The WPS of the Tennessee Valley has been designated a Distinguished Society once again!
Month: March 2006
Please Donate!
It's that time again, WP-ORG's semiannual fund drive. While WP-ORG offers almost all of its services for free, they do cost money to operate and they rely on your donations to keep the computers running. The budget for the next six months is at http://www.west-point.org/budget/ and you can donate online at https://secure.west-point.org/donate/.Society History
The West Point Society of the Tennessee Valley is one of the 75 West Point Societies officially recognized by the Association of Graduates. Our Society is centered in the Redstone Arsenal/Huntsville area and serves the Greater North Alabama region. Our mission is two-fold:- To provide an organization wherein graduates and former cadets may associate in order to foster the Academy's aims, ideals, standards, and achievements.
- To provide active support to the Director of Admissions at the Academy in securing top notch candidates for entry to USMA as cadets.
Our Society was organized in May 1967. Activities include our annual Founders Day Dinner and help with admissions. We have sponsored lunches and picnics, football game rallies, supported hockey team visits to Huntsville with dinners for the cadets and pre-game “tailgates”, and supported a Glee Club visit to Huntsville.
Admissions
West Point was ranked the number one public university in America by Forbes Magazine in 2009. Alabama’s 5th congressional district is one of the most competitive districts in the country. Many qualified young people apply to West Point from our area. Our goal is to ensure that the most qualified of these candidates join the Long Grey Line.
Don Ecklin ’77 is our WPS Admissions liaison. Don has set up a network of WPS and WPPC trained volunteers who serve as Admissions representatives to specific schools. Each of these “field force reps” is responsible for getting to know the guidance counselor and ensuring the counselor is well informed, as well as mentoring the students from that school who are interested in West Point. Contact Don at donald.ecklin@us.army.mil if you have any questions about Admissions and our Society school rep program.
What to do if you know someone interested in West Point?
1. Encourage him/her to apply on line at http://admissions.usma.edu/. Students should apply during the spring of their junior year or earlier.
2. Encourage him/her to take and re-take the ACT AND SAT as often as possible. West Point will accept the highest scores from each test.
3. Encourage him/her to contact Don Ecklin, donald.ecklin@us.army.mil, our WPS liaison. Don can direct the young person to the school rep he/she will be dealing directly with throughout the Admissions process.
4. If you’re talking to a prospective athlete, don’t. Direct athletes to ask the coach to contact the Army coach. The coaches directory and more information about recruiting can be found at http://www.goarmysports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=11100&KEY=&ATCLID=324035
Thanks for your support of the Admissions process and Long Grey Line.
Beat Navy!
Society Officers and Board
Our current officers are:
| Position | Name | Class | Term Expires |
| President | Gary Stewart | 1966 | 2019 |
| Vice President | Steve Raymond | 1990 | 2021 |
| Secretary | Tom McLaughlin | 1966 | 2019 |
| Treasurer | Don Wolfe | 1967 | 2020 |
| Admissions | Don Ecklin | 1977 | N/A |
| Activities | John Warnke | 1980 | N/A |
| Communications | Bill Wilhelm | 1981 | N/A |
| Active Duty Liaison |
Jason Dupuis |
2005 |
N/A |
| Veteran’s Liaison |
Will Webb |
1972 |
N/A |
| Parent/Cadet Liaison |
Bryan Dohrn |
1981 |
N/A |
And the current board members are:
| Name | Class | Term Expires |
| Jeff Showalter | 1998 | 2020 |
| Paul DiNardo | 1981 | 2019 |
| Joel Jamison | 1999 | 2020 |
| Mike Cantor | 1980 | 2019 |
| Ted Sendak | 1966 | 2021 |
| Bob Reynolds | 1975 | 2021 |
Society Mailing List
The West Point Society of the Tennessee Valley communicates primarily via email. We use the West Point Association of Graduates’ database that generates our regional members roster. We take that roster to generate our mailing list periodically and make sure to do it before society events so we have the latest. If you want to join our mailing list, log into the WPAOG website and update your contact information with them. Click the Login link on the top right of their page and after you login, click the My Profile link in the same place. That lets them know you are in our area and appear on our roster. You should become part of the mailing shortly. If you do not want to wait you can also contact our society information systems officer, Mike Lyman and let him have your contact info.
The mailing list is very low volume most of the time. For most of the year there are only a handful of message each month. During football season and before Founders Day, the traffic increases somewhat as we coordinate those events.
Messages to the mailing list will have a subject line that starts with “wps-tenn-valley:” If you receive an email like that it’s from us! We occasionally use the WPAOG mailing list so anything with a subject like that starts with “[arealist-al2]” also comes from us.