New Home, New Bylaws, Same Mission: Wpaog History Part IV Section B

Floor Speech

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Mr. SHIMKUS. Madam Speaker, I rise today to include in the Record Section B of the fourth and final installment of an article by Keith J. Hamel honoring the 150th Anniversary of the West Point Association of Graduates: 2009-15: The For Us All Campaign Breaks Records

``In the summer of 2008, the Association and the Academy began to consider a new comprehensive campaign for West Point. The campaign, called For Us All: The Campaign for West Point, officially launched in January 2009. By the time the campaign ended on December 31, 2015, more than $420 million had been either pledged or received, well exceeding the original $350 million campaign goal.

During the For Us All Campaign, WPAOG continued to achieve new levels of support for the Academy and the Long Gray Line. The average of total annual donations to West Point/WPAOG rose to $40.7 million per year, more than 40 percent higher than the average annual donations during the Bicentennial Campaign. More impressively, 58 percent of living alumni made one or more donations. Approximately 50,000 graduates, families, and friends of West Point participated in the For Us All Campaign. The priorities for the For Us All Campaign were divided into five areas. With a goal of $200 million, the largest category was designated as ``For the Cadets'' and sought gifts to fund scholarships (from research through Academic Individual Advanced Development or AIAD opportunities), endowments (in support of academic departments, cadet clubs and teams), and Academy Centers (e.g., the Combating Terrorism Center and the Center for Oral History).

Individuals and classes also committed gifts to numerous brick and mortar projects, including the Frederic V. Malek West Point Visitors Center, the Foley Enners Nathe Lacrosse Center, the West Point Cemetery Columbarium, and more. But, as George Gilmore '71, one of the members of the For Us All Campaign Cabinet said in 2013, ``We will see the effects of this campaign not in new buildings or new playing fields but rather in how well prepared our junior officers arrive in the Army.'' Indeed, in a world of increasing threats to the nation's security, economic stability, and fundamental values, producing leaders of character became more important than ever, and the For Us All Campaign, above all, was focused on ensuring that the Academy had the resources available to fully prepare the next generation of leaders for the Army and the nation.

Since the For Us All Campaign concluded in 2015, WPAOG has continued to build on gains achieved, increasing donations to an average of $49 million annually and raising graduate participation to all-time highs, driven by innovative initiatives such as the All-Academy Challenge. During this period, WPAOG has also won the highest awards of recognition for management practices and transparency from Charity Navigator (four stars) and GuideStar (Platinum Seal of Transparency), and the Development team has earned ``Overall Performance'' and ``Sustained Excellence'' (a five-year award won by only 16 colleges) in fundraising awards from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), a 3,700-member global professional association focused on advancing education. Further Expanding WPAOG Services

WPAOG continued to expand its Alumni Support activities and services into the new millennium as well. Today, WPAOG provides services to 82 classes, 141 West Point societies worldwide, and to more than 53,000 individual graduates. Since launching in 2011, WPAOG's comprehensive reunion services have also proved popular with graduates: in 2019, WPAOG hosted 29 class reunions for more than 14,700 returning graduates and their guests. The WPAOG Gift Shop has steadily expanded its unique product line and services to reunion classes, graduates, cadets and their families, exceeding $1 million in annual sales for the first time in 2005, and recently achieving $2 million in sales. Profits from the Gift Shop support our alumni services.

In September 2006, AOG premiered a new award initiative to engage cadets with the presentation of the inaugural Nininger Award for Valor at Arms to Major Ryan L. Worthan '97. Conceived by E. Doug Kenna '45 and funded in perpetuity by Kenna and his wife Jean, the award is named after First Lieutenant Alexander ``Sandy'' Nininger '41, who was killed in action in the Philippines during World War II and posthumously received the Medal of Honor (the first American army soldier to be so honored in the war). It is given to a recent graduate who has displayed heroic action in battle. Like AOG's Distinguished Graduate Award, the Nininger is an award for which the recipient is meant to be representative of a larger body; in this case, of ``all West Point-commissioned officers who have heroically led Soldiers in combat.'' However, unlike the DGA, which has been historically presented to senior members of the Long Gray Line, the recipient of the Nininger Award must be ``a decorated and relatively recent graduate on Active Duty,'' according to the award's criteria. ``Age is what makes the Nininger Award special,'' said Captain Anthony Fuscellaro '05, the 2013 recipient. ``Cadets have an easier time connecting with the Nininger Award winners because they could be in their boots soon and see a lot of the same things they have seen.''

There have been four board chairmen, Ted Stroup '62, Jodie Glore '69, Larry Jordan '68 and the current chair, Joe DeFrancisco '65, since the new governance model was adopted in 2006. These dedicated alumni servants, along with the WPAOG Board, have provided WPAOG with strong leadership and oversight that has allowed for a consistent upward trajectory in its service to both West Point and the Long Gray Line. Other major initiatives introduced by WPAOG in the last decade include the Dettre Memorial Assistance Program, started in 2008 upon a donation from Mrs. Betty Dettre in honor of her late husband, Major General Rexford H. Dettre '43JAN, which supports graduate burials at West Point cemetery; comprehensive reunion support services as previously mentioned, which debuted in 2011; and the Rockbound Highland Home Program, which launched in 2017 and offers personal benefits through its ``Grad Pass,'' ``Grad Perks,'' and ``Grad Insider Tour'' options so that each graduate who returns to West Point feels warmly welcomed back. A year later, the Rockbound Highland Home Program won two CASE ``Gold'' Awards in the categories of ``Alumni Relations'' and ``Alumni Relations Events and Affinity Programs.''

Just recently, WPAOG has unveiled a new, enhanced Career Services Program, which is designed to equip all West Point graduates with the confidence to successfully navigate each phase of their post-military career transition; Grad Link, a mobile app which expands upon the popular ``Find a Grad'' feature on WPAOG's website to offer the easiest and most powerful way to network with fellow grads; and Sallyport, a secure online portal that provides West Point Societies with three primary services; membership management, communications, and event management. Preparing for the Future

Over the course of its 150-year existence, the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy has evolved into a truly one of a kind organization, one that is simultaneously an independent alumni association serving graduates with services and programs, and also a foundation that solicits and manages funds on behalf of the institution it supports. At many universities, alumni support is a subset of a that school's development operation and staffed by employees of the school. A few are independent organizations with their own board of directors, but they neither solicit nor manage money for their alma mater.

The delicate balance between the foundation side of AOG and its alumni support operations had been an issue of great concern for Robert Lamb '46, Secretary-Treasurer for AOG (1970-72) and then its first Executive Vice President (1972- 90) in his 1990 essay ``Two Decades of Change,'' but after reviewing the last two-plus decades of AOG history it is clear that the fundraising-fraternal fellowship duality of WPAOG's evolved nature has proved symbiotic: the more that bonds between members of the Long Gray Line are strengthened by WPAOG, the more graduates support their alma mater; and the more generously graduates give of their time, talent, and treasure, the more services WPAOG is able to offer to help make the Long Gray Line the most highly connected alumni body in the world.

With its new expansion of Alumni Support and communications to keep graduates connected and engaged, today's WPAOG stands poised to lead support for both graduates and West Point well into the 21st century. Or, going back to Anderson's original principles when he proposed the idea of an Association of Graduates in 1869 in his letter to Thayer: ``to perfect and perpetuate this truly national institution'' and ``for the promotion of social and fraternal intercourse,'' later resolved in the Association's preliminary meeting in which he participated.''

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