Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 12:55:27 -0600
To: <pres-net@West-Point.Org>, "Betty B. Shaffer" <ashaffer@swbell.net>
From: Joannie Parr <theparrs@mail.io.com>
Subject: pres-net: Summary on Holiday Balls


Some of you are beginning to plan for your next holiday ball (or your first one) and you are asking for information. As you know, I collected comments from members of Parent-Forum, and I've tried to summarize what they said for you. It was a lot! I also have so other thing which have been sent, such as programs, and if you need that, please contact me directly and I will send that to you.

I hope this is of some help. If you have additional questions, please contact me.

Joannie

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United States Military Academy (USMA)
West Point, New York
Founded in 1802

United States Naval Academy (USNA)
Annapolis, Maryland
Founded in 1845

United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA)
New London, Connecticut
Founded in 1876

United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA)
Kings Point, New York on Long Island
Founded in 1938

United States Air Force Academy (USAFA)
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Founded in 1954


The All-Academies Winter Ball is the one time during the year where all the Cadets and Midshipmen from all five Federal service academies can come together for the purposes of having fun and getting to know each other. It also is a chance to expose those in the local community to the wonderful opportunities offered at these academies.

Cadets/midshipmen, their dates, their parents, grandparents, and other family members and friends attend, as well as local academies' alumni, US Senators and Congressmen, and members of the local military units (if appropriate). "We brought along some ex-military friends of ours and they enjoyed themselves. There were also a number of new 2nd Lts. who attended in their Dress Blues."

The Ball is usually a formal event, full dress uniforms for cadets/midshipmen, with tuxedos for civilian men and cocktail or long dresses for ladies.

In some areas, the Ball is always held in the same central location to the entire area, and in other areas, the Ball is held in various parts of the region from year to year depending upon the choice of the host club. Either way, it is helpful if arrangements can be made for discounted motel/hotel rooms in the area if your geographic region is very large.

The evening generally begins with a social hour, followed by dinner and a keynote speaker. Dancing follows. One community also serves pizza later in the evening for those who are still there. Cash bars are available during the evening.

Reservations and payments need to be collected in advance because you have to guarantee a certain number of meals. Paying at the door often means some people don't show up and the clubs are left having to pay for extra meals. (This seems to be about the biggest financial pitfall that I was warned about.)

The check-in process needs to be highly organized and able to move quickly. The best comment I received on this topic was this: "I did help with registration and there were only two lines set up (A-J and K-Z). May have been a little better had the alphabet been broken up into three or four lines as people had to wait awhile in line."

The Colors are often presented by a local military unit or ROTC group. (You often need to provide free meals to those in the color guard.)

Once everyone is seated, there usually are a series of toasts, given by seniors from the various academies....to the President, and to each of the service academies. In some locations, all toasts are made with non-alcoholic wine, and in other places, the adults are served wine, while all cadets, dates and kids are served grape juice. The toasts are followed by honoring those not present. "...We have one table which only has one place setting. It has a rose, salt on the plate, and the wine glass turned upside down. The napkin is black and this symbolizes all the MIA's and fallen soldiers from all the wars our country has been in. We give a short presentation on this and have a moment of silence." One club also made arrangements to have a local high school student play Taps.

The Masters of Ceremony for the evening is very important to keeping the event on time and interesting. A local celebrity who has had military service might be an ideal choice, if one is available. The Keynote Speaker should be someone who can provide interesting insight to something that is militarily related, either currently or historically, and try to keep this speech to no more than 30 minutes.

Some groups will introduce all the seniors in attendance, and some clubs manage to present flags to each which has been flown over either the State Capitol or the US Capitol (not sure). (If you start the flag tradition, you need to be sure you will be able to carry it out every year so as not to disappoint future classes.) Other groups present all the cadets and midshipmen, having them enter the ballroom, by class, by academy, at some point early in the evening. It is a nice chance for all the families to see all the numbers represented, as well as to compare the uniforms of the academies....helps a lot of people learn which uniforms belong to which academy, too.

While some balls do have a live band, the music is frequently provided by a DJ. Either way, the music should be of such a variety that all age groups will be able to dance during the evening. Be sure the dance floor is large enough to accommodate A LOT of people. (At last year's Ball, at one point, my husband commented to me that he thought he outranked everyone he has stepped on so far....Opps! Not good.)

