Managing the process behind our support to the College



Managing the process behind our support to the College

Earlier today we received significant input during our After Action Review for the Celebration of International Friendship and we are already beginning planning for next year. This is a big event with a lot of moving parts, especially when we ask for support in the form of sponsorship and we have a group like the West Point Glee Club coming in for the entertainment portion. Our staff has the responsibility for the planning and execution but we couldn’t do it without our volunteer supporters and partners. I want to once again thank the International Military Student Division, the Classroom Services Division, the Kansas City Chapter of People to People, the Operational International of the Leavenworth/Lansing Area Chamber of Commerce, and our International Officer Sponsors. Thanks again to all for helping us put on a really special evening.

The CGSC Foundation, Inc. is not a government-funded organization. We rely on the generosity of our individual, corporate and foundation donors. Usually, donations take the form of tax-deductible gifts of money or property. But, donations of time and energy, such as volunteering to help put on our Women’s Conference or attending the IO Gala, are just as important to the health of the foundation. I encourage support in any way that you can help, if we want to continue to grow our program offerings, we need your support.

I have often been asked how we go about adding new programs. There are more worthwhile ideas and recommendations than we can possibly get to and more than we can possibly afford so we have to be very deliberate in our decision making process. For instance, of all the good ideas we received in 2014, we only planned to add two: the Women’s Conference and a Vietnam Commemoration Lecture Series to our current list of offerings in 2015. You can see all of the programs we support on our events page. Our process begins with our board of trustees who volunteer their time, talent and treasure to the Foundation. The board is charged with ensuring financial success as well as providing oversight to our programs. You can see the makeup of our board on the Officers and Trustees pages under About Us.

We have an established process that takes a Great Idea from inception to execution. We actually use the MDMP as a guide from mission analysis to course of action development, wargaming and approval to publishing the order and crossing the LD. Anyone can make a recommendation to the Foundation for a program or support. But after we receive the idea we must first ensure that it fits within our mission and is supported by one of our six mission areas. – You can find them on the Foundation page under About Us. If the idea is not supportive of our mission, we shouldn’t be doing it. Next, we analyze the idea for legality, feasibility, acceptability and affordability and then we take it to the Programs Committee to get initial board approval to proceed with planning. After the College leadership is given a chance to weigh in, we take it to the Development Committee to determine affordability and sustainability. We have to have a source of funding to support the project, without that, we cannot ensure long term viability of any program. Once we have approval and dedicated funding, then we can begin the planning and conduct of the event, program or support requirement. Ideas can fall out anywhere in the process, especially if we can’t ensure the funding.

We want our programs to meet the needs and expectations of our students, faculty and other stakeholders. We do an annual review at our board meetings and will look at the 2016 program of work during the meeting planned for Oct. 7-8 here at Fort Leavenworth. I encourage your suggestions for improvement, recommendations and ideas.  I’d love to have a discussion with you about how we can better support the mission.

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