tankercaptain
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Jun 28, 2012
- Messages
- 509
USMMA Alumni Foundation Lawsuit vs DOT/MARAD
It is sad as the dispute will only take things away from USMMA.
I know Alumni organizations do good things, but I think sometimes they lack oversight.
I don't know how other SA alumini organizations are, but my PERSONAL OPINION is that the West Point Association of Graduates have a big overhead.
Oversight from who?
I have no idea how the Board is made up there, but for the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association, the Board of Directors (the oversight) are CGA alumni. Their meetings are open to alumni and the meetings are posted.
The members of the Board of Directors are voted on by the regular members of the Alumni Association. They represent time periods (less than 5 or 10 years since graduation, 15-20 years or something, 20+.... and "at large") so you get old white guys and young white guys (as each academy is a majority "white guys") and sometimes minorities and women.
Not sure how much more oversight you'd expect. It's hard enough getting people to donate money, I doubt many have any interest (or experience) in providing real oversight.
Who exercises oversight on a civilian public company? If the company is doing bad, stock holders or the market will apply pressure to the board. But for SA Almuni organizations, there is nothing.
Public companies are owned by share holders, yes. And they're audited. And they're registered with the SEC. And yet public companies can fail. And some go private. And some neither grow nor decline.
That said, I personally think alumni are more empowered than shareholders (even active shareholders).
An alumni association has elections each year, and spots on the Board of Directors open and are filled. Those Board of Director positions have terms (I can't remember... maybe 3-5 years). There's a process to remove Association leadership too. And yes, Directors can serve later too.... its not just one and done.
Board applicants are reviewed by a separate selection committee (not the current Board) and presented to association leadership. The final Board nominees are presented to the Alumni Association membership for final votes. Write-ins can also occur.
In addition to all of this, the Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association's publication, The Bulletin, also provides a forum for alumni to voice their discontent.
Financial reports (including audits) are available on the association's website, and each year the financials are published in the Bulletin.
I've found the Alumni Association folks to be very open and willing to have dialogue.
Now, I don't know how other alumni associations work, and I'd be interested to hear about other CGA alumni experiences, but I have positive feelings about my alumni association.
The Alumni are the keepers of the flame in a lot of cases. They typically are more resistant to change than outsiders, but often times because they are stakeholders much more than administrations of the schools who often are more temporary and see things from a completely different persopective- and a persopective that often is colored by trends and the ambitions of the President/ Superintendent etc... So there is often a natural tension there. But what is odd about USMMA's situation is how far that natural tension has truned into complete polarization. KP doesn't appear to have many if any Alumni in positions of authority in the administration or in the Marad, or even on the board of governors. I can't imagine USMA being run by a Coast Guard Admiral with virtually no Alums or professional soldiers in a position of authority over it
I suspect CGA Alumnit Assocation has similiar structure/practice as the West Point equivalent. If so, the system is strcutured (like any others) protect the status quo.
I recently got more interested in my alumni organization operates. So I have a different view than what I had for last 20 years.
I am pertty sure that everyone nominated by the selection committe has been elected to the board and there has been no successful write in campaign. This sounds like how election works in North Korea. . Didn't Bernie Madoff published required finanical report also. Kidding aside, my understanding is that the same thing happens in the civilian companies too.
With alumni apathy, publications and website disclosure are sufficient to keep the mass happy. I have to qualify my opinion that I am not saying any SA alumni organization are doing anything wrong. Rather, we should get more active.
. A voice? yes.... a vote? No.
"I have always thought that Kings Point is the best secret out there. I hope it doesn't change but for the better."