Category: WP-ORG

Every six months, those of us who see to the day-to-day workings of WP-ORG write a fund drive message, requesting funding for the next six months. We take turns explaining how WP-ORG operates, what we do, and how we serve the West Point community. It’s my turn at the wheel. https://www.west-point.org/donate/

As I sit here, I find myself contemplating what I have done, personally, to serve the West Point community. I frequently train new moderators, help you with your email addresses, I assist parent clubs and societies with learning how to create WordPress sites, answer your questions, and, if I can’t, I find a resource who can. Those are the things I do most days. That’s my job. But there is another side that is more than a job, it’s a passion. What I do every single day, is convert the personal web pages of deceased graduates to eulogy pages. If the family or class requests, I add photos and memorials to the main page of the deceased. We don’t charge a fee for adding anything to a memorial page. We have eulogies going back to the late 1990’s! http://defender.west-point.org/service/taps.mhtml

I read every single eulogy written within the WP-ORG system. I do that, so that nothing untoward ends up on the eulogy pages for our graduates, and to correct formatting errors that may occur. Reading each of the eulogies gives me insight to the people we create these pages for. It’s an honor to read them every day. Recently, we have one class son in the class of 1949, who has taken it upon himself to write a memorial entry for every class member in his father’s class. He has nearly completed his task. I have read them every day for months.

Of course some of the people I read about stick with me. When I visit West Point, I always go to the cemetery, where I visit many of the graduates I have come to know through how they’re remembered by their class, friends, and family, and often because I actually spoke on the phone with some graduates frequently before their death. When I have occasion to visit the cemetery, my visits grow longer each time as I reflect at their place of rest. There are some I miss terribly, and knew personally.

This year, however, I remembered one of “my” graduates in the most unexpected way. I took a vacation, which, if you know me, does not happen often. Typically I still do my WP-ORG work from wherever I am. This time, my husband and I celebrated our 50th anniversary in Israel. This was a meaningful trip for us, and I went nearly off the radar for the duration of the trip, and concentrated on being in the moment with my husband in a very spiritual place. Imagine my shock, when our tour guide stopped on a boardwalk in Tel Aviv, on our walk to Joffa, and said that this is where he always stopped, so that we could pay respect to the memory of a young man named Taylor Force. My worlds suddenly collided. Taylor Force (West Point class of 2009) was killed in a terrorist attack on March 8, 2016, during a trip as a Vanderbilt University graduate student, to learn about startup companies overseas. As our guide spoke of Taylor, I immediately pulled up his eulogy page, knowing exactly where to find it, and was able to show our group his photo, which brought a great deal of meaning to this impromptu moment. So, during that trip, I was able to remember Taylor, and pray for his family, friends, and classmates, with an entire group that was in no way affiliated with West Point. What an honor it was to have that meaningful moment that reminded me of why I do the work I do.
https://www.west-point.org/users/usma2009/65378/

If you did not know, the Taylor Force Act was passed by Congress, and signed into law in 2018. https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/1164

I hope this message gives you some insight into the personal way WP-ORG operates.

We require very little to keep our services running. Every six months, our users provide us with a report card on how we’re doing. I hope you find as much value in it as we value each of you.

Link to All Forms of Donation: https://www.west-point.org/donate/
Credit Card Donation Link: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/
Donation Report: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/
F53 Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/

—
Dian Welle
WP-ORG, Inc.
www.west-point.org

WP-ORG Members:

Today marks the launch of our 53rd semi-annual fund drive (FD53) with a goal of $50,252 to fund the operation of West-Point.ORG (WP-ORG) for the next six months. You are receiving this message since you are on at least one email list hosted by WP-ORG. Our services are free to all users, supported by donations via a voluntary fund drive every six months.

You may donate online at https://www.west-point.org/donate/ and choose the form you’d like to use – debit/credit card, PayPal, check, or stock donations. We strive to be transparent with our budget needs. For the next six months, we anticipate needing $50,252 – see https://www.west-point.org/budget/ for details.

We’re in our 27th year of this PBS-style fundraising approach and know that these “votes of confidence” with your donations twice each year keep us actively listening to your ideas and needs. If we provide value to the grads, parents, cadets, and friends of West Point by helping to keep them connected through classes, societies, clubs, and other organizations, then we will generate enough goodwill and donations to keep it going…and that has worked wonderfully for over 27 years! Personally, it has certainly been a privilege to be a part of WP-ORG for 27 years and I have gained so much from connecting with other grads across the many decades of the Long Gray Line. With your support, we will continue to do so.

We consider it a privilege to help this community stay connected and sincerely appreciate your support!

•     Link to All Forms of Donation: https://www.west-point.org/donate/
•     Credit Card Donation Link: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/
•     Donation Report: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/
•     F53 Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/
  

Sincerely,
Warren Hearnes ’89
for WP-ORG Advisors

It’s fundraising time at WP-ORG. Please consider making a donation: https://www.west-point.org/donate

By now you’re very aware that we’re a different entity from the AOG, but with a similar mission to serve graduates. Our goal is to make everything we do easier, smoother, flexible and cost effective. As Megan Klein said last week, “we are enthusiastic and scrappy; we love to help and we have an army of volunteers”.

WP-ORG is of different value to different people – all depending on how you use the services it provides. I know that for the USMA Class of 1968, the services offered provide us a lifeline to the Class. The Class of 1968 relies on WP-ORG for our listservs, our Class website, our registration / credit card sites and anything else we need.

