From: "Mike Zets" <mzets@mail.com>
To: "<USNA-Net>" <usna-net@navy-usna.org>
Subject: USNA-Net Newsletter - April 21, 2001
Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 18:07:37 -0400

================================================================
USNA-Net Newsletter April 21, 2001
================================================================

In this issue...
        1.     Army Navy Tickets Go ON SALE April 30th.
        2.     A bit of History - WP-Org and USNA-Net
        3.     Rule Reasons -

================================================================
This Newsletter is sent to all members of our USNA-Net Listservers. It's
published approximately three times each month and is intended to provide
insight into our service, answers to Frequently Asked Questions, and
Technical Assistance and Information to our membership.
================================================================


        1.     Army Navy Tickets Go ON SALE April 30th.

The Midshipmen purchasing period for Army-Navy football tickets begins on
Monday, April 30th at 0900. Mids are able to purchase a maximum of 2
tickets. Midshipman orders are ONLY accepted by walk-up. The ticket office
is in Ricketts Hall.

All Midshipmen will be able to buy TWO tickets for the Army/Navy game (held
this year in Philadelphia on December 1, 2001). They MUST go to Ricketts
Hall to buy the tickets, and they MUST go in person. If they do NOT, Mom
and Dad, and you are not season ticket holders, or are not a USNA Alumni, or
do not already belong to the Athletic Association, you will NOT have the
opportunity to buy tickets to the game until they go on sale to the general
public via Ticketmaster. Last year it was on August 1st - and there were
only 500 tickets that went on sale that day!! Those of us who remember last
year, we recall that no one got through before they were SOLD OUT!!

IMPORTANT - Your Mid will not need a ticket, the ones he/she can purchase
will be the ones YOU will use. Do whatever it takes to "encourage" your Mid
to buy the tickets!!!! Once this window of opportunity is closed, it is
closed. We do not know how many tickets have been allotted to the Mids, or
how long they will have to make their purchases... but keep on your Mid
until the tickets
are bought. If you are NOT planning on going, you might want to have your
Mid buy his two tickets, anyway. Perhaps one of our members may be able to
use them, or someone in your local parents' club. Extra tickets can be
placed on our classifieds page - but can only be sold for face value or
below. No scalping allowed on USNA-Net! :>) (Class of '05 parents, you
will be given an opportunity to buy two tickets sometime this summer - do
not delay - send in the order as soon as you get it!)

Each parent's club has been pre-assigned a group number. If the Mid does
not know the specific number, the office can supply that information when
they order. Group numbers do NOT reserve a block of tickets for a parent's
club. They simply serve as means to group seating together when seats are
assigned.


        2.    A bit of History - WP-Org and USNA-Net

Because you will be hearing a little more than usual about our benefactor
Internet Host Organization, WP-Org, in the coming weeks with the start of
our latest fund raiser, I thought I'd tell the tale here for all of you who
haven't heard it before.

USNA-Net exists solely due to the forward thinking and generosity of WP-Org.
That's right. Our Naval Academy Parents Network is a direct result of the
efforts of West Point Alumni.

A decade ago, an accident just before Graduation prevented the commissioning
of a West Point Cadet by the name of Expeditus B. Bolaños, '90. Following
his graduation, ditus (as he prefers to be called) formed an Internet based
Alumni service organization in an effort to assist his classmates and his
Academy. Thus WP-Org was born.

A few years later, WP-Org expanded its services to extend List services to
WP Parents. Today, WP Parents operate various lists for about 2,200 parents
with various interest groups. Then, three years ago, the Advisors at WP-Org
decided to extend this Internet based support effort to other Academies. A
WP Parent by the name of Dolf Biel volunteered to begin the operation for
USNA Parents. He contacted the web masters of various USNA Parents' Club
Web Sites and invited them to join a new Listserver for Naval Academy
Parents. Those original webmasters and Club Officers numbered about 30
members and were the beginnings of USNA-Net.

