To: USAFA Space Education Advisory Board

Based on your responses over the past week, I do not believe we will have sufficient participation in the planned 25-26 May meeting at USAFA to justify holding this meeting as planned. Most significantly, many of the grads living in the Colorado Springs area who have been supporting these discussions have now told me of conflicts which do not permit their attendance.

Therefore, I am recommending a change of direction. Since the purpose of this meeting is to provide inputs to the Academy faculty and staff for their consideration in planning next year's activities, I propose a small number of us meet with the USAFA reps on those days and present our preliminary findings, recommendations, and specific offers of support. This approach means we will need to have our messages finalized well before 25 May.

To this end, I have prepared the attached white paper which summarizes our findings, observations and recommendations to date. (If you can't open the attachment, I am also posting it at the web site http://members.aol.com/usafaspace/grads; dated 4/28/99.) The difference between this and the earlier material I sent out is that the prior summary tried to capture the substance of all your inputs, whereas the current paper focuses on those items where I feel we have a significant degree of consensus.

Please review this paper and give me your feedback ASAP.

In addition, I need your inputs on the following topics:

What specific information do you believe should appear in Fourth Class knowledge & Checkpoints?
What material can you offer for motivational and educational displays in the cadet area? I'm thinking of anything from satellite to launch vehicles to the types of marketing displays used at many conferences.
What activities could we sponsor for a cadet space club? For example, could you help arrange a field trip to a nearby facility?
Are you available to speak to cadet functions? Can you arrange other qualified speakers?
Can you help arrange or sponsor cadet attendance at local or nearby space conferences (e.g. USSF)?
Are you willing to serve in any of the following continuing capacities:
interface with Colorado Springs area space operations organizations, to arrange field trips or other educational experiences
liaison with local space-oriented professional societies (USSF, NDIA Space Committee, AIAA, etc.)
liaison with specific space-related companies
provide local support for specific USAFA space activities (e.g. Checkpoints modification, USAFA space club, etc)
coordinator of space-related speakers for Academy functions
coordinator of graduate-sponsored funding for space-related projects
Finally, are you prepared to pledge a monetary contribution to support these kinds of activities? I hope to get a listing soon of potential space-related projects for which the faculty has identified a need for external support, but I think you can understand some of the possibilities from the above discussion. Can your company provide matching funds? I would like to be able to provide a tangible show of interest when we meet with Academy officials. From the size of this group, I believe an average immediate contribution of $100 would demonstrate our sincerity.

I think this is the right approach for now, consistent with the messages I have been receiving from all of you. I'm sure more ideas will emerge from subsequent discussions, which will probably continue primarily on-line rather than face-to-face. However, I believe these types of inputs will make a significant contribution to the planning for next year's USAFA program, and set the stage for a more extensive interface with the Academy in the future.

I would appreciate hearing your reaction to this proposed approach.

Thank you again for your continuing support.

Stan