This past June, many members of the Class joined together for a very memorable and moving Remembrance Weekend, honoring the twenty classmates they lost in Vietnam. Family members of most of the fallen classmates joined in the weekend’s events in DC. All the logistical communications and registration were done through WP-ORG.

The Class is gearing up for their 55th reunion next May – and guess who will be building and maintaining our registration sites? WP-ORG. That’s pre-registration, registration, and a special site to pre-order the fourth book in the “Both Sides of The Wall” series – this one geared to the memories shared by the wives – appropriately called “The Other Side of the Wall”.

WP-ORG has always taken a “can do” attitude – and delivers on it. Several years ago, against Dutch’s strong urging, I came up with 68 different memorabilia items to offer at the reunion (with various color choices and size options, so actually significantly more than 68 items). While I’m sure that Megan Klein and Warren Hearnes chuckled at the absurdity, they nonetheless built a registration / memorabilia order site that handled all the variables – in a clear and clean format and in record time. After having to sort / pack all the “stuff” in each classmate’s reunion bag, I saw the wisdom of Dutch’ counsel – but from an organizational standpoint, there was not a word said – it was “can do”.

We also appreciate the fact that I can administer the Class listservs, so when a member of the Class switches his email address and forgets to tell me, the ‘bounce’ does the trick and we’re able to reach out and get reconnected. Similarly, when I am informed of a new email address, it’s a quick zip into the admin files and “out with the old, in with the new”. Some members of the Class have a west-point.org email account, which is of course free and available to all grads, and the beauty of that is that the email address doesn’t change, no matter how many personal or professional moves the grad has over time.

I recently sent in the Howitzer pictures of all members of the Class – so now, when a member of the Class dies, Dian will be able to include their picture on their eulogy page and of course, is willing to take whatever other pictures the Class or family wish to submit. Remembrances on the eulogy pages are living memorials – viewed often, new messages often added many years later – classmates are truly never forgotten.

The services are all offered for free – except for the credit card sites, where we do charge a modest 5% to cover the processing and administrative fees.

WP-ORG is a “people” organization. If I have a question or problem, the answer is an email or phone call away – immediate attention to all. Charitable, tax deductible giving keeps us up and running. Hopefully, with your help the services provided by WP-ORG will continue for many years to come – ever evolving – ever expanding – ever improving.

Donate by credit card, PayPal or check: https://www.west-point.org/donate/

Fund Drive 52 Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/

Donation report for Fund Drive 52: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/

Thank you, always, for your support!
Megan Hostler
WP-ORG

It’s fundraising time at WP-ORG. Please consider making a donation: https://www.west-point.org/donate

As I look back at the 26 years of WP-ORG, I can’t help but smile at how far we’ve come and how much we’ve overcome. WP-ORG has grown from a desk, to bedroom, to a DIY server room, to a co-location facility and now, partially, to a cloud. We used to blink out occasionally when the T1 line would go down, or when a storm would take out a nearby power transformer. We had AC units freeze up and once water came pouring in through the ceiling during a torrential Texas rainstorm. We’ve repaired servers with duct tape. We’ve cannibalized one server to keep another online. We’ve moved WP-ORG in pickup trucks. We’ve thought, a time or two, that WP-ORG was finished – that we’d never be able to bring it back online – but then we did. For years now, in the co-location facility, things have been far more stable. It’s fun to look back at the old days and wonder how the hell we did it. Some of you have been here for the whole ride. We’ve been grateful for your company.

WP-ORG is definitely not the West Point Association of Graduates. For starters, we have only two employees and our budget for the next six months is $51,670.00. But we are enthusiastic and scrappy; we love to help and we have an army of volunteers. 

WP-ORG is a 501(c)3. It’s based in Texas, where it was founded in 1996 by a handful of graduates who saw the potential of the internet to bring the Long Gray Line together as never before. They worked tirelessly to build WP-ORG, giving it a mission to foster the connection of graduates online and to support classes, societies and parent clubs across the country with web-based tools. 

In pursuit of this mission, WP-ORG believes in freedom, autonomy and privacy. 

WP-ORG provided services are controlled and managed by their users, allowing classes, societies and parent clubs to determine how to use these tools to best support their organizations. 

WP-ORG does not data-mine anything. WP-ORG does not sell user information. WP-ORG servers are controlled by West Point graduates. 

WP-ORG exists to give graduates and parents a choice in private online communication, event registration and payment, personalized eulogy sites, email accounts for graduates, and free web space for West Point affiliated organizations. WP-ORG is home to the Ring Recovery Project and a graduate living history project in the form of WP-ORG’s Ward Book.

Though the leadership of WP-ORG has changed through the years, the mission has been unwavering and the organization remains accountable. Every six months, in semi-annual fund drives, we ask our users if the services provided are useful, relevant and needed. For 51 fund drives, the answer has been a resounding yes! 

If you value the services WP-ORG provides, please donate so that we may continue to serve the Long Gray Line.

Donate by credit card, PayPal or check: https://www.west-point.org/donate/

Fund Drive 52 Budget: https://www.west-point.org/budget/

Donation report for Fund Drive 52: https://secure.west-point.org/donate/report/

Thank you, always, for your support!

Megan Klein

WP-ORG INC