The meeting commenced by
teleconference at 1100 EST.
Present were:
Gadd, Golden, Hocker,
Kovel, Rabe, Ramsden, Ray, Schorr, Schwehm,
Smith, and Stevens. Absent was Sadler.
1. The meeting was called
to order at 11:06 AM
2. Treasurer's
report:
Walt Rabe:
|
Account
|
Amount
|
Notes
|
|
Gift Fund
|
$149,871.00
|
$124,066 spendable. The
rest is in a trust fund.
(NOTE: Projects must be
approved by the AOG/Supe.)
|
|
Admin Fund
|
$21,664.55
|
Ours to spend as needed
|
|
Capital One Bank account
|
$2,573.14
|
More readily accessible
admin fund money
|
3. It was agreed that we
need to find a new Widow
Advisor.
A suggestion
was made that we should consider recruiting
both an Army and an Air Force widow.
Make one the Advisor and the other the Assistant Advisor. In addition to having both services
represented, you have a built-in replacement, if the Advisor withdraws. After much discussion, the idea got little
support and was dropped.
It was finally
decided to ask Pat Buck if she would be
willing to take the job. Max Kovel agreed to contact her with this
proposal.
4. Schwehm
raised the subject of Donna Fox's problems with
the administrative difficulties of dealing with Barry's death. Several classmates stepped up to give her
very useful advice about contacting the AOG, Army & Air Force
Mutual Aide,
Social Security, the VA, etc. This led
to the suggestion that we should have someone put together all of the
pieces of
that puzzle and publish them for class-wide use by future widows. It was concluded that we should give the task
to whoever becomes the new Widow Advisor.
5. Thayer Room
Dedication: The Thayer is encouraging Classes
to dedicate rooms in the hotel to worthy classmates.
There is a good deal of money that the Class
would have to pay for the privilege of bestowing this honor on one of
our own
-- Max has offered to find out about how much money would be involved;
and he
will also find out just what we have to do to get one created. At the next Board meeting, we would then
decide whether we want to pay to have one dedicated to one of our
classmates. And, if so, who it
should
be.
Paul pointed out that there is already one dedicated to one
of our classmates. And he further noted
that there were more being dedicated to graduates who were corporate
giants,
than to national heroes. And, if we are
going to do this, we should select a true hero from among the many we
have had
(e.g. Morey McBride, Leon Bieri, Tom Dayton and others).
6. Re the 60th
Reunion:
a. Schwehm advised
that he has studied the activities engaged in by recent reunions of
other
senior classes; however, he found nothing worth emulating that we had
not
already done ourselves. However, Ramsden
had heard from a member of '53, who told him that they had been
entertained by
a band called the Harvey Tibbs Swing Band, which was a big hit. So Paul asked John to investigate.
b. Getting on
post:
(1) Unless
you have a DoD ID card, the only entrance you can use is normally
Thayer Gate
(however someone said that for football games, they don't even stop
anybody at
the Stoney Lonesome gate – nonetheless, recommend that you enter via
the main
gate by the Thayer Hotel). There you
will have to go through an ID check (drivers license will do). You can then get into the hotel parking lot
without going through a vehicle inspection.
(2) Your best
bet is to park there and leave your car there until you depart on
Sunday
(unless you want to go off post for any reason). Parking
anywhere else on post is a mission
impossible (or, at least, it will seem that way).
c. Timing of the
business meeting. The only thing we
agreed on
was "any day but Sunday."
TBD.
d. Where to hold
our memorial service:
1) The Cadet
Chapel is not available.
2) The Old
Cadet Chapel (capacity 275):
a) John
Ramsden thinks it is "cold and moribund".
b) On a
more positive note, it was noted that it could be
coordinated with a
tour of
the cemetery.
3) Jewish
Chapel and Catholic Chapels were discussed, but got no traction.
It was agreed
to hold it in the Old Cadet Chapel.
e. Thursday
program:
1) Check into
the Thayer upon arrival.
2) Reception
(run by the AOG) in the Thayer.
3) No dinner
is planned, but there will be heavy hors d'oeuvres
available at a mixer
in the
Thayer's Pershing Room.
f. Friday:
1) Nothing is
scheduled for the morning. However,
Schwehm,
in earlier correspondence, suggested that we hold the Class
business
meeting then, with the ladies enjoying a coffee klatch.
TBD.
2) Where to
do lunch:
a)
Buckner is the sentimental favorite; however, it requires
another bus ride
(which it is agreed we should avoid whenever possible).
b) Ike
Hall would be the easiest and involve the least walking, in that this
is:
●
Where we will be for the Supe's talk (if we invite him and he accepts). NOTE: Schwehm made a strong pitch for
inviting him only if we are confident that all (or almost all) will
attend.
