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Issue #12, JANUARY 2007 Issue Date: January 10th, 2007 Total Active Subscribers: 43 From: Tom Ruley, President, NROTC Dear Readers, Welcome to our monthly newsletter and Happy New Year everyone. This newsletter is viewed by the general public entering from our website and is emailed directly to our subscribers. If you haven't subscribed yet, please do so. As a subscriber, you will be informed monthly on our charitable activity. Its easy, just look for the sign up area on the left margin of page one of our website. Well it looks like we made it through our first official year in business. We received our determination letter, our 501(c)(3) nonprofit status according to the IRS, on November 22nd, 2005. We didn't know we had it until mid December 2005 and we really didn't get started until January 2006. During 2006 NROTC distributed 334 free service banners. Agreed this is not a great accomplishment by many standards, but it is a big accomplishment for an organization as small as ours. Following are some of the numbers from our 2006 year end books. Our total donations received for the year were $1,775.00. Five hundred dollars of which was donated by our Vice President, Tom Conlan at the end of November. Thanks Tom. We would not have been able to send out the last batch of 74 banners in December without your help. Most all of you should be aware of our promise to provide one free service banner for every $25.00 contributed. Well for 2006 we provided a free service banner for every $5.31 in donations. Not one person who requested a banner was turned away. NROTC's expenses for 2006 were $10,037.51. Our complete report, IRS Form 990EZ, will be published here on our website, within about a month and will be available to any individual, Federal or State agency requiring such. After applying our $1,775.00 in donations toward our expenses, the other $8,262.51 in 2006 NROTC expenses was paid from the pockets of Tom Ruley which have now become empty. When I founded NROTC I did not do so to invest over $11,000.00 of my own money to float NROTC from August 2004 to present. We have done some serious belt tightening to eliminate most of those expenses from reoccurring. The reason I am so forward about sharing our finances is because this is how nonprofit organizations are supposed to function. I do so in the interest of complete transparency and disclosure. What is pretty pathetic is that in 2006 I hired 130 "Work At Home" telemarketers to do our fundraising and all of them quit. Last month I made a new alliance and I think I learned something very valuable. NROTC is now a proud official member of the U.S. Department of Defense, America Supports You program. On December 13th 2006, I was in attendance at the Pentagon with former Secretary Rumsfeld, a few generals and others for the America Supports You Community Group Annual Summit. The day started out at 7:00 AM with a tour of the White House. America Supports You is a U.S. Department of Defense, DoD, program launched in 2004 that spotlights and facilitates support for the nation’s military personnel from the American public and the corporate sector. The DoD and America Supports You, is calling on to American businesses to: “Adopt an America Supports You Grassroots Organization Today!” In addition, they are providing added incentives for corporate America to get involved. Our website has changed a little to provide more information about this. Please read on our website to learn more. There were a little over eighty military support related nonprofit leaders at the summit. We had a chance to openly discuss various topics including fundraising. I think the biggest lesson I learned at the summit was that most successful fundraising is being done by Volunteers and NOT commissioned salespeople! The fact that 130 commissioned telemarketers produced practically nothing for NROTC last year seems to confirm it, at least to my way of thinking anyway. We have now revamped our thinking, again, and now we are looking for Volunteers to help spread the word and gather support for our charitable activity. I hope we will have better luck with volunteers, who are motivated by compassion as I have been from day one, rather than greed or a need to derive an income. If we can achieve favorable fundraising results with volunteers instead of commissioned sales reps, we may be able to do much better than our current promise to provide ONE SERVICE BANNER FOR EVERY $25.00 CONTRIBUTED. This promise is based on NROTC having to pay commissions to sales reps. It may be possible that we could accomplish twice the results for the same amount of donation dollars. Hopefully