November 12, 2026 · DECKER. Newsletter Issue #4

I’m forming a foundation to teach local kids real IT — and today I asked three people to help me do it right

Lead story

I’m a retired U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer. My trade was information systems. It’s the trade that built my business, and it’s the one I can personally teach.

So I’m forming a nonprofit — the Valhalla Technology Foundation — to teach Coastal Bend youth real IT skills, the hands-on way. Students start by diagnosing and repairing actual hardware. Then they climb a certification ladder: CompTIA A+, Network+, Linux+, and Security+, along with Microsoft certifications. The long-term goal is a community data center here in Portland that trained students help operate under professional supervision. Real systems. Real responsibility. A credential record no employer can ignore.

The first step is deliberately small: one Saturday cohort of eight to twelve students, in borrowed space, learning on donated business computers.

Today I sent the first three letters. One to Dr. Michelle Cavazos at Gregory-Portland ISD. One to Kenneth Trevino at Workforce Solutions Coastal Bend. One up my Sea Cadet chain of command to CAPT James Jones. I’m not asking any of them for money or a commitment. I’m asking for their perspective, and thirty minutes to talk about how a program like this should be built.

That’s how everything else I’ve built started — with a conversation, not a pitch.

Know a business retiring computers, or a student who belongs in the first cohort? Reply to this email. →

Connector Spotlight

The CPA seat is filled — Phillip Willms, Willms CPA PLLC

The Bay Area Business Alliance holds one seat per industry. One roofer. One lender. One CPA. When a seat is open, we wait for the right owner — we don’t fill it with whoever applies first.

The CPA seat is filled.

Phillip Willms runs Willms CPA PLLC. He paid his $1,000 Alliance membership on November 6. This week his membership was confirmed, his Alliance Connect login went live, and on Wednesday he sat down at The BWB Restaurant in Corpus Christi for his first meeting in the room.

Here’s why that matters to everybody else in the network: when a member, a client, or a neighbor needs a CPA, there’s now exactly one call to make. Not a directory. Not a Google search. One name, already in the room and already invested in it.

Welcome to the Alliance, Phillip.

Need a CPA you can refer without holding your breath? Phillip Willms, Willms CPA PLLC: phillip@willmscpa.com

Coming up

• Wednesday, November 18 — Johnny Enzo and I meet with a title company about the Homeowner Pass, the homeowner subscription program the Alliance is building. More on that after the meeting, not before.
• Wednesday, November 25 — Bay Area Business Alliance meeting, 12:00–1:00 PM, The BWB Restaurant, Corpus Christi.
• Know a local business owner I should spotlight next? Reply to this email and tell me who.

From the arena

• Monday: the Alliance’s second reserved seat filled the same way the first one did — Lavernon Clay of Clear View Shutters LLC paid his $1,000 membership on November 9 and took the window-treatments seat. With Phillip’s CPA seat, the Alliance now stands at nine paid members.
• Wednesday: Alliance meeting at The BWB Restaurant — the first meeting in the room for our three newest members, Matthew Aris, Phillip Willms, and Lavernon Clay. That same day, two referrals went out to Laurel West — one of them from Matthew Aris. First meeting, already handing business out. That’s the room working the way it’s supposed to.
• Thursday: Matthew Aris asked me about rebuilding his roofing company’s website on Wednesday. Thursday morning the proposal was in his inbox: $1,997 to rebuild the Aris Roofing site, $1,000 to start and $997 when it’s finished and he’s signed off — with a live concept preview he could click through before deciding. Now it waits on his answer. I don’t count it until he does.
• Thursday: I also put the first draft of a longer plan on paper — a headquarters building with living quarters, right here in Portland, TX. Office, work area for future employees, conference room, a gym, and a place to lay my head. The first tract I’m looking at is 2.51 acres on Sunset Street. Nothing is bought. Part of that land is wetlands, and the diligence comes before any offer. A plan is a plan until the land checks out.

— Alan