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- Jul 25, 2009
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Okay - I understand times are hard and some have many other expenses but..
KingsPtDad and KPFran14 for that matter too:
I understand many folks have financial restraints, etc. and I am not insensitive to those things. Some use this weekend every year like SeaFaringMooseMom does to center their pilgrimage to see their DS/DD even though they are not plebe, and a weekend in the NYC Metro is never cheap, etc. So if you can afford it you should go, and obviously I think you should pay for and get the badge, again if you can afford it.
All that said, as I think kdbax has already done a good job of highlighting - the $300.00 is most definitely NOT a donation. I went through this on an earlier thread but since it's clear there is some lack of understanding or misunderstanding - Acceptance Day and Parents Weekend are really two different things to some degree. The Acceptance Day events are part of your son and/or daughter's curricula at the USMMA - they are the regimental events and ceremony whereby your DS?DD are sworn into the US Naval Reserve, so they are mission related activities. They are done basically as they've always been done for over 30 years, on Saturday Morning. In the days I went to the Academy your parents were always encouraged to attend if they could. It was actually the first time my dad visited Kings Point, we weren't a well off family, both my parents worked even back in 1979 and my sister was in Medical School at the time, so my wanting to go to and getting into KP enabled them to help her out some along that way... As it was my parents must have gotten up at like 4 in the morning on Saturday to drive up to LI from Philadelphia and see the parade and ceremony. In the end though my point is - no Friday events, no open house/classroom tours, no access to the barracks, no tents on Barney Square, no lunch for parents, etc. They came saw the parade, were on their own for lunch and then paid to see the Football Game and hoped we got Liberty and some time together after the game - overnights on that weekend had not yet become the norm, etc. My point is the events I went to 2 years ago when my DS was a Plebe were much nicer but it's clear they cost more in a lot of different ways.
Parents Weekend - the open house events of the campus, having tours, etc. all that stuff is relatively new. Vice Admiral Stewart thought it would be a good, morale boosting event. At the time the Superintendent had some discretionary funds for support of midshipman welfare and morale activities. For a lot of reasons, but mainly because that fund was in effect Government Funds - even USMMA Alumni Foundation Funds once transferred through the gifting process to the "Academy" transition through the US Treasury and once they are in the hands of a Government Employee for use - are Government Funds and can only be expended following Federal Law and in support of inherently Governmental/Mission Support Activities and Expenditures.
So, that source of funds are no longer available to support those activities that are "Parent's Weekend" activities. So now the costs for those sorts of things related to Parents Weekend must be paid for by some other means. A fee for service type of situation clearly seems entirely appropriate where the fee is some sort of reasonable bundled, pro-rated apportionment of the total costs to each of the people or families who want to attend. Such a fee is most definitely not a donation and I'd have to assume as a nascent 501 (c) (3) that any residual funds left over from this years Parent's Weekend fees after all costs are settled would in some way be quickly consumed by the other non-profit activities that the Parent's Association conducts or executes in support of their stated charter and mission which is basically the support of the Regiment of Midshipmen.
As noted it's the New York Metropolitan Area - one of the most expense to do anything - those tents don't erect themselves and I'd bet the company that rents them in addition to deposits, rental fees, etc. also charges to set them up and take them down. Food from Melville Hall will likely be very good - it was 22 1/2 years ago when we got married there; but it too as noted costs money - in fact more than the meals in Delano Hall which were an issue apparently with some parents in past years. And the list goes on ...
KingsPtDad and KPFran14 for that matter too:
I understand many folks have financial restraints, etc. and I am not insensitive to those things. Some use this weekend every year like SeaFaringMooseMom does to center their pilgrimage to see their DS/DD even though they are not plebe, and a weekend in the NYC Metro is never cheap, etc. So if you can afford it you should go, and obviously I think you should pay for and get the badge, again if you can afford it.
All that said, as I think kdbax has already done a good job of highlighting - the $300.00 is most definitely NOT a donation. I went through this on an earlier thread but since it's clear there is some lack of understanding or misunderstanding - Acceptance Day and Parents Weekend are really two different things to some degree. The Acceptance Day events are part of your son and/or daughter's curricula at the USMMA - they are the regimental events and ceremony whereby your DS?DD are sworn into the US Naval Reserve, so they are mission related activities. They are done basically as they've always been done for over 30 years, on Saturday Morning. In the days I went to the Academy your parents were always encouraged to attend if they could. It was actually the first time my dad visited Kings Point, we weren't a well off family, both my parents worked even back in 1979 and my sister was in Medical School at the time, so my wanting to go to and getting into KP enabled them to help her out some along that way... As it was my parents must have gotten up at like 4 in the morning on Saturday to drive up to LI from Philadelphia and see the parade and ceremony. In the end though my point is - no Friday events, no open house/classroom tours, no access to the barracks, no tents on Barney Square, no lunch for parents, etc. They came saw the parade, were on their own for lunch and then paid to see the Football Game and hoped we got Liberty and some time together after the game - overnights on that weekend had not yet become the norm, etc. My point is the events I went to 2 years ago when my DS was a Plebe were much nicer but it's clear they cost more in a lot of different ways.
Parents Weekend - the open house events of the campus, having tours, etc. all that stuff is relatively new. Vice Admiral Stewart thought it would be a good, morale boosting event. At the time the Superintendent had some discretionary funds for support of midshipman welfare and morale activities. For a lot of reasons, but mainly because that fund was in effect Government Funds - even USMMA Alumni Foundation Funds once transferred through the gifting process to the "Academy" transition through the US Treasury and once they are in the hands of a Government Employee for use - are Government Funds and can only be expended following Federal Law and in support of inherently Governmental/Mission Support Activities and Expenditures.
So, that source of funds are no longer available to support those activities that are "Parent's Weekend" activities. So now the costs for those sorts of things related to Parents Weekend must be paid for by some other means. A fee for service type of situation clearly seems entirely appropriate where the fee is some sort of reasonable bundled, pro-rated apportionment of the total costs to each of the people or families who want to attend. Such a fee is most definitely not a donation and I'd have to assume as a nascent 501 (c) (3) that any residual funds left over from this years Parent's Weekend fees after all costs are settled would in some way be quickly consumed by the other non-profit activities that the Parent's Association conducts or executes in support of their stated charter and mission which is basically the support of the Regiment of Midshipmen.
As noted it's the New York Metropolitan Area - one of the most expense to do anything - those tents don't erect themselves and I'd bet the company that rents them in addition to deposits, rental fees, etc. also charges to set them up and take them down. Food from Melville Hall will likely be very good - it was 22 1/2 years ago when we got married there; but it too as noted costs money - in fact more than the meals in Delano Hall which were an issue apparently with some parents in past years. And the list goes on ...