WPSD Board Meeting Minutes: Minutes from December 2nd, 2014

West Point Society of Denver

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

Tuesday December 2nd, 2014 1130 - 1300

370 Van Gordon Street, Lakewood, Colorado 80228

Call to Order - Walcott
- 8 in attendance (may not be a quorum)
Secretary’s Report/Minutes Approval – MacDonald
- Minutes from prior meeting approved
Treasurer’s Report – Jackson
- Financials submitted
- 2015 Budget draft presented for input from BOD between now and January’s planning meeting. Budget is at a $300 deficit and Dave would like to get it balanced.
- Membership up net 3 members
- Seeking ideas for Founders Day costs
- 1. With increased ‘subsidized’ attendees like candidates, we need to increase revenue in order to pay
  2. Younger grads may need lower price – how do?

Distinguished Society – Robinson
- The Distinguished Society report changed – Bob reviewed key changes; Lou Schroeder requested a copy of the new report format
- 1. # elective activity points up from 40 to 60 – how those points are assigned is looser, counting individual activities
  2. # elective activities up from 5 to 7

- Dave Jackson recommended we post the report to our website – MacDonald took the task to get it posted
Admissions Update – Tom Carroll
- Out of 5 district, 180 files opened, 98 still open
- This seems lower than last year – EOY 2013 we had 231 files open; Tom to check if national trend is the same
- Interviews – Dave Jackson has been active; Tom is getting more active:
- We have 6 letters of Assurance (3 recruited athletes)
- College Fairs – paid for 18 fairs, attended 9, saw ~220 students
- Tom to talk to Amy Efaw to organize Admissible candidate meeting
Guest Speaker – John Robb ’91 – AOG Board Update
- Discussed leadership of AOG;
- Cash flow – AOG has done well with ‘planned giving’ which are estate donations but those revenues are not realized immediately; more focus now on current cash donations
- Big 2014 initiative is athletics - Needed fixing; difficult operating environment due to DOD and USMA bureaucracy. Examples:
- 1. AD couldn’t have DOD employees report to him. Many coaches, like the sprint football coach, are officers, thus DOD.
  2. The AD (Boo Corrigan) comp was only $150k. The question was how to retain good ODIA staff?

- Interim solution was to place ODIA under an existing 501c3 (USNA model) à AOG. This allowed liberalizing pay to be more in line with other colleges. The long-term solution is to get congressional legislation.
- Lindy Blackburn requested that John see if he could get AOG to better articulate the athletic changes so graduates can be comfortable.
- AOG role/status now elevated - now acting as ‘quasi-procurement arm’ to negotiate contracts for the ARVN Gym annex, new lacrosse facility, sports fields, etc. Now bringing these projects in on/under budget and on time vs. prior traditional approaches.
- NY City tie-in – AOG trying to engage high net worth / high visibility folks from NYC to visit the academy and engage. Example, Mayor Bloomberg played golf at WP and now may donate to a new club house.
Quarterly Meeting –
- Sandhurst Dinner AAR – Walcott/Jackson
- 1. About 20 attendees. Nice setting. Good event
  2. Questions about how to increase attendance to future such events

- Future Events – (notes missing on what was discussed)
Founders Day Planning, Sat, 7 March – Walcott/Board
- Sup will be our speaker! Speaking at CO Springs Mar 6 then our FD in Denver Mar 7
- Menu – minor price increases – overall about 5%
- Dave Jackson confirmed that approval for the $1,000 downpayment to the University Club has been previously approved by the BOD
- Lou proposed starting happy hour at 5:00 with dinner at 6:30 to take advantage of no charge room time and to help proprietor make it worth his while.

(Time ran short so these items were deferred to next meeting)

Navy Game 9 Dec – MacDonald
Army v Air Force Hockey 16 & 17 Jan - MacDonald
Society Webpage Donation Request – Jackson
1. Bob to send out an email blast asking for donations by EOY.

WPSD Board Meeting Minutes