Classmates, I want to reinforce several things in my candidate statement and my desire to serve. I have served for 23 years as a Class Trustee and for the past 18 months as the Class Vice President, I am running for a full term as Vice President. Over that time, in addition to the contributing to everything the class officers have accomplished I have chaired the Class of ‘78 Distinguished Graduate Award Committee, served as our Class webmaster since 2008, and worked to create embroidered logos with our class crest and N Star 1978 at Land’s End. Over the next five years I want to continue to lead and expand these efforts. We’ve had one classmate recognized as a distinguished grad, but there are several more very deserving classmates who should also be selected. With many of us retiring and available to assist, I want to lead an effort to populate our website even more with pictures, stories, and other types of media to better capture the successes and history of the class.
In addition to continuing to lead these efforts, I want to contribute to our Another Link in the Chain effort with the Class of 2028 and to work to ensure our 50th Class gift is the most impactful it can be. There is a lot of talk about taking a more serious look at our class bylaws and I think that is a great idea. I was on the Governance Committee for all six years I served on the USNA Alumni Association Board and chaired the Committee for the last three years. The experience of dealing with the Alumni Association’s bylaws and operations manual, seeing how the Alumni Association interacted with classes, chapters, and SIGs, and having to learn some of the laws and regulations that govern nonprofits will allow me to contribute significantly to the effort to review our bylaws.
In closing, I am ready to serve as the Class Vice President and if elected look forward to serving the next five years.
Thank you,
Matthew Elias