College Students: Conference at West Point 24-25JAN17: National Conference on Ethics in America

[Salt USMC]

Got word back and sent an email with my flight details and ID info. I have a 1700 flight back to Idaho on the 26th, was thinking of hitting up the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000, or doing an Ellis Island tour at 0900. Anyone else planning on sightseeing?

Edit: I need to look over what I submit, my first post was nearly illegible.:-/

The Guggenheim is just a few blocks north of the Met so you can hit that on the same day. There probably won't be a whole lot of tourists at the WTC so you can hop on the train and check that out. Just make sure you resist the urge to grab people's selfie sticks and snap them in half.

Alternatively, PM me when you get in and we can grab a beer.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

The Guggenheim is just a few blocks north of the Met so you can hit that on the same day. There probably won't be a whole lot of tourists at the WTC so you can hop on the train and check that out. Just make sure you resist the urge to grab people's selfie sticks and snap them in half.

Alternatively, PM me when you get in and we can grab a beer.

Dude, that's awesome!!! That would rock! I'll send out a pm.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Since it's free time at the event, does anyone want to link up? Just in case, I'm the fat guy wearing khakis, blue long sleeve button up shirt, and striped red/blue tie at table three. Ahahahaha!

 

[Marauder06]

Crap, just now seeing this message. What did you think about tonight's keynote speaker?

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Crap, just now seeing this message. What did you think about tonight's keynote speaker?

I enjoyed all of the speakers. The last guy was too funny! Overall great conference!

 

[R.Caerbannog]

I found Ret. General Odiernos message about the importance of ethical thinking to be very insightful. Before the conference I never really understood the term "servant leader". Based on what I understood, General Odierno was talking about the way our actions have an effect that can ripple through time. What may be considered a good course of action at the moment, might be disastrous later on. So if we are to be good leaders we need to practice humility and empathy. That good leaders should have a strong moral compass must resist the temptation to deviate from the ethical standards of their organization.

Not to sound too cheesy, but his fireside chat reminded me of the Spock's famous line, "the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few".

 

[Marauder06]

Thanks for coming. Great to meet you. Will text you a copy of the photo we took together.

If you have a chance, I think the board would benefit from hearing some more of your thoughts about the conference and the issues that came up during your small-group discussions. I was "backside" support for the conference so the only speaker I heard was last night's keynote.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Thanks for coming. Great to meet you. Will text you a copy of the photo we took together.

If you have a chance, I think the board would benefit from hearing some more of your thoughts about the conference and the issues that came up during your small-group discussions. I was "backside" support for the conference so the only speaker I heard was last night's keynote.

Before I begin, I wanted to apologize to you Mara. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post. I kept putting this post off in lieu of everything else going on here at college. I know it doesn't excuse my lateness but running 19 credits, helping catalogue a part of the Ft. Boise collection, and peer mentoring has me running on fumes. Sorry guys.

The overarching theme that I understood from the speakers, was that as leaders and individuals we are expected to be held at a higher standard. Not only for our benefit, but for the good of the country and it's citizenry at large. Each speaker had their own project, or life story, that served as an example for the message that they were trying to convey. Whether it be the importance of being a humble leader, the value of education, fundraising, or the impact of community organization as a means of change. During our discussions, the group would try and take elements of message given to us by the presenters and find ways to incorporate those elements into our life or ways of thought.

One of the issue that we did run across, was trying to find ways of incorporating some of the presenters thoughts and ideas into a cohesive discussion. Some of the topics relayed to us, by some of the civilian speakers, almost felt like they were trying to sell us a thought. Some presentations could have used some trimming, or given more detail about their rise to their perspective positions. The example that comes to mind, was the gentleman who spoke about education reform in our prison system. The principal from California, who spoke about the ethical dilemmas that he faced when he became the principal of a poverty stricken school district. And the female teacher who spoke to us about her students and the importance of peer mentoring and listening to each other. I understood the pride that the educators had about their children, but their slide shows were kind of gratuitous. The speaker who spoke about prison reform also came off as kind of a salesman, which made his topic even harder to discuss.

