the organization of LGBT Naval Academy Alumni & Allies
Call for new board members!!! We’re looking to elect four new board members in our December Board & Member Meeting (December 15th)
Please join our October 20th call where we’ll be introducing prospective new board members.
Also, non-board members please remember ALL are welcome to join our board calls since we’ll get the official business done quickly then move onto our member input section of each call. We’d love to hear from you!
Our Annual Alumni & Midshipmen Dinner is CONFIRMED for Saturday April 27th, 2019 at the Alley Bar at the Officer’s Club a the U.S. Naval Academy.
As of now we’re taking RSVP’s to gage interest for this year with the goal of reaching 150 attendees! So please snag a “free ticket“ on Eventbrite
Our tentative agenda is as follows:
Saturday Morning: Alumni, Cadets & Zoomies arrive
Saturday 09:30: Doors Open Alley Bar (O-Club)
Saturday 10:00: Brunch is Served with Mimosa Bar
Saturday 11:30: Presentation of Firstie Shoulder Boards
Saturday 12/12:30: Migrate to Croquet Match where we will rent a tent for USNA Out
Tentative Ticket Prices: Guest $70, Sponsor a Midn $40, Silver Sponsor $250, Blue Sponsor $500, Gold Sponsor $1000
All proceeds are intended to fuel the mission of USNA Out, support the Naval Academy, make an annual donation to Spectrum, and fund future alumni events.
Attire: Annapolis appropriate (think Croquet)
In the DC area? Join Paula M. Neira at the 25th Anniversary Year Kick Off Event with Outserve – SLDN Oct 3rd at 6:30pm
For USNA Out’s Second Annual Sails and Tales 16 USNA Out’ers and Associates made their way up to the beautiful Penobscot Bay in Maine to sail for 5 days and 4 nights on board the beautiful Schooner Ladona! Previously used by the U.S. Navy in WWII as a submarine patrol vessel it has now been refurbished as a beautiful yachting vessel.
Missed the last two trips for Sails & Tales? Head over to FB and RSVP for our Third Annual Cruise next year.
The first “official” USNA Out Midwest group event is on the books! Thank you Kevin Deese and Ashley Fischer for kicking off our first regional group event.
Be sure to check out USNA Out’s Facebook to find the regional group near you. (Don’t see one? let us know!)
Apologies for the long email but it’s worth it!
There are some exciting developments at USNA Out and we hope that all of you can be a part of it in the year to come. To start we would like to announce:
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Together we’re looking to re-expand the scope and engagement in our organization.
New Board Members
We’re looking for FOUR new diverse board members to add to our current three to bring their ideas, energy, and motivation to a growing USNA Out.
Elections will be held in our December Board Meeting (either Dec 15th or in-person at Army-Navy). Requirements to be a board member are a member in good standing (pay your dues) as well as attend two previous board meetings so please join us in August and October to see the progress.
Didn’t make the board elections? We’ll be implementing committees for members to become more involved and learn a bit about the organization as well as share their ideas such as:
| Web Committee | Finance Committee | Events Committee | Army-Navy Committee |
| Annual Dinner Committee | Trans Outreach Committee | Midshipmen Outreach Comm. |
Ideas? |
Building a Mentorship Community for LGBT Midshipmen and Alumni
One of USNA Out’s objectives as an organization is to provide information, mentorship, and personal/professional development resources for LGBT Midshipmen and Alumni.
We are looking to build an “opt-in” mentorship program for all our Members. For our first step, we will be adding to all of our Member Profiles an option to check “yes” to volunteer as a mentor and describe the areas of mentor expertise they are willing to provide.
After we have that option established, it’ll be up to you! If you’re looking for a mentor or advice in a certain area, you can scan our Membership Roster, see who has the right experience you are looking for, and reach out to them on your own. No need to wait and be formally “matched” by a third party.
Army Navy 2018
Army/Navy is right around the corner! This year’s game is set to be on December 8th,
2018 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia.
Resuscitating the tradition, USNA Out will be joining up with members of Knights Out for a pre-game tailgater. Brook Stevens ’12 and Ryan Gilbert ’10 will be coordinating the effort with KO to make this a fun event for everyone. Also, our friends at Deutsche Bank will be sponsoring the entire tailgater. Please do RSVP via Eventbrite which can be found in the event on Facebook, but please any questions email Brook at brook.stevens@usnaout.org.
RSVP Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/joint-ko-usna-out-army-navy-tailgater-tickets-47876427684
San Diego Taking the Lead!
Thanks to Hunter Rogers ’11, Adam Hammer ’16, and Tom Carpenter ’70 we have not one but TWO upcoming San Diego events.
