The introduction to this handbook sets forth the common purpose shared by graduated classes of the United States Military Academy and the Association of Graduates. Good communication is critical in furtherance of those purposes. While many still feel that there is no substitute for an eye-to-eye conversation, we have progressed over the years from communicating in written form by letter and talking on the telephone to a broad arena of contact means. The greatest advancements in recent years in communication has been the World Wide Web (WWW) and e-mail.
With this proliferation of means of contact, we have established a means of assuring that our graduates are not inundated with unsolicited mail (snail or e-mail). The following is the AOG policy as it relates to providing address information:
Addresses for all members of a class or company (including ex-cadets, widows, and others associated with the class, as appropriate) within a class will be given to any class member requesting same, providing the purpose is for the good of the class (e.g., general news on a member, company, military unit, etc.; reunions or mini-reunions, newsletters, class gift-fund solicitations, specific accomplishments, promotions, awards, etc.).
Addresses for a specific group of individuals within our database (e.g., members who played a specific sport, members of a specific club or organization, etc.), will be provided for the purposes of communicating information of interest to the majority of the members of that group.
Specific requests for information on graduates who are not members of the class of the requestor will be handled on a case-by-case basis and approved by the Director, Class Support Program. Information can be requested by sending an e-mail stating the requirement and reason for the request to Class-support@aogusma.org.
In no case will information be provided, as outlined above, if the intent is commercial or political solicitation or fund-raising.
The Association of Graduates homepage address is www.aogusma.org. Your access to the WWW will give you up-to-date information on what is happening at USMA, and in some cases, around the world, related to cadets and graduates. We have also established a directory of e-mail addresses for each class. You can make e-mail contact with other graduates who have their e-mail address in the AOG database by using the “Contact A Grad” link on the home page or by using the following simple formula. Address your message using the first eight letters of the last name (all if less than eight), followed by the first letter of the first name and the last two digits of the class year, followed by @aogusma.org. For example, if you want to send a message to Tom Mulyca, the address would be “mulycat73@aogusma.org”. To ensure the best communications through any media, it is critical that you provide changes to your addresses, telephone and FAX numbers, and e-mail addresses as they change to address@aogusma.org or call 845 446-1544.
» CATEGORIES OF DISTRIBUTION LISTS
Distribution lists for classes are currently available for you to send announcements to your classmates. These lists are automatically kept up-to-date using the current e-mail address on file in the AOG database. For details concerning these high-quality, low-volume lists, see “WORLD WIDE WEB.”
» WEST-POINT.ORG
WP-ORG is a volunteer army numbering nearly 100 graduates and parents running more than 300 listservices in support of most USMA classes, 51 West Point Societies, and 41 West Point Parent Clubs. Two of the more active listservices WP-ORG supports include WP-Forum, a moderated list open to USMA grads of any year group and rank; and Parent Forum, a moderated list for USMA parents to learn about West Point and exchange information and questions with other parents. WP-ORG also is host to 30 cadet activity and sport listservices and is providing a home for USNA parents and USNA Parent club sites.
The initial structure of WP-ORG was developed by Ditus Bolanos ’90, the web master and Corporate Information Officer. From that initial structure, they have built what has been requested by the West Point community for support and services. Dick Breakiron ’51 is the current CEO. He is supported by a Board of Advisors. The main contact person for assistance is Dian Welle (diwelle@west-point.org). She reacts well to all feedback messages received and that is one of her major responsibilities. WP-ORG feels customer service deserves a full-time person to make sure it gets done in a timely manner. The rest of the volunteers have other responsibilities that take them away from their computers for part-time or full-time employment.
WP-ORG’s purpose is to support any communication needs of the West Point Community that can be reasonably provided within the structure developed. They have developed the functionality to provide each of the 40,000 living graduates of West Point with a Personal Homepage (PHP) that converts on death to a Eulogy Site to receive testimonials and pictures of classmates, family, and friends. They hope that in the future the entire long gray line will be represented on the web.
WP-ORG looks at its capabilities as a support system for any group that seeks it. Their job bank enjoys unbelievable success in giving grads a place to hire grads at ZERO cost. There are numerous examples of grads sending in one résumé to one of our posted jobs and getting hired and being extremely happy about the ease of the operation and the quality from the job.
WP-ORG is totally independent of USMA and the Association of Graduates. They work closely with both as it serves their primary interest of serving the West Point Community. They get hundreds of queries from high school students, scholars, former military, and other citizens of the world seeking information about West Point. They are quick to pass to the appropriate USMA or AOG official those queries that are misdirected to their site.
Examples of WP-ORG services include Listservices; personal home pages; the WP-FORUM for grads only, which allows for the free discussion of items of interest to the grads; an online store offering books, CDs, and videos; travel and cruises; surveys; and free e-mail.
For more detailed information, please go to WP-ORG’s homepage at www.west-point.org. |
