Minuteman Civil Defense Corps of Arizona
A MESSAGE TO THE VOLUNTEERS OF THE ARIZONA MCDC
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As you know the past month or so has seen some internal turmoil in the MCDC. A small group of members, not much more than a dozen by my estimate, attempted to institute some radical changes in our organization. They operated outside normal procedures, and were rebuffed. I won’t go into details because, if you are receiving this, you have seen the explanatory memos from Chris Simcox.
But a number of you have contacted me and raised the question “What does this mean for the Arizona Chapter of the MCDC?” The purpose of this document is to share my thinking about this with you.
As a start I think we have to understand that we will be facing some negative publicity. The group I mentioned in the first paragraph threatened to go to the media if they didn’t get their way. Well, they didn’t get their way and so we are now seeing negative stories in the media and on web sites of organizations opposed to the MCDC. It probably will make recruiting a little more difficult in the short run. Also, we are going to have to spend time dealing with the false assertions when we could be discussing the mission of the MCDC. Regrettable? Sure…but we will have to deal with it.
Operationally, here in Arizona, it won’t make any difference. I promise. The number of Arizona volunteers associated with the dissenting group is no more than a handful. They have resigned, or have been terminated, and have been replaced by capable personnel.
But to wax a bit, let me say that we have pushed the throttle to the firewall and are proceeding, at full speed, to build the Arizona Chapter. I am talking with four groups who want to start new chapters (at least two should get off the ground this year). We are re-structuring our organization. You have seen that we added staff group such as COMMS and the MAP TEAM. More are planned. We are exploring new areas for border operations. We have trained more SAR Team personnel and are already talking about the next class. We are taking steps, which I cannot discuss here, to increase our operational efficiency. We are not going to miss a beat.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me hear them. I will be on vacation in mid June, so I may be a little late in getting back to you. But I certainly will try to answer all emails.
Gene Cafarelli
Arizona State Director
Minuteman Civil Defense Corps
Phone: 520-455-0100