2015 Annual Planning meeting

WEST POINT SOCIETY OF DENVER

ANNUAL PLANNING MEETING

MINUTES OF MEETING – January 27, 2015

1.       Call to order – Bob Walcott – 14 in attendance 

2.       Secretary’s Report/Approval of minutes – Streich; approved

3.       Treasurer’s Report – Jackson; approved

a.       Financials: as submitted.

b.      Membership Update: Renewal issues. Reconstruct westpoint.org list to see who has dropped off the membership list.  Only a few will renew by founders day.  ** Noted as a critical issue.  Let’s ask people to consider a lifetime membership for $350.00

c.       Website Update: we’ve had the website up for 9 months now.  Going OK.  Covering Hail and Farewells.  Issues with FB interface.  Website costing more than last year.

d.      Biznet: we’ve getting a lot of points for distinguished society.  I’d like to contribute or flat out pay for the program

e.      Budget: proposed/accepted

4.       Admissions Update – Carroll

a.       Status of Program

                                                               i.      2019: candidates 325 students open files, 107 still open . . . Still waiting on a few but 59 nominated. 17 are qualified.  1 offer. 

b.      Congressional Panels/Letters:

c.       2015 Events/Budget needs: $400 is 2 weeks and that’s sufficient

5.       Parent’s Club Update – Walcott

a.       Sendoff: TBD but should be in June.

b.      All Academy Ball: Bob was the MC.  565 people at the Broadmoor.  Big event. 

c.       Candidate Invitations – Founder’s Day.  Tom Carroll will handle.  *Max participation.

6.       Programs and Events

a.       Founders Day March 7 (Walcott)

                                                               i.      LTG Caslen – Class sponsor – need a class of ’75.

                                                             ii.      Responsibilities – Toasts, Speaker Host (Classmate), hotel, name tags, gifts, flags, program, etc.

                                                            iii.      Oldest/Youngest – Emily Phillips ‘11

                                                           iv.      Candidate Briefing

b.      Tri-Service Golf Tournament (Martin)

                                                               i.      Big success as far as turnout but b/c we reduced the fees.  Martin no longer running it this year.  Hopefully Al Blumberg keeps fees low again.

                                                             ii.      Air Force won 2014 L

c.       Leadership Seminar Sponsorship by our Society (Martin)

                                                               i.      Joel sitting on conference calls with Washington D.C.

                                                             ii.      3-day cadet led groups of high school juniors

                                                            iii.      Denver has been talking about it for 2-3 years.

                                                           iv.      D.C.’s budget is about $20K from sponsors and have $200+ students attend

                                                             v.      Joel has all the material.  Need someone to step up as “leader” of the program.  Joel willing to be involved but we’ll need others to help.l

d.      Distinguished Society (Robinson – not here).  Deadline is June 30th

e.      Summer Picnic (Frank)

                                                               i.      It’s a loss on the cost

                                                             ii.      Relatively well attended (16 grads)

                                                            iii.      Plan to do it again.

                                                           iv.      Let’s do June again.

f.        Sporting Events (MacDonald)

                                                               i.      Army Air Force game (Army lost).  10 attended

                                                             ii.      Gymnastics is next (Feb 1^st)

                                                            iii.      3 baseball games

                                                           iv.      Avalanche/Nuggets games?

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)

• Parent’s Club Update – Walcott
• Old Business -

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

• Renewed Business -

1. AOG Donation
2. Friend of West Point
3. Young Grad Engagement Officer

• Next Meeting - Annual Planning Meeting, 1700 Tuesday 27 January, Piccolo’s?
• Adjourn NLT 1300