Friday July 13th – Pride Kick-Off Party
Saturday October 27th – Navy v. Notre Dame Football
2019 Alumni-Midshipmen Dinner
For 2019, we’re targeting Saturday April 27th so more individuals can attend our event. We are looking at the Officers Club but if anybody has ideas for inexpensive (or free) venues, ideally on the Yard, that would be great. We would love to run a surplus this year, so we can support the Academy, Spectrum, and more Alumni events. We will also have a new structure this year:
We will also be working to secure a block of rooms at a local hotel (Lowes or equivalent).
RSVP Here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/usna-out-annual-alumni-midshipmen-dinner-tickets-47897959085
Why is Army here? 😉
Over the next year we intend on doing many joint events with our friends up North.
One such event is their annual Cadet Gala, usually the first week of April. We encourage all who can to attend. Brook Stevens, Brian Wiechowski, Joe Soto, and Brian Bender have all attended in the past and can answer questions.
We will also be paying for Midshipmen to attend their event to build cross-Academy relationships.
Building a Networked Community
USNA Out is an organization for everyone from coast to coast, overseas, and those at sea or deployed. In an effort to create closer local communities we’ve created various Facebook groups within our USNA Out Facebook page.
The Southern California group is pulling ahead with 9 members already! Please find your group and join! We’d be happy to sponsor events in your area whether it’s football, going sailing, attending a Navy women’s lacrosse game or even a pottery class! You tell us, and we’ll do our best to help you along the way.
Closed OPEN Session in Progress
Our Board Meetings are now open to all members of USNA Out. Our Board and Member Meetings will have two parts. The first part will be our formal Board business, for all to observe. The second, and more important part, will be our Members Forum. During that time, we’re looking forward to hearing from you! Bring your thoughts, ideas, and energy for moving our organization forward.
We have the next 6 Meetings scheduled (through the summer of 2019!) and posted to Facebook. The next one will be Saturday, August 18th at Noon Eastern Time (9 AM Pacific). Google Hangout link and dial-in number are posted to the Board section of our website now for your convenience.
While this email hopefully detailed many of the ideas and initiatives we have moving forward there is so much room for so much more! So please join us on these calls and let’s hear from you.
Please although not required we’d love for you to donate to the organization this year! Annual dues have typically been $40 but in order to spur recurring donations we’ll be dropping them to $24! There’s a monthly recurring option with PayPal so that’s $2 per month!
Thanks for all your support.
Go Navy, Beat Everyone!
Dave, Brook, and Rosie
USNA Out Board
We will add to this article as we receive your inputs. Please send them to [wpmem_logged_in]newsletter@usnaout.org[/wpmem_logged_in][wpmem_logged_out] to us. Please log in to see the editor’s email address.[/wpmem_logged_out]
USNA Out members were engaged in LGBT Pride Month events in the Fleet and ?? at the workplace.
USNA Out member Paula M. Neira ’85 was the guest speaker for LGBT Month for Naval Facilities and Engineering Command (NAVFAC) at the Washington Navy Yard. Paula is a founding member of USNA Out, and has been a life long dedicated advocate for LGBT open service. Paula’s commitment to LGBT service was recognized by the Secretary of the Navy when she was chosen as the ship’s Co-Sponsor for the USNS Harvey Milk (T-AO-206).
USNA Out member Steve Hall ’75 was the honored guest speaker at the first ever LGBT Pride Month event at the Strategic Systems Program Office. Steve had served as the Executive Officer of the Sunnyvale, California, branch office Continue reading “USNA Outers in Pride Events”
HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!
Lots of news to share with our members in this June Pride newsletter, the first newsletter which is assembled from the news and events that are posted on our recently upgraded website. We know this newsletter is waaaay too long — We’ve got a full year backlog of news to share. Going forward with the communications tools built into our site, our all-volunteer newsletter team can now send more frequent, timely updates, and if you members keep your communications preferences up to date, you should also be able to receive geographically targeted communications
New board member Brook Stevens ’12 has taken the lead in the 2018 Army Navy joint tailgate with the Knights Out in Philadelphia in December. We should also have a few opportunities to gather USNA Out members around the West in the coming months around these Naval Academy events:
Events don’t need to revolve around a Navy Football game. Perhaps a significant LGBT movie at your local film festival, or a dining out activity. If you are willing to form a team to sponsor a USNA Out event, please contact the board to let us know.
There have been several changes within the USNA Out Board of Directors. Continue reading “USNA Out Update”
Captain Jarrett send us this:
“Hello to everyone from the peanut gallery here.
Just a couple of items to mention some of our alumni who are doing great things in the fleet Continue reading “Bravo Zulu”
Brook Stevens ’12 was elected to the USNA Out Board of Director in the annual meeting that took place on 16 June. Continue reading “Brook Stevens ’12 Joins the USNA Out Board”
Your feedback is important to us. We did extensive testing on our upgraded site to ensure our visot experience was a good one. But there is nothing better than 406 real visitors to help uncover some of the unexpected issues that you might uncover.