Donations are collected from a variety of sources, including local businesses (any local defense contractors in your area?) and local parents, to be given out as door prizes during the evening to the cadets and midshipmen in attendance. The nicer the prizes (such as airline tickets) and the greater the number of prizes (such as fast food gift certificates) the greater the incentive is for the cadets and midshipmen to remain at the party for the duration of the evening. It is best to keep the prizes generic so that any service academy cadet or midshipman would be able to enjoy the prize. Prizes are often awarded periodically during the dancing portion of the evening.

This is a great family photo opportunity, so many groups make arrangements for a professional photographer to be available during the social hour and maybe also after dinner.

Cost for the evening does affect on the number of people who are able to attend, especially since it is during the Holiday season. One suggestion was to keep the table decorations simple as this will help keep the cost down. Another suggestion was to be creative as to where you hold the Ball. "Our ball this year was put on by the Naval Academy and it was superb. We had it on the USS Lexington which is docked in Corpus Christi, TX. It is known as the "Blue Ghost" and was lit on the entire outside in blue light. Pretty spectacular at night. I can't hardly imagine a more awesome setting....The ship has been turned into a living museum so there were wonderful wall size paintings of crews on deck, etc." I also heard that they had to enter the ship that night following appropriate Naval protocol....fun!

Another suggestion regarding how to keep the cost down and to encourage everyone to attend was this: "My first suggestion for a medium to large city or suburban area would be to obtain a 501(c)3 from the IRS. We were able to raise $4,000 to offset Ball expenses thanks to this classification. We had one large grant of $1,500, and two $500 donations based on this tax exempt status. Our goal was to offset the cost of the Ball and therefore lower the cost of attending so that all cadets and midshipmen (we ask all the Academies to attend) could afford to come to the Ball. We also offered complimentary tickets to those families we had identified as having financial hardships, knowing they would love to attend, but could not afford to even at a reduced price. We made calls about a two weeks before the Ball, telling these families that "donors had turned some tickets back in, and would they like to have them?". By asking in this manner, we felt that no one was offened. Our cost this year was $39.95 and we charged $28.00 to attend the Ball."

One mother wrote "I thought it was great how the DJ kept the kids (and parents) dancing on the floor practically all night. That is key. He also got the kids "fired up" so to speak by playing a game (musical chairs of sorts) with cadets from the various academies. He also drew names for door prizes throughout the evening and even after the dance was over, there were still prizes to be given away and all of them were given away. Lots of great prizes too, cold hard cash, airline tickets, gift certificates to local eateries, etc." The game of musical chairs was played at the beginning of the dinner, and it involved inviting a reasonable number of the cadets and midshipmen to bring their chairs out onto the dance floor. The DJ then told them to go into the audience and locate a particular object....such as a comb or a picture of a pet....lots of stuff Mom's have in their "big" purses but not in their little evening bags. Each time, while the cadets/midshipmen were scrambling about, a couple of chairs would be removed. When it got down to the last two participants, they were told to go get a "perfectly square" piece of toilet paper. It took them a moment to realize that that meant they were going to have to leave the room to go get it. However, being equally involved and since it was down to two competing service academies (USMA and USNA), several others scrambled to help delay the one from the competing academy.

It is suggested you keep in mind the difficulty of people having to travel to come and of people having to work the next day in relationship to how the Holidays fall on the calender for the year in selecting your date for the event, as this will affect attendance.

"Our other hurdle is convincing the cadets to bring their dress uniforms home and participate. Parents tell us the cadets don't like wearing the uni's away from school.......My wife and I feel that it is only one day out of the whole time they are home and that they should humor us parents....at least for one night." It was suggested to send e-mails to all the cadets and midshipmen in the area at school in late October to ask them to start planning for the event. Then send the invitations in mid November.

And I thought this was an interesting idea: "There were two tables of local community college women who came to meet cadets. Unfortunately, no one knew they would be there so there were dateless cadets who didn't come and cadets who brought dates they didn't care for just to have a date."

The responsibility for planning this event frequently rotates among the various academies parent clubs in the local area. It is a good idea for the parent groups to collaborate each year, meaning that the host group would have overall responsibility, while dividing up invitations, etc. among the other parent groups. It is very helpful to maintain a detailed notebook about the planning of this event which can be passed from parent club to parent club, as the responsibility for planning rotates.



*** PRES-NET post by: PARR Tom & Joannie WP Area Reps/WPS South Texas <theparrs@mail.io.com>

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