AFA Florida State Convention

The 2026 AFA Florida State Convention was hosted by the Falcon Chapter in Jacksonville on Saturday, July 18. Bill Yucuis and Emily Farkas represented the Waterman-Twining Chapter at the meeting. Shown below is the meeting Agenda. Once I get the Meeting Minutes, I will attach them.

One of the big discussion items throughout the day had to do with the impact of AFA’s Mission Membership initiative, which started in March 2026, which has a goal of getting the total AFA membership up to 350,000+ members. The initial phase of Mission Membership provided a free membership tier for Airmen, Guardians, government civilians, military families, industry innovators, and anyone else with a passion for American airpower, spacepower, and national defense. Anyone who had previously had contact with AFA through a variety of channels, such as attending conferences, podcasts, or even just getting the Daily Bulletin, was added to Chapter rosters, if AFA had a location of where they lived when people made these contacts. This immediately affected every AFA Chapter in the country. As an example, in February 2026, the Waterman-Twining Chapter had 1,300+ members. Today, we have nearly 2,200 members.

The number of Chapter (and State) members has two big impacts. First, every Chapter (and State) receives a “support payment” from AFA National based on the total number of members. Later this year, every Chapter (and the State) will receive a support payment significantly larger than in the past. The second big impact has to do with the National Convention, which will be held in DC area on September 12-13. You can go to https://www.afa.org/national-convention/ to find out more details about the Convention. Just like last year, delegates can either attend in person OR participate virtually. In the past, Florida has had between 25-30 delegates, but because of the increase in members, this year, Florida can have 55 delegates.

The primary role of being a delegate is to elect the new National Officers and vote on any Motions. This year there is one Motion but more could potentially be added at the Convention.  It is helpful to wait until Sunday to vote, in case new Motions were added on Saturday. You can go to the Events Tab to find out more information on how to volunteer to become a delegate.

At the Convention, two National Officer positions are contested. The first is AFA Vice Chair of the Board, Field Operations (VCFO), which has 2 candidates, and National Director, At Large (5 candidates for 2 openings). During the Convention, each of those 7 were given 5 minutes to talk directly to the Convention. Three of them actually attended the Convention and the other four spoke virtually. You can find the Bios and videos (to be added soon) at https://www.afa.org/national-convention/candidates/

The Convention really has two required items to complete; approve next year’s Budget and elect the State Officers. Both are attached below.

Currently, Florida is an AFA State organization AND Florida is also an Area Region organization. Throughout AFA, most AFA Regions are composed of 2-3 State organizations. During the Field Operations Update, Chris Canada, the current VCFO, talked about a proposal to combine Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina into a Region, which would require some other states to be moved around. It will be proposed at the National Convention.

At lunch, Mike Liqouri, the State President, presented State Individual Awards, and at dinner, he presented State Chapter Awards plus announced which individuals and Chapter would be receiving National Awards at the Convention. The Waterman-Twining Chapter was a recipients of several awards, shown below. Chapter members not in attendance will receive their Awards at a later date.