CAS Meeting 8 April 2009 Update

SENATE WRAP UP

Bart Holaday was originally scheduled to give us an update on the UE. However, he had to cancel due to a family emergency. We have rescheduled him for our July meeting. George VanWagenen was also out sick, so we passed on the Board update. However, the Board minutes and financial report are posted on the AOG website. If you have any questions/comments, I will try to get you answers/responses.

Most of the meeting was devoted to a CEO update by T Thompson. I will try to summarize his main points, along with my own comments, below:
1. The Foundation Day dinner honoring Don Sheppard, '62 and John Martinson, '70 was a success and received exceptionally positive feedback, including from the Supt and the honorees.
2. Planning for the Class of '59 reunion is on track. The statue of General Harmon will be dedicated during the reunion on April 17.
3. Sully Sullenberger will be here on April 15-16 to receive a special Jabara Award and to speak to the cadets. At Sully's request, the event will be low key and focus mainly on the cadets.
4. The Staff and Board are working on the final recap of the Capital Campaign. This has turned out to be more complex than originally thought.
5. T is aggressively pursuing business income streams to offset the decrease in donation. This includes a complete rebuild of the on-line store and a reconfiguration of the merchandise product line. T has also made some low cost/no cost improvements to Doolittle to make it more attractive as a function facility and has continued to aggressively market it as such. For example, last year Doolittle Hall hosted 12 weddings. So far this year, 21 have been scheduled and two more are pending. T is also working with several potential corporate partners to generate additional income. All in all, it is clear that T intends to put the AOG on a solid business footing. He is confident that he can run the AOG on these income streams plus the reduced donations - but not at the level that he would like. The AOG has also reached out to other organizations that support the Air Force in one way or another. The AOG is partnering with the Air Force Association in the selection of recipient of AFA dependent scholarships. The AOG is looking for other ways to increase awareness and appreciation of the AOG within the Air Force community.
6. The Staff is completing work on the 2010 budget. T expects to submit it to the Budget Committee next week.
7. For the first time in anyone's memory, the AOG has sent Stewardship Reports to the 64 endowments that the AOG manages. These reports have been very well received by the donors.
8. The main topic of discussion was fundraising and negotiations with the UE. Active negotiations have been put on a hold for the moment as each side takes a breather to reconsider their positions. It is pretty clear, to me at least, that T has abandoned the "us vs. them" approach as being a no-win situation for every one, especially the Academy. Instead, he has stepped back and taken a look at fund raising from a purely business standpoint. (This seems to be his approach to most issues.) He has looked schools that have successful fund raising programs. This includes Harvard, Yale, Stanford, and the Mountain West schools as well as our sister Academies. They all seem to have the same basic business model with slight variations. Right now there is considerable interest in some version of the Naval Academy model. The AOG is not taking a firm position but it is clear, to me at least, that the AOG is showing a great deal of flexibility and willingness to look at radically different approaches than we have used in the past. I would really like to have had Bart here to give us the UE perspective. Hopefully, he will be able to give a better perspective in July. In the meantime, the ground seems to be shifting underneath the players' feet that make the old "us vs. them" approach irrelevant. One factor is the upcoming AOG election. We will be getting a (partially) new Board that may chart a new direction. We will also be getting a new Supt this summer. The current Supt doesn't like having to go to 7 different organizations to get money for his "wish list." None of the colleges surveyed have anything like our current make up and they are raising tons of money in spite of the recession! He wants a single point of contact for all support to the Academy, the graduates and our heritage. We don't know the new Supt's views but I suspect that he will feel the same way. Along this line, T has brought the Athletic Association 501(c)3 and the smaller non-profits such as the Friends of the Library and the Falcon Foundation into the discussions. Hans Meuh, in particular, brings a lot of money and influence to the table. More recently, Norty Schwartz, the CSAF, has taken a personal interest in the issue. He has talked to T and the Navy Admirals who set up the Navy model and is convening a meeting next week of retired 4 star grads for additional discussions. This may shift the center of gravity from Colorado Springs to Washington. T has been invited to the meeting but will be unable to attend due to the '59 reunion and the dedication of the Harmon Memorial. However, T intends to talk to Gen. Schwartz both before and after the meeting.

Gary Howe gave an update on the election. Response has been slow so far - something like 1,600 ballots (7% of membership). This is too important to let slip by. There are big issues facing the AOG. Governance & fund raising are obvious. The AOG also needs to be put on a solid business basis. Graduate services and the future shape of the AOG are open issues. We need directors who are flexible in their thinking and are prepare to look for real solutions rather than pushing a personal agenda. Take a good look at the candidates' statements, answers to the 12 questions, comments on UT and Zoomie Nation, etc. Vote for the candidates who most closely match you own views - but VOTE!! Even more important, get out there and get your classmates to vote.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to a discussion of Moving Forward 2009-2011. Besides electing new (or old) members to the Board, we need to give them an agenda of what we - the graduates - expect from them in the next two years and beyond. Some of the issues are identified above. I am sure there are others that you and/or your classmates feel need to be addressed. Don't be shy or afraid to think big and/or outside the box. I need your ideas by April 27. I know that is a short fuse but the paper will have to go through several revisions before we have a final product. Take a look at our original Moving Forward (it is on the Senate Web Page of the AOG Web Site). It started out as 6 or 8 pages of history, discussion, options, etc. By the time you got finished it was two pages with five straight forward recommendations which have either been implemented or incorporated into ongoing Board actions. I think it still stands up pretty well and was a very prescient document. You did a great job and are to be congratulated for your work. I want Moving Forward 2009 - 2011 to follow on that same track. Your ideas do not need to be refined at this point and no one should take a firm position or put their feet in concrete. They can be stream of consciousness and I don't care if they are two paragraphs or two pages. I will try to get my arms around as many ideas as possible and produce an initial straw man. We will probably have to e-discuss the paper and it will probably go through several revisions. I think the original Moving Forward went through five or six drafts before we had a final product. I want to have a penultimate version ready for discussion and final revision at the Senate meeting in July so we get it to the new Board at least two weeks before their August meeting. I know it is a big order but I know we can do it, so let's get it started!

Dick Sexton, '60
President, CAS

Click here for a MS Word (.doc) copy