Welcome all SCC Members to the 2024-2025 Program Year!  I am privileged to be your Chapter President again this year and see this Chapter building to be a great Chapter with National recognition.

My Background
For those unfamiliar with me, I served as an acquisition attorney for over 35 years, serving with the U.S. Army as a civilian, and then with BAE Systems as their Deputy Chief Counsel seeing the world from the other side.  I recently opened a consulting firm operating out of Cape Canaveral as I believe that helping folks develop profitable and meaningful contractual relationships and avoid the common pitfalls of government and commercial contracting provides immeasurable value to the acquisition workforce. I hope you share that vision as it is what we, together, will do for the Space Coast through the NCMA SCC!

Headshot of a man in front of a U.S. Flag. He has short light brown hair. He is wearing a black suit with a white shirt underneath and a red tie.

Your New Board
The new Board members met on August 8th and began working out our SCC efforts this year.  Keep in mind that although they are our leadership, the Chapter is about you!  Nothing decided is set in stone, and we need your input so that we can do our best to meet your needs.  Your new board members are:

President – Mr. David DeFrieze

Senior Vice President / President – Mr. Todd Tolson

Vice President, Programs & Education – Mr. Roy Nyquist

Vice President, Membership & Website / Communications – Ms. Meghan Ferrelli

Treasurer – Ms. Victoria Alterman

Secretary – Mr. Duc Nguyen


Thanks to Last Year’s Board Members for their service!

Website and LinkedIn Group
One can visit our chapter website at ncmaspacecoast.org to get the latest and greatest information about our chapter events.  Our chapter also maintains a Chapter LinkedIn Group page (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/12039503/).  Please feel free to reach out to the Board Members for input on our website and LinkedIn page.

Also, this year, we are considering increasing the use of the NCMA National “backbone” site.  Stay tuned for more information and links as we begin using it!

Last Year Summary
Last year was a great year for rebuilding our Chapter!  We held several combined membership meetings and training sessions.  In addition, we held our first in-person get together social event, having a mini-golf competition at Gator Golf in Cocoa Beach along with diner and drinks at the nearby Ale House.  Thank you Chairman Conner DeFrieze (with help from Todd Tolson and others). We also had a fantastic Spring Training Session at the Marriott in Cocoa Beach.  We had a mix of excellent local speakers, along with National Speakers of note.  This was our first hybrid (in-person and on-line) event (so we hopefully learned a great deal) and was our first sponsored program in a long time (thank you BAE Systems).  While Conner also was the chair for this event and put in a great deal of effort, it was such a huge success due to the voluntary support of many people.  We made a lot of connections, both locally and nationally, and positioned ourselves well for sustained growth and value to our membership.

Plans for This Year
This year’s Board is OUTSTANDING!  Our intentions are to increase the value of Chapter membership for both you, and those you support.

While we still need to firm up this year’s agenda, it looks like we will be moving to more membership/training sessions, and more in-person events.  I personally look forward to meeting and getting to know as many of you as possible. We have access to a bevy of great speakers, both locally and nationally, so I am sure our training events will be of interest.  Please let us know what interests you have so we can ensure the right topics and speakers are properly scheduled for this program year. If you know of someone, whether local or not, who may be interested in speaking, please let Roy Nyquist know.

Our tentative schedule for this year is at the end of this message (subject of course to change).

Goals for this Year
Very tentative so welcome your input!  First and foremost, we want to meet your needs.  Let us know what they are!

  • Increase Membership Communication, inter-action and participation.
  • Improve our value to membership and those they support.
  • Sponsor professional development and networking events of interest to the Space Coast contracting community
  • Increase membership.

How can you help or get involved?
We need you! Help us make a difference!  Contact any one of us via email, phone, text, or whatever works.

We are looking for skilled people to be lead or assist with our improvement efforts.  My grandmother always said, “Many hands make for light work.” If you can assist in any of the areas below, or any other effort you desire, please step forward and let us know.  It won’t take much of your time, or … do it with friends if you like. Get involved…! Your support, no matter how small, can make a great difference.

  • Golf Outing
  • Local Charities support
  • Holiday Social Get-together
  • IT/Virtual Meetings
  • By-Laws
  • Certification
  • Fellows
  • Hospitality & Outreach
  • Awards
  • NES/WEC
  • Newsletter
  • Nominations & Elections
  • Scholarship
  • Attendance

Be sure to keep an eye on the 2024-2025 schedule!

I hope you are as excited as we are for this program year.   Here is to our Chapter and a great 2024-2025 Program year!  Let's Launch!

/signed/

David C. DeFrieze
President, NCMA Space Coast Chapter