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This is the homepage for a non-profit computer
network serving the extended West Point Community. It is NOT an
official source of information about USMA (United States Military
Academy) or the AOG (Association of Graduates). This network
is composed of a series of Web pages and automated Email remailers
called Listservers. These remailers serve USMA class year groups,
parents of current cadets, and West Point societies as well as
other special interest groups that are a part of our community.
WP-ORG is funded by the generosity of member
contributions, and is governed and run independently from USMA
and AOG. WP-ORG is operated by two employees, and an army of
volunteers serving the Long Gray Line.
WP-ORG is a volunteer army numbering nearly 100 graduates
and parents running more than 300 listservices in support of
most USMA classes, 51 West
Point Societies, and 41 West
Point Parent Clubs. Two of the more active listservices WP-ORG
supports include WP-Forum, a moderated list open to USMA grads
of any year group and rank; and Parent Forum, a moderated list
for USMA parents to learn about West Point and exchange information
and questions with other parents. WP-ORG is also host to 30 cadet
activity and sport listservices and is providing a home for USNA parents and USNA
Parent club sites.
WP-ORG has developed the functionality
to provide all 40,000 living West Point graduates with a Personal
Homepage (PHP) that converts, upon the death of a graduate, to
a Eulogy page for the gathering and display of testimonials and
pictures from classmates, family and friends. WP-ORG Jobbank
enjoys unbelievable success and enables graduates to hire graduates
at ZERO cost. We are now able to support online payment of dues
for Societies and Parent Clubs.
MISSION STATEMENT
West-Point.Org, a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization, provides an online communications infrastructure
that enables graduates, parents, and friends of the military
academy to maintain and strengthen the associations that bind
us together. We will provide this community any requested support,
consistent with this purpose, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
BOARD OF ADVISORS
CEO
- Dempsey Darrow USMA 1975
CFO - Jack Price USMA 1964
CIO - Warren Hearnes USMA 1989
Remaining Board:
Dempsey Darrow USMA 1975
Doug Dribben 1983
John Greiman USMA 1981
Warren Hearnes USMA 1989
Megan Hostler 1968 wife 2004 2007 parent
Mike Lyman USMA 1987
Bob Magruder USMA 1964
Donna Matturro McAleer 1987
Michael McGurk 1985
Raymond Nelson 1983
Robert Totten 1960
Dian Welle (parent - Class of '02)
See our Bio's at: http://www.west-point.org/service/advisor/
Contact the Advisor Board by
writing to: feedback@west-point.org
WP-ORG Inc. HISTORY
The concept of networking grads,
in the literal sense, started in the summer of 1994. The first
Email was sent out sometime September of 1994 as a simple 'Hello'
to a list I, ditus Bolanos '90 (our founder), downloaded from
the AOG-BBS (roughly 30+ names). At the time, he was employed
at Intermedics, Inc. and the best he could muster (or be allowed
to do under company equipment) was an alias file. By March 1995,
'ditus moved to Austin, Texas, and joined Pencom Software, a
division of Pencom Systems Inc. There, he was provided the tools
to start a true listserv (the remailer). The program of choice
was Majordomo.
At about this time frame, he
dubbed the service AOG-NET. By April 1995, Dolf Beil, an MIS
professional and cadet parent, who supported his initial efforts,
helped him bring the West Point Parents on line with WPP-NET. This group was very motivated, as
the ability to communicate with their cadets through the Internet
gateways had shown them the power of Email.
By December 1995, with Jack Price's
< jack@west-point.org>
help, AOG-NET expanded to the WEB. On 1 January, 1996, AOG-NET
officially announced WEB services. Shortly thereafter, our group
of class year group representatives encouraged me to think about
setting up a more permanent arrangement with a server which we
would own, and offered to raise the necessary money. It was done.
Officially on April 27, 1996,
AOG-NET was retired with many thanks to AOG. WP-ORG Inc. was
born under a new charter and with a sense of independence. WP-ORG
Inc. lives in its own domain under http://www.west-point.org.
WHY ISN'T WP-ORG Inc. PART OF
AOG OR USMA?
