Page 6 - FCA Diamond Point Dec 24-smg review

FROM THE RAFINO PRESIDENT

RAFINO Election Results and 2024 Reunion Highlights
At the Reunion Business Meeting on 19 October, I agreed to serve as
President for the 2024-2026 term; 1SG(R) John Veal agreed to serve as
Vice President. No other Officers were elected or appointed. LTC (R)
Robby Robson will be retiring as VP for Information Services; and LTC(R)
Imre Volgyi, Acting Treasurer will also be retiring.

John Veal and I will comprise the active RAFINO Board leadership due to
multiple resignations and pending resignations for personal and health
reasons in 2024. Our mission statement for 2025-2026 will be:

COL (R) Kelly
1. Integrate the RAFINO membership database with the Finance Corps Association
membership database. The RAFINO and FCA databases were both created and maintained
by Robby Robson for the last 14 years. The RAFINO database and website are at risk from
an infrastructure standpoint. Needed changes to both have become even more urgent with
Robby’s retirement. The FCA database is in better shape. Nearly 200 of the RAFINO
members are also members of the FCA. Robby has agreed to oversee the database
integration effort before he retires. I discussed all of this with CSM(R) Gennaro Penn, the
new FCA President, during our 2024 Reunion in Charleston where he advised me that he
would seek the approval of his Board to integrate the memberships of FCA and RAFINO.
The FCA is searching for a new Webmaster whom Robby would advise going forward as
the websites anddatabases are integrated.
2. Transition RAFINO from a separate organization to a FCA Chapter with a President and
Vice President. With this change, we will leverage the current FCA infrastructure and
improve our ability to solicit life members from the Retirement-Eligible and Retired rolls in
the Active Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard. In other words, as an FCA Chapter, we
will become a more inclusive and younger organization than the RAFINO model that has
been aging for years with negative growth. The working title for our FCA Chapter will be
“Finance Corps for Life.”
3. Continue to work with our Armed Forces Reunion partner to host successful biannual
reunions. The Finance Corps will be celebrating its 250 Birthday in 2025, and FCA will
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recognize the event during the annual Regimental Ball. On a related note, I have decided to
defer the selection of the Colorado Springs location for the 2026 Reunion until 2028.
Instead, the 2026 Reunion will be held at Fort Benjamin Harrison.
4. The theme for the 2026 Reunion will include the recognition of the Finance Corps’ 250
years of Service to the Army as well as a remembrance for many of us who served at the
installation during our careers. The 2026 Reunion at Fort Harrison will be a perfect
companion event to the Regimental Ball at Fort Jackson. Both Finance and Comptroller
School Houses; USAFAC, the “Home of the Army Dollar”; DFAS; USAFMCOM; and ASA
(FMC) will be discussion topics at the 250 Birthday celebrations in 2025 and 2026.
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John and I will provide the RAFINO membership with updates as we progress through the
integration/transition to FCA. Imre Volgyi will continue to perform Treasurer functions as needed
during the Transition period. The simplified membership process requiring all new and existing
members to become Life Members will continue under the FCA Chapter model. The plan is that all
existing RAFINO life members will be integrated into the FCA database as FCA life members.
Surviving Spousal membership policy will not change, and TAPS functionality will be added to the
FCA database.

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