Classmates,
Thank you to all who could make our first annual virtual class meeting last Sunday night. We had 82 classmates attend and the ZOOM call lasted almost two hours. We will post in a few days the presentation slide deck and a video of the call on our class website www.usna1978.org for you to review.
In summary, we introduced the nine members of our class Board, our 4 class officers and 5 members-at-large, and then gave a brief “State of the Class” report. In 2024:
- We updated our Class Bylaws (posted on our website)
- Our Distinguished Graduate Committee helped pulled together three more nomination packages and we had one of our nominees selected, Andy Winns (24th CO). Congratulations, Andy! The 2025 DGA ceremony has been postponed from March 21 to a day TBD in the fall.
- The Board appointed a 50th Reunion coordinator, Ray Bracy, who is getting an early start on preparations by observing the 50th Reunions being planned by ’75, ‘76’ & ’77. He also interacted with ’74 and learned a lot from their planning. Ray will be soon be sharing what he has learned with the class, and he will be seeking your inputs in the near future.
- Our 2024 Arch Griffin & Terry O’Brien Leadership awards were given on December 3, 2024, on board USS Porter (DDG-78). A big thanks to Joe Peterson (6th CO) for taking the lead with Porter.
- After the State of the Class report, Kevin Liddy gave his Treasurer’s report explaining our obligations and expenditures (see class meeting slide deck on our class website for details).
- Vince Balderrama gave us an in-depth look at our Another-Link-in-the-Chain activities. In 2024, we participated in parents’ clubs, Alumni Chapter’s, and NAPS “welcome aboard” gatherings for the Class of 2028, had a great turnout of classmates for the I-Day parents’ picnic, and Art Athens spoke at the Plebe honor coin ceremony. Vince also highlighted upcoming 2025 events: Sea Trials, May 12-13, and Herndon climb, May 14. We will soon pass more information on the May events and other upcoming ALITC activities.
- The presentation ended with a status report of our Class of 1978 Endowment Fund from John Rudder, John Kovalcik and John Semcken, members of our 50th Reunion Gift committee. (Check the presentation posted on our website for more details.)
A little more on our class gift. A 50th Reunion class gift usually starts just after a class’s 45th reunion. However, our class started our 50th Reunion class gift a couple of years before our 45th reunion so we could participate as a Class in donating to the new Alumni Center (Fleugel Hall). Donations to the new Alumni Center made up the first half of our 50th Reunion Class Gift. The second half of our 50th Reunion Class Gift is the Class of 1978 Endowment. So, all donations made since 2021 when we signed the MOU supporting the Alumni Center count towards our total 50th Reunion Class gift.
The Class of 1978 Endowment will provide funds to the Academy according to your ranked priority categories we obtained from our class survey. Unless specifically designated by you for a specific purpose, (sports, building project, etc.) all donations going to the 50th Reunion class gift up to December 31, 2028, go into the Endowment Fund. Once the 50th Reunion class gift accounting ends in 2028, the Endowment lives on, and we all can make additional donations to the Class of 1978 Endowment Fund if desired.
The Class Gift Committee will be coming out with specific responses to the questions that were asked during the Class Zoom Call. Please look for that in the near future.
Following the Board presentations, we had a great question and answer sessions with a lot of good conversation. We appreciate all that were able to participate.
Fair winds,
Glen
Glen Woods
President, USNA Class of 1978