It should be obvious that we’ve made a major upgrade to our website.
We are now using WordPress for our content management system. Have an interest websites? Please contact us and let us know your skill sets.
WordPress is the CMS du jour for websites, it is open source and supported by a thriving community. It is non-proprietary and is here to stay in the foreseeable future. Yes, the WordPress user-interface is very intuitive and multi-platform friendly… “Easier than Facebook” to post a news story to share with other USNA Outers. Continue reading “WordPress Migration”
Paula Nira ’86
It is with great excitement to share that the Secretary of the Navy has announced that Senator Diane Feinstein and USNA Out founding member Paula Neira ’85 are the co-sponsors of the USNS HARVEY MILK (T-AO-206). The ship’s sponsor is a ceremonial position to bestow good luck and divine protection over the ship.
The “Naming Ceremony” will take place at 2 pm, Tuesday, August 16th on the “great lawn” of Treasure Island, San Francisco.
Paula was a member of the Class of ’85. After graduation with distinction, she became a surface warfare officer. She entered the reserves at the end of her obligated service, but volunteered for active duty serving on a minesweeper during Operation Desert Storm.
After resigning her commission, Paula continued her education in nursing and in law, becoming a member of the Maryland Bar Association in 2002.
Paula was a relentless leader in the fight agains the former policy knows as “DOn’t Ask, DOn’t Tell.” After the repeal, she continued her important work towards transgender service.
Paula was the first transgender veteran to win the right to have her military records changed to reflect their correct names and gender. This past May, Paula was inducted into the SLDN Hall of Heroes.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c3818036/paula-neiras-story
General Dynamics NASSCO was awarded a $3 billion contract by the U. S. Navy in June for the detailed design and construction of the next generation of fleet oilers, the John Lewis-class (TAO-205). This contract is for the construction of six ships. The U.S. Navy’s FY2017 budget requests advance procurement for the HarveyMilk, with procurement expected to occur in FY2018.
USNA Out member Greer Puckett ’75 is the recipient of the 2014 Outie Trailblazer Award at the 2014 Out & Equal Workplace Summit held at the Moscone Convention center in San Francisco. Five USNA Out members were present to witness Greer receiving his award and listen to Greer’s remarks to the more than 3000 gala attendees.
The Out & Equal Workplace Awards (known as “Outies”‚ honor individuals and organizations who are leaders in advancing equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees in the workplace. Through these awards, Out & Equal recognizes innovative approaches and proven successes to help create safe and equitable workplaces. For a complete list of 2014 Outie award winners, please see http://www.outandequal.org/events/outie-awards/.
This Trailblazer award recognizes an LGBT person who has made a significant contribution to advancing workplace equality. The awardee’s activities will have made a marked improvement in their own workplace and/or have contributed to the equality nationally. Greer was selected amongst finalists from Lockheed Martin, Intuit, USAID, COnAgraFoods.
Thank you Northrup Grumman for your support and confidence in Greer!
Top photo: USNA Out members Jeff Petrie ’89
Joe Soto ’83 & Eric Shangle ’97
with SUPT VADM Fowler
USNA Alumni Assn photo by Debbie Latta
Four members of USNA Out — Steve Clark Hall ’75, Joe Soto ’83, Eric Shangle ’97 and Jeff Petrie ’89, attended the USNA Foundation’s 2008 President’s Circle Weekend in Annapolis. In addition to an awesome comeback win by Navy over Temple in football, all four attendees agreed that we had a truly successful weekend and a great time!
This was the third straight year in which USNA Out Members attended the President’s Circle Weekend events. Eric Shangle ’97 and his classmate Thomas were the only two attendees who had graduated in the past 15 years. Because of our relative youth among the participants, USNA Out members stood “OUT” in the crowd.
The events of the weekend serve to recognize and thank major donors the the USNA Foundation. The ambitious schedule included business meetings, cocktail receptions, tours of facilities, the final Fall Formal Dress Parade, and a delightful “Halloween Concert” in the chapel featuring the Naval Academy choruses performing to the accompaniment of the mighty M.P. Möller pipe organ.
All USNA Out members who have the financial resources to join the USNA Foundation’s President’s Circle are strongly encouraged to do so. By attending events such as the President’s Circle Weekend, we demonstrate that our commitment to excellence at the academy is as strong as (or stronger than) that of our contemporaries. And by doing so, we put a very positive face on who we really are here at USNA Out.
Twenty seven members of USNA Out personally cheered on the Brigade of Midshipmen in an advertisement submitted to SHIPMATE MAGAZINE.
