Behind the Scenes, Retiree Council Helps Exchange Advocate for Military Community
For the past 25 years, a group of key stakeholders has quietly worked behind the scenes to advocate for military community members’ hard-earned Exchange benefit.
Established in 1997, the Exchange Retiree Advisory Council (ERAC) is made up of 11 organizations or stakeholder groups focusing on matters that affect active, Guard and Reserve members of the Army, Air Force and Space Force; retirees; Department of Defense civilians; and their families:
- Army Retirement Services Office
- Army Chief of Staff’s Retired Soldier Council
- Air Force Retiree Council
- Association of the United States Army
- Air Force Association
- Military Officers Association of America (MOAA)
- Reserve Officers Association
- Non-Commissioned Officers Association
- The Retired Enlisted Association
- National Military Family Association (NMFA)
- Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA)
“ERAC is a group of organizations that serve members of our military community, working in concert with the objectives and goals of our Director/CEO,” said Fred Hannah, vice president of community outreach. “These stakeholders have a great deal of influence across our military communities, so it’s an opportunity to provide strong information to help them convey how important the Exchange is to policymakers and key players in the military community.”
ERAC’s advocacy, Hannah said, helped make many of the Exchange’s recent milestones possible, including the welcoming home of honorably discharged Veterans with a lifelong online shopping benefit on Veterans Day 2017. The council also helps the Exchange communicate with their respective organizations’ members, providing them with news and information regarding the Exchange benefit through newsletters and word of mouth. Exchange representatives are also invited to speak with several organizations’ national leaders at annual conferences.
“Members have means of getting information to certain populations that we might not have,” Hannah said. “MOAA focuses solely on the officer population, then the AFSA focuses solely on active, retired and Veteran enlisted personnel of the Air Force, but from a nonprofit perspective. Those connections help us with advocacy within each of those groups.”
The Exchange’s relationship with ERAC also allows stakeholders to deliver feedback from their organizations’ members directly to Exchange leadership.
“Just before the holidays, I received an email from the chair of the NMFA,” Hannah said. “NMFA had recently conducted a town hall in Korea, and there were some questions and concerns that came up, so I sent it to the Pacific Region leadership along with several of the directorates. It truly is a partnership where the communication goes both ways.”
While ERAC’s activities are not widely promoted and therefore not likely to be generally known by most Exchange associates, Hannah said the impact its efforts can have on the organization is enormous.
“There are huge, huge stakeholders for the Exchange at large on this council,” Hannah said. “When we can get a group of stakeholders all on the same accord, speaking the same language in support of the Exchange, it pays huge dividends for us.
“They’ve certainly played a critical role in helping us move things forward.”
