The Air Force Association's McChord Field chapter has a good thing going.

The chapter recently captured the Community Partner Gold Award for the third straight year at the AFA's 2011 Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition Sept. 19-21 in Washington D. C.

This award is given to chapters whose community partner total is equal to or greater than six percent of total chapter membership at the beginning of the qualification period. As it stands, the McChord chapter already has about 150 community partners - the second-most community partners among AFA chapters across the nation.

As new president Bill Striegel takes over, he wants to continue to build on an already strong foundation.

"We'd like to continue what we're currently doing and expand our community partner program," said the 67-year-old Striegel, who took over as president Oct. 1.

Striegel, a Gig Harbor resident, served in the Air Force for more than 20 years on active duty, in the Reserves and as a member of the Air National Guard. After retiring from the Air Force, the veteran worked as a commercial airline pilot, most recently retiring from Alaska Airlines in 2004 after flying for the company for 14 years. He's been a member of AFA since 1964 when he was enrolled in the ROTC program at the University of Idaho.

"You always have that connection with military members," Striegel said. "The military is a family."

The chapter has several programs and activities it supports, and Striegel wants to continue to make each one better. The chapter is a big supporter of Key Peninsula Middle School's NASA Explorer program, and every year selects a local teacher for the Science/Technology/Engineering/Math Teacher of the Year award. The chapter hands out scholarships to local JROTC and Civil Air Patrol cadets, and is in the process of helping local JROTC units build a strong following in CyberPatriot, the premiere national high school cyber defense competition created to inspire high school students toward careers in cybersecurity or other science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.

"We're trying to push the CyberPatriot competition a little more," Striegel said. "We'd like to get some IT mentors to go out to the units and work with students to help them train for it."

While spreading the organization's message and educating people in the community is a big piece to what the chapter does, Striegel also wants the chapter to play a role in helping Airmen and their families. That could mean providing financial support to those in need or just bringing in AFA members to help with whatever units need.

"I would like to get more participation with active duty, Reserve and Guard units," Striegel said. "But we also know it's difficult because the operations tempo with all of them is very high."

The greatest thing Striegel has going for him is the support of a great group of members, he said.

"It makes it easy when you have people that are so involved," he said.