Happy New Year! Last year was our most successful and visible year. Our mission of “preserve, protect, and set the conditions to grow” exactly describes our efforts and activities for 2025 and 2026! To close out the year, NCS joined forces with UCF, Orlando Economic Partnership, Florida High Tech Corridor, Defense Innovation Unit, FIEA, and Capital Communications to host our biggest and best booth at I/ITSEC. The interactive displays drew large crowds and important visitors to our booth. Congratulations to NTSA on an outstanding conference!
NCS has worked closely with industry leaders, Central Florida government organizations, and community leaders to inform Congress of the importance of retaining and growing all the military service units in this era of change, growth, and reorganization in the Department of War and throughout the federal government. Big changes are needed, but sometimes there are negative, unintended consequences of broad change. We are working hard to inform and educate our leaders, so that the benefits of Team Orlando are understood at the highest levels of government in both the Legislative and Executive branches. We will need the support of our entire membership and industry, in addition to the outreach of the Central Florida community, throughout the year.
Our annual Lou Frey Memorial Charity Golf Tournament will take place on March 23 at Orange Tree Country Club. Many thanks to our former Board Chair Brian Holmes for chairing this event since 2014. Our cumulative contribution to Scholarships, STEM, and Civics education exceeds $600K!
Finally, we had an outstanding Membership Night to kick off the year. A very big thanks to our own Lana Wallis for directing this important and enjoyable event, and kudos to her team of volunteers for making this a memorable event!
I look forward to seeing all of you throughout the quarter!
George E. Cheros
President and CEO