By being outside the "official"
West Point gate, we have a degree of freedom of expression and
responsiveness which allows us to do such things as include "commercial"
networking in our class home pages. With our own server and domain,
we can offer capabilities beyond Department of Information Management
(DOIM), AOG, and West Point such as state of the art WEB-authoring,
listservs/remailer, FTP site, and many more. System administration,
software development, and maintenance are provided by Ditus Bolanos
'90. All our efforts are devoted to keeping our networks at the
leading edge of change.
Some of the services we provide
are also offered by DOIM. However, DOIM is constrained by firewall
(security) considerations necessary in a government provided
service. We work in co-operation with both AOG and DOIM and recommend
their services. Click here
to go directly to the AOG Web page. Click here for instructions on AOG's capabilities
for electronic hosting.
WHERE ARE THE SERVERS?
The WP-ORG Inc. servers once
were physically located at ditus' home.
We grew up in 2002, and moved
to an office in Pflugerville, TX that better holds our many servers.
SERVICES PROVIDED:
Two full-time System Engineers;
Megan Price, in Austin, working on service-enhancement projects
with Ditus Bolanos, and Dian Welle, in California, who handles
the day-to-day requests from our members for assistance.
Full point-to-point T1 channel
to the Internet for increased bandwidth (increased this year
from fractional T1 capability).
A Jobbank site providing graduates
with a free job listing / job finding interface.
http://defender.west-point.org/service/jobbank/
Personal Homepages for every
graduate of USMA.
http://www.west-point.org/users
Eulogy sites that are a class
tribute to those who have left the class behind.
http://www.west-point.org/taps/
POP/FTP accounts for all USMA
graduates.
http://www.west-point.org/service/pop-users/
http://www.west-point.org/service/ftpusers/
AltAlias (personalized email
addresses) for all USMA grads.
http://www.west-point.org/users/php_email.html
WebMail for all West Point Graduates.
https://defender.west-point.org/webmail/
Continual upgrades to our servers.
http://lazarus.west-point.org/images/topology/network20010923.gif
Listservices and Websites for
all USMA classes from 1935 to present day.
http://www.west-point.org/class/
Multiple cadet-parent listservices
for over 2,300 parents.
http://www.west-point.org/parent/wpp-net/
Parent Club Support (website
hosting, listservice hosting and online dues payment).
http://www.west-point.org/parent/parent_clubs.html.
Multiple Annapolis parent listservices:
http://www.usna-parents.org
Support for the West Point Bicentennial
with our own tribute to that event.
http://www.west-point.org/family/bicent/
A healthcare listservice for
the West Point Community.
http://www.west-point.org/family/healthcare/
The WP-ORG Online Store.
http://gradstore.west-point.org/index.html
Streaming audio of famous Thayer
Award speeches.
http://westpoint.west-point.org/real/
Hosting the West Point Women’s
Network Site www.westpointwomen.org
Hosting the USMA Women’s
Conference Information and Registration site at: www.west-point.org/usmawomen
Candidate Biography Statement
Site for AOG elections
Sharepoint website/webboards for AOG Communications Outreach
and Marketing Task Force
HOW CAN I HELP?
If you can help moderate a class
not now having a Listserver and home page, please contact Bill
MacLean at: moderator-owner@west-point.org.
If you have software engineering talent and if you are interested
in volunteering your programming skills, please write to: sysop@west-point.org.
Our system is primarily built using perl, Tcl, javascript and
the Vignette V/5 platform.
Occasionally, we need feedback
from the entire community. In the past we have done this when
we selected a domain name for our new server and with our donate
page to raise funds for our server. Please participate when you
are notified through notices on your listserver.
Or look for this 
CAN COMMERCIAL ENTITIES JOIN?
Yes, with some restrictions.
The class Web pages are specifically set up to include businesses
of graduates who are on that class page. Coordinate this with
your class moderator. Additionally, some businesses of
universal interest, such as Academy Photo appear on the various
listservers.
Our primary commercial focus
is, however, on the web page which features the Job Bank site.
The Job Bank page lists job openings
which are posted by members who submit through their list moderator.
These listings have a 30 day life unless renewed or removed by
the poster when filled.
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