Behind the Scenes – Reactions

Responding to the overwhelming reaction brought about by the USMA OSJA’s overbearing approach to control West Point Parents’ Clubs activities and Web site content, the Chairman of the USMA Association of Graduates issued the following as damage control (SIC), my comments follow:

From: Ted Stroup

Subj: AOG Advisors update on Parents Club “Branding Issue”

This note is to provide you the latest on a controversial issue swirling over the net and telephone circuits about a USMA JAG correspondence with our West Point Parents clubs. I would note that there is a lot of emotion here and not all the information about how  is yet available – but these are the facts as I have picked them up over the last several days.

Let me assure you on two things – 1) your WPAOG has not been engaged in this action between USMA and the Parents Clubs – although we are being erroneously blamed or faulted for the action – more on that later, and 2) the Supe and I have discussed this situation several times and he is energized to take corrective – not punitive action – in both the policy and implementation area – so  you should hear from him first of the week.

WHAT HAS OCCURRED: USMA has undertaken a program over the last year or so to establish protection and ownership of the West Point name and “brand” – meaning images, logos, colors, and names. As I have learned, the initial outreach was to commercial entities that use or have been using West Point ” branding items”. I cannot report on the methodology or success of this effort to date. At some point this spring, USMA communicated to its annual spring Parents Clubs session at West Point that they would be asked to submit a request for use of such West Point items that they use or would use as a Parents club. I am not sure of the extent of effectiveness of this initial contact with the participants and what ’stuck” as to action required. Nevertheless, later this summer,

USMA sent out in legalese a “cease and desist” letter to those clubs that had not response. Hence, the brouhaha that has spiraled around the nets – both WPAOG and WP-ORG. There are a great number of Graduates upset over this action. I have not seen one of the “cure” letters, but what ever the letter(s) said – it has caused a great deal of frustration and hubris – one needs only look at my email traffic. the messages have ranged from “… how could this happen; what does this mean; how can they and of course, how can you WPAOG send out such letters and that was accompanied by “…forget anymore support from me, if you and USMA, act like this to our Parents club.”

WHAT I KNOW : I can tell  you that this action was a  USMA stand alone action that our WPAOG had no participation in – in either process or in the decision tree -leading to this issue development. The Supe is into this from my discussion with him these past several days and will take action and communicate to the Graduates soon. He has an action team meeting Monday to sort through the battlefield debris. We have had a good discussion on this and both acknowledge it is a poorly managed staff action by USMA..I also know that there is a lot of e-talk going about on blogs and forum and class nets – some of which is mis-truths, not factual basis and feeding the fire comments.From some of the comments, it is almost like the blogging going on between Obama and McCain, in the to and fro. Of course, some of these comments paint WPAOG with a tar brush as being the main culprit. To repeat, it ain’t us that is the problem. It is us that is working with the Supe to address the issue and move to solution.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN TO ME – At -Large, Society, Class. Most of us are connected with our local society as Graduates. Most of the Societies are connected by sponsorship, membership, or participation with our local parents club. Parents Clubs are valuable for both retention and recruiting for our alma mater and their eagerness and stability is important. I would ask that you reach out and contact the your local contact – coordinating especially with you local Society – to ascertain if they are in this “branding” issue box. If so, inform that the USMA action is not punitive – but merely housekeeping from the intellectual property perspective and that the USMA leadership will be providing clarifying info soonest. I have encouraged the Supe to move quickly on this during the coming week. If you are a class advisor, I have sent a separate clarifying email to our class leaders – check and see if it made it and stuck for information.

As I understand from my discussion with the Supe, the program will be brought up at our Leader’s conference next month but the Supe’s immediate action will occur more quickly next week.

WHAT ARE OTHER ISSUES INVOLVED: Ancillary to the e-discussion going on is the linkage of this issue by USMA and USMA’s denial of WP-ORG from participating in the “R” day membership events in Ike Hall. I dont have the full story here but what I know is that WP-ORG asked to participate in this year’s “R” day events to promote what they do for Graduates and Families – as aside they have done this in the last several years – last year , I personally intervened with USMA C/S to allow WP-ORG to participate last year. Somehow linkage of this “branding issue” and the USMA denial for this year at “R” day has become misconstrued or promoted as a move by WPAOG to put WP-ORG out of business. Furtherest from reality or the truth, we are looking for ways to leverage the energy and talent of both organizations to better serve West Point and its Graduates. This has not occurred yet and I still have it as a goal as your Chairman. I want us to look to future opportunities to exploit the strengths of both organizations. Still waiting to find solution set.

WHAT ELSE AND WHAT’S NEXT: I will keep pressing USMA leadership to get the action back under control. I will ask that you use prudence and judgment in the swirl of e-info going around the net. In particular, we are not at war with WP-ORG on this issue or on their denial by the USMA to participate in this year’s “R” day. I addressed that above.  Hug your local Parents club if  you are engaged with them and tell them nothing nasty will come if they have not responded to the USMA JAG yet. Stay steady and be rational for the facts not the rumors or the “Rush Limbaugh” like speculations or innuendos. And next Beat Navy. Cheers

It’s heartening to hear that the Superintendendent is about to take control of this issue and bring the OSJA back into line. As the AOG attempts to distance itself from the OSJA’s actions, however, there are some issues regarding what’s been written above:

• As to this being a unilateral action on the part of USMA with the AOG having no hand in it, I got a different inpression from a talk I had with the AOG president. It was the president who explicitly told me, “I had to shut down…” an organization selling liquor under the West Point name. This would certainly lead one to believe that the AOG is, to some extent, involved in the above policing action.
• The AOG latches onto cadet/candidate parents at R-Day as a future source of revenue for themselves and USMA.  With that in mind it would seem logical for the two organizations to communicate regarding actions taken that may affect the cash flow.
• The following terms are used to describe recent electronic traffic regarding the issues specified above: “mis-truths”, “not factual basis and feeding the fire comments”, “rumors or the ‘Rush Limbaugh’ like speculations or innuendos”. It would help to identify the specific “mistruths”, etc., so that they may be factually dispelled.
• The paragraph under WHAT ARE OTHER ISSUES INVOLVED would lead the reader to believe that the AOG’s actions toward WP-ORG are altruistic and that denial of our participation at this year’s R-Day was a unilateral action on the part of the USMA OSJA. In fact, during last year’s approval process, wherein WP-ORG was initially denied, the OSJA provided the AOG with WP-ORG’s approval packet. Why? Furthermore, the president of the AOG, not the OSJA, informed me that WP-ORG had been denied participation. Why would he be in possession of this information?

When and if WP-ORG receives answers to its questions or additional information, we’ll let you know. For history regarding the issues addressed here see, Behind the Scenes and Behind the Scenes, Part II.

~ Dempsey