanned systems capabilities, to propel us forward in autonomous systems technologies and other relevant innovation fields. Southern Maryland as the world’s leading Autonomous Systems Enterprise Sector has a pretty nice ring to it!
Many of these parallel initiatives are coming together in an overarching effort called Southern Maryland 2020, which is really a vision of taking a good IDEA and some of these complementary strategic priorities, goals and initiatives and moving them forward with regional support and resources (public and private) to prepare for the years 2020 and beyond.
We all recognize that these are economically and socially challenging times we find ourselves in today … and now is not the time to sit idly, wringing our hands in worry and hope for the best. This is precisely the time to be firm and aggressive … to take the initiative … to be leaders in embracing, supporting and actively promoting the tenets of good IDEAs like Southern Maryland 2020. To be willing to intelligently invest in our future like so many proactive communities around the country are already doing. Visionary, practical and wise … strong and unwavering … collaborative and selfless … regional leadership … that’s what we will need to successfully work through these challenges and ensure that our Southern Maryland continues to be the incredibly good and vibrant community we have come to be.
There is so much more to know about your Navy Alliance … I invite you to read our newsletter and attend our General Membership meetings if you have questions about our role, responsibilities and service. The only real agenda we have is to help and support our community as best we can through the hard work, extensive experience and skills, and dedication of our members.