we will find out in the near future. The summit made me even more convinced and steadfast that I am doing the right thing and that I must stick to it! To be at the Pentagon as part of a group of only eighty military support related nonprofit leaders, out of a population of 270 million people in the United States was very special. I am so proud to be part of such an exclusive group of people and to be doing my part to support our troops and their families. If you are not a military service member or military family member, are you doing your part? We still do not have the financial resources to once again open our website to accepting service banner requests. We are hoping to open it up shortly. We did manage to send out one Blue Star Service Banner to XXXX Silver Creek Road, Manhattan, Kansas. As a matter of military secrecy, respect for privacy, and to protect all of our service banner donees from anyone, including domestic terrorists who may want to do them harm, we do not publish actual names or street addresses. On December 9th I launched the NROTC You Are Not Alone Support Group. It's purpose, to provide our proud military families and brave military troops with a place where they can communicate just about anything, share ideas and experiences, support each other and provide or receive that much needed comfort and relief when a military family is in need. We sadly have already received a Gold Star Service Banner request from one of our members. On January 5th, 2007, a Gold Star Service Banner was presented on behalf of the NROTC in Gurnee, Illinois, to the widow of U.S. Army Sergeant Jason C. Denfrund, age 24, of Cattaraugus, New York. He died on Christmas Day in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit while on patrol. Denfrund was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, New York. Sergeant Jason C. Denfrund leaves behind loved ones in at least two States, a wife and two children, a six year old daughter and a six month old son. My heart goes out to this young family. As also, the parents and other loved ones. I understand that the Patriot Guard Riders accomplished another great mission of paying respect to, providing escort and "cover" for, this fallen brave young hero and his family. Visit the Patriot Guard Riders Sergeant Denfrund's death is one of now over 3,000 military deaths during this Global War On Terrorism. The work of the National Remember Our Troops Campaign is more important than ever. As we sadly mourn the loss of Sgt. Jason C. Denfrund, we sadly mourn the loss of all those who have been killed. Our heartfelt prayers are with every single American affected by the loss of a loved one in the deserts and streets of Iraq or mountains of Afghanistan. Remember also the over 22,000 troops who have been wounded. Many have sustained permanent debilitating injuries. We pray for them and we pray for their families and caregivers. We pray that all of our active duty troops will return home safely to their families and friends at the end of their tours of duty. There can be no doubt that NROTC is accomplishing a very worthwhile goal if only in a small way compared to the tremendous overall need. If any of you reading have any doubt at all, please read: What Our Visitors and Service Banner Recipients Are Saying For 2007 I promise to recommit myself to the accomplishment of the mission of the National Remember Our Troops Campaign. Help us financially if you can. Consider volunteering some of your time. Click the "Become A Volunteer" link on our website. To our 43 current subscribers and other readers, I ask another important favor. Vote for us on R. Lee Ermey's website! Just click the banner below my signature. Following are the comments we received in the last month:
January 1, 2007 - Tomball, TX
Dec 21 2006 - Portage, Pennsylvania
Dec. 16, 2006 - Ormond Beach, FL
Dec. 16, 2006 - Carlsbad, CA
Dec 16, 2006 - Spartanburg, SC
Dec 15, 2006 - Mount Morris, IL
Dec 14 2006 - Grandview, MO
Dec 12 2006 - Las Vegas, NV
Dec 12 2006 - Laurel, MS
Dec 08, 2006 - Camas, WA
Dec 06, 2006 - Cumberland, MD
Thank you for reading and thank you for voting for us on R. Lee Ermey's website! Just click the banner below my signature.. With life, liberty and the pursuit of those who wish to do us harm. That is all, Tom Ruley, President, NROTC
PLEASE GIVE NROTC A REAL QUICK VOTE ON THE GUNNY'S WEBSITE... (It helps us get a higher placement on the list and more people will find out about us) (Click on the banner) 
 Click here to go to our website
The National Remember Our Troops Campaign, Inc. 111 North Stuart Street Baltimore, Maryland 21221 http://www.nrotc.org
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