Getting it together: JBER spouses' clubs plan summer merger

  • Published
  • By Airman Valerie Monroy
  • JBER Public Affairs
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  The Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Spouses' Club and Richardson Spouses' Club have announced a merger, and will become the JBER Spouses' Club.

The new club shows JBER is a united installation, said Amanda Collier, RSC president.

In the next few months, the clubs will be working on drafting a new constitution and bylaws as well as merging financial procedures, protocols and policies. The new club will not officially conduct business as a single entity until late this summer.

JSC president Mandy Poulin said she'd only been president for a few months when she first began working on the union.

"I emailed Amanda to talk about possibly merging the two clubs," Poulin said. "This [process] has actually been going on for two to four years, but it just hasn't happened until now."

For the plan to move forward, it had to be approved by both clubs' executive and governing boards, and be general membership.

The joint venture aims to drop the stigma of each club being only Air Force or Army, Poulin said.

Spouses often get confused as to which club they can join because of their affiliated branch, she continued.

"With the new club, members should know that [spouses of] all ranks and from all branches are welcome," Collier said. "We're leaving former affiliation at the door and looking forward to this new and exciting adventure."

During the next few months, monthly socials will be joint events where JSC members will be welcomed to gatherings hosted by the RSC. Spouses who are not now members of either club and who would like to participate in either club before the official merger can pay the half-year price with either the JSC or RSC.

At the end of August the new club will host a sign-up event to invite new members, as well as former members of the RSC and JSC, to join.  Collier explained this will be a fresh start.

The first activity of the new club will be to select their leaders. A nomination committee with members from both the current clubs will be getting together in the spring to discuss how the new club's executive and governing boards will be coming together for the next year.

"All positions are currently available for nomination," Collier said. "If someone feels they would like to be a part of either the executive or governing boards, we ask they submit a [biography] to either president."

A large part of both the RSC and JSC is providing scholarships. Last year the JSC awarded more than $25,000 in scholarships and the RSC awarded about $13,000 in scholarships.

"With the new club we'll be able to combine our efforts and reach even more people," Poulin said.

Collier explained this will remain a priority but the club is still in the process of deciding how they will proceed with the scholarships.

When it came to giving back to the community, both the JSC and RSC participated in several events such as the annual cookie drive for military members away from home, donating to the Food Bank of Alaska, and donating to the Alaska Fisher House.

"We will continue to stay involved in the local Anchorage community and JBER," Collier said. "The union of the club will only make our participation stronger."

Despite the effort that has already gone into making the merge possible, there is still a lot of work left to be done.

"This was a long time coming and it's just the final piece of a joint-base installation," Collier said. "We hope to be a frontrunner for further joint bases throughout the military."

For more information on how to sign up or to apply for a board position, visit www.richardsonspousesclub.com or www.jberspousesclub.com.