This letter was composed in June for the upcoming version of the Alumni Record, which should be in your mailbox early next week. I am posting this now because of certain emails that have been floating around as of late. This is my opinion, and mine only as to where the Association should head.
June, 2024
To all GMS Cadets, Family, and Friends,
Change: Make (someone or something) different; alter or modify.- Oxford Dictionary-
Change doesn’t come easy and it’s certainly inescapable. Some of you are aware that after the New Year, I was diagnosed with prostrate cancer. With the help of a number of men including GMS alumni, I am now working through the biggest change in my life. The reason I tell you this is not for sympathy, but to say change happens and sometimes it is harsh with little time to prepare for it.
This letter is about change.
I feel it is time for the Greenbrier Military School Alumni Association to come to an end. Not our reunions, but the business side of our Association. I believe it is our duty to determine an appropriate timeframe for our Association’s termination. I would like to be clear, the Association and the reunions are separate matters.
As the Association goes, there is already a dissolution plan in place. It was written into our charter and amended a number of years ago by the Board of Directors. It was felt then, as I feel now, that we must methodically go through the legal and emotional process of dissolving GMSAA. This isn’t going to happen over night and it wont be simple. For the sake of continuity, I am recommending the people who have been working on these documents remain involved.
Why should the Association close? After discussing our situation with many alumni, it basically comes down to participation and money. The number of dues paying members are declining and our expenses aren’t being covered by our dues revenue. There is a real financial cost in keeping the association running, including paid and unpaid personnel, not related to reunion expenses.
Some of you would like to see the Association continue. Let me ask, continue until when? We don’t need the Association to see our classmates and friends. WVSOM has guaranteed we will be welcome on campus into perpetuity. We can continue holding reunions as long as anyone cares to go. The difference is GMSAA won’t be coordinating them. That responsibility will fall on those who want to get together, and WVSOM has people in place to help.
In my opinion our true legacy are the scholarships we award every year and the GMS Museum. We already have documents in place that will ensure these GMS legacies well into the future. Closing up shop while we are still active will save the Association in a multitude of ways, and quite frankly, it’s the proper thing to do.
As for the last “Official” GMSAA Reunion, let me suggest October 2025. Let’s honor those cadets from earlier years before they can no longer travel to Lewisburg in the fall. Let’s do this right with dignity and integrity and have this Final Reunion a monumental shindig while as many of us are able to attend.
Last year Lee Martin said it best with the following quote: “T’was Longfellow who said… ‘Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.’ ”
The above are my thoughts as President of the Association. It is my belief the board needs to move towards the closure of GMSAA sooner rather than later. I look forward to any and all comments and suggestions you may have.
With all Respect,
Mike Ruth ‘69
President
GMSAA
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