2015 AOG Chapter President’s Conference
Notes, Highlights and Updates
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Gary Howe ’69 , Executive VP of AOG, opened conference stating the purpose of the
conference was connectivity with USAFA. He stated that the new cadet’s admission
standards were higher than ever and our role as chapter members is to fan the flames
of enthusiasm.
“T” Thompson ’73, AOG CEO and President, briefed on 2014-2015 progress and
results. As of 2014, the AOG has 81 chapters with 25,405 members; 112 ambassador
programs and 21 chapters had founders day events. The 2014 budget was $2,746,233
and the association sold over $500,000 in merchandise and earned $462,000 in
royalties. In communications, the USAFA AOG is top in the country among alumni
associations in social media and our website earned 21 awards. The AOG’s net assets
are over $52 million. In 2015 the number of chapters has increased to 85 with 130
ambassador programs. On social media our Facebook has more than 34,000 members
and we earned 38 communication awards. Business operations earned over $2.8
million and assets grew to $56 million.
2015-2018 Plan
 Constituent Engagement
 Sustain existing programs
 Parents Clubs (AOG main contact)
 Class Club program –parents can become AOG members for
$20/month while sons/daughters go to USAFA
 Family Plan - $36/month and become life members (expect 80% of
graduating cadets)
 Affinity Groups
 Liason Officers
 Graduates (young alumni)
 Member Services
 Graduate career services (AOG admittedly lacking—high priorty)
 Reunion services
 Gift shop
 Checkpoints
 Website
 Social media (capture grads not AOG members)
 Chapter events
 History & Heritage
 Heritage Trail
 Plaza of Heroes (dedication Nov 6)
 Financial Improvement
 Establish $1million in reserve
Senior StaffBriefings
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Col. Lambreth – Vice. Supt.
 Outreach/influence
 Higher threat awareness
 In state of change
 Class of 2015 had 844 grads and 350 went to pilot training
 3 primary career fields – air, space & cyber
 Top tier school – 5th in engineering, top 25% in arts
Brig. Gen. Williams ’89 – Commandant
 4000 cadets have less than ½% discipline issues
 85% of cadets got first two choices of AFSCs
Mr. Jim Knowlton – USMA ’82 – Athletic Director
 Leaders of character thru competition
 27 different sports plus cheer/dance
 P.E. programs/ PT testing
 Intermurals
Col. Harrington ’84 – Vice Dean
 B.S. – balance curriculum
 Reducing from 143 to 137 credit hours
 Robust/strong
USAFA Endowment Update
Gen. Stephen Lorenz ’73, President & CEO
 Raised $100 million to date
 51% from grads
 3 career paths – air, space & cyberspace
 Sabre Society grew from $2.3 to$2.85 million in donations
 Polaris Society
 “We all owe this school”
 Be advocates in your chapters
 Designate donations to give to what you want to
 Amazon Smiles program allows you to donate when you buy on line
Gen. Lorenz told a story worth repeating. As he was driving to work near his office at
USAFA he noticed a young mother with two daughters who were wearing UFAFA
sweatshirts. He stopped, rolled down his car window and called to her saying, ‘I see you
have two future cadets in tow’. The lady approached his car and said yes she did. Then
told him that her husband who was a grad died 6 months earlier in a T-38 accident and
she was now a single mom. He got out of his car and hugged the lady and offered his
condolences to her and her young daughters for their loss. He said this was a poignant
example of why we have an endowment program at the Academy.
Admissions Update
Col. Carolyn Benyshek ’87, Director of Admissions
 Average GPA of entering cadets is 3.84
 26% of entering class is female
 9000 applicants
 24% are recruited athletes
 82% of applicants earned varsity letters
 scholarships offered to high school juniors to visit the academy in the summer
 Prop & Wings is a program for grads only to help the admissions office spread the
word about the academy and also assist congressional nominating committees
 Please encourage chapter members to join this program!
 Admission Liaison Officer program ongoing and strong with over 1,200 ALOs
 Contact Lt. Col. Howard Gentry for information on both above programs at
Howard.Gentry@usafa.edu or 719-333-2845
Chapter Tax Filing
Mike Rose, ’69, Charleston Chapter
 The most successful filings (of those who choose to file a certain tax status with the
IRS) is the 501(c)(19) – “organization of past or present members of the Armed
Forces of the United States.”
 I will send out the slides from Mike’s presentation. He does a much better job
walking through the steps.
Corrie Grubbs – VP of Corporate and Association Relations
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Presented the Young Alumni Excellence Award program
Targeting and available for 2000-2015 grads
Chapters to seek nominations
Jan. 19, 2016 submission deadline to AOG
AOG will aid in presenting awards at chapters Founder Day events
Up to 12-20 awards given annually
Beth Wade – Director of Business Operations
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Presented AOG Career Services Update (will send out separate slides)
AOG Information
Beth Szucs ’97, Constituent Engagement Manager
 Strategic Plan
 Three-Legged Stool
 Chapters/Affinity Groups, Parents Clubs, and Admissions
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While each group still needs to maintain their own individuality, by working
together each group will become stronger
Distinguished Chapter Program
 Reminders: Send out minutes/notes to membership following conference, send
Beth tentative calendar of events, start looking at Founder’s Day event
possibilities.
 We’d like to increase the number of award winners every year
Affinity Groups
 These are Interest-based (either as a cadet or as an adult) groups, rather than
geographically located groups
 Current examples are Blue Alliance, Rugby, Silver Falcons
 Making a big push this year to increase the number of groups (already starting a
gymnastics alumni group, cheer/spirit club alumni, and hopefully a group of legal
professionals)
 Would like to develop a Distinguished Affinity Group Award
IT support
 We still offer email blast support, free website hosting, and free online
registration for chapter events
 Updating our website hosting to a weebly.com option
 Please give us 5 business-days notice for email blast requests. 2 weeks if you
need graphic support
 We can provide updated graduate rosters for your area, at any time, upon request.
Best Practices
 The key here is to find out what is most successful for your chapter
 What works for one chapter, might not be the most successful for another chapter
AOG is considering regional meetings where we’d come to certain regions for
updates/briefings, etc.
Parents Clubs
Bill Preston, Director of Constituent Relations
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Help support USAFA Parent Clubs around the nation
 WebGuy throughout all 4 years now
 Create and maintain a robust AOG Parent Portal
 Offering of weebly.com websites
 Encourage Parent Clubs to interact with Chapters and ALO’s to build stronger
communities of USAFA supporters