Much has been published and said about the need for change-and transformation. In last month's Proceedings and at our symposium in San Diego in January, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers asserted that the most important breakthroughs for the transformation of our military's capabilities will result from thinking differently and taking educated and calculated risks. General Myers challenged you to share your ideas to make the U.S. armed forces a better joint force.
I encourage you to answer General Myers's challenge and at the same time help us transform the Naval Institute to make it essential to all serving naval professionals and all others interested in the nation's defense. In this column in January I reported that the Board of Directors had approved new Strategic and Business Plans for the Naval Institute. Central to these efforts is a proposed change in the organization's mission: "to contribute to the nation's security by providing an open forum where ideas and issues important to the Sea Services in particular and the other military services in general can be advanced." While this wording likely will be refined over the months ahead before we ask you to vote on this change, the vision in my opinion is realistic and makes sense. The Naval Institute will flourish only if you participate.
In February, we conducted our first focus group, with Navy regular and reserve officers and a Navy civilian employee, to help us exploit our strengths and overcome our weaknesses. We learned a great deal. In the near future we will sponsor more such focus groups-we plan to travel to Millington, Tennessee, Newport, Rhode Island, Quantico, Virginia, San Diego, California, and Norfolk, Virginia. We also are meeting face-to-face with longtime members of our organization, and conducting reviews of all our "products" with mixed teams composed of outside experts, Board members, and professional staff across departmental lines. In addition, we need to hear from those of you whom we cannot reach out and touch directly. Your responses to last month's call for opinions on anonymity have been enlightening. Representative responses are published on pages 14 and 18. This is your organization. Help drive it.
Toward that end, I invite you to attend the 129th Annual Meeting and 13th Annapolis Seminar, 2-3 April. You will hear from the Naval Institute's Chairman of the Board Vice Admiral Al Konetzni, Editorial Board Chairman Rear Admiral Pat Stillman, and me on the state of the Naval Institute. (See pages 16-17 for the full program, times, and registration information.) In the words of John Adams, "Dare to read, think, speak, and write." As our nation wrestles with the critical issue of war and peace, we can afford to do no less.