Sandi and I joined the group three years ago this summer when the membership
had swollen to a grandiose 70 families. By then, Dolf had established the
Rules of Operation based upon those used on the West Point side of the
organization and was looking to turn over the leadership to a real live Navy
Parent. I was recruited to take over the List since I had earlier helped
design and execute the West Point Bicentennial Web Site
(www.west-point.org/family/bicent) and was the only Navy Parent with the
gullibility (or web experience) to replace Dolf as Moderator.

That was February of 1999. We have grown a bit since then...

We are almost 1,700 families now and have five main lists - Net, Family,
Plebe, Sports and ClubNet. In addition we've added a list for Class of 2000
Alumni Parents; several lists for the use of local Parents' Clubs and we now
host six Club web sites for free for those clubs who have requested our
hosting services.

But our biggest pride and joy is our web site (www.USNA-Net.org)! We are
approaching 200 pages of information. We have the most comprehensive
Parent's Handbook on the Internet and a Photo Gallery with almost a thousand
images. It started out as a single page with a huge "Under Construction"
image and absolutely no content when Sandi and I took over. Since then it
has grown, been rewritten and redesigned countless times until it now is the
best resource on the entire Internet for Academy Parents anywhere and in the
two years since we put the Hit Counter on the site, 194,000 visitors have
agreed with us. Nobody else even comes close.

Well, that's who we are and how we came into being. For the past three
years we have existed through the generosity of our members who have
responded each time we have asked for support. WP-Org has non-profit
501(c)3 status which qualifies every donation as 100% tax deductible and we
truly appreciate everything our members and Wp-Org have done to make
USNA-Net the best thing to ever come along for USNA Parents.



        3.     Rule Reasons - The "Why" behind the Rules.

Rule #1 - Part 2 "Calls to Action, Charitable Causes, Virus Warnings,
Jokes, Poetry, Prayers, etc. are forbidden."

I know it sounds terrible but all of these things are forbidden on our
Lists. Let's look quickly at each for the reasons behind them.

Calls to Action - USNA-Net is an advice and support network and will not be
used by any of its members as a activist forum. We are here to help members
and are not a soapbox for the Cause d' jour.

Charitable Causes - While we share our members concerns about the needs of
others, there are just too many worthy (and not-so-worthy) causes out there.
We can't support only a few so, with the exception of our own fund raisers,
all other causes will have to find support elsewhere.

Virus Warnings - A very few of these are real. Most virus warnings which
circulate around the email circuit are fakes or hoaxes. What's worse, the
fake ones tend to make us all a little less watchful for the real viruses.
Please send any warning to your Moderators instead of directly to the lists
and let us check them out first. If they're real, we'll pass them on to our
group. If they're fake, we'll let you know so that you don't pass the
"chain letter" warning on to everyone you know.

Jokes and Poetry - Tastes vary widely and what is funny or poetic to one
member may be offensive or tasteless to others so ALL jokes and poetry are
forbidden. We do allow some humorous "real life" stories on our lists BUT
they MUST relate to Navy Parenting. Jokes making fun of other services
might offend those members who are career Army or Air Force but have a Mid
at the Yard. If you have a great piece of poetry, send it to your
Moderators and if it's appropriate, we'll put it on the web site's Family
Interest pages.

Prayers - ALL religious references are inappropriate on our lists. We hail
from all parts of the world and hold all sorts of different beliefs among
our members. I like to think we are all good people but we're not all
Christian or Jewish or Muslim or whatever. What may be innocent to one
member may be highly inappropriate to another so ALL religious references or
prayers are strictly forbidden.

Hope this helps with a few more of our Rules. Next time we'll talk about
"Negative Incidents & Fast Breaking News Stories"

In the mean time, please remember our Fund Raiser. Donations are starting
to come in and we NEED YOUR HELP to keep USNA-Net up and running. See our
web site for details.

Go Navy - Beat army!!!

Mike Zets
Westlake, OH
Moderator - USNA-Net Listservers
________________________________________________________________
WP-ORG gratefully recognizes Armed Forces Insurance (http://www.afi.org)
for its continuing sponsorship. FD9 is the fourth consecutive fundraising
drive receiving AFI support.