More on the way

 

[R.Caerbannog]

I enjoyed hearing from the presenter who spoke about reforming private and public education, he just stated the facts and clarified the moral and ethical dilemmas that he faced when getting his project of the ground. The former EOD speakers talk about the pitfalls of fundraising was also concise and to the point. As well as the female speaker whose mother instilled in her the value of education and civic service (can't remember her name, she had dark braided hair and gorgeous multicolored eyes). Their presentations were pretty direct and gave us a lot of examples from which to draw discussion from.

We were able to have some pretty good discourse about our own ethical dilemmas. In particular, when it came to the future of these young soon to be officers. Something that was a minor annoyance was that it seemed that some of the students asked questions that made no sense. It was as if as soon as people found out that they were getting their picture taken, people would ask a non pertinent or poorly formed question. It could have been nerves as well though, god knows I suck at public speaking. The kids hooting from Texas A&M were kind of weird, didn't really understand that. The West Point kids though were pretty squared away. Unlike some of their other counterparts they seemed very well rounded, well at least the ones that I sat with, they were cool cats. But I have run into "ring knockers" before, so I can't say that every organization is without its faults.

Lastly, when I was on the bus ride to the conference in the morning I heard some odd things. I guess amongst the different academies there is some animosity between themselves and West Point. I heard a kid disparage West Point by saying, "at least my mother didn't have to sleep with a senator for me to get in...". Even during the conference I noticed that many of the questions being asked were by students affiliated with some of the other academies. It was almost as if they were trying to prove something. Overall though, everyone was super nice! The staff was very courteous and professional, and the meals were friggin amazing! So much so, that I would wake up at 4:00 am just to go hit the elliptical. I'm really glad to have gone, it was definitely an eye opening experience. Interacting with the future leaders of the armed forces was humbling to say the least.

 

[Kraut783]

"The kids hooting from Texas A&M were kind of weird, didn't really understand that."

It's an Aggie thing

 

[DA SWO]

"The kids hooting from Texas A&M were kind of weird, didn't really understand that."

It's an Aggie thing

They are looking for a date.
Cattle calls.....

 

[Marauder06]

Before I begin, I wanted to apologize to you Mara. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to post. I kept putting this post off in lieu of everything else going on here at college. I know it doesn't excuse my lateness but running 19 credits, helping catalogue a part of the Ft. Boise collection, and peer mentoring has me running on fumes. Sorry guys.

The overarching theme that I understood from the speakers, was that as leaders and individuals we are expected to be held at a higher standard. Not only for our benefit, but for the good of the country and it's citizenry at large. Each speaker had their own project, or life story, that served as an example for the message that they were trying to convey. Whether it be the importance of being a humble leader, the value of education, fundraising, or the impact of community organization as a means of change. During our discussions, the group would try and take elements of message given to us by the presenters and find ways to incorporate those elements into our life or ways of thought.

One of the issue that we did run across, was trying to find ways of incorporating some of the presenters thoughts and ideas into a cohesive discussion. Some of the topics relayed to us, by some of the civilian speakers, almost felt like they were trying to sell us a thought. Some presentations could have used some trimming, or given more detail about their rise to their perspective positions. The example that comes to mind, was the gentleman who spoke about education reform in our prison system. The principal from California, who spoke about the ethical dilemmas that he faced when he became the principal of a poverty stricken school district. And the female teacher who spoke to us about her students and the importance of peer mentoring and listening to each other. I understood the pride that the educators had about their children, but their slide shows were kind of gratuitous. The speaker who spoke about prison reform also came off as kind of a salesman, which made his topic even harder to discuss.

More on the way

Thanks for taking the time to come, and to make these thoughtful replies. It was great to meet you and I hope to see you back at the Academy.

I'll pass along your observations (non-attributionally) to the OIC of the conference, they will be useful when we start planning for next year's.

I agree whole-heartedly about the last civilian speaker. I'm not sure he understood his audience or what we were really trying to get out of the Conference. "Call and response" is usually not an effective method of audience engagement with conservative audiences, and the piano bit at the end was both awkward and amateurish. I think he was OK even with all of that, and if he would have tightened his schtick and not made it so self-promotional, it could have been awesome.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

Thanks Mara, It was good to meet you. Thank you for posting about the conference, it was a really great opportunity to meet new people and network. Will definitely try to make it to next years conference, though I might be a grad student by then.