●
Where the Hellcat performance will be held (if we can get them to play
for us).
c) The
West Point Club (ne Officers Club) buffet is another option, but it
didn't draw
much interest.
No vote was
taken, but Ike Hall appears to be the choice by
default, barring future consideration.
3) Where to
do dinner: options discussed were:
a) The
main dining room (McArthur's Restaurant)
b) The
Zulu Time Lounge. There are handicap
(steps) and weather concerns with this venue.
But the Thayer promises that they will get everyone up the
steps. And we
will need to have an alternate indoors room set aside as a fall-back
location
in the event of inclement weather. There
was much interest in having it there – out of doors, on the roof, with
a great
view across the river.
Choice TBD.
g. Saturday:
1) Morning:
eat breakfast, BS with classmates, prepare for the
parade, and get to
the
parade.
2) Parade
(normally held at 1130 hours).
3) Lunch in
the mess hall. NOTE: The academy no
longer
provides cadets to sit at the reunion tables (too many reunions,
too few
cadets who aren't tied up on more important matters).
The thought was put forward that those with
grandsons in the Corps see if their offspring might be willing and able
to
attend (and bring some fellow cadets with him/her).
If not in the mess hall, then at our final
dinner Saturday night.
4) Afternoon: many options to
be examined:
a) Free
time. This is in response to the general
feeling
(as expressed in previous reunion after-action input) that we
need to
spend less time touring and more time relaxing/reminiscing. It was pointed out that this is always an
option, and some, in the past, have done just that.
b) Tour
of areas of interest in the West Point/Garrison area.
Paul suggests that there won't be time enough
to do this.
c) Bus
tour of West Point – yes, there are new things to see, and it won't
take too
long.
d)
Visit/shop at the Cadet Store.
e)
Cruise on the Supe's boat. ($60 for the rental, paid from Admin Fund)
f) Visit
the Storm King Museum
g) Talk
by a guest speaker, e.g., by a Department Head
and/or Tactical
Department
heavyweight (Schwehm may ask Gerry Galloway to pursue).
Golden suggests that a couple of men (COL
Greg Conti and MAJ Mike Lanham) from the Cyber Branch give us a talk on
the
very current subject of cyber warfare.
(NOTE: Schorr opines that by 2017, Cyber may not be so
current
anymore. But he also notes that he found
it fascinating that the branch was born at West Point.)
Schwehm is
planning on sending out a broadcast
letter, soliciting preferences and suggestions for other options. He will first send it in draft to the board
members for comment.
There was
much discussion about whether to send
this out to only those with email access.
There are 26 classmates who are not on the internet, only
4 of whom ever
attend reunions. In addition, there are
only 12 widows/non-grad classmates who routinely participate in reunion
activities. And Paul believes that all or most of the
latter are
on the internet. So there would be only
four-to-six who would not get any messages that the Board sends out.
However,
the important messages, giving detailed
dates, places, and activities, will be sent out at appropriate times,
by the
AOG, and sent to just about everybody.
So Schwehm offered that there is no issue with sending out
a simple
solicitation for input to only that great majority that is able to
receive
email. (NOTE: This is essentially a sample survey, and one which
will go
to about 95% of the candidate population -- the result of which I
assume the
Class statistician, Bill Golden, will tell you is more than enough to
be
considered a valid input.)
There was
no agreed position, but few objected
to Paul's suggestion. So I assume that Paul will take that as
tacit
acceptance.
5) Evening:
dinner in the Thayer.
a) Closing
show with Hank Hatch as the perennial Master of Ceremonies (not sure
anyone has
told Hank yet).
b)
Ramsden will look into the Swing Band mentioned earlier.
7. Closing notes from the
President:
a. The AOG can
adjust the finances of the reunion such that we will come out either:
● Even.
● With a
built-in loss (to be paid out of the Admin Fund).
● With a
built-in profit (to be added to the Admin Fund).
This is something we need
to think about and decide on
later. For example, does the Admin Fund
need to be fattened a little; or is it too fat, in need of being spent
down?
b. Obituaries for
Taps:
1) At Paul's
request, Fred Smith provided the following data on Class obituaries:
|
Deceased
|
Already
done
|
Left
to do
|
Active
|
Not
started
|
|
212
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
97
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
115
|
3 in next Taps
|
|
|
|
|
|
16
in the mill
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
96
|
212 = 97 +
115
115 =
(3 + 16) + 96
2) Tommy
Thompson is leading the pack. He has
gotten everyone in C-1 taken care of, except Bill Cudmore. Schwehm has volunteered to write one for him.
8. No date was
established for a subsequent meeting.
9. The meeting adjourned
at around 1230 EST.
Respectfully
submitted,
Bob Stevens
Class Secretary