Alamo AOG Business Meeting 26 Jan 2018

Welcome

Upcoming events

  • Founder’s Day – Kay Grosinske
  • Picnic at Canyon Lake-–Kay Grosinske
  • BANG Luncheons – Jim Green

2017 AOG Chapter Presidents Conference

I (Jim Marshall) was able to represent the Alamo Chapter of the USAFA Association of Graduates at the annual Chapter President’s Conference. In attendance were 28 Chapter/Affinity group representatives. This conference was a joint AOG chapter and Parents’ Club event.

We,including the presidents of the attending Parents’ Clubs were welcomed by a reception at the residenceof the new superintendent, Lt Gen Jay Silveria, class of 1985. Gen Silveria had invited most of his seniorstaff, several members of the cadet wing staff and the falcon handlers along with some falcons.The next morning found us at Doolittle Hall having briefings from the staff of the academy. Again wewere joined by the Parents’ Club presidents attending Parents’ Weekend at the academy. The shortbriefings were good.

The Supt spoke to instilling a “warrior ethos” into cadets. The Academy did not fill its pilot slots last year. He also said that the AFhas given the Academy it’s own budget line now.

The new Commandant B Gen Kristin Goodwin spoke to efforts to assist, without coddling, the basic cadets during their first summer. Commandant's Focus - Excellence; , People, Accountability, Pride are her emphasis areas. She is one focused and engaged professional and extremely serious about her responsibilities for producing officers into a USAF at war. Current Comm Shop emphasis is placed across a range of specific training and education activities to help cadets understand the real Air Force by graduation time and to be significantly socialized into how the AF works via 4 years of cadet time before commissioning. She seems to like cadets to learn by their own experiences and solve their own problems within the wing. Her first choice does not seem to be “top-down” direction from the Commandants office – very refreshing and helpful for leadership training for cadets. (no need for the binoculars on the window sill of the Commandant’s office).

Director of Admissions. He spoke to the diversity goals set by the AF. A couple of interesting statistics were: 16% of the class of 2021 were 1st generation college attendees and that 25.5% of the class were recruited athletes. They also gave us the statistics that they had 10,200 applicants for the class of 2021, of which 2,600 were fully qualified. 1,400 were offered appointments and 1,200 accepted.

After Polaris Hall, we went back to Doolittle Hall where we attended the rest of our briefings anddiscussions. Marty Marcolongo, the new CEO of the AOG and Jennifer Bateman from the Endowmentspoke on AOG/Endowment. A spirited discussion of the concept of a single CEO resulted. The real problem seemed to be on the Endowment sidewhich has as many as 7 organizations gathering money for the academy with little or no coordinationamong them. There was no indication of the AOG and the Endowment having trouble working together.

The Distinguished Chapter Banquet was held in Doolittle Hall that evening with the announcement thatthe Alamo Chapter was the number four chapter.

Friday morning there was a Parents’ Weekend Parade by the entire wing. Representatives from the top 5 chapters had the opportunity to view the parade from the reviewing stand with the senior staff. The wing did a great job and itturned into a wonderful morning. The wing stayed on the Parade Grounds after the “Pass in review”and was dismissed from there. The parents were encouraged to go onto the field to meet their kids. Itwas very interesting and wild.

We spent organized, as well as break time, discussing “best practices” among the various chaptersrepresented. Some of the ideas and thoughts from these sessions and the AOGstaff members follow:

•We can post announcements of our events on the national AOG calendar for all to see.

•The AOG has developed a program to send a chapter composed email to whatever grad list achapter desires. They refer to this program as “Blast” emails. They will send “blast” emails outfor us if we request. They can also provide statistics for these emails with numbers of readings,undeliverable address, etc.

•The “Webguy” is now an all year, all classes, photo journal concept that is very popular withparents but is available to all.

•We will be migrating our web site to an offshoot of the national website—Jim Foster.

•The Rampart chapter has assisted various ALO’s with support for candidate visits to USAFA.They would like this offer passed on.

•Most chapters conduct less formal Founders Day Dinners (FDD) than we do. Some FDD’s areBBQ parties and even just hors d'oeuvres and drinks. We will continue with the more formal event at the Petroleum Club.

•Some chapters have had good luck inviting authors of interesting books as speakers.

•Mike Rose of the Charleston Chapter strongly recommended the West Point Ethics andLeadership program.

•The AOG will conduct online reservations for us for any event to include collecting the moneyand providing lists of respondees through CVENT.

•The AOG will conduct surveys of our membership if we so request.

•We can contact the AOG for names and addresses of current cadets.

AOG CEO Marty Marcolongo emphasized the need for the graduate community to realize, and share the realization, that we hear most about the one or two percent of the cadet wing that are outlier-cadet cases in the media, while 98%+ of the cadet wing are amazing young people who are doing remarkable things. Marty asked help in getting out this reminder message to all alums. Every university has its share of inappropriate and undesirable behaviors. The USAFA “fishbowl” effect has not changed over the decades and the scrutiny of our Academy is high because the expectations are rightfully high of those who are appointed and attend our great school, and that applies to the staff as well. Sexual harassment and assault instances at USAFA are intolerable and puzzling, but USAFA still remains among the safest campuses in the country. The AOG president feels that the graduate community can bring a greater focus on, and voicing of, the many incredible accomplishments by our cadets, a voice that lets our society see the greater good that is happening at USAFA.

Significant class reunion changes are coming. Sequestration impacts to USAFA resources over the past 4 years have led to a reduction of USAFA support (staff briefings, buses, etc.) for reunions, and limiting official USAFA staff/resource availability for reunion weekends to 3 per year starting this year. This is going to have significant impacts upon future reunion plans to be dealt with by all classesunless by some miracle the sequestration constraints may be eliminated between now and then. The AOG is also contemplating offering class committees three different tiers of reunion planning and coordination support with corresponding different costs; top-tier, mid-tier and basic. Specific details of these options and costs will be rolled out in a month or so. The AOG reunion coordination staff asked for inputs from all classes regarding these reunion change implications.

Elections

Current slate of officers

  • President – Jim Marshall
  • VP – Bernie Barris[MF1]
  • Special Events – Kay Grosinke
  • Business and Networking – Jim Green
  • Secretary – Vacant
  • Communications – Forrest James
  • Treasurer –Jerry Perkins
  • Webmaster – Jim Foster

Confirmed the slate as presented.

1

[MF1]Was Bernie at the meeting?