UPCOMING EVENTS, PROJECTS & OUTLOOK

 Trademark 2002

16-INCH BULLET-IN BOARD I6-INCH BULLET-IN BOARD 16-INCH BULLET-IN BOARD 16-INCH BULLET-IN BOARD

This page is designed to be a progress report and briefing session combined, summarizing what's ahead, projects in production, and current analysis of efforts to develop the U.S.S. Iowa as a naval memorial and museum in the San Francisco Bay Area.

INCOMING!!!!

 LOCAL EVENTS 

• MEET THE IOWA-CLASS COMMITTEE RECEPTION & PROJECT UPDATE - There will be a dinner reception on December 29 for the public and the media to learn about the progress being made to bring U.S.S. Iowa to Mare Island, Vallejo.  Join us for refreshments, talk and the showing of a new promotional video on the U.S.S. Iowa coming to Mare Island, Vallejo.  The dinner location is the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin Street, 6 PM-10 PM.  Call 415-905-5700 for reservations.
• Monthly committee meetings happen every second Saturday morning, the public is welcome. Call 415-905-5700 for location.
• Monthly boat service with Bay View Charters (800-817-8774), www.bayviewcharters.com, are available to view IOWA and the reserve fleet in Suisun Bay.  IOWA crewmembers and HSMPS committee members often serve as a narrators on these fascinating and informative tours.  (At present, there is no visitor access to IOWA.)  Proceeds benefit the effort to preserve IOWA as a museum and memorial.
• HMPS's official newsletter, THE BIG STICK has just gone to press. THE BIG STICK is IOWA's best-known nickname.  Call 415-905-5700 and ask for a copy by leaving your address.

PROJECTS UNDERWAY

Volunteers needed !!!

Parties with relevant experience or interest are invited to contact the organization. Volunteers are always welcome and needed!

• HSMPS staff are redrafting the museum floor plan and collections policy.  Do you want to help?
• Environmental engineers are asked to volunteer. 
• The IOWA needs volunteers to man our monthly signature gathering efforts along the San Francisco Embarcadero.
• HSMPS needs volunteers to help maintain our 29 foot whaleboat.
• Staff are drafting an expanded educational section for high school and possibly junior high school students.  This applies to IOWA in both her current mobilization status in Suisun Bay and later as a museum ship and memorial in San Francisco should HSMPS be given custodianship.  In this effort, educators are strongly encouraged to contact us.  We see school children on our monthly trips out to see the IOWA.                                     
• Our planners are working on the layout of a shoreside visitor center and volunteers will always be greeted warmly.
• The fundraising team invites volunteers join our committee to help structure a national donation and pledge campaign.  For more information on our donation and membership programs return to the Home Page and click on Ship's Store and Membership Opportunities.  Contact HSMPS for other ways to help fund the project.

CURRENT STATE AND CONDITIONS

We are extremely pleased that IOWA was brought to the Bay Area as a reserve asset.  Words cannot adequately express our satisfaction with the Secretary of the Navy's favorable decision and the Congressional support for this homeporting.  We are grateful for the active support for IOWA's relocation led by Senator Dianne Feinstein of California and the entire California Bay Area Congressional delegation--they include Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Tom Lantos, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Congresswoman Barbara Lee, Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher, Congressman George Miller and former Congressman Tom Campbell.  Special thanks, too, to Senator Barbara Boxer of California, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, Congressman Leonard Boswell of Iowa, and the Congressional staffs for their attention and hard work.  We appreciate the formal endorsements by prior California Governors Gray Davis and Pete Wilson of the State of California and the current Governor Chester Culver and prior Governors Terry Branstad  and Thomas J. Vilsack of the State of Iowa for supporting homeporting the battleship in the San Francisco Bay Area and their appreciation of her value as a future museum and memorial.  We wish to thank past Mayor Willie Lewis Brown, Jr., City and County of San Francisco, for his official endorsement. We are very grateful to Mayor Anthony Intintoli of Vallejo and the City Council for their support to bring the mighty U.S.S. Iowa to Mare Island, Vallejo, as a memorial and museum. 

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