FMUSIC: The Way Ahead?

Rear Admiral (Ret) Jamie Fraser of Kingston accepted the interim National Chairmanship upon the resignation of Lieutenant General (Ret’d) William Leech in September 2006. He found the Federation of Military and United Services Institutes of Canada (FMUSIC) to be at a crossroad and needs to determine its future as the national focal point for our 25 Military and United Services Institutes.

A letter on November 1, 2006 went to the Regional Vice Chairmen, who constitute the Executive Committee of FMUSIC. The interim National Chairman shared his concerns and frustrations over the current status of FMUSIC and sought answers to a number of questions.

He recognized that individual Institutes are in varying states, from thriving to declining, but all are making their own way ahead. Thus, the main topic for discussion and resolution is the Federation, the national effort. Much of the forcing factor in all this is funding for such a national agency to continue

The British Columbia Institutes found the BC Region 8 vice Chairmanship to be vacant. As a first step, the member Institutes: USI Nanaimo, RUSI Vancouver and RUSI VI, named Col John Eggenberger of Victoria to be the BC Vice Chairman to FMUSIC.

The Institute presidents found that our Institutes continue to provide a forum for the exchange of views, ideas and experiences between Institute members and between members and invited guest speakers.

  Our regional Institutes were seen to have a varying degree of success in achieving the mandates of being committed to encouraging and fostering, through a spirit of comradeship and participation by the membership, responsible military and non-military initiatives and strategies designed to promote and sustain domestic and global security.

The presidents affirmed that the aims and objectives state that an Institute is:

a) to engage in open discussion, exploration and development of initiatives concerning Canadian and international defence and security issues;

b) to present issues, initiatives, research, and policy proposals to appropriate government bodies;

c) to promote a better awareness in the general public of Canadian security issues and the need to meet the defence commitments of Canada.

Moreover, Institutes are to function in cohesion with established Military and United Services Institutes in Canada to: further the aims of individual Institutes and the Federation of Institutes; to cooperate with and assist organizations which have objectives similar to those of the Institutes; and to promote membership in the Institutes to persons eligible for active and associate membership.

The FMUSIC Challenge

The FMUSIC interim National Chairman, RAdm Jamie Fraser, has challenged the Institutes across Canada to decide what it is that they want the national organization to be within the present status and how to achieve it. Awakened to what is at stake: principally the loss of a voice in the affairs of the Canadian Forces and Canada’s security, the West Coast regional view has been determined and presented as recommendations to the FMUSIC National Chairman.

1. That FMUSIC be retained as a national-level independent entity that represents all Institutes.
2. That FMUSIC assess the requirements (including funding) to conduct the business and leadership as a national office on behalf of the Institutes.
3. That an assessment be conducted to better determine how well individual Institutes and FMUSIC are achieving their mandate with a view to improvement. The assessment to be considered as a basis for determining the value of the organization and for presentation by the chairman to the Minister of National Defence, and Vice Chief of Defence Staff.
4. Determine if there is a potential closer linkage between FMUSIC with CDAI that could be synergistic for both organizations while both retain their independent status.
5. Identify those elements for a possible linkage as recommended in 4, above, so that there is a clear demarcation between FMUSIC and CDAI; and identify those areas of mutual interest or cooperation.
6. That should a linkage be identified with CDAI and in the view of Region 8–BC, the Chairman FMUSIC propose to CDAI that his appointment be considered as a vice president of CDAI.

These recommendations have been signed and presented to the National Chairman FMUSIC on 5 February 2007 by Vice Chairman FMUSIC, Region 8 – British Columbia, John C. Eggenberger consolidating materials from: USI Nanaimo, Duncan Dunsmore, president; RUSI Vancouver, Vic Coroy, president; RUSI Vancouver Island, John Eggenberger, president. (Composed and prepared by LCol Vic Coroy, RUSI, Vancouver.)