Obviously the world has changed a lot in the past couple of months. The Coronavirus Pandemic is a serious situation that will undoubtedly have long term impacts on our world and the way we all live.
Our Foundation is, at its core, a community–and we truly value everyone in it across the globe.
So we wanted to reach out to you all and share:
- What’s Changed
- What We’re Focusing On
- What The Future Holds
But first, some words from our President & CEO Stu Bradin, who recorded an update from his self-quarantine at home. Take a look:
What’s Changed
As a community, we have always focused on holding events that give us an opportunity to learn from and network with one another. These have long been a cornerstone of what we do.
Obviously, due to the pandemic, that will not be the case in the first half of 2020, and possibly even longer. That means we’ve had to cancel or postpone a few events so far, including:
- Silicon Valley and Special Operations Forces: Investing and Fielding Innovation: This event was to be our inaugural educational forum in Silicon Valley, executed with the support of Primer AI, Bloomberg BETA, and the Naval Postgraduate School. We are currently planning to reschedule this event for August.
- 28 APR Huddle in DC: We love hosting casual networking huddles for our Partners & Members, but unfortunately this specific huddle is cancelled. We do hope to schedule more huddles in DC when we are able to convene in person again!
- Annual Tampa Reception & GSOF @ SOFIC: This reception takes place annually on the Monday of SOFIC, but with the cancellation of SOFIC we had to follow suit. Because SOFIC was not rescheduled, this event will not occur again until May 17, 2021.
- 20 May SOF for Life Transition Seminar: Luckily for this event we’ve partnered with The Honor Foundation–one of the best in the biz at doing events virtually. Therefore, this event will still go as scheduled, but virtually! We’ve even added more sessions on 30 APR. See more details on our events page.
The rest of our calendar events for 2020 are still on as scheduled at this point, starting with our Global SOF Symposium in Warsaw, Poland from 5-7 OCT. We are, of course, monitoring the situation and will certainly notify the Global SOF community if this changes.
See All Events: https://my.gsof.org/upcoming-events
What We’re Focusing On
We already worked from home, so we’re agile telecommuters well-established to many parts of this lifestyle.
We want to offer you all our assurance that even without these events in 2020 our team is still working hard to serve our international community. We’ve published our five key Areas of Focus for 2020 to highlight exactly how we’re doing that.
FOCUS #1 – EDUCATE STAKEHOLDERS
- We will continue to educate policymakers on the SOF issues highlighted in our annual SOF Imperatives document. More information on how we’re tracking and sharing that information is coming to our Members and Partners soon!
- We will move forward with the planning of our impactful Fall 2020 Symposiums in Warsaw and Ft. Bragg.
FOCUS #2 – SHARE SOF STORIES
- We will continue to publish episodes of our SOFspot Podcast. If you don’t listen yet, quarantine is a great time to start!
- We have launched “SOF Stories from Quarantine”–video interviews about SOF events in history. You can see the first episode with CSM (Ret) Rick Lamb below:
FOCUS #3 – ENGAGE VIRTUALLY
- We will execute Virtual Learning Opportunities & Capabilities Demonstrations for our Corporate Partners & Members.
- We will host Virtual Huddles for our Partners and Members to network in a time of social distancing.
FOCUS #4 – SUPPORT SOF TRANSITION
- We are supporting The Honor Foundation’s Virtual Transition Course and working to plan more SOF for Life Seminars virtually. As previously stated, virtual opportunities are coming up on 30 APR and 20 MAY.
- We will relaunch the SOF for Life Job Board with civilian careers well-suited for military Veterans. We’re very close to this, so if you’re a Member or Partner, please stay tuned…
FOCUS #5 – STRENGTHEN THE NETWORK
- We will participate in at-home fitness events and challenges, inviting our network to join in and compete. Still figuring out exactly what those are, but details are coming.
- We will continue to build our community by adding new individual Members and Corporate Partners.
If you haven’t noticed the recurring theme that these actions are all focused on our Partners and Members, so if you aren’t connected to us yet, please join here:
What The Future Holds
These Areas of Focus are all intended to continue driving us toward our primary goal of developing a strong and united “Good Guy Network.”
We will still gather the community, although it may look a little different for a while.
We will still support the transition of special operators from Active Duty to Civilian life.
We will still educate policymakers on the needs of the SOF community.
We will still tell stories and remember the past to help guide us toward a more connected future.
And of course, we will still be there for any members of our community who need us! So please reach out if you need anything or even if you have some ideas or want to contribute to our efforts.
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